by Ira Tabankin
Winter held on with a late winter storm that dumped nine inches of snow on us just as we finished loading our townhouse. The unexpected snowstorm delaying our exit from Northern Virginia for a couple of days. Interstate 81 runs through the mountains and the moving truck driver didn’t think it was safe to continue the journey. We hung out at a Hampton Motel for a couple of days waiting for the roads to clear. We spent the time looking at the pictures Fred sent us, spring had arrived in Nashville. Fred started his spring planting which hopefully should yield us a good crop of peas, corn, soybeans, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers.
The moving van driver said it will take him two days to reach our new home. He laughed saying, it could have been done in one day. However, the new government regulations limited them to drive only six hours a day. Lacy and I drove without stopping for the night. We arrived in time to take Fred, Cheri, Mark and Ryan to dinner. Fred and Cheri brought us up to date on the work that was done on our house and their farm the previous three weeks. After dinner we checked into a local Hampton Inn, the Atlas Van Lines driver called to inform us he’ll be at our home the next morning at 9:00 AM. He estimated he will have us unloaded in four hours. I agreed since we sold or gave away most of our furniture before moving. We figure we’ll buy most of our furnishings new. We spoke with a furniture store manager who agreed to open early for us. We met him at 7:00 AM, he agreed to show us what they have in stock and what they can get in a very short time.
We ordered two sets of bunk beds for our young grandkids, two king bedroom sets, one each for Sammi and Shells, couches, love seats, a kitchen table and chairs, coffee tables, and lamps. We finished at 8:30 AM when we had to rush to meet the movers at our house. Pulling up, we were surprised to see the movers were waiting for us, as was Verizon and Best Buy. The Verizon installer asked us which number was going to be our prime and where we wanted the WiFi modem installed. The Best Buy installers wanted to get the large screen TV’s wall mounted before the movers brought the furniture in. The first couple of hours were a mad rush of people running in and out of the house. At 3:00 PM, just as the movers are leaving, our new furniture arrived. By the time they left at 7:00 PM we were so tired, we couldn’t even think about dinner. We were surprised when our doorbell rang, Fred and Cheri stood on our front porch with arms full of home cooked hot food. The four of us broke in our new kitchen table sharing our first meal in our new home. We spent the next three days unpacking and getting to know our new home. The solar panels had been installed, along with a battery room filled with large submarine batteries. We also ordered four multi-fuel generators which are going to be wired into the network powering Fred’s and our homes. The windmills will be installed in three weeks, enabling us to completely live off the grid. Even without the generators we were creating more electrical energy than we used, our system automatically sold our excess back to the grid. We had a switch installed to block the transfer, allowing us to store the extra electricity in large batteries. We were now assured of electrical power even if the grid failed, our water came from our own wells, enough to irrigate our crops and provide both houses with all the water we’d need. We have our existing wells and the three new ones we sealed for future use. The new ones drew from different underground streams hopefully ensuring we always had water. Our windows are covered with steel security bars with the space between the bars covered in stainless steel heavy duty mesh. Construction people were coming to start building a patio/barricade in front of both of the homes. Our next major project is the fence around our land. Fred sent me a quote for the fence which almost knocked me out. I’d forgotten we now had over 250 acres. The fence was way too expensive, we’d have to think of another way to protect what’s ours.
Early the next morning two large gun safes arrived with the crew to install them. They were installed in the secret sub-basement. Unless someone knew where the hidden access in the sub-basement was, no one would ever find the safes Lacy started to plan dinner, for the first time since we moved in, she’s going to cook dinner for us and Fred and Cheri.
After dinner, Fred, Cheri, Lacy and I sat in our family room watching the news on our new 80-inch television. We had both cable and satellite TV services, figuring that if one went down the other would function as a backup. We also had both set up for internet support. The news was very depressing. China and Russia had started dumping their US dollars, pushing the dollar’s price down and the price of gold up. Living conditions in Greece were quickly falling apart because no one outside of Greece would accept Drachmas in payment for anything. Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal found themselves in the same situation as Greece. Basic necessities like toilet paper, over the counter medications and spare parts which have to be imported from anywhere outside from the countries, were nonexistent. Fred asked, “Jay, how bad do you think things are going to get?”
“I think it’s going to get much worse. When the US dollar collapses, it's going to be much worse here than what’s going on in Europe. Many of the countries in Europe have had a year’s experience living with shortages and brown-blackouts. They voted for the socialist government in Greece because they were tired of the shortages and having their pensions and pay cut. Had they thought through their situation they would have realized the only way out was for their government to cut spending, not increase it. They got what they asked for. Here in America, the current administration has created an entitlement mentality and the administration’s pushing us to the edge of a race and class war. Our poor would be considered the upper class in many countries. What’s going to happen when people’s Obama phones stop working when their monthly government deposits aren’t made? We have 100 million people out of work, they have no savings, when the government has to stop payments people are going to starve, they’ll quickly turn to crime to feed their families. Things are going to turn bad very quickly.”
“Jay, how quickly do you think this is going to happen?”
“Fred, Russia and China are dumping US dollars, they’re destroying the value of the dollar by dumping it for pennies. They’ve declared financial war against America. Our problem is, the smartest man to ever be President isn’t smart enough to realize they’ve already declared war. The Fed is buying dollars at inflated prices doing even more long term damage to the dollar. Can you imagine what would happen if China would demand immediate repayment of our debt?”
Fred frowns asking, “Do you think they would do that? It seems a little extreme to me.”
“Remember, I said Russia and China have already declared war. If I were in their shoes, I’d crash Wall Street while I placed billions of dollars worth of short sales. That way, when the market goes into freefall, they’ll make hundreds of billions off of our slide into hell. When the collapse of the free world happens, they’ll be in a position to take over the world. There’s no one who can stop them in Europe. Putin will move into Europe promising to restore order, promising to feed and care for the people. The people of Europe will welcome the Russians with open arms and lifted dress hems. When the dust settles, Russia will control all of Europe. Their empire will stretch from the English Channel to the Pacific. Their second goal will be to take over all of the oil reserves in the Middle East. They’ll create wars among the various Middle Eastern countries when they’re all weakened by the wars the Russians will just roll in and take over all of the oil. They’ll kill the fanatics so they won’t have to deal with any insurgency. They may leave Israel alone because they don’t have any oil. While Russia is taking over Europe and the Middle East, China will absorb all of Asia and ultimately even absorb Hawaii.”
Fred looks at me, “Holy shit. It’s going to be World War 3.”
“I don’t think so because we won’t have enough of a government left to order an attack on Russia or China. When the dollar crashes, the government will order the banks and stock markets closed so they can stall for time. Time they won’t have. American’s aren’t used to shortages so when the market crashes and the banks close, they will get scare
d and panic. When the government welfare programs end, the people won’t have any money. They’re going to be hungry, tired and really pissed off. Almost no-one is going to know what happened to them. They’ll riot. The rioting is going to make the worst of the race riots look like a college protest march. They’re going to tear everything in their path apart looking for food and water. The cities are going to be burnt to the ground, tens of millions are going to die.”
Cheri says, “Now it all makes sense. Now I understand why you’re building all of the security features into our homes. I understand why you bought the house next to us, why you built a backup for the electrical system and dug the additional wells. Do you think the rioters will find us out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Cheri, we’re 43 miles north of Nashville. When the crash happens and Nashville is a smoking ruin, people will be streaming out in all directions. Most won’t make it this far, those that do will be the ones who are survivors, ones who’ve learned how to adapt to the conditions. The ones who find us will be the hardened ones; they’ll be the ones who’ve gotten this far by killing to take what they need to survive. There are three options I see. One, they’re going to be hungry, begging for handouts or two, there are going to be mobs of college students who are used to handouts. They’re going to be worst of the survivors, hardened criminals and gangs who survived by taking what they want.”
“Would the fences you planned keep the refugees off our land?”
“I think they might have slowed them down, but not stop them, which is one reason I stopped the project. 250 acres is a large area to fence.”
Cheri continues, “Jay, speaking of which, three of our neighbors would like to sell you based on similar terms as you gave us.”
“How many acres do they have?”
“The three of them have a little over 700 when you combine their farms together.”
Fred says, “That would give you 950 acres, not counting your 5 for a grand total of 955, more than enough to keep us self-sufficient forever.”
Shaking my head, “If we can’t fence 250 acres, how are we going to fence and protect over 950? We don’t have the bodies to protect that large of an area. I like the idea of being self-sufficient, it’s just, I never thought about such a large area.”
Lacy responds, “Honey, we have time, maybe we’ll think of an idea, Cheri, how much do your three friends need to join us?”
Cheri tried to whisper the answer, afraid the number will scare us away from the idea, “Lacy, it will take close to $2.5 million to acquire them from the banks.”
I’m thinking of something nice to say when Cheri says, “Jay, I know that’s a lot of money. Before you answer, think of this, the three farms are the ones on our other three sides, the four of us form a large box.”
Thinking about it, I ask, “Does anyone have a map of the area to show me? I’d like to see what this box looks like. What’s on the other side of the box? Other than land, what else would they bring us?”
Fred and Cheri smile, Cheri says, “When you two get settled, we’ll arrange a dinner together. That way you can meet them, let them explain why they think they would be a good fit for our little group.”
I’m starting to get angry, I’m afraid Fred and Cheri broke our security by telling their neighbors what our plans are. “Fred, Cheri, did you tell them why I helped you with the bank? Or what we’re doing? Did you breach our security?”
Cheri said, “Jay, maybe just a little, they came over for lunch last week, they saw all of the activity, they saw the new barn being built. They couldn’t help but see it's being built with steel and cement versus wood. They saw the solar panels installed on our roof and the windmill foundations being laid. They’re not dumb, they know what our crop yields are. They wanted to know what changed. Just six weeks ago we told them we were going to lose our home and farm, now they see all of this money being spent. They knew something was different. I couldn’t lie to them, we knew not to tell them anything important. We told them we couldn’t tell them anything. Rich, one of our neighbors said our property looks like a prepper homestead. Jill, his wife, remarked she’d seen a program on TV about preppers who lived off the grid and she asked if we could tell them how we’re affording the changes. They have been thinking of doing something similar too.”
Trying to hold my voice under control, and hold my temper in check, I knew my face was getting red, I said as slowly and quietly as I could manage, “Cheri, what did you tell them?”
“I told them we came into some money from a family member who passed away. I felt so bad lying to them. I didn’t know what else to tell them. The next day Jill called telling me she knows our mortgage was paid off, she said she was at the bank when the manager told her our mortgage was paid off. The manager told her someone bought our farm from the bank. They came over and asked me if our house and the work being done on your house were related.”
“So they guessed the person who bought this house was also paying for the upgrades being done to your house?”
“That’s what they think. Jill asked if they could meet the family that purchased the house. I told them we didn’t know when you were moving in. Once you did, we’d check with you.”
“I see, I want to think about it for a couple of days.”
“Sure, no problem. I hope you’re not angry with us. You’ve done so much for our family.”
Before I could answer, our front doorbell rang. Since it was 7:30 PM, I knew it couldn’t be any of the workers, we had everything that was supposed to be delivered. I looked at my phone which showed me the video from the hidden camera looking at the front door. I turn my phone to show Cheri, “Could this be Jill and Rich?”
Looking at my phone, Cheri nodded yes.
I open the front door to welcome our guests, “Hello Rich and Jill, welcome to our new home, I’m Jay.”
Rich asks, “How do you know who we are?”
“Come in, I think a couple of your neighbors confirmed who you are.”
“You have a camera by the front door? I looked for one and didn’t see it.” Rich said.
“If you had seen it, then the security company I hired should be fired. Come in, would you like some coffee and dessert?”
Rich and Jill entered our kitchen, they pause seeing Fred and Cheri sitting in our family room. Lacy smiles at our guests saying, “I think it’s nice you came over to help us unpack with Fred and Cheri.” I laugh, patting a very surprised Rich on the back. “Rich, I guess you stopped by to give us a pitch, something about a deal we can’t refuse right?”
Fred and Cheri laughed at my attempted joke.
Jill handed Lacy a bakery box saying, “We come bearing gifts.”
We all laughed, realizing the cake was going to cost me over $1 million.
Chapter 6
The 92-year-old King of Saudi Arabia suddenly died from natural causes, his brother became the Kingdom’s new King. He announced he was lowering the price of ‘sweet crude’ to $39.00 a barrel. His intent was to force the American fracking industry into bankruptcy. Once the American fracking industry collapsed, he planned to increase prices again giving his family control over the world’s oil industry. He could afford to take the financial hit as long as it drove his new competition out of business. The negative result of the reduced oil prices is the employment surge happening in the Dakotas, Texas, West Virginia and other states came to a halt. New unemployment claims in the first week after the King’s announcement jumped by more than 600,000 new claims. Construction companies started failing as their orders were canceled. The unemployment rate multiplied. Since unemployed people don’t go out to eat, nor do they purchase new cars or televisions, even unrelated companies like mom and pop dry cleaners failed. The Department of Labor reported new unemployment claims are running at a rate of 750,000 a week, home foreclosures are quickly rising to levels not seen since 2008. The banks that in 2008 and 09 were too big to fail started to fail. The only lesson they’d learned from the previous
meltdown was the Federal Government would bail them out. Their investment portfolios were losing money, their mortgage-backed investments were losing money, mortgages, car, and personal loans are being defaulted on it numbers that exceeded 2008.
The US dollar, which had risen in value when the EU collapsed and was now in freefall. The dollar’s collapse pushed up the value of gold and silver, By March 23, the cost of an ounce of gold was $3,800.00. An ounce of silver sold for $1150.00. Both continue to climb, setting new records every day, I internally laughed, because every penny the price of precious metals went up, the more our portfolio was worth.
@@@@@
March 21st, the first day of spring, was the date the Russian Federation launched their attack against the US dollar. The Russian Ministry of Finance had previously issued a short sell order for a trillion dollars worth of US public company shares, which went effect the moment the market opened on March 23rd. The New York Stock Market opened down 700 points, taking every broker by surprise. The market continued to fall for the following four days. At the end of the week, the market was down 4,800 points and in free fall. Other investors and countries also issued sell orders increasing the downward pressure on the market. At the close of the market on March 31st, the Dow Jones index fell from a high of 19,000 to 3500. The market continued to fall until it hit 1550 on Black Friday, May 17. Tens of millions of people were wiped out in the great market crash of 2015. Like the crash of 1929, investors jumped to their death from brokerage offices all over New York City. Average families lost their pensions and their life savings. There were so many foreclosures the banks couldn’t keep up with the paperwork. Courts became backed up nine months hearing foreclosure cases. Shootouts took place among people who tried to stop repossession companies from taking their cars for non-payment of their loans. Stores closed at record rates, large shopping malls became empty spaces that were taken over by the homeless looking for places to stay out of the weather. Every day saw additional families move into the closed malls, the ‘old timers’ helped the new families settle into the malls. The ‘to large to fail’ banks were all begging the Department of the Treasury for a bailout, which the Republican-held Congress refused to pass. The Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell is quoted as saying, “We have to allow the markets to correct themselves. In 2008, the government bailed everyone out which caused today’s meltdown. The markets never corrected their core problems and the bailouts only delayed the inevitable. The Senate today has taken action to send bills to the President’s desk to cut all personal and corporate taxes to a flat 4%. The House has passed an emergency revised budget, which cuts Federal Spending by 30%. The President has vetoed both bills, saying his administration demands an increase in government spending. Congress and the President are at an impasse and we call upon every American to write to the President to tell him to sign our emergency budget and to cut taxes.”
