Is inflation causing a rise in retail theft? Find out how desperate times are leading to desperate measures and what you can do to protect your possessions and loved ones with insights from Lynette Zang. We also discuss the importance of food security during times of crisis and how to prepare for it. Lynette shares her own experience with tilapia ponds and rain catchment, and gives practical advice on how to ensure you have enough food to feed your family.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Food
2:04 Water
3:52 Energy
5:30 Security
9:03 Barterability
9:38 Wealth Preservation
11:32 Community
12:21 Shelter
15:56 The Thrivers Community
SLIDES FROM VIDEO:
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
I’m Lynette Zang, Chief Market Analyst at ITM Trading, and a very, very thankful prepper and welcome to Mantra Monday’s. So let’s just dive in.
Because, you know, Food becomes the single biggest issue for most people as we go through these transitions. And I know that you’ve seen on a global basis that food is very, very significant. And there’s a lot of, unfortunately starving people out there, but EU to extend the market access for Ukraine foods despite pushback. And what they’re saying is, despite pushback from countries like Poland, EU ambassadors will probably extend measures that allow tariff free access for Ukrainian food imports to the single market. But let me just put this in context for you because a year ago, Brussels lifted restrictions on Ukrainian food stuffs to help the economy and prevent shortages in many developing countries, relying on those imports. But much of the goods landed in nearby Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. And the glut crashed prices. And Poland and three others have imposed import bans because by allowing this to come in tariff free, again, it didn’t make it to the intended. That’s the thing, you know, they always create these things, but then there’s no checklist to make sure that they’re actually doing what their intentions were. So there are unintended consequences. And the unintended consequences of this action was that there was a glut. The food didn’t get to where it was gonna go, but it, there was a glut in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and it just crashed the prices. Interesting. But they’re probably gonna renew that ban.
I also wanna talk to you about the ongoing water crisis in you as cities. You know, you can’t live without food. You can’t live without water. So what are you doing to ensure your water security? Because this ongoing water crisis in US cities is going to grow here, here at my farm in Phoenix, cause Phoenix is not immune. I put in ponds, you know, a tilapia pond is a great dual-purpose pond because it only needs to be three feet deep. I mean, mine is like three feet deep and I think like a 15 by, not even 20 probably, well, maybe 15 by 20, something like that. So it’s not a lot of space, but I grow my food in it. And as long as I have my water filter, it’s not a problem to go ahead and have plenty of water. It’s for my gardens for us to drink. If there is a problem in Phoenix, excuse me. The bug out location has wells and we also have r lots of rain catchment and stay tuned because we’re going to be bringing water and rain catchment and burying that up at the hot house areas. So there’s lots that’s going on in the bug out house that I’m super excited about. And, and actually I probably shouldn’t have gone past food first because we’re in the process of putting in all of our orchards. So I’m gonna be able to, you know, feed as many people as I need to from this. And I’ll tell you the truth, I feel much better knowing that these things are in place. But fortunately I have a great aquifer up there.
Now, I thought that this was interesting. Iran sees US bound oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Why in the world would they do that? I don’t know Iran. Well, I do know, and I’m gonna tell you in a second, but Iran sees two Greek tankers in the Straits of Hormuz in 2022 and two UK tankers in 2019. Interestingly enough, both incidents following the detention of Iranian vessels by Greece and the UK. So gosh, why would they take our seize our tankers? Maybe because we seized theirs. Seizure of oil vessel triggered Iran tanker captured authorities in US redirected redirected ships of Iranian oil bound for China in recent days, prompting retaliation. US authorities ordered a tanker of Iranian crude oil to redirect toward the US In recent days, in a move, officials believe was the trigger for Iran’s decision to capture a US-bound tanker on Thursday. Aren’t you so shocked that there would be retaliation? You mean it’s, it’s almost as if we are being pushed because this is just really about Iran? I mean that oil was meant for China. I mean, do you see how it all is in this great big doom loop and how we may be prompting another war and energy is usually part of that anyway.
But Washington Attorney General starts a new unit to investigate rising retail theft. And I’m sure you’ve witnessed this too. I’ve witnessed it when I go shopping, which doesn’t happen often, but it does, it does happen. And I see all of these police officers all around, not just the mall itself, but inside the stores. So there are, because desperate people make desperate choices and they do things that they would not normally do. But a lot of this has to do with inflation. And even though there there’s been a rise in wages, it’s not kept pace with the inflation, and this inflation is not going away so easily. So you’re going to see more and more and more theft. But if you make sure that everything you have is secure, right? So food security, water security, energy security, regular security, physical security, etcetera, then you don’t have as much to worry about. But you definitely need to realize that desperate people do desperate things. I have to tell you one of my favorite things that I’ve done up here as far as security is concerned are my security shutters. I sleep much better at night. They’re all nice and tight. And if I am up at the cabin, they’re all nice and tight and secure and I don’t have to worry about it. Maybe I have to worry about the gardens outside at some point, but I can always rebuild those. So security is critical on every single level. Don’t forget that.
But because what we’re gonna see is that things are likely to get very, very local. So bartering in the modern days and how people are swapping skills and services for free cash credit or barter. In fact, the practice whose origins date to 9,000 BC when people traded cattle, sheep, or a favorite camel for other necessities in life has been on the upswing over the past few years. As we are transitioning into a new social economic and financial system. Once we really hit that hyperinflationary phase where people lose confidence in the currency, and we’ve already seen that huge global decline and confidence in the US dollar, you’re gonna see more and more and more bartering arise. What do you have to barter with? Obviously, you know, gold and silver are universal money and they’re the most, really, the most notable and the most obvious. However, anything that’s physical is barterable. Any skillsets that you have, any of the food that I’m growing on here, including the tilapia and the eggs and the berries and the zucchini, etcetera, these are things that you can barter with and your skill sets. So have you learned a new skill recently? Maybe it’s time to dust off and bring up some skill sets that you’ve had in the past that might be a little rusty. Maybe it’s time to learn more. But remember, the more you have to barter with the better off you’re going to be. Gold and silver, universal barterable, you know, those other food stuffs, they have a shelf life, but you got your skills, you got your brain.
So what can you, how can you fine tune those skills and make them worth bartering? I know I’m willing to barter actually quite a bit. The recession of the late two thousands is what sparked the trend because in 2008, the system died. It was just put on life support. But there were a lot of people that still have not recouped from 2008 because this game ain’t over yet. We’re now at the end of the end. That was the end. We’re now at the end of the end.
But this I really love, I mean, I don’t love this, but why the Bank of England economists says Britain’s need to accept that they are poorer and stop asking for pay hikes. My goodness gracious, don’t you know that asking for pay hikes is what’s causing this inflation? It’s not, oops, it’s not all the money printing and the very poor choices that the governments and the central banks have made. No, it’s certainly not that Corporations have been making record profits because they’re more important than the public. It’s that the public has finally started to say, Hey, we need more money to deal with this inflation and be able to have a reasonable standard of living. But the Bank of England says, just get used to the fact that you’re poorer and stop asking. Corporate profits are far more important than whether or not you can survive. And I hope you guys realize I’m being completely facetious, but I mean, do people ever stop to think about what comes out of their mouth before they say it? No wonder they’re having all the strikes over there for gosh sakes, but hey, they agreed to a 5% pay raise, so hey, get over yourself. Even though inflation there is running, I think near 10%. But hey, stop asking for pay hikes. I just can’t even believe that that would come out of a central banker’s mouth. But there are other things, you know, Janet Yellen saying she’s never gonna see another financial crisis in her lifetime. We, I mean, never would’ve heard those words come outta my mouth ridiculous.
And Community. So I decided let’s high, let’s keep highlighting some of these sustainable communities. And the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is really an when that’s pretty interesting. For over 20 years, dancing Rabbit Ecovillage have been a thriving sustainability demonstration project in Northeast Missouri. Now remember, I have the links to all this stuff on the blog and below. So make sure that you access this and you might wanna check them out. If you’re somewhere in North East Missouri, I think you can go there, you can see what they’re doing and either get ideas or I don’t know, maybe even join the community. I know people are asking me, where can I go? I’m gonna try and find some places and show you.
But of course, shelter. So we need to make sure that the prices on real estate stay up as much as possible because after all, have you not seen what’s been happening to the community banks and the banking sector and all those losses. I explained this to you before, and I will explain it again because we do have the LIBOR. SOFR transition coming up, and this is the same thing that’s gonna happen and does happen as these, as these contracts transition, right? And remember, as interest rates go up, the market value of the principle goes down, right? So we’re probably gonna get, or we probably did just get another interest rate hike. Don’t know how many more the Fed’s gonna do, maybe no more. But all of that debt that’s been taken on since 2008 at zero interest rate policy is all underwater, including all of the mortgages. And now with fewer people buying, etcetera. We’ve seen that the, that the house housing prices are beginning to turn, but we don’t want that to happen. So we have to make sure that the most naive come in and support this market. Some have argued that the FHFA, which is a government agency, is using fees charged to borrowers with high credit scores to subsidize lower fees for those with poor credit. Wait, what? There are additional fees that are now being charged to people that have a high credit score and no, are they offsetting? And now of course they’re gonna say, no, no, no, that’s not the intent. Just like this is not QE, don’t call this qe, but arose by any other name. So if you have a FICO score of six 20, you actually get a big discount in your fees. But if you have a good FICO score 740 or above, you are go, your fees are going up from 25 basis points to a full percent. Hmm, no, I’m sure that’s not offsetting what they’re losing from those lower fees. But what this also does is it encourages people with bad credit to buy housing and, and absorb the higher interest fees. I mean, I just think it’s interesting you have a bad credit score, you don’t pay your bills on time because that’s basically what that means. You either don’t pay your bills on time, you don’t pay ’em. So we’re gonna give you a discount on those fees. But hey, if you make your payments on time and you’re a good credit risk, we’re gonna raise the fee. I just think that’s really interesting. No credit for good credit. Thank you Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, all these entities that then take these crappy mortgages and bundle them into packages and sell them to investors. Do you own any of this crap? You probably do if you’re in a pension plan or maybe in your 401k or maybe in your IRA because who after all reads the fine print.
But I’m gonna encourage everybody to read the fine print and also make sure that if you have not yet done this, make sure you subscribe and share everything with your loved ones because this is time to get ready. And what I’m showing you on Mantra Mondays is why I’m executing my mantra myself. I mean, how I even developed it. Because these are repeatable patterns. And if you haven’t done so, make sure that you look at the Thriver’s community where we go into all of this in much greater detail and bring in lots of experts to help you and meet you wherever you are, including members that are experts, which is fabulous, how we’re helping each other. You can find us www.thriverscommunity.com and as well as the it don’t forget to look at the ITM main channel where we talk about what’s going on in the economy and in the markets, and as well as our Spanish channel that reviews the interviews and the different pieces that I’ve done and goes into them in more depth, but in much shorter timeframe, like are somewhere under 10 minutes-ish or less. So if you haven’t done it, please make sure you subscribe, give us a thumbs up, leave us a comment and share, share, share. And until next we meet. Please be safe out there. Bye-Bye.
SOURCES:
EU to extend market access for Ukraine foods despite pushback | Financial Times (ft.com)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/map-ongoing-water-crises-happening-us-now/story?id=89454219
Iran seizes US-bound oil tanker in Gulf of Oman | Financial Times (ft.com)
US seizure of oil vessel triggered Iran tanker capture | Financial Times (ft.com)
https://www.dancingrabbit.org/
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/biden-fhfa-new-mortgage-fee-structure-2023-4?op=1
https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/9391/display
