My bet is that as the economy falters further and the world abandons US treasuries, he's going to make things even worse with QE and forcing rate cuts. Problem is that I have no idea what to do with that prediction. Plant beans and stock up on iodine?
this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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I am investing in ways to make my future costs lower. For example, I have solar on my house. It covers about half of my bill, and will for the foreseeable future. I am looking into additions to solar, as I live in Alaska, and need to figure out winter times.
I am looking into heat pumps, they aren't great for dead of winter, but they might eliminate shoulder season heat costs.
We buy the best quality, and locally produced food and goods we can, to help support our health and our community resilience.
Buy once, cry once, whenever we can, because replacement of stuff will be harder.
We live beneath our means, and take the money we save being boring and pay off debt, so that we truly own what is ours, because someday, paying a mortgage or for a vehicle, might be too difficult.
Practice using what you have, instead of buying stuff to solve your problem. Ingenuity is something that can be learned and practiced, but isn't something that comes naturally to people.
Learn to make stuff, or about your surroundings. If you live in a place you can forage, learn about what you can eat in your area to supplement what you have to buy.
Plan to be a poor person, because that is a situation that is likely, and that you can survive.
Most people will not make it, if we wind up in a situation where you are dependent on what you plant, and goods you stock up on. That stuff is just prolonging the inevitable. Total independence is just not a thing most people are prepared for mentally, or have the skills to pull off. So, prepare for a future where luxuries are limited, material goods are in short supply, and you have to figure out how to make do with what you have.
For example, I have solar on my house.
I was looking at the same. Some naysayer I know was saying it would never pay back before the panels "failed".
Of course, he was assuming that the panels would fail with 100% certainty at a certain period of time. He was also assuming that electricity costs are going to stay stagnant. If I have a battery backup installed, that obviously rejiggers things, and I'm assuming they not last very long, either at least when it comes to the timelines one talks about in regards to things like houses.
I am definitely not going to assume that, LOL. That hasn't even been true in the past year alone, nevermind what some of the more negative predictions have for how costs will be impacted by things like data centers.
Added solar to my house in 2018. Took out loan for over $20k, had it paid off in a year or two thanks to the SRECs generated by the wHs of the array. Doubt anyone in US could see that now under this clean coal regime, but it could be done well before the conveyed panel efficiency bullshit that likes to be thrown around. Technology Solutions on YT had a video recently that absolutely destroyed a bunch of the common detractors that like to be thrown around.
I can link the SolarEdge page for my array a little later today to show what a 7.2 wH (I think) system produces over 6-ish years, if it helps.
Yeah early photovoltaic solar panels weren't great, in the same way early ev batteries weren't great. They've become far longer lasting and more efficient. The listed life isn't when it craps out, it's when it is no longer guaranteed to be within a certain stated efficiency. Much like how phone batteries slowly lose charge capacity as cells break, that's how solar panels are. For a long time you won't notice but eventually it'll break down enough it's noticeable, and eventually before it stops producing it'll just not be worth the space that could be used for new panels.
Yep, the 'payoff time' on mine is long, but I am betting they last much longer than that, and that energy prices won't scale normally. I really want sodium ion batteries to work out, but they are sounding less promising.
We have a big natural gas shortage looming here, and most homes are heated with it. Such an obvious thing to be trying to prepare for, sure heat pumps won't heat all winter here, but... If I can generate heat using my free electricity 2 or 3 of the months needing heat a year, that is a permanent discount, that only gets better as costs go crazy. People around me don't really seem to be thinking this way.
I live in Colorado and so probably different heating/cooling circumstances, but people also don't seem to be thinking about future costs of energy either.
Now, it could be that things turn around, Donvict is out of the picture, and we have a huge boom in solar and wind and through legislation or just from the market being saturated, prices drop. But given the way that things are going right now thanks to the utterly insane Republicans, all I see is those guys fighting against the future in every way possible while they stand aside and let Donvict and his criminal family just grift their way to billions of dollars of ill-gotten gains.
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There is a lot of things I blame neo hitler for but “ the US on an unsustainable fiscal path” is something that has been true for decades, and is more a global consequence of capitalism itself.
While you're right this unsustainable way up until now was hedged in by worries about long term stability... something the orange doesn't concern itself about.
Well how this is supposed to work is to borrow in bad times and pay it back in good. Clinton, to his credit did do this. Trump did the complete opposite in his first term. And the main reason we are in bad times now is because of him.
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Of course the GOP will insist the solution is more cutbacks to benefits and mass deportations.
They've been doing the starve the beast scam since forever.
Yeah, he lies all the time. You idiots can't seem to figure out what to do about it.
So fElon's illegal and fake "doge" didn't dismantle CBO? Seems like an oversight.
That's not his problem!
They're planning on snapping the neck of the global financial system and forcing the world to use crypto.
I actually get the feeling that the US stock market is being turned into a pump-and-dump scheme, not piecemeal but entire.
It's weird, because I'm watching and reading about how many investors seem to be "quietly" shifting into more international funds.
If you even look at ETFs like VTI (closely matches S&P 500) vs. VXUS (International):
VTI went up 11.3% in the past year. Hey, that's beating inflation and not terrible.
But: meanwhile, VXUS went up 30.8%.
In the past, it was usually the other way around. ETFs that track things like the S&P tend to outperform ones that track the rest of the rest of the market.
I wonder what is different about the past year?
Also, I keep seeing articles like this. https://harveylawcorporation.com/why-more-americans-are-leaving-the-us/
I mean, I've been doing that.
Youre right- the general logic was sp500 and if anything, a bit in international to diversify. With the way the us is being run it's way more savvy to hedge your bets with vtiawx/vxus, especially when you know the ai bubble is propping up the American side.
Every once in a while, I dip into various Boglehead forums and see what kind of discussion is going on around their current thinking on the three fund portfolio and the way to divvy it up.
Of course, looking back only a year and trying to time/second-guess things generally goes against the principles of Boglehead investing, but you still see people wondering about it even among Bogleheads.
It is entirely possible that what the donnie crime family is doing to this country is very different than trends of the past.
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https://mmt101.substack.com/p/mmt-basics-national-debt-defined
Can we all please learn how money works? The source of all USD can't run out of USD.
The worry is not that we run out - it's what happens when we print too much
You make sure the lower classes are given a proportional amount to keep purchasing.
Can you link to a source for this?
I'm not aware of any historical examples or even theoretical models for this approach.
A federal job guarantee would be a start.
https://www.mmt.works/mmt-full-employment-and-the-job-guarantee-jg/
Can you link to a source for this?
I'm not aware of any historical examples or even theoretical models for this approach.
Indeed, the only concern is inflation, can never run out of US Dollars.
Thank you. No fan of Donvict, but people tend to overlook MMT in all these discussions about debt.
I hate him, too, but I'm tired of seeing this same old bullshit misunderstanding. And you can see no one wants to take ten minutes to learn we've been lied to our entire lives about how the monetary system works. It's so infuriating.
If you have a favorite book or documentary that you'd recommend, I'd love to know about it.
https://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-William-Mitchell/dp/1137610662
That is a full macroeconomics text book written from the MMT perspective.
If you want something a bit less dense, The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton goes over some decent basics.
They write most articles from the MMT perspective.
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