Economic Outlook

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Our creditors are foreigners as well, but the biggest credit resides in the liabilities of banks, and the bonds of corporations and government . . . municipal, state, and federal. This kind of situation always comes a cropper . . . and when it does, the nation will go into a state of financial and monetary shock similar to the bankrupt individual. The federal insurance corporation (one percent of bank funds insured) will be swept away like a dike made of straw. That's the day the shock will hit: pandemonium at first, and for a while chaos. You cannot rule out widespread violence and looting. I doubt that the chaos could last as much as six months. Even a wild bronco, put in ropes, eventually reaches a period of exhaustion. But that six months, or three months, whatever, may be the most crucial period of your life. I do not want any reader of this book to wake up one Monday morning to a bank closing and say: "I meant to get money out yesterday."

MONEY

I want to emphasize keeping a supply of emergency cash at home, well secured, and totally secret. Cash can be kept anywhere from beneath a floorboard in a tenement to a concealed concrete vault in a mansion, or in a sealed container under the garden. This also applies to your silver coinage and your emergency gold coinage, if you are in that bracket.

My main objection to safety boxes in banks miles from where you live or in the heart of populated areas is that if things get bad enough, you would not like to take the risk of getting there and back.

If you wanted to fly out of the country or drive to a retreat, you might want to do so quickly, by-passing the city and by-passing the bank . . . which might be closed for a few days in any case. The logic of this survival money rests on a personal decision and is likely to differ according to circumstances.

So much for money.

ROTECTION

The first consideration is security. That means first of all good locks and strongly bolted doors. In suburban residences a strong floodlight at entrances, automatically triggered by light conditions, is an effective deterrent. Thieves and looters would rather see the place in darkness. Exposure worries them.

A good apartment block will probably increase its own security, but your door lock is your own business.

Where practical, a good dog is also a deterrent, especially one of the big breeds: Great Dane, St. Bernard, Newfoundland. One bark out of these monsters will send all but the bravest robbers scurrying. A German Shepherd can be much fiercer, but the problem is that it may be fierce to your friends as well. The big dogs are mainly bluff, but the robber can't be sure, and bluff is often enough.

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