The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'a train crashing into the side of a mountain.'
In March, a pastor named Brandon Biggs prophesied the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Watch here starting around 10:00. Biggs said someone would try to shoot Trump, that the bullet would wizz by close enough to break his eardrum, and that Trump would have a religious experience related to the incident. Biggs also predicted that Trump will get elected and then the economy will crash horribly.
Normally I pay little attention to religious prophesies. But the assassination attempt prediction was uncannily accurate, and the idea of an economic crash doesn't seem at all far fetched. In fact, I've been expecting one any day now based on how unsustainable our economy has become, especially after COVID. And if Trump does get elected, his protectionist policies could easily push our already-stressed economy over the edge.
Consumer costs have spiraled out of control. Business expenses are exploding. High interest rates mean money itself costs more. Based on property vacancy rates, commercial real estate has already crashed. More little crashes are inevitable. Any one of these could trigger cascading failures across the total system.
And then there are cyber threats. Every day I get scam emails, messages, and calls. These scams are very sophisticated and increasingly automated. The cyber threats we face as individuals are daunting. But the threats businesses face are much scarier.
Banks are getting shut down by ransomware attacks. Card providers are leaking customer data. How long would it take for the stock market to crash if Google went down? I estimate one week.
Even if the economy totally crashed, it wouldn't happen overnight. There could be disruptions lasting from days to weeks, but this isn't the depression era. We might see waves of job losses. Evictions and foreclosures. Product shortages coupled with endless price increases. The demand for public assistance could easily outpace the ability of state and local governments to pay.
This is all very intimidating. But our economy wasn't designed to be sustainable. It was designed to make it easy for tyrants to exploit cheap labor and maximize short term profits. This system might not fail immediately after the election as Biggs prophesied. But it will fail eventually, and probably soon.
Beyond holding assets outside of the legacy economy, one of the most important things we can do to remain resilient in the face of system disruption is mutual aid. When things get rough, we naturally turn to each other for help. It might be time to get clear about who you can rely on and who can rely on you. Whatever happens, we'll handle it better together than apart.
Read Free Mind Gazette on Substack
Read my novels:
See my NFTs:
