Interview with Doug Casey.
excerpt from Prepare For Social Upheaval

Doug: For all the reasons we've discussed in many different ways, the Greater Depression we're sliding into is going to be catastrophic for the old world order.

Uneconomic patterns of production and consumption are going to be liquidated – they have to be – and that's going to smash a lot of people's rice bowls. In today's richest societies, people won't be able to move back to the family farm the way they did in the 1930s; there's no farm left in most families. There's not even that much family left in many families – instead of extended families that care for their elders, who educate the young while the able-bodied adults work, we send our elderly to fade away in institutions and our young to be indoctrinated in other institutions, and we barely know what our brothers and sisters are doing, let alone our other relatives. What happens to the huge masses of such people when unemployment benefits can no longer be extended?

Yes, "It can happen here," and it's going to. Maybe not this year, maybe not for several, but when the real crash gets underway, it'll be unstoppable, and it will destroy the status quo with a speed that will leave most people still waking up to the danger after the harm has already been done.

L: Sounds like a sci-fi horror film…

Doug: I know, and it's unsettling to sound the alarm. People dismiss you for being a Chicken Little. But the plain truth is that we've already gone beyond the point of no return. There is simply no way the U.S. government can pay all its obligations without defaulting or destroying the dollar – which is just a different kind of default. The same goes for a lot of other governments. There is no way out that does not force a lot of people to make painful adjustments.

L: Are you talking blood in the streets or something more like a chapter 13 bankruptcy, where everything gets sold off to satisfy creditors? Do you see the world of Mad Max ahead, or are we all going to work for the Chinese?

Doug: Both could happen, but I'm leaning toward the latter. I think most of the world's wealth will still exist, but it will change hands. Better start learning Mandarin. You'll need it to do business in the new world after the crash – or to get a job as a houseboy, working for those who do learn to do business in the world after the crash.

L: How else do we prepare, besides learning Mandarin?

Doug: You know my mantra: liquidate, consolidate, speculate, and create. To which I add and must emphasize again: diversify your political risk. I truly believe that increasingly desperate states will be the greatest risk to your wealth, going forward. The swelling masses of have-nots are going to turn their increasingly hungry eyes on the haves, and the politicians are going to pander to them – and these days, if you have any net worth at all, you're a have. When the food riots start in New York, LA, London, Paris, etc., I want to be good and far away.

L: But isn't that true all around the world? Is there any point in trying to escape a global crisis when it's global?

Doug: Well, in places where people live closer to the land, where farmers can shrug and go back to growing food, the people are less likely to turn cannibalistic – metaphorically, or literally. Countries with economies still largely focused on agriculture, or the production of raw materials, and, frankly, where the people are used to poverty and inequality, should see less social unrest, even as the world's former leading economies go off the deep end. Countries that have already had tough times have some advantages, such as having no debt. That's one reason I've been investing so heavily in Argentina.

L: I had that thought about Paraguay, too, when I visited a couple weeks ago – and they have no personal income tax in Paraguay.

Doug: A sound thought. I'm looking into land there as well, although, unlike Argentina, Paraguay is quite isolated and rather backward. Just in case the world fails to make it through chapter 13 in a reasonably orderly manner – if we are looking at apocalyptic Mad Max-type scenarios – I'm setting things up in Argentina so that we are growing our own food. If nothing happens, we'll have the benefit of great organic produce, finely prepared and served. For what it's worth, I'm increasingly averse to "industrial" food, full of steroids, antibiotics, and pesticides. Stuff that's packaged in a factory and frozen for months, or shipped thousands of miles before you eat it. I understand the necessity of all that for the world at large, but I prefer something better. And more secure.

L: That's why I've placed some chips on your La Estancia de Cafayate project myself. Shameless plug to our good readers: you should check it out. It's hard to imagine a nicer place to weather the storm if things get really bad.

Doug: Not if. When. But even if I'm wrong about the Big Picture over the next few years – after all, there's always a possibility that friendly aliens will land on the roof of the White House and present Obama with a magic technology that cures all the world's ills – I'll still have excellent diversification, and an utterly fantastic place to hang out, play polo, and perfect my nonexistent golf game…

L: Do you think we'll have much warning for when it's really time to get out of Dodge?

Doug: The warning bells are ringing loudly now. The time to prepare is now, before currency controls get any worse. Once they do put America and Europe on financial lockdown, that's when it'll be time to treat those countries as places you visit, rather than live. I write about these trends in The Casey Report, and I'll do my best to give readers as much warning as possible. While also looking for the lowest-risk and highest-reward investment opportunities in the world. I'd like to think that some day we'll be able to buy Belarusian property, when 10:1 gains seem plausible.