Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Here’s everything thats wrong with the economy in one simple Craigslist ad:

Upside down on the SUV. It sure is a nice truck.
I need a Ford F250 Crewcab with a long bed for my work.
I owe about 32,000, i bought it for 53,000 it sure is a nice truck.
I bought the 2006 in 2007, i have paid down 19,000 of the loan.
I am willing to keep it in my name and provide insurance on it.
For the right person, You pay all the payments and keep it or pay on it for a year or so and give it back.I will work it out nice and fair.
Truck is here in Delray.
Come by and see me and drive the truck home.

$53,000 for a truck seems a little…unsmart. A loan for $53k isnt a car loan, thats a mortgage. And yet someone a year ago thought “Yeah, I’ll pay fifty grand for a car” with no concern that perhaps this would be a bad idea. And now he doesnt even really want to get rid of it, he wants to loan it to you until he can get back on his feet…he’ll even pay the insurance. Which means he wants to continue “in a year or so” to pay on what will be then a four-year old truck that will still be worth even less than what is owed on it. I think I see why this guy is having a problem.

In the thread I was discussing all this in, I made a couple comments I wanna share. First, that its way too late to prevent this thing from getting worse. All we can do is prepare to make it through it as best we can. Its like that scene in Terminator 3: our destiny wasnt to prevent Judgement Day, our destiny was to survive Judgement Day.

Secondly, this may be the chlorine shock treatment that cleans up the economic hot tub that we’ve all been sitting around in. Or, to put it another way, this may be the asteroid strike that wipes out the financially irresponsible dinosaurs and paves the way for a more responsible and financially intelligent form of life. And as in both analogies, theres gonna be some carnage among the lifeforms until it gets straightened out. If you wanna make an omlette, you gotta break a few legs.

Whats this gotta do with being prepared? Do you really have to ask?

Edited to add: Further indication that things are interesting: US Mint suspends sale of 24-karat gold coins