Ummmm no. Right now is the worst time to travel to Greece. Google it. Constant protests and threats, be aware of pick pocketers and thiefs are common.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/europe/greece

I like the idea Jeff but I fear the problem in part is that too few people can afford a vacation to even an economically depressed region. So many people here are on reduced wages or reduced hours that they are not buying the items the usually do. Other see the writing on the wall at work and are trying to pay down credit cards etc in hopes of weathering their own financial crisis.

Most of us have never lived during a real economic crisis. Sure we remember the housing bubble bursting and the tech stocks in the 90s. Some of us might even remember the 70s but not the great depression. We forget it can and did happen here. I remember both of my grandmothers to their dying days kept pantry rooms full of stored food and threw almost nothing out because they knew they might need it some day and not have the money to replace it. When that mindset meets a society based on the need for constant buying in order to keep the economy going bad things happen. Consumer confidence is not just about who gets re-elected. Lack of it can crush a nation.

I would love to take a vacation to Greece some day but even with the reduced cost I just couldn't justify it right now because I am afraid we are not too far behind them.

In addition I fear Had Enough is right. Hard times lead people to doing bad things. Even good people will steal to save their homes and protect their families from hardship. I know most people try not to stoop that low but it only takes one to ruin your day and maybe your life. Again it is part of a self fulfilling cycle. The riots and fear of crime drive us away because we fear for our safety and in the end more poverty results. I am not saying people shouldn't protest if they have a reason (although personally I think the austerity measures were the only choice) I am just saying this thing has to bottom out and people have to rebuild from there. It is too late for tourist dollars to fix it now.

The United States is in line to get our country foreclosed upon, just like what’s happening to the European countries. The entire banking system is corrupt and rigged and the rating agencies are insignificant. Spain is the next Greece. It is just one of the dominoes that are falling as the money junkies move in to buy countries for pennies on the dollar who are involved with the Federal Reserve. More countries will be forced to barter or accept complete servitude to the Federal Reserve and their subsidiaries as they come in to foreclose on all the countries associated with a Rothschild’s central bank. If you have noticed all countries associated with a Rothschild’s central bank are bankrupt, including the United States.

The governing elite of psychopathic bankers/Federal Reserve, Wall Street, corrupt politicians, and powerful mega-corporations create crises, then save us from the crises they created, while accumulating more control, wealth and power. This perpetual swindle has been going on for decades and has reached its zenith. This demented psychology is called Problem – Reaction – Solution.

It is time to remove and arrest this criminal cabal that has enslaved humanity.

I think most people have figured out that Wall Street is one of the most corrupt and ethically deprived institutions on our planet. I think most people also know the media is bought and sold just like most politicians. We also know that Wall Street is one of many tools of the elite but not the main tool. What is very clear is that our financial system has an architect and carefully designed plan that is playing itself out in Europe.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is very brazen in its fear mongering that we have lost a decade economically. Especially since the IMF has been one of the biggest contributors to perpetuating the instability of the European crisis. The dominoes are beginning to fall in what is an orchestrated attempt by the banksters to consolidate Europe and eventually the rest of the world’s economies under one umbrella that is to be controlled by those that have always controlled currency and money. The most egregious aspect of this contrived extortion is that they are blaming the people who are the backbone of any economy instead of their greedy corrupt political and business leaders.

George Papandreou was pressured to quit because he lapsed into a morally and ethical responsible position by trying to give the people of Greece a say in their economic future through a referendum. This vote would have given the Greek people the choice to stay in the Euro zone and allow their country to be foreclosed upon by the banksters or leave the Euro regain their sovereignty and coin their own currency once again. The IMF bullied the smallest country as a litmus test for what is going to be a much more challenging foreclosure process when it comes to the larger economies. Spain and Italy are now in the cross hairs. This dilemma you are watching unfold goes to the core of the rotten apple that is the world’s financial system.

Folks, you are witnessing the death throes of a desperate corrupt financial system where the stock markets and the fractional reserve banking system are at its core. The volatility in the stock markets are a microcosm of the greed, theft and corruption that has perpetrated all aspects of our and other countries economic systems. In the United States, It doesn’t matter who’s in office. Our political system has turned into a two headed one party system with both parties serving their masters, Wall Street and the banksters/Federal Reserve. The stock market is just another ponzi scheme whose intent is to fleece the gullible at the bottom of the pyramid. The stock market is a rogue element of a financial system that is meant to funnel the wealth to the elite/banksters who soicopathically control our financial lives. It is reaching a point where there is nothing more to take from the 99% of the world. The banksters would separate you from your rainy day fund if they could gain access to your shoe box or secret compartment in your purse or wallet. The stock market isn’t the main problem; it’s the fractional reserve banking system that has set the foundation for outright theft. We are experiencing the biggest bank and investment robbery in history and the banks and financial institutions are doing the robbing. When you blame one political party or another they have you right where they want you, in fear, divided and distracted to the theft that is going on right in front of your eyes each and every second of the day.

When you have people on Wall Street day trading and speculating making half a million dollars a year in their twenties betting on people being foreclosed on, you need to ask yourself what is the true purpose of our banking system? At the moment it is largely a theft on the American public. MF Global CEO, ex Goldman Sachs CEO John Corzine knows this and knows that nobody with his connections have served any time for stealing the investor’s money (1.6 billion at last count). The financial system’s main mission should be to allocate capital to areas of greatest growth in the real world economy. Yet they allow all kinds of broker speculation and financial gimmicks such as the derivative markets which are based on non-realistic side bets which are now in the quadrillions. The derivatives market was illegal for most of the 20^th century.

The European banking crisis is a prime example of what is going to happen to all economies associated with stock market fraud and the Federal Reserve banking system. The financial strife in Greece is the model that will befall most countries. Greece is but a symptom of a cancer that has attached itself to the world’s economies. The Federal Reserve (which is neither federal nor a reserve) has been creating money (monopoly money) out of thin air and charging interest on it insuring a debtor economy for anyone who chooses or is forced to get involved with the Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking system. That is why this whole European or any countries current debt crisis will never be resolved and will be preyed upon by the stock market vultures. The Federal Reserve System is designed to cause economies to fail.

If someone loans you two dollars to run your economy and expects three back for the loan and interest how are you going to pay the third back? You can’t unless you borrow more dollars which puts you in perpetual debt and in a constant borrowing cycle to pay off the debt. This is designed not accidental.

Here’s the kicker, once the Federal Reserve/banksters have you struggling to pay off your interest, they send in their loan sharks the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF will loan you money to cover your ever burdening interest payments but they attach a provision that if you default, you will have to give them your assets in what they call privatization (foreclosure).

Since the interest is exponential, you will default and the banksters will come in and try to foreclose on your country, like Greece, Spain’s next. They are being told to sell off their own country to pay back the people who caused the mess to begin with. This allows the elite to steal your intrinsic valuable assets because they gave you paper (loans/debt) and the interest on the debt that is systematically impossible to pay back. This also allows the parasitic stock speculators to profit from this designed theft. They not only know the outcome of an economy, they can gamble on the economic bubbles at the investor’s expense. This cancer goes all the way down the food chain.

In the United States case, it doesn’t have to be that way. In our constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, it stipulates that we can “coin money” as a nation and avoid the Federal Reserve’s interest (fee charged on loans) black hole.

The Federal Reserve has a 100 year charter and it is up in 2013. We have to stop these banksters from gaining an extension by our corrupt paid off politicians. If we can stop the extension, our income taxes will drop dramatically! End the Fed!

So don’t be fooled that the Europeans have come to grips with their financial debt, it’s impossible, it’s a designed virus that has spread around the globe. The Europeans are now replacing their leaders with technocrats/ex Goldman Sachs banksters. These people haven’t been elected by anybody. The stock market vultures will continue to contrive “financial instruments” (credit default swaps/credit derivatives) to defraud the people of the world.

The Federal reserve at the end of the day, is just another private company and its debts are NOT the debts of America or the American taxpayer. What we are looking at folks, is the demise of the most vile and corrupt institution ever put on Earth

Banks, Central banks, World Bank, BIS, IMF = Federal Reserve = Debtor economies, Debtor Nations (economic slaves) and carrion for the stock market derivative heist.

The European banking crisis is a prime example of what is going to happen to all economies associated with stock market fraud and the Federal Reserve banking system. The financial strife in Greece is the model that will befall most countries. Greece is but a symptom of a cancer that has attached itself to the world's economies. The Federal Reserve (which is neither federal nor a reserve) has been creating money (monopoly money) out of thin air and charging interest on it insuring a debtor economy for anyone who chooses or is forced to get involved with the Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking system. That is why this whole European or any countries current debt crisis will never be resolved and will be preyed upon by the stock market vultures. The Federal Reserve System is designed to cause economies to fail.

Truer words have NEVER been spoken, Trust Verify. Fantastic post.

And until these lazy deadbeats in Europe (the PIGS- Portugal Italy Greece and Spain) get it together they should not be getting one thin dime from us.

I got back from Greece two weeks ago. It was great! No crowds, no traffic, get any table you want at nice restaurants. Weather was great! It was expensive, though. Perhaps next year under the drachma, it will be cheaper; but more crowded.

Of course Trust likes cutting and pasting the same overtly long treatise over and over...

Actually, the barter system will work out better for them. Tangible and durable goods have value, whereas you cannot eat worthless currency, nor produce products or build structures, especially in their current crisis.

This isn't bartering. It is merely buying and selling with an alternate currency. For years, Greece has had a huge problem with rampant tax evasion and this is just one more way for many Greeks to get around paying their taxes. The size of the shadow economy in Greece is 27.5% of GDP and while they whine about the austerity measures, the simple fact is that their budget deficits would be covered if the people only paid the taxes they owe.

On the other hand, taxes are high in Greece -- as you would expect from a country who hasn't exerted control over their spending for decades (sound familiar folks?). The employee's portion of Social Security alone is 16% of their income and the business portion is 28.06%. A Greek business owner who profited only $37,500 per year would owe 81% of that to the government in income and social security taxes.

Yep, that's where we're headed because as soon as you bleed the rich dry, that ship starts rolling downhill to the non-rich. Enjoy it folks!

FROM: thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/103365-comparisons-between-us-greece-are-overblown

The Greek fiscal crisis has often been cited by deficit hawks in the United States as a warning of what will happen here if we do not correct our profligate ways. This makes about as much sense as holding up Bernie Madoff’s fund as a warning for bad things happening to TIAA-CREF.....

While there are many grounds for complaining about both the budgetary process and outcomes, it is silly to build on analogies with Greece that simply don’t fit. Our short-term deficit is overwhelmingly a story of an economy that was badly weakened by the collapse of the housing bubble. The deficit is making up for the enormous loss of private sector demand. If we could simply snap our fingers and make the deficit disappear, we would be rewarded with a weaker economy and higher unemployment....

Over the long-term, the deficit horror stories are driven almost entirely by projections of exploding health care cost growth. If per person healthcare costs were comparable to those in any other wealthy country we would be looking at enormous budget surpluses, not deficits....
www.cepr.net/calculators/hc/hc-calculator.html

The Greek tragedy might be a compelling story of corruption and sorrows, but it tells us nothing about the U.S. budget situation. We would be better off worrying about our own problems.

Saying Greece is 'wracked by austerity' is like saying someone who's dying from a heart attack and diabetes caused by massive morbid obesity is 'wracked by *thinking* about dieting'.

Greece is on the verge of a complete economic break down. They lived well beyond their means for years on borrowed money, overpromised benefits they couldn't afford, catered to their Unions, and ran up debt they could never repay.

And rather than cutting the losses and letting the investors that made the bad bets on their bonds take the hit, the EU decided to prop them up, wasting billions more in taxpayer dollars on a simply delaying the inevitable reckoning. Greece is the poster child for fiscal irresponsibility, the progressive economic policies taken to their extreme and dealing with the consequences of that logical conclusion, much like Detroit, California, and Illinois are suffering here in the U.S. currently.

But this is not a good time to go to Greece, they are on the edge of a complete panic and meltdown. There is already and ongoing run on their banks, and able bodied Greeks of ability are already fleeing the country for more stable environments elsewhere in Europe.

If Alexis Tsipras wins this weekend, then the people of Greece are in for a massive ton of pain. He's willing to gamble the rest of the EU will not stop shoveling their own people's money down the Greek money hole, and that is likey to cause the bailouts to dry up entirely. When it does, Greece will have little choice but to leave the monetary Union, covert back to the Drachma, devalue their currency like crazy, any and all foreign investment will dry up, they will get no more credit, they'll be forced to print currency leading the devaluation to hyperinflation.

And at that point you can be relatively certain many Greeks will be poverty and starvation. A situation ripe for going from civil unrest to all out chaos, typical of what happens prior to strong arm dictatorships coming case.

Greece has no easy answer in front of them at this point, they already mortgaged away their easy economic corrections a long time ago by failing to act when the problems started to crop up. Either they take the controlled pain of living within their means, moving towards a more open and economically free society that can actually begin to produce value so that their people can make livings for themselves through more efficient markets and capitalism, or they can double down on the socialist failure and run full tilt for the fiscal cliff and the chaos that will come after they fall.

I wish them the best, but given their performance already I don't have a lot of hope for them.

JPM77,

The problem with your statement is that markets are NOT efficient, the invisible hand of Adam Smith is showing itself in the utter failure of capitalism which is winding its way down in Greece. Papandreau (sp?) was a conservative whose government ushered in the "austerity programs" forced on them by the EU and IMF. He then bac tracked and offered the Greek people the chance to vote on whether or not to stay in the EuroZone.

Of course, the EU and IMF could have none of that as it would mean "losing" their "investments" in the Greek government. These two international entities interfered in the elections of a soveriegn government so they could continue to destroy it's people. Of course, there was actually no investment in small businesses or in manufacturing, the money was placed in government accounts and then paid back to the EU and IMF in the form of interest repayments and the like.

Never forget, Austerity is a term used by the elites to control the spending of governments so that government owned asset prices will be lowered in advance of the swooping in of the mercantilists to further steal a countries assets. People who vote for conservatives should not be surprised when they come to steal your assets next.

@ Don't Be A Moron.

That's because morons like you need to be told over and over again the situation so that maybe over time it will actually sink into your thick skull and resonate.

TrustVerify--Excellent post! Many don't understand what's happening to Greece, Spain, potentially Italy and even France. They come on these boards and want to use the same lame--and false-- arguments they used to wrongly explain the financial crisis in the U.S. in talking about Greece & the problems in the Eurozone. By doing so, they are participating in a COVER-UP that will permit the Criminal Financial & Governmental Activities to continue...and even thrive!

This doesn't happen because people had a credit card bill or held a mortgage. Capitalism, my friends, is about encouraging people to live beyond their means, which is why Banks offered Credit to the masses. Putting people in debt is big business and they aren't going to get out of that business. The only people who really don't need credit are the Romneys of the world, the 1%, who essentially make money off "the little people."

What's scary about this is that this will affect us much like what happened here in 2008. Jobs will disappear. People's 401Ks and pensions will plummet in value. (Balanced Funds hold a good portion of international stock--these managed Funds are Huge and retirees living on these assets could see their income plunge).

The scary thing...most people really don't have a clue. They don't understand, they don't listen to this kind of news, they can be told anything by any self-serving politician who'll hold their hand while they weep and listen to explanations that are Donor-Induced.

Our major defense against this is to GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS! Our democracy is being undermined by Monied Interests, Power is being purchased not voted in. WAKE UP, PLEASE!

30-year-old Artemis Zafiriou, who works at an agency helping immigrant workers but hasn’t been paid in months.

Zafiriou, whose first sale was one of her marmalades, said she hopes to accrue enough TEMs to buy feed for the chickens back on the farm.

That may not be enough for her and her partner, Kostas Christou, 40, a contract electrical technician who works for the Greek Army who took a 50 percent cut in his salary 12 months ago. "I have debt in the bank, and if I don't manage to pay the bank, the bank will come here and take the field and my home,” Christou said.

Pay the bank with IOU's from the agency job that hasn't been paying. If anyone shows up to take the farm... protect yourself.

Maybe the Greek people will find out that bartering, without government (central banks) as middlemen, would greatly reduce not only prices but also fraud. Gee, I wonder if we are on to something here.

Greece needs to print it's own money just like the American colonies did before the revolution. And it won't bring war this time.

Why not barter?

The point of money is to make it easier to barter. When that stops happening, you don't need the money anymore.

When a country has no way to save, compete or produce in the world, and/or chooses not to as a group, consequences happen for them.

Why should a country that saves and produces, support them?

If those countries/individuals choose to barter to better get "full value" for their labor, because the countries money is so devalued as a whole, so be it.

America, get ready, we are next

FZknew, the problem with your assertions on 'austerity programs' instituted by the 'conservative' Greek PM is that they never happened (Papandreou is a socialist, not a conservative btw). Foreign money was simply dumped into Greece on the promise that they'd reform, reforms which never actually made it into effect which is what's caused them to have to repeatedly go back for more borrowed foreign money.

There's been no austerity in the manner progressives and liberal media outlets like MSNBC here intend to mean it.

Nominal Greek government spending came down to 2007 levels, but in real terms, their spending WENT UP. The only thing that can really be called 'austerity' in Greece is that they increased taxes.

This is a failure of socialism, people frightened by a government now falling apart due to irresponsibility and withdrawing their money in a bank run, and foreign investors are spooked out of providing them any new credit, and the EU is getting tired of dumping money into a pit that refuses to make the reforms necessary to get back to some kind of reasonable non-basket case economy that can sustain itself.

This isn't a failure of capitalism, far from it, in fact its about exactly opposite. This is a failure to embrace capitalism. It's a failure of big government overpromises. It's a systemic failure of a society to build a sustainable economy where they produce more than the try to spend and consume.

What tourism you are talking about in a place with chaos all around?

"World leaders" (US, British, French and others) invented Iraq wars and danced as Saudis, oil companies, bankers and other greedy directed.

They gave us:

1. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and other rich ME sharks became richer by manipulating oil prices too high.

2. Oil companies and their lobbyists also benefitted. Oil prices, which were hardly $30 a barrel before 1991, shot up to $140 a barrel.

3. Since 2003, future traders, rating agencies, Wall Street and oil companies and their lobbyists transferred five trillion dollars from oil importing countries to oil exporting nations.

We have PIIGS.

Wait and watch EU will collapse just the economic mess. EU "world leaders" will be crippled beyond repairs and battling in their offices!

Now we have austerity measures!

But "world leaders" do have plenty of monies for interventions/wars in Syria and Iran.

Who with little sense impose sanctions on Iranian oil and manipulate oil prices higher from $40 to around $100 now?

If this Iran sanction business and higher oil prices continue, you can slowly add the British and US world leaders to the above list or EU "world leaders".

Exactly. Barter only works if you have something everyone wants. What if I need milk, and I don't have anything the guy with milk needs? I have have to satisfy the trading needs of a long chain of middlemen just to get some milk.

People should "trade" with real money, gold and silver.

Same can be said for gold. Since you can't eat it, my guess is that bread will be the better currency.

Both are good at the right time. You can't pay your taxes with bread and I doubt the gov will stop asking for their pound of flesh. Still gold will become a bubble before this is over. It is a hard time to try to preserve wealth if you are not young enough to rebuild. God help those who have not wised up yet.

Mark Koernke predicted such back in the 1990's. Look him up on Youtube.

Iraqi wars invented this mess.

It will be devastating for average Joe in Europe for now. Greece is the beginning!

If we jump into Syrian and Iranian mess manipulating oil prices higher and higher, just remember what is going on in Greece!

This isnt barter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barter

The TEM is money without govt interference (and taxes). This is a more free market than the Free Market.

It might work if they used pure barter - goods for goods-or-services. The online accounts using "TEMS" (actually a form of substitute currency) could lead to trouble. When there is a record of transactions and value in the online accounts, data exists that the government can seize to calculate tax - income tax, value-added tax, or other sales tax.

The government could take some of your TEMS, or worse yet, establish an exchange rate of TEMS to euros and charge tax in euros (which are basically unobtainable to the unemployed population.)

Keep looking to the government and yourself for answers. That way you can continue to be the prophet of doom.

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Romans 1.22

Greece will probably leave the Euro Zone, but they will stay in the EU (European Union). Not all EU members use the euro currency.

As example, UK and Sweden kept their own currency... and they are remaining fairly stable.

A barter trade system is NOT the same as Black Market.
Black Market is trading in things that can't be gotten in the legal trade system.
A Barter trade is exchange of items that are made and used and available within the trade system.

Actually, the black market is for selling ILLEGAL goods. That's the "drug trade" in the US--crack and meth and coke. The black market is "hidden" and secretive.

The government doesn't have to have a hand in everything, or do you disagree??

Bartering gets the government OUT of your transaction and OUT of your business.

Anyone who knows about WWII understands why Greece has good reason to hate Germany. It takes a few centuries to get over something like that, not a few decades or generations.

And germany is just returning the hate.

The primary purpose of an economy is the serve the people, not the govt. People survived way before govt existed.

Big Jim isnt texas where your savior gw came from that started the whole damn world slide into the abyss.

Romney will be the same as Obama. Vote for Ron Paul if you want real change.

And you'll get another 4 of Obama with your stupid protest vote.

Get Romney in the White for a chance to keep Paul relevant.

He'd make a great House Banking Committee chairman.

HEY SUPER BRIAN

GET this STRAIGHT

your super hero GEORGE F_N BUSH and 8 years of REPUBLICON BUTT FUK caused our current situation. The millionares became billionaires at our DEAD SONS AND DAUGHTERS expense Fighting WARS for PROFITS for these SCUM SUCKING PUKES.

President Obama released his TAX RETURN for the public record.

MITT ROMNEY DID NOT???? WHY NOT??? I am guessing he has many many things to HIDE, foreign investment things,perhaps he made his first 10 million this year investing in the great war machine, ratheon,halburton, ge,general motors of austrailia making cars for china.perhaps it was all invested in INDIA's outsourcing of massachusetts.Romney was a ONE term governor that created no jobs,many many potholes,and a big dig that will cost the tax payers of massachusetts until the year 2099 and the ceramic tiles are still droping onto the cars. ROMNEY will eventually run to Mexico and join his family after we the people TAKE BACK THIS COUNTRY AND LYNCH EVERY DAM SOB THAT INVESTED IN THE DEATHS OF OUR CHILDREN FOR PROFIT or for POPPYS. DAM THE GAY OLD PIGS TO HELL WITH OSAMA<SADAM>HALBURTON and rest assured some day your dirty rotten carcass will be nailed to a tree and the crows will feast.

@george-2057251 - Is someone a little bitter?

@Herald, if you think Paul and Romney see eye-to-eye on anything then you are high.

No chance Paul is put anywhere of importance when Romney is elected.

Notice is said "when". Obama is losing and only die hard Obamanuts are staying with the ship.

That said I see very little difference between Romney and Obama. Come on, Romney is still going to spend and he really can't lower taxes any more. No matter who we elect, we're gonna get 4 more years of sh*t.

Sadly I think it is already too late and we will have to face our own version of this no matter who we elect. It is just a question of what approach we want to take to dealing with the repercussions.

Poor ignate George knows not what he says.

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.

Whatever skills you're currently selling to your employer. The skills and needs of the people dont change, only the involvement of govt and their fiat money.

Alcohol seems to be the most common currency in a barter situation. Things get bad enough and people want to forget. Cigarettes work too but not as many people smoke now and they do go bad from what I understand. Worry about feeding yourself and your family first. There is lots of info on the web if you look. Also good to have some cash on hand if the banks crash.

Ammo! I can see the time when to buy a loaf of homemade bread it will cost a 5.56 and a .38. You get two .22s in change.

Good point, problem is, no matter who gets elected, we are in deep trouble! Trouble is coming, so we all need to batten down the hatches, and after all is said and done, learn from our mistakes and rebuild with wisdom. In the meantime, people will barter and/or use local 'currency' to survive.

The kind of austerity imposed on Greece is similar to the austerity imposed on Germany after WW I. We all know who came to power in Germany around that time , don't we?

People should do that anyway. You get some decent food and an excuse to play in the dirt. Power tools optional. ;)

That was good for a laugh this morning!

Bartering, to me, sounds like working, producing, and trading for items of value. This is productive endeavor the provides for some of the needs of those involved. What sort of austerity measure does this bartering system foil, in your mind?

bartering can't be taxed and banks can't collect interest on loans for the money needed for new capital creation. SO, governments and banks can't get their usual cut of your lunch.

sutter, and that's bad how?

its good not bad. banks can eat a cock and uncle sam can suck it

We should do this in the United States also perhaps...

Yes we should barter here too anything you can do now to make yourself less vulnerable to a economic crash is better done sooner than later.

Don't believe the hype. I have lived overseas for a good chunk of my life, traveled throughout a lot of "collapsing" economies, and always felt, and was, quite safe.

Things are not necessarily horrible 'over there'. Anyone who has traveled outside the Disneyland-style Princess Cruiselines ports-of-calls knows this.