What the Super-Rich Know That We Don’t
Why They’re Suddenly Preppers
It takes a wise man to learn from his mistakes, but an even wiser man to learn from others.
The super-rich, major corporations, and fund managers are circling their wagons right now and are in full-blown protect their “assets” mode. If you follow the flow of money, you also have a good indicator of how the future will play out for the common person. You won’t know the actual conclusions because anything could happen, but you will know the possible outcomes. These massive wealth holders have gotten to where they are by understanding and overcoming the threats they’ve faced. They are unique positions to look a bit over the horizon, and they’re driving us all, sometimes kicking and screaming, to where they want us to go. They are also particularly averse to loss. Their goal for themselves and their investors is to maximize profits at any cost while reducing costs. Survive and maximize, you might say, just like a prepper.
In this blog, we will examine what the ultra-rich are currently doing, how this could impact your future, and what you should be doing now to prepare if anything.
What are they doing?
The wealthy are buying land, energy, and water. According to at least one article this week, the ultra-rich are also looking to build bunkers and purchase private land and mercenary security forces to get them through the next unknown disaster. They are looking to preserve assets simultaneously as they are staring at a prolonged global recession and currency slowing and decreasing in value. Traditionally, this has driven investors into bonds or precious metals, and some of that is still going on; however, with whole economies teetering on the brink of a more significant decline, bonds aren’t yielding much return.
Investments in precious metals occurred in the run-up to the current economic crisis and through the COVID lockdowns, so they are still riding all-time historical highs. Now, the money is flowing to the most stable assets–resources in the form of land, water, and energy. During the 2020 market crash, the wealthy came out ahead the following year, doubling their asset ownership. The rich buy assets when when everyone else is selling, and this year is no exception.
These are the three things you are always going to need to survive. We have previously done a blog on the rich buying up farming land and water resources, and we will link to those two blogs at the end of this one because they are still valid. To see how the future will likely play out, you must look at where these ultra-rich are pumping their money. That’s what will get protected and promulgated. In addition to those big two of land and water resources, the rich are investing in alternative energy because they know that the fossil-based system is an increasingly unreliable and inconsistent profit generator. Companies like Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian, makers of electric vehicles, are doing well. With countries reeling from inflation and rising energy costs, government policies also reflect a move toward renewable energies with the added benefit of severing their dependencies on foreign energy sources, a problem Europe is currently facing.
Policy often mirrors the desires and investments of the wealthier citizens, so expect incentives and tax breaks favoring renewables. As we pointed out in earlier videos, oil and natural gas are currently being used as a weapon of war, with OPEC+ and Russia scaling back output to keep the price of a barrel of oil high. Meanwhile, Russia sells to China, which then sells to the world to circumnavigate sanctions and keep the money flowing. There’s too much potential for sanctions, seizures, and policy for intelligent, wealthy investors to sink too much capital into this industry.
As an alternative to gold and to combat inflation, the ultra-rich are also taking advantage of the low prices of crypto and possibly suffering through their losses in that market by doubling down on significant cryptocurrencies. It’s in these moments when others are fleeing markets that the wealthy come in and scoop up assets at discounted prices. Wealth is built in bear markets.
It’s not so much the “what” they are investing in here as it is the “why” they are investing this way. Again, whole economies are teetering on the precipice of a more significant decline. At least some economies will probably collapse in the coming years. If you watched our recent video on China’s economic collapse avoidance we released a few weeks ago, you’ll see what a house of cards the world economy really is right now. Already there are a few countries with CBDCs – Central Bank Digital Currency, and even more, governments are exploring moving their currency to a digital coin. Speculators suspect it’s only a matter of time before a robust and secure enough platform is implemented or adopted that can carry fiat currencies into the digital realm.
We detail these trends of the rich not to try to encourage you to go out and do the same. If you are like me, you could invest maybe the hundreds but not the millions required to truly profit off the same investment strategies. If you were to muster the $1,700 spare cash to buy an ounce of gold, for instance, and it doubles to $3,400, that’s great. The only problem is the cost of everything you need to survive also doubled in price while you were waiting on that return. The question now becomes whether you’ll invest in speculative assets or the here and now…items that you’ll require in the next few years that will increase in price.
The reason we note all these trends is because, in all of them, there is an overabundance of caution and a strong desire to hide and squirrel away money and survival resources. There isn’t confidence in the systems of government or commerce. It is as if the ultra-wealthy aren’t looking at investing in the future as much as they are interested in protecting what they have built and escaping in the future. The ironic part is that so many of the ultra-wealthy became so rich by selling the dream of the future in the first place. Many of the products they brought to market to better our lives are fueling our very demise. Given recent articles and revelations about the ultra-rich building bunkers, establishing remote ranches, seeking citizenship in New Zealand, residency in Alaska, and other resource-rich, low-population areas, it is clear the ultra-wealthy aren’t very confident that we are going to get through this swiftly approaching economic and societal downturn.
How will this impact you?
So, if we factor in their pessimism with the knowledge that they are also the ones with the long-term vision who are also pulling the strings, for the most part, we have to ask then how this will impact us. First, there’s land. Whether that’s land purchased for large-scale farming and ranching, for the resources they contain, or for future building, raw land retains value through any economic cycle. Even if the commercial and residential real estate markets both implode, raw land remains a stable investment. In fact, as suburban residential housing fails, rural land increases in value because it is more sought after. While the percentage of corporate farms remains low, they aren’t as incentivized to grow as the family farm is. It’s easier to write off the loss on taxes than to struggle with the land and extreme weather. The same is true with factory farming operations. When the cost of grain and water is too high and cuts too deeply into shareholder profits, the inclination is to reduce the output supply while demand remains high. Profits continue, but the available food supply is reduced.
The real impact of land is when it comes to the resources they contain. As water continues to be a vital resource, especially in the western states, the value of the land containing pockets of it goes up. None of that water makes it into the available supply until profits are high enough. Commercial operations can also impact output. In California and Pembrokeshire, Wales, Nestle operations are extracting, bottling, transporting, and selling millions upon millions of gallons and liters of water, even as those locations reel and suffer through horrible droughts. You might even have some of these bottles of water in your emergency supplies. Largescale farming and winery operations in several areas throughout the US have dropped the aquifer levels and forced locals to continue digging deeper wells.
A modern-day corporatocracy has come to life that challenges your ability to prep and be free from its system. When it comes to ruling and passing laws in your favor or answering to the ultra-wealthy, let’s just say money talks.
The post What the Super-Rich Know That We Don’t appeared first on LewRockwell.
