The sheep are about to get slaughtered*

Would you go parachuting without a parachute?  Unless you're name is Travis Pastrana, the answer is, "no."  Well, that's what it appears the stock market (and a huge chunk of the wealth in this country and world) is about to do.  From my very limited understanding of technical trading, it alreadylooked to me like we were getting really close to the major economic crash that all kinds of people have been predicting (but most people ignoring) for years now.

Looking at random videos on these ideas, I just came across this video, which shows the precedents to what's happening now.  This clip is two days old, and we've just crossed the threshold that usually precedes these major collapses.  So it looks like we're now within a matter of days to a HUGE collapse of the stock market, which will be like the late 2008 collapse... on steroids.

What's likely to happen?  If you have a 401k or mutual funds in a retirement account, you're likely going to lose a huge chunk of it, probably in the next several days (or weeks).  If you have a pension you rely on, it's probably about to disappear.  If you get a government check that you rely on, be prepared for it to show up late, maybe really late.  We might see big banks go belly up soon.  Another video I just watched said Morgan Stanley is the sketchiest major bank right now, but I can't personally confirm that.  Will it be the Bear Stearns or Lehman Brothers of this time around?  Time will tell.  The stock market has been making huge moves up and down in recent weeks, since the peak, which also happened in 2008, though not for this long.  Once the big drop comes, things will happen fast.

If you own gold, that will help.  If you don't, figure out who your nearest paranoid Republican prepper is, that's who you can steal gold from.  OK, just kidding on that one, though that will happen somewhere, I imagine.

Then come the longer term effects.  Some banks may go under.  Businesses will stop hiring pretty quickly, and start laying off within several weeks or months.  People will freak.

Who will be the most affected?  If you live in the hood anywhere, it's still going to suck.  But you're used to that.  So just keep hustling.

The "Red States" in the U.S., like North Carolina, where I currently live, will be DEVASTATED.  Not because they're primarily Republican or conservative specifically, but because the smartest and most tech savvy people have been leaving these areas for years, and moving towards the tech hub cities.  So rural, small town, and small city America has lost its smartest people, and most of these places are being run by second and third rate "leaders" who are way behind the technology curve, and still playing with old, obsolete, Industrial Age ideas.  These areas, many of which have been struggling since the Great Recession, will get worse.

The tech hub cities and regions include the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Boston, Seattle, Austin, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and the Raleigh Research Triangle (here in NC).  These will take huge hits and a lot of paper wealth will be lost.  Most tech start-ups will go under, just like in 2001.  Venture capital will dry up quickly.  There will be a lot of layoffs.  But if you have tech skills, you can likely find a job somewhere, though probably for less money.  The crazy real estate in these regions will drop a lot, but not enough for working class mortals to afford.  These areas will rebound the fastest (or least slow), because that's where most of the highly creative and highly motivated people are.  They will find the places to get creative and use current tech and being out more emerging tech.  Creativity is big time in today's world.  Never more than in the next couple of years.

Yuppies with high incomes and high spending habits, like always, will get decimated.  Living a lifestyle right at, or above your means (paying on credit) makes you look cool to stupid and superficial people, but all those mortgages, high rents, fancy car payments, and toys will turn into huge financial anchors dragging you down if your income decreases.  Fast.

Because a big chunk of the recent financial growth has been made on $1.3 to $1.5 TRILLION in student debt, colleges will take a huge hit.  Within a couple of months, going to college, AT ALL, will seem a lot less attractive.  We will see nearly all colleges and universities, big and small, struggle financially.  WE WILL see well known colleges collapse and go out of business.  Really.  This will be a big difference from the Great Recession of 2008.  Those of you with college debt who have borrowed more money to buy a house, car, or run up your credit cards, you're going to get reamed like the cute new guy in prison.  Re-read the paragraph above, that includes you.

The Retail Apocalypse, the closing of thousands of major chain stores, will accelerate.  Last I heard, 9,000 to 11,000 MORE retail stores are already expected to close this year.  We could see that number double.  When it comes to shopping malls, 400 (out of 1100 to 1200 total) are already expected to close by about 2021.  When major old school retailers like J.C. Penney's and Sears go under (virtually a certainty), other malls shops will bail like amateur mountain bikers at the Red Bull Rampage.  ( I had to get a bike reference in here, you know me).  I would not be surprised at all to see 400 to 600 entire shopping malls close by the end of 2019.

So that's a quick look at what's very likely to start happening any time now.

People in the socially conservative (there are no financial conservatives anymore) and diehard Republican world have been sold the Apocalypse story for decades now.  Many own guns and gold, which they think will protect them.  They may help.  But probably not as much as they think these will.

The very best things to have in this coming crisis WILL NOT be gold and guns.  The best things to have will be courage and creativity.   But then, those are always the best things to have.

We're now at the edge of the tipping point of this crisis.  It could happen tomorrow, two weeks from now, or maybe a couple months from now.  But my feeling is we'll see the first really big stock drop in a matter of days.

I've spent my life watching the economic markets, reading about macroeconomics and future thinking, and looking at the dynamics of the big picture of society.  This is the stuff I geek out about.  I've said my piece.  Get ready to throw your hands in the air as the roller coaster heads down the first big drop.

This is not an April Fool's joke.  Really, it's not.

What about crypto?  The powers at be will probably get us to put our money (what's left of it) into crypto of some kind.  Which one?  I have no idea.  I'm not sure those in power have an idea either.

Honestly, I was really hoping this wouldn't happen for another six months.  But things are coming together in a bad way quick.  Oh well.

* For those of you that are metaphorically challenged, and that's a lot of you, I'm referring to the "average" investors and retail investors losing a ton of their wealth in the title.  I'm not talking about any kind of violence, though, I'll understand if you kick your broker's ass when your nest egg disappears.  In average times, retail investors, the "sheep" in the stock market, get sheared by handing money over to financiers, traders, and big firms.  But in times like these, like 2008-2009, the "sheep" just get wiped out.  Don't be a sheep.