From: snorthc@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt - E41)
Newsgroups: dc.forsale
Subject: DEC surprise was P-38 4 sale
Date: 30 Sep 92 11:48:03 GMT
Organization: NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER


Hi everyone, please forgive me for being off topic, but I had 20 messages
in my mailbox asking what I meant about Dec.  To put this in context
I posted yesterday:
>I have a Walther P-38 9mm pistol for sale in metal locking box [for sale]

then at the end of the message I said:

>PS whether or not you choose to buy my gun, if you don't own one you
>ought to consider purchasing one prior to Dec.

I was not referring to a liberal victory in the upcoming election, or
a new gun law or what, but the so called December surprise.  I apologize
for being cryptic, it is shorthand that many of my peers know and use
and I assumed everyone knew about it.

DISCLAIMER: what follows is my opinion, worth about what you paid for
it, if you use this info, do so at your own risk and don't come crying
to me!  Please don't send me e-mail asking for more than I put here,
I`m not selling anymore than a pistol and am not even qualified to be
my own financial advisor much less yours.

We have all heard about the currency ripples in europe.  We all know by
now the US economy is in a stagnant state.  There is some evidence
that the "fed" (Federal Reserve) has been propping up the stock market
with large block purchases.  The DEC surprise would be the admission
that some large banks have failed... the persistant rumor is that we the
public will not learn about this till after the election.  If you
want a full blown conspiracy theory "they" will try to hold the info
as close to triple witching day (a stock market thing) as possible.

So what?  Nobody really knows what the effect of these events will be.
However stocks tend to be over valued and food, fuel, and guns tend to
be under valued.

Has my family panicked?  Heck no!  We have made some minor adjustments,
bailed out of stocks (that includes mutual funds folks) and have the
bulk of our investment money in bonds.  We have gone ahead and used savings
to pay off our credit cards... the theory being if the banks fail (and
exceed the FDIC's ability to cover which is likely) you may never get
your money back from them, but they will sure come after us for what we
owe them :-(  We are fortunate that we own our second home and some of our
farm property outright.  If the bank wants my house in the city, no problem.
We have also spent a bit of our food money buying can goods that were on
sale on a week by week basis.

What I haven't done yet, but am watching events closely is use some more
savings to pay off my second car, it is a Geo Metro (56 mpg) and if fuel
gets more costly is exactly the kind of vehicle I would want.  Finally,
I am agonizing over buying more silver.... I just don't have the kind of
$$$ required to invest in gold and I make jewelry using silver anyway,
but the price has been climbing recently and I'm not interested in panic
buying.

Oh yeah, if this is all true why am I selling a gun.  Heck, not matter
how bad things get I just can't visualize me shooting somebody.  So,
I'm trying to get rid of most of my pistols and stuff.  I still have 
shotguns, .22s, and high powered rifles to help me keep the deer and
rabbits under control.

So there you have it, one person's opinion.  I am not claiming the world
is coming to an end, I don't even think this will prove to be quite as
bad as the depression.  I merely think our standard of living may drop,
and somewhat suddenly at that.
Newsgroups: dc.forsale