Surviving the Economic Collapse has one seriously important advantage over almost all other disaster preparedness books — the author has really lived through the disaster he writes about. Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre was a young man in Argentina when the socialist government’s tax and spend policies caused a drastic devaluation of the peso and a contraction of the economy so severe that is led to social collapse. In the last 42 years the Argentinian government has dropped thirteen zeros from the value of a peso. One 2011 peso is the equivalent of ten trillion 1969 pesos. This is inflation far surpassing anything which we in the United States faced even during the Jimmy Carter presidency.
Unsurprisingly, FerFAL’s advice differs in a lot of ways from other authors in this field. Most preparedness authors recommend building a defensible compound far from civilization. Fernando points out the impracticalities of this approach and recommends a home in a nice quiet suburb and good relations with your neighbors.
This book isn’t focused on a total TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) situation, but the far more common economic collapse. These occur all over the world when government becomes too powerful and too arrogant. As a result, the book focuses on issues like the practical bartering skills which become so important when money become unstable or effectively unusable.
The book is full of small tidbits of information which the author learned after the collapse. Less coverage is assigned to preparedness before a collapse, because the author was simply too young to do much preparation before the Argentinian collapse. We the readers, however, can learn and benefit from the authors lack of preparation and misfortune.
This book is a quick and easy read. The 250 pages don’t contain enough information to make you feel full. But, it is a recommended addition to a complete preparedness library. This book is most recommended because it provides an extremely valuable viewpoint. For just $24.95 you can benefit from the experience of living through one of the worst disasters in Argentinian history.
