It is not often I get a chance to remain true to the topic of off-the-grid living and still indulge my penchant for politics except, of course, where I make a force fit.  This time I don’t have to.

“Last year was the first year in which global investment in renewable energy was larger than investment in fossil fuels. We are nearing the tipping point. So while our prime minister shills for a pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico to ship out unprocessed bitumen, global investors are shifting their bets. Canada is the only country on earth not a member of the International Renewable Energy Agency. Maybe Harper and company haven’t noticed these reports. Maybe Christy Clark hasn’t realized the long-term bet on LNG is a bad bet for BC. But Canadians better start noticing that betting on fossil fuels is not only stoking the furnace on future climate disasters; in purely economic terms, it’s stupid.” Elizabeth May – Green Party of Canada

It is interesting to note that oil prices (wholesale) are down because of over-supply.  Yes, gasoline prices are up but that is more a statement of corporate and government greed than it is supply and demand.

So, why is there – all of a sudden – a glut on oil?  Who knows?  But Elizabeth May makes the observation that the price of solar has more than halved (60% less than five years ago).  And I see the price drop more dramatically because I pay (retail) a dollar-a-watt today where I paid $5.00-a -watt ten years ago. Factor in inflation and ‘future cost’ of money and all that other economic hocus pocus and I pay LESS than one fifth of what I paid ten years ago.  And she claims that such a price drop is making solar competitive with oil.  She claims it is more than competitive for some (like me) and so those folks not only choose to go solar, they are also NOT buying as much oil.  

It is counter-intuitive in the extreme and contrary to what economists would say but low oil prices might just be an indication of increased use of green-energy.  

She thinks we are at the tipping point.  And she says the tipping point has already been tipped in Asia.  Those emerging societies with a gazillion small entrepreneurs have shifted more significantly to solar and wind than were ever expected. The little guy is leaving the petroleum club.

I doubt that it is that simple.  But I don’t really know anything.  I just know my feelings, my instincts and the great confusing mish-mash that comes from a bunch o’ reading.  And they are all suggesting that she may be right.  We just might already be making the transition…?

Many famous environmental commentators from Stewart Brand to Paul Hawken think we are, too.  They believe that ‘change’ is happening at the personal, grass roots and mini-community level. They cite the 100 mile diet, slow food, Blockadia, social media and a plethora of other examples including solar and conservation to suggest that we are all, slowly, smartening up.

‘Course the leaders aren’t.  The leaders got where they got NOT by leading but by sucking up and following the How-to-Suck-Up-for-Success Rule-Book (for Dummies).

Real leadership doesn’t come from the establishment but from the Malcom Gladwell-type Outliers.  The problem with the currently recognized Gladwells is that he is reporting on Outliers from three decades ago (i.e. Bill Gates).  The outliers of today have yet to be recognized.  Even Elon Musk is somewhat behind the cutting edge because – by cutting edge – we mean ‘experimental’ and, even though Elon Musk is committed to being there at the experimental front, being a gazillionaire takes a lot of ‘establishment’ time as well.  But his engineers are up there.  Musk is a leader and an outlier.  One of the few.

So, what is my point?  Simple, really.  OTG is not necessarily catching on (people still moving to the city in hordes) but living cleaner, healthier and more independently is. Just as we are open to smarter phones, we are showing interest in smarter living.  We are all trying to make a difference even if our so-called leaders are walking the wrong path.  Just maybe all those small-fry still choosing to live urban can add to the revolution by putting solar panels on their roof.

And then the green movement will really get some legs.

“Blog’s kinda off the main topic these days, don’t you think?” Neighbour BIG Doug and I were getting together to discuss him delivering some lumber over the next few weeks for the little projects I have planned.

“Yeah.  Did my usual bit about the city again.  Some stuff about the book.  A few rants.  I have strayed from the original theme, no doubt about it.  You wanting more rants or more off-the-grid stuff?”

“No rants.  Had enough.  And you can skip the ravens.  I am sick of them, too.  Bloody nuisance, they are.  Figure out a way to get rid of them without killing them and write a book about that!”

“Geez, no rants, no ravens.  Waddya readin’ for?”

“Don’t got no TV, do I?”

“You don’t got no cedar, either!”

“No.  Right.  Sorry.  Might cut some.  Probl’y not.  Lots of hemlock and fir, tho.  Cuttin’ some alder soon.”

“Why alder?”

“Louie wants flooring.”

“I want cedar.”

“Louie’s mill.”

And that is the way it is out here.  Louie owning the mill determines what gets milled.  Fair enough.  Not a market driven economy, to be sure, but fair.  I’ll build out of fir instead of cedar.  Some decisions are made for you.

Well, that is not quite true.  The outdoor shower has to be cedar.  HAS to be.  And I’d like the greenhouse frames to be made of cedar, too.  Less worry about rot.  So, I may have to ‘negotiate’ with big D who lives near BIG Doug.  Big D (smaller than BIG Doug but still big) is a lumber hoarder.  He always has dimensions of everything.  Like a mini-custom home depot except WITHOUT any crap wood.  Plus it runs in the family and his cousin up the way has some, too.  One way or the other I’ll whinge my way into some cedar.

And I have the time.  It’s not like I work fast.  Hardly work at all, really.  Haven’t done a thing since we schlepped back home last week.  Peeled potatoes.  Poured wine.  Chose the last cheap B flick.  That’s about it……

I’ll likely keep the GDP (Gross Dave production) to that lightning pace until the barge comes with all my ‘new’ tools.  And if this sloth continues, I may just use them as barter for getting others to do my work!  Ha!  Only kidding.  No one can do my work (‘cept Sal) cause I don’t have plans.  I wing it. You hafta read my mind to know what I am going to do next.  Tough enough for Sal to do and she doesn’t always get it right.

Which is annoying.

Anyway, I couldn’t part with any of that stuff and I haven’t even gotten my hands on it yet. Tool anticipation is a crazy thing.  A bit like being horny but not quite.  Weird.

Here’s something weird: This is DFO for ya…………..

Our area is closed to ‘fin fishing’ until sometime soon (that is why I was online reading the regs and getting my license) but even when it is open, it is closed to rockfish.  They were fished out years ago and, like all DFO managed species, they close the area AFTER the species is wiped out.  Brilliant.

So, anyway, no rockfish.  Fine.  I get it.

But then the regulations read: (something like) “Should you inadvertently catch a rockfish while fishing for other species, the fish will not be able to recover from being hauled up from the depths.  You may as well keep it.  And be sure to eat it, ’cause you can’t use it for bait – that is against the law!”

“Unh….I thought catching rockfish was against the law?”

IT IS!  TOTALLY PROHIBITED!  WE’LL CONFISCATE YOUR FAMILY IF YOU DO THAT!”

“But…you said….if…I catch one by accident….I should eat it…? If I eat it, doesn’t that mean I have to take the little blighter (biter) in my boat and you might catch me with it and then confiscate my family?”

YES.  YOU ARE CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARDPLACE.  LIKE THE ROCKFISH.  YOU ARE HOOPED EITHER WAY.  THIS IS THE GOVT. OF CANADA MANAGING YOUR FISHERIES AND, AFTER C-51, WE WILL APPLY THIS KIND OF LOGIC TO MANAGING YOU!

If only the rockfish could slip away as freely as my rants do, eh? 

One of my friends critiqued the book and chastised me for not having set the stage more. “You should have written more about why you actually bought property where you did and stuff and why the hell you would do such a thing.  I wanted to know your motivation other than mid-life crisis.”

Well, I won’t bore you with what such an answer would include but, because some others have asked questions of a similar vein, I will answer it briefly  Firstly; why out here?

Well, you already know that half the answer was to get away from the rat-race.  But, why here?

Canada is a big country and has some lovely spots.  One can choose from many ideal spots in just about every province.  But Canada is also bloody cold in a usually long winter and huge swathes of the country are under the control of bugs.  Mosquitoes run Winnipeg. And most of Saskatchewan. And bugs, in general, control all of Ontario. Frankly I would prefer to be governed by the Taliban rather than insects although, to be fair, I would chafe under either. But with bugs, I would also itch and not be able to concentrate.  I hate bugs.

So that leaves just the coastal regions.  And, already living on the west coast made that choice much easier.  But I do like PEI and Nova Scotia.

The west coast is all quite beautiful but it, too, suffers from being in Canada and even the coast can get cold, wet and miserable.  In fact, it is not called the rainforest for nothing – it is all granite, rain and trees. The only part of western Canada that is habitable by my standards is the giant bath-tub ring around the Gulf of Georgia.  That deep tub of water exerts a temperate climate on all the land around it for at least 20 or so miles.  Go up one of the deep fiords/inlets to the head and you can actually feel the gulf’s loss of tempering influence.  Go to the northern part of Vancouver Island in high summer and bundle up – it is freezing!  To my way of thinking, the Gulf of Georgia is ideal.  The rest of Canada is mostly harsh.

The bath-tub ring is really very, very temperate and, in some parts, quite warm and sunny. Comparatively speaking, anyway.  So much so that cactus grows on mid-tub Savary Island.  When we lived in Tsawwassen, we received twice the sunshine and one-third the rain that Vancouver experienced and North and West Vancouver receives that difference again. Thirty inches of rain in Tsawwassen, 60 in Vancouver and 90 in North Vancouver.

Oysters are like climate canaries for us (not such good fliers but better fryers).  They grow and thrive until about 10 miles north of Campbell River.  North of that, it is too cold for them.  If it is 20 degrees C around Powell River, it is 10 to 12 in Port Hardy (if it ever gets that high!).  I have been in a t-shirt and warm heading north in the boat and, over a five mile stretch, felt the temperature drop a significant 5 degrees (C) requiring the adding of another layer for warmth.  The ‘temperate line’ is clear and distinct even if it does move around a bit with the seasons.

So that is why we chose ‘here’.  But why did we choose to go at all?  Like I said in the book, mostly for adventure, mostly to relieve boredom, mostly to learn and experience life in a more grounded and visceral form.  To feel alive, to be more independent, to grow as human beings.  To get out of the pressure cooker.  All that and more.  But mostly just personal reasons.  Randy’s you-tube ‘Leaving’ says it best (link on the side of this blog).

But here’s the surprise: I really don’t think a person has to live remote to be off-the-grid.  It helps your concentration and defines your activities more clearly but being isolated from society is impossible.  You are included in society one way or another – usually, too many other ways for my liking –  but you will always be connected in so many ways that OTG is really an attitude, an idea, a lifestyle more than a defined fact.

Being OTG is really just a mind-set rather than a location.  A woman in a suburb in Coral Springs, Florida opted for living OTG and was persecuted by the local government for it – thus proving the validity of her choice in the first place.  But she proved the point well. She went OTG in a suburb!  Growing or foraging for your own food, unplugging from the umbilicals of modern life, generating your own power, practicing conservation and living as if you were in the land of plenty rather than scarcity is all it really requires. Want to try living OTG?  First find your inner Luddite.

Harder to do in the city.  Easier in the forest.

Just to be clear: there is a built-in irony with the exercise of moving OTG.  You go to get in touch with nature, your own body and mind and to live with less.  But to do that, you need to connect to the knowledge base of society, usually hire others to help and you buy prodigiously to live minimally. Worse, the more you live OTG, the more ease and comforts you try to acquire so as to be able to enjoy yourself more.  This trip we bought a toaster! And I have a barge bringing me more tools!  My first project this summer is to finish the lower funicular (to assist with the loading process).  I may be living OTG but it seems I am trying to build the equivalent of a grid in the process.

So, what is my point?  OTG is not revolutionary.  It’s just a small change.  A modification. An adjustment.  You are not shedding your skin or undergoing metamorphosis.  Basically, you are just moving house to a better neighbourhood.  Is it worth the effort?

Absolutely!

I kind of ramble in this blog so the point is that revolution does not always look like you think it should.  It just might be already underway.

Ever since I attained legal adulthood, I remember (and somewhat listened to) the call for revolution – if not screamed in the foreground by a Huey Newton-type, then as a quiet expectation in the background as whispered by Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalogue). The symbolic and iconic “Burn, baby, burn” was torn from the angry chants of the Black Panthers around the violent times of the LA Watts riots.  And the back-to-the-land movement of the early 70’s was a kind of quiet, gentle manifestation of similar revolution opposing working in offices in grey flannel suits and living in ticky-tacky boxes all in a row. But both were revolutionary messages for my era.

One died with a whimper and maybe one last Viagra.  The other clings to life as a hot sauce.

I guess, though, that I have always considered that revolution would still show up in one of those two ways: either burning riots or quiet retreat.  But, I may be wrong…………It won’t happen by way of voting, that’s for sure.  The very act of voting and politely awaiting the outcome of a system that always results in the status quo is simply a ludicrous expectation.  The system is incapable of major change.  You can’t get change by remaining the same.  But I digress…..

So, where are the riots?  Or where is the exodus?

I don’t see it.

Or do I?

It actually may be happening right now and I didn’t recognize it because there just weren’t enough Afros or long-haired hippies involved.  Maybe the revolution is underway….?

Bear in mind that there is nothing in the word ‘revolution’ that necessarily makes the rebels right.  Fifty thousand rebels can be wrong even if the ones they are fighting are also deemed the bad guys to some extent.  Both sides can be wrong.  The enemy of my enemy is NOT necessarily my friend.

Put another way: ISIS is revolting against the modern status quo – their status quo as they define it in a Western based world.  They are revolting against capitalism, materialism and western ethics.  But they are not revolting against the status quo that I am inclined to rebel against – which is that part of the same enemy as theirs which pollutes the planet and exploits the poor in pursuit of greed and excess.  My rebels are good guys like the Sea Shepherd Society and Green Peace.  Their rebels are just worse bad guys than the Military Industrial Petroleum Capitalism Greed machine I normally rail against.

Put another way again: I think I prefer my greed-motivated enemies to the beheading types who have begun the ISIS revolution.  They are up-front worse than my bad guys because I have hopes for my bad guys to learn from their constant stream of mistakes.  The old greedy guys pretty much have to learn eventually since they are killing the planet and that part is fundamental to life for all of us.  My bad guys are just stupid and greedy.

ISIS, on the other hand, is crazy-mad.

And me?  I am merely a frightened, naive and optimistic old hippy with a better road to follow.  Obviously the road less traveled.

But back to the point: could this ISIS-like crap be the revolution for which we always had an expectation?  They don’t look like leaders of any revolution I could imagine.  And, to my way of seeing, they are NOT heroic in any way.  But they still may be a pretty good definition of rebels………….

….and they may be bringing the revolution…?

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t believe that ISIS and the peripheral crazies that they attract are targeting Canada and ‘our way of life’ in the manner that that fear-mongering Harper is claiming.  I don’t see ISIS as a bigger threat than I do Harper and his gestapo by any stretch.  But they are revolting over there in the Middle East and Europe.They are revolting against the Harper-cum-sociopath-cum-Cheney-cum-Putin ‘petro-establishment’ that makes up the great bee-hive of modern economics and society over there. And here. They (ISIS) just don’t like what they see ‘going forward’ in the modern world.

I confess that I am not so keen on what I see ‘going forward’ either.   But nor do I like what I see ‘going backwards with the crazy-mads’.  They (ISIS) want to go back to the good ol’ cave-man days of wife-beating and idol-worshiping.  Pretty ignorant, ugly, brutish stuff.   But I am also concerned with what the world seems to think is forward thinking: greed, exploitation and a larger police state, not to mention global warming.  Backwards or forwards, the paths being offered are not desirable.

I’ve chosen.  I’ve gone the way of the hippie.  ISIS has escalated the revolutionary rage like that of the Black Panthers to psychotic religious, homicidal levels in a Middle Eastern and European setting. Their way is attracting more followers. Mine isn’t.

Mind you, there are quite a few off-the-gridders (they estimate 2,000,000 in the USA and 300,000 in Canada) but we are still peacefully engaged in society to a large extent; we just live farther from the malls, is all. They have 50,000 or more armed-to-the-teeth goofballs who even dress the same and march around chanting slogans and blowing stuff up. This does not bode well for a peaceful, green, hippie outcome with sharing, cooperation and free love.

You might want to start packing.

I started this blog because everything about living off the grid was so new at the time.  We were learning and we were learning stuff not commonly or easily learned or taught except by doing; how to build your own house, live (partially, anyway) off the land, make your own electricity and all that comes with the new lifestyle we chose.  We were OTG newbies and keeners and leapt at the adventure that was our new life with energy and enthusiasm.  It was great!

Still is.  In fact, we are still learning and facing mini-challenges all the time. But it dawned on me the other day- “Hey, Sal!  In three more years we will have lived as long off the grid as we did in the cul-de-sac house where the children grew up! In a month or so we will have been here 11 years”.  

“Holy!  It doesn’t seem that long! Feels like we just got here.  Are you sure?” I see her doing the math in her head and then saying, “Ohmygawd!  You are right!  We aren’t newbies anymore, are we?”

“Skill-wise, I’d say we are still pretty wet-behind-the-ears (with blood, usually) and that is because this lifestyle is so much more independent and complicated than our previous choices and because we are older, stupider and don’t have the same energy.  But, basically, we are progressing like we have before only slower.  We aren’t newbies anymore but we are barely achieving sophomore status.  We won’t be any good at this way of life for another twenty years at the rate we are going.”

“I’m OK with that!”  For Sally, attitude is everything.

Sal and I have lived different ‘styles’ several times in the past.  We lived on our various boats for 11 years.  We traveled for a combined three or so years not counting Hong Kong.  We lived in a mansion in Shaughnessy for three more and a few apartments as well.  We only really went mainstream for 19 years – 5 years in a Richmond suburb and almost 14 in the cul-de-sac neighbourhood of Tsawwassen.  Child-rearing years.  Those two stints in the normal lane felt twice as long, this one feels like we arrived last year.

I think we are good here for at least another 15 years.  Sal would be good for another 30 if it weren’t for me but I will try to drag her wherever I go (except to an old-folks home).  By the time I am 80 or so, I may opt for something a bit easier.  “So, where would we go and what would we do if we left here?”

“Not ever leavin’ here!”  Attitude, eh?

After much discussion, she relented to leaving ‘here’ for four months or so in the winter and living in a nice motor home so long as she can spend the rest of the time here.  Sorta like what we did this year and last, actually, except this time with wheels.

“Dave, why are you even thinking this way?” 

One of our neighbours whose OTG expertise has been learned and earned over forty years of living minimally, independently and competently pointed out that few up here stayed on past 75.  He opined that the new generation (his and ours) might be good for an extra five.  “By 80, dude, you will be looking for more ease.  Well, not Sal, of course, but you will.  Me, too.  By 80, we are done.”

“Well, by 80, I hope to be done all my projects and still have enough energy to enjoy them working for me.  Anyway, I live with the Energizer Bunny.  I can ride that electric scooter for awhile.”

“OK.  Fine.  Be like that.  Where you going when you are 90?”

“I understand Bhutan is nice to old people………….?”

Eric the car guy is a you-tube star.  Which is somehow very satisfying for him, I am sure.

Occasionally, I get a ‘look-at-me’ sent from him.  Yesterday, I did.  It was on battery maintenance.  I knew most of it but he also showed how using his multimeter to measure stray ‘leaks’ across the top of the battery, one could find battery loss even while the battery just sat.  Put the positive lead on the positive terminal and place the negative anywhere on the top of the battery’s plastic casing and – even tho there should be no charge – THERE WAS!!  I went out to look at my batteries and had anywhere from 3 volts to nine volts discharging across the top of each battery!!  That was a shock.

OK, the voltages are varying and are likely measured in nano-amps but that is NOT the point.  The point is that damn batteries are weird creatures.  Just when you think you have them figured out, ZAP!  They get you. THAT is how batteries age and die, I guess.

Eric suggested using a solution of washing soda to clean the tops which I did but that did not help at all.  I was near some WD40 and so I gave that a shot and the runaway voltages stopped!  Who knew!?

“Does it matter, if it is only milli-amps?”  Probably not. My solar array is pumping in gobs of juice these days and so what if I ‘spill’ a bit.  Everything is fine.  Still, it is weird to discover yet another way in which OTG electrical systems can go rogue on you.

I heard from a reader yesterday who is planning on doing something OTG in future.  He’s 61.  Time to make the move.  Another reader (mid 50’s) is already up this way and looking around. He’ll find something I am sure.  Has the exodus begun?  No, I don’t think so.  If there is ever to be a mass migration from urban to rural I think there will have to be a catalyzing event.  Moving without a strong nudge just isn’t in our nature.  A body at rest tends to stay at rest.  A body in motion tends to stay in motion.  The fellow already up here has been motor-homing for awhile and so he is a body-in-motion and breaking that primary and inherent inertia seems to be the biggest step.  He’s done that.  He’ll make it.

“Was it like that for you?”  I like to think I am different but I am not.  My need to change places and have an adventure could have been sidelined by the TV and my comfy cul-de-sac chair.  I seem to recall sinking deeper and deeper at one point.  But the BIG family trip we took the kids on through N.A and Europe by motorhome started me moving again and once moving, the cul-de-sac lost all appeal.  So I, too, needed a catalyzing event.  I am grateful for having had one.

In other words: waiting for it to happen will NOT make it so.

“Maybe I prefer just the dream…?”  Nothing wrong with that.  Talking to the guy still at the planning stage reminded me of how much fun it was to plan, learn, dream and take baby steps.  In retrospect I would suggest that 25% of the overall reward was derived simply from the dreaming stage.  I have no problem with that nor even limiting it to that. But getting going, actually making the move, putting physical energy into it..well, that is when it starts to take on a life of it’s own.  That is when the adventure gets a little scary and the adrenaline starts to flow.

And, in the beginning, when the energy starts to flow, it is usually a bit misdirected, varying, random and rogue efforts like the little leaks across the battery.  The key is to eventually direct that energy through the proper terminals and power up what needs powering up.  If you don’t, your battery can go dead on ya from simply leakage across the casing while doing nothing but sitting there.

Like that metaphor, did ya?

Got back late Tuesday.  Took it easy.  Too much stuff to schlep in one day so we left 95% of it in the trailer and truck focused on just getting home with the perishables and getting the house ‘on’.  Temperature inside the house: 10C.  First job; start the warm-up, then to the power-on panels, then to the water system.  Everything kicked up as expected.  Then to the freezer and fridge.

Couple of odd readings on the electrical panel but I don’t trust electrical stuff at the best of times and things powered up despite the weird readings.  How could I have 59.2 volts in a 48 volt system?

At 9:00 pm that night we remembered a critical item that needed fetching.  Started one of the boats (first go, thank God) and zoomed across the sea in a brightly moonlit but icy cold night.  Returned an hour or so later.  Forgetting something in the car was a mini adventure and we both felt very alive for it.  OK, it was nothing, really.  And yet it was something.  Maybe just a beautiful way to feel that we were home again?

Three hot water bottles in the bed and, after a long day, it was time to join them.

Next day we went to schlep stuff but first we had to get the other boat going (which we did first go, thank God).  And off we went for the first of four or five trips.  On this trip we took half the double-paned windows that weigh between 80 and 150 pounds each (depending on size).  Got ’em on Sal’s small boat at the beach and came across.  Got ’em up on the far shore and Sal started to go back in her boat and I just finished up.  I took a few extra minutes.  Sal was gone.  By then my boat had gotten stuck so I jumped to shore and pushed off.  And then I leapt for it.  I missed.  I was hanging in the water holding on to the boat with one arm and we were now drifting off.  Not good.  One arm was not going to get me back in the boat so I let go and sank lower in the water than I liked…I was wearing a lot of layers and they soaked up the water to the point that I felt like I was swimming in jello.  I made it back to the shore but had to ‘land’ on a fairly vertical but barnacle-covered wall of granite.  I stuck like a limpet.

Huffing an puffing and feeling like a very stupid limpet, I rested for a bit.  The thirty or so feet I swam had taken some effort.  Letting go to get to a better purchase was not easy to do.  I felt like I weighed twice what I do.  Letting go seemed like just dropping a lead weight in the water. So I searched and found my inner amoeba.  Spreading myself gelatinously over as large an area of sticky granite as I could, I then concentrated on wiggling the jello-blob (me) and using my fingers in unison to slowly make my way up the beach. Think ‘speed of a star-fish’.

By then Sal had returned wondering what was keeping me.  Barely suppressing a smile, she asked, “Wanna go get changed?”

“Nah.  We just have one more load of glass and you need me for that.  Plus I left the truck within the tidal range….wouldn’t want to leave it there too long”. So, I clambered in my boat weighing a ton and we went over and loaded her boat and took the truck up the hill to await another day.  Two trips plus a dunking would be enough for now.

Bloody Murphy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves,

Tim Geithner’s book Stress Test is illuminating already- and I am only half way through.

He was chair of the NY Federal Reserve and an advisor to Bill Clinton.  He also became Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury.  He was one of three executive BIGGIES during the recent financial crisis and Tim never even got his degree in economics.

His book is mostly about dealing with the American capitalist system and doing so as it grew to encompass all the countries over the last few decades in the phenomenon known as globalization.  The first half is about how he ‘learns on the job’, follows the practices of those whom he followed and how the world of capital and the economies embracing it, are basically out of control.

I think the second half is about how he and two others captained the world through 2007/08 despite not knowing very much about what would work or not.

‘Course he has yet to actually use those words but he he writes of ‘bubbles’, crashes, recessions, depressions and the like throughout.  He seems to expect financial chaos as part of the system.  And he openly admits his lack of understanding.  He talks of “no one really understanding the complexities of derivatives and credit default swaps and all the fancy financial instruments that have been allowed to proliferate”.  And he talks about the inherent inabilities of regulatory bodies to influence much.  This is kind of telling when you consider that understanding and regulating the banks and Wall Street was the job he was always hired to do.

He also told about the International Monetary Fund riding to the rescue of faltering economies with strict economic reforms attached to the rescue only to change their minds half-way through their work.  The over-riding impression: no one really knows what the hell was going on before the 2007/08 crash and I am inclined to surmise that none of them has gotten much more learned since.

But, never mind.  The world’s economies revolve around confidence and manipulations and that is psychology on a monumental scale.  I doubt that any one person  –  especially economists and bankers (not known for their expertise or even empathy with the humanities) – could have a grasp on such matters at any time.  George Soros, maybe.

“So, what is your point, Dave?”

Well, to paraphrase Rafe Mair, “Never overestimate the abilities of experts”.  Basically, that means that the people in charge don’t know what they are doing.  Which isn’t news, really.  But Geithner is pretty open about it.  They just ‘wung it’ during the financial crisis and, in the short term, it seems to have worked.

In the long term, it won’t.  It can’t.  Impossible.  Very briefly: all economies are now linked and yet none of them are equal.  In fact, the capitalist system is based on having inequalities and it has built-in mechanisms to keep it that way.  Thus one can expect financial chaos to be forever present somewhere.

Being linked means inequities and people revolt over that kind of thing.  If they don’t revolt, they at least migrate and that is already happening on a massive scale as the rurals go urban, the southerners go north and the easteners and the westerners get riled up (Islam).

And don’t forget: all economies are based primarily on the ups and downs of confidence and who has that?

Do you have confidence in the system?

Well, yeah.  You do.  Otherwise you would be buying bullets instead of bargains at Costco.  But is your confidence high?  Probably not. Most people are feeling the financial pinch and the main message in the news is fear.  One would have to be ridiculously Pollyanna-ish to remain bullish and optimistic in the face of what they see and experience around them.  Especially given climate change.

But we are not the gauge by which to judge.  Think about the Muslims.  Think about the Africans.  Think about the average Asian or Indian or Pakistani or Russian.  Think about the ‘drug-cartel’ managed countries of Central and South America. The only reason most of those folks aren’t showing the signs of lessening confidence in their system is because they had very little in the first place.   Economic globalization is exacerbating that sense of insecurity already and many of them are leaving for safer and higher ground – namely, here.

I can’t help but see it this way………the ship is sinking slowly and all the lifeboats have been launched or are being lowered.  But there are way more passengers than there is room in the lifeboats. And the weather is bad and promising to get worse.  Now THAT is basic economics – supply and demand  – all in a bad and unpredictable climate.

Don’t believe me?  Read Stress Test.

We’re kinda funny…in an old geeky-cum-hippy kind of way.

I went into a store yesterday and bought four jars of O’Keefe’s heel cream (for split heels) and the old crone (older than me by at least ten years) asked me why I would buy four.  “We live off the grid.  If I’m going to buy one, I buy at least two and, if my wife isn’t around, I’ll buy four.  In that way, my storage shed fills up.”

“Why do you want your storage shed to fill up?”

“Well, you know….when the world goes all to hell, I’ll have extra heel cream…or whatever…to last me.”  

“How long do you think you have to last?”

“A year.  Maybe two.”  

“Then what happens?”

“I’m out of heel cream.”

She smiled and suggested I should maybe get a few more (since my wife wasn’t with me) just in case things weren’t put back together in the two years I had allowed.  I thought about it but resisted.  I didn’t want to look crazy.

Stroking her wrinkly, 80 year-old cheeks with both hands, she said, “Let me give you a tip, dear….you know, for your storage shed….get some coconut oil.  It’s great for keeping your skin smooth.”

“Well, that is fine for you.  Beauty is important to a woman.  But I am already ugly and smooth skin isn’t going to help me, especially if the world has gone to hell.”

“But smooth heels will?”

In many of our interactions around the city, our living off the grid comes up in conversation.  I admit that I am inclined to let it slip out rather easily but, to be fair, that fact-of-our-life seems to affect a lot of transactions.  “Do you ship this stuff?”  “Depends. How far away are you?”  And so it starts….

“Oh, God!  This is the best chutney I ever tasted!  Can I get a jar of it?”  “We make it ourselves for our restaurant but how much do you want?”   “Will it keep for  a year?”  “Why do you want it to keep for a year?”  And on it goes………

It’s fun.  People are always interested in where we live.  We get to answer the same questions over and over.  Hard to beat that for entertainment, eh?  But the real fun part is hearing about how they, themselves or their friend, parents, neighbours or co-workers, are always talking about getting off the grid.  Their lack of knowledge usually prompts me to get a little crazy.  “Do they know what off the grid really means?”

“Well, like not paying BC hydro or watching TV.  Right?”

“Close enough.”

“So, you don’t watch TV!!??  You don’t pay Hydro??  So, what about the internet…?”

“No.  None of that.  We hunt, gather sea food, chop wood, kill bears and grow our own food.  Biggest expense is bullets and bandages, ya know?”

“Oh, I don’t think I could do that.  I like shopping too much.  And I couldn’t live without my sit-coms.  And my husband loves hockey.  We could never do that.”

“Hard to beat cougar huntin’…chargin’ through the bush, dogs a-howlin’, blastin’ away in all directions…and all that blood….pretty fun… Most people have no idea how good BBQ cougar tastes.” 

Eeeeeuuuw… I don’t think we could do that.  My husband has bad knees. And all my girlfriends and I like to do yoga.  I just don’t think we could do all that.  We’ll stay in Kerrisdale, I think.  It has everything we want.”

“Well, if you ever get the urge to kill some bears or something, let me know.  We have a rustic back-woods cabin you could use.  No plumbing, but we got a stink-hole.  Got a skinnin’ shed with a smokehouse attached too.  And I am thinking of making a sweat-lodge if that has any appeal.”  

“Gee, thanks.  Maybe some day…”