This eternal "the sky is falling" thinking always brings me back to the 60's bomb shelters. Stocking up on things would in the end have about the same effect as holing up in a bomb shelter in a nuclear war...  We are in this together.

I see positive signs in the manufacturing economy in the US.

It will be a slow road back but I feel a more stable one than the smoke and mirrors of the real estate and financial boom of a few years ago.

As I heard from one of the analysts being interviewed on the radio yesterday while I was crossing MN, something to the effect that there will be a lot of politically motivated gloom and doom between now and election day in November. Nothing will get done in Congress until the election except mud slinging. He was hoping that then they will get back to meaningful discussions of the issues facing the country.

The person being interviewed said the place he is investing his fund money is in basic "materials".  

With the huge Potash takeover bid this week evidently others feel that way too. This fund manager said the time when everyone is gloomy is the time to buy basics which tend to be undervalued and will be needed when folks find the sun does shine... or something to that effect.

I think there are still a lot of Y2K generators for sale too.

jmho.  Jim at Dawn

edit: as far as beef goes, an interesting discussion last night on Market to Market, especially on cattle markets:

Here and Here