The December 4 cover features Seton Porter of National Distillers, whom the magazine, with bald-faced envy, claims has "50% of all U.S. whiskey in his saddlebags."

This is quickly turning into some kind of perverse joke. These people deserve the Depression, dammit! No wonder the country has gone to hell; all anyone cares about is Tugboat Annie, football and whiskey.

Hahaha. Kind of like today. And there it is, finally, the point. We are slowly sidling up to The Fear. With wealth and lifestyles evaporating right before our eyes, The Fear is really the only tangible thing we can hold onto. The Fear is always worse than the actualization. The Fear feeds on potentiality, unimaginable potentiality.

Now, there are two ways to look at that. One is to despair over our misfortune at finding ourselves in the wrong place at the right time, taken along for a ride on this wave past the cresting point, and the other is to consider what adventures await on the other side. I'm in the second camp because I am an optimistic person by nature, or at least a defensive pessimist, and also because I understand that despite it all, we will continue to live our lives, raise children the best we can and find ways to make the best of whatever situation we are in.

During the first Great Depression, times were tough for many people, but even now the vast majority of us will adapt and continue on and soon take for granted the change in lifestyle that may (or for some may not) entail.

I read a piece in the New York Times several months ago by a woman consistently finding herself feeling humiliated by her parents' reckless disregard for money during the Depression - they didn't have much anyway, but her parents were intent on squandering what little they could accumulate on fancy clothes and cocktail parties. As I remember the story, she asked her mom, "Why on earth are you having a party with things the way they are?" Her mother, without missing a beat, said, "It's times like these when people need parties most of all."

Indeed. The time for preparations and battening down the hatches has passed. It's finally here. Let's party."  You know the old cliche - We have nothing to fear, but fear itself. The Greater Depression. Yeah, right.

Jon Nadler is a Senior Analyst with Kitco Bullion Dealers Montreal

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