If there is a quote that immediately comes to mind is those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Based on the Federal Reserve comments and reading between the lines on the dot plot paper they put out, we are going to repeat the Paul Volcker “Reagan years” devastation to the Black community. This is not a joke or some soothsayer, this is real and it’s going down.

I want to ask – do you know where the top photo comes from? It was an old Dream and Hustle article from over 10 years ago. That article came from the 2008 economic fallout where there was an announcement of applications for Section 8 housing and people rushed to line up. There was no “availability” just applications and this caused a stampede showing how desperate our people were looking for affordable housing back during the 2008 recession.

Most of the Black community forgot about what went down in 2008 because we got folks running around in 2022 posing and faking and trying to act like they were about that money. We had working-class homeless living out of cars in 2008 as you see in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Denver nowadays.  People were out of jobs and spent up that so-called six months of savings these financial experts were telling you to prepare – six months of savings will not save you and has been debunked after 2008. Back in 2008, I was at IHOP getting my 3-egg omelets made by people with PhDs who lost their high-paying job. I would go to Food Lion in Cobb County and buy extra groceries for Black families living out their cars in the parking lot – the Black manager let them sleep overnight in the Food Lion parking lot, a kind man and we got good brothas and sistas out here.

What we are experiencing now is looking worst than the 2008 crisis and looking more like the Reagan years because this is the planned destruction of the US economy to get the inflation rate back down to 2%. You keep hearing over and over Chairman Powell keeps saying “pain” – he means that. We are going to see serious pain and let’s lay out what is going to happen.

People are not spending and holding on to their cash. This means a slowdown on housing and car sales that drive a huge portion of the economy. This means retail will have a slowdown during the Christmas season as well. What we are going to see the same pattern where people are going to lose their jobs during the holidays and after January, with more massive layoffs but most layoffs, are going to be done before end-of-year 2022 to write down. People are going to lose jobs and small to medium sizes businesses are also going to close in mass.

In terms of this George Floyd “woke” Black empowerment supporting Black-owned businesses and Black entrepreneurial startups, we going to have problems. This is the classic and often repeated pattern of our people always begging with their hands out looking for validation and acceptance. Our people want to do it the quick, sellout way of getting debt financing then try to hype themselves up in these fluff media pieces hoping people show up and start engaging with their business. But because they didn’t put in that ground floor hustle to learn the hard way and bet their own pockets, their livelihood to make it work the first time, their business model turns out to be a gimmick and falls under really fast.

I been through a lot of economic downturns in the Black community and I saw it over and over. The fake multi-level marketing folks go broke and disappear after all the rich posing nonsense. The fake home flipping cats lost it all in 2008 claiming they were net worth millionaires but had no real money and working a regular job with their heads down. Over and over, we saw this Black poser culture pretending they were rich and they straight ballin but the economic fallout show they were just broke brothas and sistas trying to gaslight the rest of us about them having money. We have these same fake folks in 2022 and they going to join the ranks of broke brothas and sistas walking around with their heads downs, not having anything to say when things hit the fan.

Our people have not learned any lessons and we are not ready and be able to prepare within 90 days for this economic devastation. Let me make something clear, people are not going to “learn to code” within 90 days and my platform will not be available to them because they didn’t support me – I’m not a charity either and our service is not going to be cheap. Our customers can afford 5-figure invoices and we ain’t even checking some clowns who were goofing off when I was building all of this, so that conversation ain’t even going to happen.

What you need to do is take things seriously. If you working a joke job, you better get into some advanced training like technology or nursing and move away from the Black community. Live near your job quietly and just go to work and come home quietly like the Caribbean and Nigerians be doing. Worry about yourself, don’t worry about the Black community. The Black community is washed with worthless brothas and a lot of guns available to commit strongarm crimes, that’s the last place you need to be at around January 2023.

Don’t do anything stupid like buying a tiny home or live out an RV trailer because I have an upcoming article explaining that is the worst option you can do for housing. Moving overseas does not make sense unless you are paid in US dollars working for a global corporation and that doesn’t look promising. Think about it, with the dollar so strong around the world, corporations can just hire local folks for cheap and get rid of the American worker getting paid in US dollars. Americans working overseas have been getting laid off left and right the last couple of months, in case you didn’t know. The best move is to move to a warm climate so you don’t have to worry about heating or energy bills.

Here is what I would consider – I would consider liquidating the 401k at the beginning of the year, taking the penalties, and moving it into bonds or treasury notes with a 4% return to guarantee that I don’t lose money but at least gain something. The content economy will still be viable and I would focus on creating digital content whether it is social media or e-book writer or video blogger or podcaster as a side hustle to get paid. I would move to a re-emerging market like Omaha, Nebraska or Chattanooga, Tennessee, or the Research Triangle area in North Carolina where a lot of talented transplants have moved and started up businesses and created jobs in these areas.  Overall, I would operate like a digital nomad on a domestic, not global basis to move quickly.

It's about to get worse for those who are not rich. Rich folks are happy with increased interest rates to move all their money into treasury notes and bonds. The rich borrow against their own money to avoid paying income taxes. But it’s going to be the working-class who regularly finance who will get burned but the Black community that relies mostly on borrowed money instead of making it on their own will be devastated.

Learn to be truly self-reliant. Put yourself in a situation where you do not rely on credit and debt financing. Live frugally and stock food and find things to do that do not cost money. Dump and I mean get rid of and cut off any person around you who likes to go out to eat and spend frivolously, acting like they are too good to tighten the money purse or go biking or canoeing with you, packing a lunch. This is all going down and less than 90 days – prepare yourself accordingly.