It's impossible to know exactly at what point in time the perception goes from confidence to skepticism but once that happens things change quickly; everything is scrutinized more and procedures which ran smoothly bog down. This is happening right now, every day as institutions we as citizens once held in high regard and had immense confidence in are failing us destroying trust built over decades (just look at the media).
According to Gallup poll last week confidence in American institutions is at a new low:
"WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans are less confident in major U.S. institutions than they were a year ago, with significant declines for 11 of the 16 institutions tested and no improvements for any. The largest declines in confidence are 11 percentage points for the Supreme Court -- as reported in late June before the court issued controversial rulings on gun laws and abortion -- and 15 points for the presidency, matching the 15-point drop in President Joe Biden's job approval rating since the last confidence survey in June 2021."
Can you guess what institution has remained the highest in the minds of American's according to Gallup? American SMALL BUSINESSES!! - And the Military (for now).
American Small Business owners are the most critical human resource in our society at this time - way more important than the bankers and the politicians are the Truckers, Plumbers, Software designers, Engineers & Farmers. The wheels of our economy run on Diesel fuel. When I saw that Americans still have major confidence in Small Business I felt good inside. I said, hey! That's us! We run this show (collectively)and the people know it; Small businesses employ more workers than any other institution and pay the most in taxes!
Meanwhile, confidence in other areas are crashing, I can't say I'm surprised by that though:
"This year's poll marks new lows in confidence for all three branches of the federal government -- the Supreme Court (25%), the presidency (23%) and Congress. Five other institutions are at their lowest points in at least three decades of measurement, including the church or organized religion (31%), newspapers (16%), the criminal justice system (14%), big business (14%) and the police."
Confidence in all aspects of our professional (and probably personal) lives will be tested deeply. Anyone who believes things will just muddle through and get back to normal is either delusional or hasn't been paying any attention the last 18 months.
Keep some capital on hand in cash because banking is vulnerable - already there are huge disruptions going on around the world which could easily affect the ability to pay and get paid - this just happened in China:
"Over $6 billion (39 billion yuan) is missing. A reported 400,000 people have been affected. Imagine going to the bank only to realize that your entire life’s savings were gone instantly?"
Here in the US we have economic privilege because of the Dollar Reserve Status - there are over $65 Trillion in outstanding Dollar-denominated debts outstanding so everyone always needs Dollars. How would you like to be a business owner in Turkey where the currency dropped 50%?
Stay tight cuz things are gonna get rough, just saying. Call me if you need short term capital - I'm always here.