What’s that cold, increasingly harsh feeling in the air?  If you said “winter”, you’re partly right.  The whole truth is, it’s “economic winter”… a period in which wise investments in real assets will be more important than has been the case for many, many decades.  Get ready for some hard truth… and strategies to weather the storms of the economic winter.  I’m Bryan Ellis.  This is episode #181.-------Hello, SDI Nation.  Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy self-directed investors like you!  Get ready for another dose of Predictably Profitable thinking.May I share a personal note with you before we begin?  Well of course I can, it’s my show.  Hehehehe.  Today is the 18th birthday of my first child, Kayla.  Boy… this, and her transition to college in the fall… man, it’s been tough on me.  She’s handling it all like a champ, but I find myself tearing up at the strangest times.  Not a fan of this transition.  Though I’ve got to say, she’s made a liar of everyone who told me to dread the teenage years.  She’s been an absolute delight and has never, ever been in any trouble and has always done really well in school.  Now I’m just blabbering.  Kayla, I know you’ll hear this… heck, you’ll probably be the person who edits and posts this show for all the world to hear.  I want you to know how amazing I think you are.  Really.  You’re an amazing young lady and what is thrilling for me is that I can clearly see a number of ways that you’re truly amazing, and you’ve not yet discovered those things about yourself… you think that everybody has the same wonderful qualities that you have, and it’s just not like that, as you’ll soon learn.  You’re special.  It’s going to be a great life for you, kid.  Always pursue wisdom as your highest priority, always operate with gratitude as your prevailing attitude, and view every blessing as an opportunity to be a wise, generous steward.  Do those things, and everything will always work out just as God intended.  I love you, Kayla, and happy birthday!Well, that’s a season that’s changing in my life… and it’s a big one.But there’s a season that’s changing for all of us, in America at least.  This season has been in effect in a number of other developed economies for quite a while already, and that is the ECONOMIC WINTER.  It’s a period of the economic cycle that is marked by what I’d describe as a reckoning… a time to pay the piper.There’s been a lot of foolish excess in the United States, brought on by our leaders at the top and by our own willingness to spend our money in ways that can’t be described as wise.  Many of the policies, in retrospect, look like they were actually designed to weaken this country.  It’s as if Americans vote and politicians govern on the basis of an adolescent idealism rather than giving heed to any consideration of wisdom.The examples are many.  There’s a serious immigration crisis in this country that has been growing for decades and has accelerated drastically in the last 7 years.  Yes, I’m talking about illegal immigration.  And if that raises your hackles… if the prospect of my using the word “illegal” rather than “undocumented” insults you or brings you to think negatively of me, then your thinking is consistent with the idealism that I mentioned which is antithetical to actual wisdom.Folks, just because something FEELS good doesn’t mean it is good.  It’s shocking that adults – many in their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and beyond – simply haven’t learned that lesson yet.People, SUPPLY and DEMAND are the central consideration in economics.  Nothing else.  Supply and Demand.  Adolescent notions of fairness do not play into the equation, because fairness isn’t a real thing.  Fairness is an arbitrary standard that’s determined not by the wisest among us, but by those who scream the loudest.  Fairness is ALWAYS a distraction, and intellectual smokescreen to shape policy and law to the whims of those clinging to adolescent reasoning.And then there’s the entire mortgage crisis.  It