There is a lot of talk here in the U.S. about the pending collapse of the of our economy. While bad news breeds bad news, there is a bit bit of Internet lore regarding survival skills in such conditions. It was written by someone with a nick of Ferfel. He writes about what it was/is like in Argentina after their currency collapsed in (1999-) 2001. Now that the first world is facing similar issues, his writing is getting quite a bit of traction.

Here is a link to a PDF of his (now) famous articles:
http://www.smrussell.net/blog/Surviving_Argentina_Collapse.pdf

and his Blog Site: http://ferfal.blogspot.com/