This is an article posted on the CanadaFreePress.com by Douglas J. Hagmann who with his son, Joe Hagmann, host The Hagmann & Hagmann Report, a live Internet radio program broadcast each weeknight from 8:00-10:00 p.m.
Douglas Hagmann, founder and director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, states that he runs a multi-state licensed private investigative agency and that he is using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness through his website. The premise of his article is that our current financial situation was not bred out of incompetence, but by design.
I do not yet have an final opinion on his credibility nor the credibility of his article. Push come to shove, I'll believe that this is a crock. But Hagmann claims he has a source inside Department of Homeland Security.
I am concenred about countries like Cyprus, the financial situation in Europe which willl affect the U.S., the fiscal cliff situation inside the U.S., a possible dollar collapse, but I am not yet ready to believe it is all planned. Anyway, the article, you decide, here is the article:
Much like my high-level source within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined in a series of interviews beginning last year, the orchestrated collapse of the U.S. dollar and the entire world’s economic system has begun. The first shots in a global economic take-over were fired in Cyprus as my esteemed colleague and founding editor of Canada Free Press, Judi McLeod laid out in frank detail in her column yesterday and her follow up today.
Please read it and heed her advice, or suffer the consequences of your own normalcy bias that such an event will not happen in the United States, Canada, or from wherever you might be reading this. It will, and the plan appears to be on schedule for a shot across the bow later this spring here in the West, with a more aggressive take-over starting sometime this fall, according to my source.
The Plan
To those needing a quick refresher, the plan is quite simple and can be summarized by the Clinton-era quip attributed to political strategist James Carville, “the economy, stupid” and the June 9, 2010 statement by former Obama czar Van Jones, Socialist extraordinaire, “top down, bottom up, inside out.” It is a plan for a one world Communist economy where the “middle class” will be wiped out through a series of events that will have the same ultimate effect as we are seeing in present day Cyprus.
Based on the events in Cyprus, it should be quite clear to even the most vocal critic of the legitimacy of the information provided to me by my source within the DHS as published on this web site is no longer at issue. The U.S. dollar, the backbone of world currencies and the proverbial firewall preventing the erosion of our national sovereignty, is the ultimate target of a takedown by the global banking interests controlled by a handful of banks and families of the “royal elite.”
The plan for a global currency or a one world economic order is a matter that transcends political parties. Those who continue to argue in the Republican-Democrat meme are doing nothing more than providing entertainment to distract people from the real issue, that of the global elite versus the rest of us. The top of the pyramid in this Ponzi scheme is filled with members of both U.S. political parties who are systematically pillaging us and our future generations into financial debt, bondage and slavery. It is a plan that has been in the works for centuries. The problem, however, is that we have been conditioned not to think that big. Yet, the lie is that big.
The Parties
Our current financial situation was not bred out of incompetence, but by design. The occupancy of Barack Hussein Obama as the putative President of the United States was a plan in the making long ago, to usher in this oppressive system where we will be left at the mercy of the global ruling class. It is not by accident that we have been prevented from knowing exactly who this man is, from the controversy of his birth records to his college transcripts and even his social security number. Contrary to what the state-controlled media wants you to believe, these questions have never been answered with any measure of authenticity.
For example, does anyone honestly believe that it is merely a coincidence that Obama’s alleged mother, Stanley Ann Dunham-Soetoro, just happened to work with Timothy Geithner’s father, Peter Geithner, at the Ford Foundation in Indonesia? Is it reasonable to believe that the Republican party had no knowledge of the background of Barack Hussein Obama? Yet not one word from the Republican establishment as they not only watched, but facilitated the takeover of the United States from within. As I’ve written before, our nation is a captured operation.
The plan was set into motion long ago, stemming back to the founding of the United States and the temporary resistance to the central banking system. In 1913, the creation of the Federal Reserve set the countdown clock in motion for the complete subjugation of the United States to the interests of the global bankers and the global elite. The secret supra-governmental cabals such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission worked behind the scenes, under the cover provided by the complicit media, to bring us to this point in history. Perpetual wars were induced to occupy the masses while the chess pieces were placed into their current positions. We are now about to pay the price for our inability or unwillingness to confront the establishment and incremental advancements leading to our own demise.
DHS source: Everything is not “coming up roses”
According to the most recent information provided to me from my source within the Department of Homeland Security known as “Rosebud,” the final preparations are being made to deploy heavily armed federalized forces onto the streets of America. They will be deployed under the pretext of “restoring and maintaining order from the chaos brought about by the economic collapse,” adding that “many will demand and embrace their deployment on the streets of America. They will get what they ask for, and more.”
Much like the security theater we have seen following the attacks of 9/11, we will be subjected to the jack-booted control of a federal army whose allegiance is not to the American people, but to the very architects of the chaos.
“This is the reason that drones are flying over U.S. cities and farmland, and gun control legislation is on the fast track for complete implementation,” stated this source. “How can people look at the situation in Cyprus and not think it won’t happen here? It will, and the blowback will be unlike this country has ever seen. Surveillance, disarming the public, and conditioning the people to believe it’s for their own safety is and has been part of the plan all along. Anyone owing a gun will be demonized and described as contributing to the problem.”
“What happens when the middle class loses much of their wealth, or it is confiscated, by the stroke of a pen or a keyboard? What will the stores look like when people, unprepared due to the damn lies of the corporate media and the shills for the ruling elite, run to empty out everything they can get their hands on as the world, as they know it, collapses around them?”
It was during my most recent contact with my source yesterday that he admitted that the situation will be blamed not on the bankers and the elected leaders who are raping us of our wealth and buying power, but on “right-wing, gun-toting Conservative ‘militia’ groups who believe that the situation is orchestrated.” And, of course, it is orchestrated.
“There is no Republican-Democrat argument to be made anymore. It’s all political theater to keep the majority of the masses occupied while the true enemy has already captured both parties,” he added. “They are all in on it, either knowingly or unwittingly, the takeover, that is. And it’s getting harder to believe that there are any who are unwitting accomplices at this point.”
“When the curtain is pulled back to reveal the true agenda of a single digital world currency, the people who have been yelling the loudest about such ‘conspiracy theories’ will be specifically singled out and demonized. They will be blamed for causing the panic we will see, and of course, dealt with by the army we asked for, accepted and even tolerated.”
Anyone who still believes that the information provided by this insider is “doom porn” or some self-created fantasy need to look at the events taking place in Cyprus. It’s coming to America. It has already begun.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Time for a Survival Garden
We're getting an early spring in some of the country. Time to get prepared for planting some crops. Even if you are in a holding location and plan to Bug Out to a more secure location either just before or during the collapse, planting a few vegetables to gain the experience, get the fulfillment of growing something useful,...flowers are most often not useful,.....and eating the product of your labors is really a cool thing to do, not to mention a key to your survival in a collapse unless you're sitting on a warehouse of food in a secure location.
Many neighborhoods in urban locations are collaborating together to develop roof top gardens on high rises; use former grass or landscaped areas to grow crops; and develop unique methods of gardening such as hydroponic and container gardening, all in order to make the shrinking dollar go further and actually develop a surival skill set - feeding yourself.
Throughout the winter I have been composting organic material so that next month when I start my first vegetable plants I'll have some nutrient rich, clean soil for planting. Using regular hybrid seeds for the local Home Depot, so if I am forced to Bug Out, I won't be leaving behind any of my precious non-hybird seeds nor anything else that can't be replicated with a little time.
By my calendar, sometime in late June, I'll be able to trade some cucumbers and squash to my neighbor who has a chicken coop and regular gets 8 to 10 eggs a week. In fact, I have been trading .22 LR ammunition to him for the eggs lately. At 500 rounds per dozen eggs, he's getting the better part of the deal and I do that to develop a good relationship with him. But who knows what the value of eggs or ammunition will be in the collapse.....probably depends is your highest priority was security/hunting or eating.
Survival Mom from Survivalmom.com also has the same idea, that it is getting close to planting time. I read a great tip on her site pertaining to soil preparation. The whole article is here, but in short the part that taught me something I did not know was:
6. If your planting season is still a month or more away, solarize your garden area. This is very easy, and I wish I had done this last month. Water your garden area very, very well and cover it with a huge sheet of clear plastic. I’ve seen some gardeners use black plastic, but this site recommends otherwise. Weight the plastic down around the edges to make sure that it doesn’t fly away, even in a good sized gust. Wait for 4-6 weeks. This allows the weeds to sprout, thinking, “Yaaay! We can begin adding hours of backbreaking work to this poor gardener’s week!” However, the joke is on them because once the seeds have sprouted, they will quickly die, either from the heat beneath the black plastic or from being smothered with no air or sunlight. Some seeds won’t sprout at all but will still die from being overheated.
Great tip. Sure beats the hell out of pulling weeds several few days.
Another good resource is the book "The Backyard Homestead". It is advertised as teaching you how to grow 2,000 pounds of vegetables in as little as a ¼-acre backyard. And not just a gardening book, this book includes how to raise chickens and bees for honey.
Many neighborhoods in urban locations are collaborating together to develop roof top gardens on high rises; use former grass or landscaped areas to grow crops; and develop unique methods of gardening such as hydroponic and container gardening, all in order to make the shrinking dollar go further and actually develop a surival skill set - feeding yourself.
Throughout the winter I have been composting organic material so that next month when I start my first vegetable plants I'll have some nutrient rich, clean soil for planting. Using regular hybrid seeds for the local Home Depot, so if I am forced to Bug Out, I won't be leaving behind any of my precious non-hybird seeds nor anything else that can't be replicated with a little time.
By my calendar, sometime in late June, I'll be able to trade some cucumbers and squash to my neighbor who has a chicken coop and regular gets 8 to 10 eggs a week. In fact, I have been trading .22 LR ammunition to him for the eggs lately. At 500 rounds per dozen eggs, he's getting the better part of the deal and I do that to develop a good relationship with him. But who knows what the value of eggs or ammunition will be in the collapse.....probably depends is your highest priority was security/hunting or eating.
Survival Mom from Survivalmom.com also has the same idea, that it is getting close to planting time. I read a great tip on her site pertaining to soil preparation. The whole article is here, but in short the part that taught me something I did not know was:
6. If your planting season is still a month or more away, solarize your garden area. This is very easy, and I wish I had done this last month. Water your garden area very, very well and cover it with a huge sheet of clear plastic. I’ve seen some gardeners use black plastic, but this site recommends otherwise. Weight the plastic down around the edges to make sure that it doesn’t fly away, even in a good sized gust. Wait for 4-6 weeks. This allows the weeds to sprout, thinking, “Yaaay! We can begin adding hours of backbreaking work to this poor gardener’s week!” However, the joke is on them because once the seeds have sprouted, they will quickly die, either from the heat beneath the black plastic or from being smothered with no air or sunlight. Some seeds won’t sprout at all but will still die from being overheated.
Great tip. Sure beats the hell out of pulling weeds several few days.
Another good resource is the book "The Backyard Homestead". It is advertised as teaching you how to grow 2,000 pounds of vegetables in as little as a ¼-acre backyard. And not just a gardening book, this book includes how to raise chickens and bees for honey.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Real Life Unintended Consequences
Some of you may remember, in the last week, seeing the report on the Colorado Prison Warden who was shot and killed at his home. The subsequent on-line article, from Yahoo by P. Solomon Banda and Nicholas Riccard outline several murders of officials across the country, 35 in the past 3 years, which is as much as the preceding 10 years. This brings to mind a real life imitation of the novel "Unintended Consequences".
I am NOT an advocate of taking "justice" in one's own hands. However, with the reality or perceptions of an out of control Federal (and sometimes State) governments impacting negatively on the individual freedoms of Americans,....some backlash has to expected, especially when coupled with a failing economy.
When the New York papers published names and home addresses of local gun owners, then someone responded with the names and addresses of the Newspaer staff of the offending paper, a lot of people including me, thought that there would be at least one or two cases of deliberate targeting of these media folks. I guess that goes to show you that most gun owners, certainly the ones who have state permits, are a law abiding group.
And certainly not all of the 35 murders in the last three years can be linked to government mis- or mal-feasance. In fact, one the leading suspects early on in the investigation of the Colorado Warden's murder is a Saudi Arabian national, or his associates, who the Warden refused to transfer to Saudi to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Now, authorities are pretty sure the murderer was an ex-con killed in a shootout in Texas a few days ago. And to be fair, some of the reported 35 murders of government officials are attributable to the ex-Los Angeles Police Officer who recently went on a revenge rampage.
Still the lack of situational awareness, whether at home, the office, a restaurant or while driving is annoying to say the least.
The article, Colorado Corrections Dept. Chief shot, killed at home, by Solomon Banda and Nicholas Riccard of the Associated Press:
MONUMENT, Colo. (AP) — In the weeks before Colorado's top prisons official was fatally shot after answering his front door, he carried out a variety of functions including requesting execution chemicals and speaking to legislators about security issues.
It's unknown what role Tom Clements' position as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections might have played in the shooting Tuesday, but investigators said they aren't ruling out any possible motives, including whether it was random or a work-related attack.
Colorado corrections spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson would not comment on whether Clements had security at his home. Security was stepped up for other state officials, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, who was ashen-faced as he addressed reporters at the Capitol before signing bills placing new restrictions on firearms.
"Tom Clements dedicated his life to being a public servant, to making our state a better place and he is going to be deeply, deeply missed," Hickenlooper said Wednesday.
Authorities are looking for a late-model car, possibly a Lincoln or a Cadillac, that a neighbor spotted outside Clements' home around the time of the shooting Tuesday, El Paso County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said in a report carried by the Denver Post.
Kramer also said investigators want to speak with a woman seen speed-walking near Clements' home not long before the shooting because she may have seen the suspect. The woman was wearing light pants, a dark windbreaker and possibly a hat.
While small in numbers, similar attacks on officials have been increasing in the U.S. in recent years, said Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office in California who tracks such incidents worldwide. He said there have been roughly as many in the past three years — at least 35 — as the entire prior decade. Revenge is usually the motive, he added.
"It's often taking place away from the office, which makes sense, because everyone's hardening up their facilities," he said, adding that he advises prosecutors to constantly assess the safety of their residences.
On Jan. 31, Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse was gunned down as he left his car in the parking lot to the county courthouse. McGovern also counts the rampage by an ex-Los Angeles police officer who killed the daughter of a retired city police officer as part of a plot to avenge his firing.
In Colorado, a prosecutor was fatally shot in 2008 as he returned to his Denver home. In 2001, federal prosecutor Thomas Wales was fatally shot by a rifleman while he worked on a computer at night in his Seattle home. Both cases remain unsolved.
Attacks on legal officials are still extremely rare, said Scott Burns of the National District Attorneys Association, which counts 11 prosecutors as having been slain in the last 50 years. But he acknowledged that legal officials are vulnerable outside of protected offices and courthouses.
"If someone wants to truly harm or kill them, it's very difficult, frankly. There's not a lot we can do," he
Mike McLelland, the district attorney in rural Kaufman county east of Dallas, is a 23-year military veteran. Since his prosecutor, Hasse, was killed on his way into the office, McLelland has warned his staff to be vigilant about their surroundings and possible danger.
"The people in my line of work are going to have to get a lot better at it, because they're going to need it more in the future," McLelland said, adding that he carries a gun everywhere he goes.
Clements came to Colorado in 2011 after working three decades in the Missouri prison system. He began a review of Colorado's solitary confinement system and closed a new prison built specifically to hold prisoners being held in solitary — Colorado State Penitentiary II.
He lived in a wooded neighborhood of large, two-story houses on 2-acre lots dotted with evergreen trees in an area known as the Black Forest. Long driveways connect the homes to narrow, winding roads that thread the hills. After word of the shooting spread Tuesday night, some residents slept with shotguns at the ready, fearful the shooter would return.
It would have been simple to find Clements' house. It took two clicks to get his street address through a publicly available Internet locator service Wednesday morning. The listing also included his previous address in Missouri.
McGovern said he tells his prosecutors to assume that any possible assailants can find their home addresses online and to check for areas they may be especially vulnerable such as neighboring alleys and poorly lit porches.
There is no central database of attacks on legal officials and senior law enforcement executives like Clements.
McGovern has documented 133 of them in the U.S. since 1950 by searching news accounts and court cases. The total includes 41 killings of judges, prosecutors and other justice and police officials. The assaults usually come with little warning, he said.
Steven K. Swensen, a former U.S. Marshal who runs a business consulting on security for court officials, said attacks on legal staff used to occur in courtrooms. As security has been expanded to protect those rooms, then courthouses, the attacks have spilled out further and further.
"Now we're having more violence off-site, in judges' houses, on their way to and from work," Swensen said.
Clements' survivors include two daughters and his wife, who is director of the state Office of Behavioral Health.
While Clements generally kept a low profile, his killing comes a week after he denied a request by a Saudi national to serve out the remainder of a Colorado prison sentence in Saudi Arabia.
Clements also recently requested chemicals to execute Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of killing four people in a 1993 shooting rampage at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and is scheduled to become the second person executed in Colorado since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
Clements' father-in-law, Carroll Smith, told The Denver Post (http://bit.ly/YX6lLN) that Clements opposed the death penalty.
Earlier this week, Clements spoke to legislators about the need for more security staff in the department's food service areas, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said. Last year, a kitchen worker at a state prison was killed and another was injured in an assault involving an inmate.
Clements is at least the second state prisons chief killed in office. Michael Francke, director of the Oregon corrections department, was stabbed to death outside his office in 1989 in what prosecutors described as a bungled car burglary. A former Oregon prison inmate was found guilty of aggravated murder in 1991 and sentenced to life in prison.
I am NOT an advocate of taking "justice" in one's own hands. However, with the reality or perceptions of an out of control Federal (and sometimes State) governments impacting negatively on the individual freedoms of Americans,....some backlash has to expected, especially when coupled with a failing economy.
When the New York papers published names and home addresses of local gun owners, then someone responded with the names and addresses of the Newspaer staff of the offending paper, a lot of people including me, thought that there would be at least one or two cases of deliberate targeting of these media folks. I guess that goes to show you that most gun owners, certainly the ones who have state permits, are a law abiding group.
And certainly not all of the 35 murders in the last three years can be linked to government mis- or mal-feasance. In fact, one the leading suspects early on in the investigation of the Colorado Warden's murder is a Saudi Arabian national, or his associates, who the Warden refused to transfer to Saudi to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Now, authorities are pretty sure the murderer was an ex-con killed in a shootout in Texas a few days ago. And to be fair, some of the reported 35 murders of government officials are attributable to the ex-Los Angeles Police Officer who recently went on a revenge rampage.
Still the lack of situational awareness, whether at home, the office, a restaurant or while driving is annoying to say the least.
The article, Colorado Corrections Dept. Chief shot, killed at home, by Solomon Banda and Nicholas Riccard of the Associated Press:
MONUMENT, Colo. (AP) — In the weeks before Colorado's top prisons official was fatally shot after answering his front door, he carried out a variety of functions including requesting execution chemicals and speaking to legislators about security issues.
It's unknown what role Tom Clements' position as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections might have played in the shooting Tuesday, but investigators said they aren't ruling out any possible motives, including whether it was random or a work-related attack.
Colorado corrections spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson would not comment on whether Clements had security at his home. Security was stepped up for other state officials, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, who was ashen-faced as he addressed reporters at the Capitol before signing bills placing new restrictions on firearms.
"Tom Clements dedicated his life to being a public servant, to making our state a better place and he is going to be deeply, deeply missed," Hickenlooper said Wednesday.
Authorities are looking for a late-model car, possibly a Lincoln or a Cadillac, that a neighbor spotted outside Clements' home around the time of the shooting Tuesday, El Paso County Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said in a report carried by the Denver Post.
Kramer also said investigators want to speak with a woman seen speed-walking near Clements' home not long before the shooting because she may have seen the suspect. The woman was wearing light pants, a dark windbreaker and possibly a hat.
While small in numbers, similar attacks on officials have been increasing in the U.S. in recent years, said Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office in California who tracks such incidents worldwide. He said there have been roughly as many in the past three years — at least 35 — as the entire prior decade. Revenge is usually the motive, he added.
"It's often taking place away from the office, which makes sense, because everyone's hardening up their facilities," he said, adding that he advises prosecutors to constantly assess the safety of their residences.
On Jan. 31, Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse was gunned down as he left his car in the parking lot to the county courthouse. McGovern also counts the rampage by an ex-Los Angeles police officer who killed the daughter of a retired city police officer as part of a plot to avenge his firing.
In Colorado, a prosecutor was fatally shot in 2008 as he returned to his Denver home. In 2001, federal prosecutor Thomas Wales was fatally shot by a rifleman while he worked on a computer at night in his Seattle home. Both cases remain unsolved.
Attacks on legal officials are still extremely rare, said Scott Burns of the National District Attorneys Association, which counts 11 prosecutors as having been slain in the last 50 years. But he acknowledged that legal officials are vulnerable outside of protected offices and courthouses.
"If someone wants to truly harm or kill them, it's very difficult, frankly. There's not a lot we can do," he
Mike McLelland, the district attorney in rural Kaufman county east of Dallas, is a 23-year military veteran. Since his prosecutor, Hasse, was killed on his way into the office, McLelland has warned his staff to be vigilant about their surroundings and possible danger.
"The people in my line of work are going to have to get a lot better at it, because they're going to need it more in the future," McLelland said, adding that he carries a gun everywhere he goes.
Clements came to Colorado in 2011 after working three decades in the Missouri prison system. He began a review of Colorado's solitary confinement system and closed a new prison built specifically to hold prisoners being held in solitary — Colorado State Penitentiary II.
He lived in a wooded neighborhood of large, two-story houses on 2-acre lots dotted with evergreen trees in an area known as the Black Forest. Long driveways connect the homes to narrow, winding roads that thread the hills. After word of the shooting spread Tuesday night, some residents slept with shotguns at the ready, fearful the shooter would return.
It would have been simple to find Clements' house. It took two clicks to get his street address through a publicly available Internet locator service Wednesday morning. The listing also included his previous address in Missouri.
McGovern said he tells his prosecutors to assume that any possible assailants can find their home addresses online and to check for areas they may be especially vulnerable such as neighboring alleys and poorly lit porches.
There is no central database of attacks on legal officials and senior law enforcement executives like Clements.
McGovern has documented 133 of them in the U.S. since 1950 by searching news accounts and court cases. The total includes 41 killings of judges, prosecutors and other justice and police officials. The assaults usually come with little warning, he said.
Steven K. Swensen, a former U.S. Marshal who runs a business consulting on security for court officials, said attacks on legal staff used to occur in courtrooms. As security has been expanded to protect those rooms, then courthouses, the attacks have spilled out further and further.
"Now we're having more violence off-site, in judges' houses, on their way to and from work," Swensen said.
Clements' survivors include two daughters and his wife, who is director of the state Office of Behavioral Health.
While Clements generally kept a low profile, his killing comes a week after he denied a request by a Saudi national to serve out the remainder of a Colorado prison sentence in Saudi Arabia.
Clements also recently requested chemicals to execute Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of killing four people in a 1993 shooting rampage at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and is scheduled to become the second person executed in Colorado since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
Clements' father-in-law, Carroll Smith, told The Denver Post (http://bit.ly/YX6lLN) that Clements opposed the death penalty.
Earlier this week, Clements spoke to legislators about the need for more security staff in the department's food service areas, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said. Last year, a kitchen worker at a state prison was killed and another was injured in an assault involving an inmate.
Clements is at least the second state prisons chief killed in office. Michael Francke, director of the Oregon corrections department, was stabbed to death outside his office in 1989 in what prosecutors described as a bungled car burglary. A former Oregon prison inmate was found guilty of aggravated murder in 1991 and sentenced to life in prison.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Mexican Drug Cartel's a Threat to Preppers?
In Mexico, in not all locations but some, the Cartels or Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO's) are sometimes seen as folk heroes or at least an existing force in a Country who has a long history of one group or another subjugating the population.
Currently there is an effort by the new Administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and the Cartels to control the news media reports of continued violence, be it Cartel on Cartel, Cartel on Mexican law enforcement or military, or murders of prominent Mexicans like journalists or politicians.
While Mexico, especially the Northern border adjacent to the U.S. states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California is basically a failed state, there is no immediate danger of the Cartels exporting violence into the U.S. in any large degree. In fact, there have only been a couple of high profile cases where Cartels conducted murders inside the U.S. The DTO's know that the U.S. is a sleeping giant and could bring a lot of resources to bear on the problem if violence impacting American citizens.
However, any American collapse, be it hyper-inflation, death of the dollar, economic collapse, large scale terrorist attack and/or total infrastructure failure would note only affect Mexico as well, but would more severely degrade the Mexican Government's ability to fight the Cartels, than it would the Cartels ability to continue the status quo. In fact, any U.S. collapse and the follow on repercussions on Mexico would emboldened the Cartels.
Mexican cartels are highly armed having automatic weapons (usually AK's and M-4 variants), rocket propelled grenade launchers (RPG-7's), belt and box fed machine guns, hand grenades and .50 caliber sniper rifles. And, contrary to liberal media reports, the major supply train for this weaponry is through theft, barter and gift from the Mexican and Guatemalan militaries as well as through clandestine importation through Central America.
The often media reported links between the Cartels and Islamic Terrorists groups and foreign countries hostile towards the U.S. (Cuba, Venezula) is not good. One of the indications of this would be an increasing sophisication and use of explosive devices which are not widely used in Mexico as they are in the Middle East. This capability would wrech havoc on the U.S. Law Enforcemnt and presumably the U.S. military deployingto the border areas, if the Cartels began overt operations, in the U.S. during a large collapse scenario.
One of Rawles' last novels he integrated a story of a Houston based Street gang using their existing organization and resources to basically grow a small army and become maruders through Texas and New Mexico. This is not all that far fetched. All of the Mexican based Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO) have links to U.S. based street gangs. This is common sense for the DTO's as they add resources who are normally U.S. citizens, are geographically knowledgeable and understand the U.S. based Law enforcement agencies and their capabilities.
U.S. based street gangs, to me, is the bigger threat. Maybe you have heard of some of these gangs: Barrio Aztecas; Latin Kings; Mexican Mafia; Mara Salvatrucha MS-13; Surenos; Tango Blast; Texas Syndicate. All of these have varying degrees of affiliation and loyalty to the major Mexican Cartels: Gulf Cartel; Los Zetas; Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Cartel; Sinaloa Cartel; and the Tijuana Cartel - which are the cartels who control the northern Mexican border.
In a collapse, it is probable that the U.S. based street gangs would move to control the U.S. urban areas cutting off the Cartels from resources that they do not want to share.
My thoughts above are not considering Street Gangs and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs who are not normally associated with Mexican Cartels. These would include: Hells Angels; Bandidos; Mongols; Bloods; Crips, Gangster Disciples; Vice Lords; and others. And still we haven't included gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood and their various off shoots and the minority ethnic Asian gangs.
So what can we do? We can can understand the threat based on our geographic area. We can prepare well, develop a organized survival team and stay on top of indicators of threat groups operating in or near our areas.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Europe on the brink of Economic Collapse?
Often in discussions with friends, some of them in my survival group and some not, the topic of how the world's economy can effect or cause a depression or even an economic collapse of this country is discussed.
As simple as I understand it, as I am not a economist or involved in any aspects of financial markets,....the United States as a government, and as commercial enterprises (banks and the financial institutions) owns some of Europe's debt. Likewise, financial institutions and governments in Europe own some ofthe U.S. government debt. If either suffers large losses, re-calling some or all of the owed debt could over burden the other, causing mild to hyper inflation, a depressions or even an economic collapse or collapse of that countries currency.
Lots of possibilities in my admittedly non-financial educated mind........hyper inflation on commodities from foods to fuels, especially what we have to import,.............the tanking of the dollar in value relative to other currencies or even the total collapse of the dollar. Pictures of German citizens prior to World War II pushing wheel barrows of money to a bakery to buy bread come to mind,....or more recently, images of Greeks standing in soup kitchen lines or de-foresting the rural areas for fire wood to heat their homes.
So just how likely is a collapse in Europe? Basically, all the Eurozone countries are at risk with the exception of Germany. Let's take a short look at some of them:
SPAIN
Spain’s unemployment rate is now at 26 per cent. The austerity measures of the Government is causing social unrest, especially upon the unemployed. The Government's efforts to rescue banks with money it has to borrow furthers angry in the private sector. Lower benefits for out of work employees and higher taxes further burden this economy which is on the brink of either a social collapse or a financial one. One will precede the other.
PORTUGAL
Portugal's unemployment rate is about 18%, only behind Spain and Greece. The economy fell over 3 percent last year causing the government to raise taxes and cut government pensions to try and bring in more revenue. (Sound familiar?)
The government is being forced to enact austerity measures in order to receive international money for a bailout. Most of these bailout's are usually phased providing minimal relief versus the increasing social pressure of the unemployed and entitled youth.
FRANCE
The Washington Times says that "Look no further than France to see where the faltering U.S. economy is headed. President Obama has adopted a distinctly European fashion when it comes to expanding government and imposing tax hikes. For this, we can expect to achieve the same results as our ally on the Continent. "
France is “totally bankrupt,” Labor Minister Michel Sapin admitted last month. Unemployment over 10% with a whopping 27% unemployment rate for French youth. The French government takes up over 55% of the Gross Domestic Product. There are demonstrations, after demonstrations of the public sector unions fighting what the government say's are necessary government spending and work force reduction.
GERMANY
Germany is the Uncle Bailout for many of these financially screwed European countries. Germany has a constant fear of the collapse of the Euro and with it the European Union, saying goodbye to all the debt that is owed Germany.
The German government is reportedly holding assets in order to cover giant potential losses.
ENGLAND
Unemployment is way up in England, while manufacturing and therefore job production is down. Industrial indexes are down to wear they were 25 years ago. The pound sterling is down to a 2.5 year low.
Inflation is running at over 3%, combined with the fall of industrial production and high employment is causing the analysts to think that a large recession is coming.
CYPRUS
The Cyprus government is announcing a plan to tax bank accounts. Are you kidding me? Unfortunately no. The U.S. is not far behind this concept with the US Government taxing health care plans. But at least our government does not tax our holds other than the interest earned on it.
GREECE
A plan to cut the government work force by 150,000 is being laid out in order to placate creditors that Greece is serious about reducing government debt. Austerity measures, also in order to gain bailout money, creating hostility towards the government on a large scale. This can be a chase your tail type of thing, if the government ever gets on track to stabilize the economy, they may run out of patience with the population and find themselves replaced with a different political party and philosophy. And while the Greece government is forecasting a recovery on late 2013, the population has been taking money out of their banks fearing a collapse.
As simple as I understand it, as I am not a economist or involved in any aspects of financial markets,....the United States as a government, and as commercial enterprises (banks and the financial institutions) owns some of Europe's debt. Likewise, financial institutions and governments in Europe own some ofthe U.S. government debt. If either suffers large losses, re-calling some or all of the owed debt could over burden the other, causing mild to hyper inflation, a depressions or even an economic collapse or collapse of that countries currency.
Lots of possibilities in my admittedly non-financial educated mind........hyper inflation on commodities from foods to fuels, especially what we have to import,.............the tanking of the dollar in value relative to other currencies or even the total collapse of the dollar. Pictures of German citizens prior to World War II pushing wheel barrows of money to a bakery to buy bread come to mind,....or more recently, images of Greeks standing in soup kitchen lines or de-foresting the rural areas for fire wood to heat their homes.
So just how likely is a collapse in Europe? Basically, all the Eurozone countries are at risk with the exception of Germany. Let's take a short look at some of them:
SPAIN
Spain’s unemployment rate is now at 26 per cent. The austerity measures of the Government is causing social unrest, especially upon the unemployed. The Government's efforts to rescue banks with money it has to borrow furthers angry in the private sector. Lower benefits for out of work employees and higher taxes further burden this economy which is on the brink of either a social collapse or a financial one. One will precede the other.
PORTUGAL
Portugal's unemployment rate is about 18%, only behind Spain and Greece. The economy fell over 3 percent last year causing the government to raise taxes and cut government pensions to try and bring in more revenue. (Sound familiar?)
The government is being forced to enact austerity measures in order to receive international money for a bailout. Most of these bailout's are usually phased providing minimal relief versus the increasing social pressure of the unemployed and entitled youth.
FRANCE
The Washington Times says that "Look no further than France to see where the faltering U.S. economy is headed. President Obama has adopted a distinctly European fashion when it comes to expanding government and imposing tax hikes. For this, we can expect to achieve the same results as our ally on the Continent. "
France is “totally bankrupt,” Labor Minister Michel Sapin admitted last month. Unemployment over 10% with a whopping 27% unemployment rate for French youth. The French government takes up over 55% of the Gross Domestic Product. There are demonstrations, after demonstrations of the public sector unions fighting what the government say's are necessary government spending and work force reduction.
GERMANY
Germany is the Uncle Bailout for many of these financially screwed European countries. Germany has a constant fear of the collapse of the Euro and with it the European Union, saying goodbye to all the debt that is owed Germany.
The German government is reportedly holding assets in order to cover giant potential losses.
ENGLAND
Unemployment is way up in England, while manufacturing and therefore job production is down. Industrial indexes are down to wear they were 25 years ago. The pound sterling is down to a 2.5 year low.
Inflation is running at over 3%, combined with the fall of industrial production and high employment is causing the analysts to think that a large recession is coming.
CYPRUS
The Cyprus government is announcing a plan to tax bank accounts. Are you kidding me? Unfortunately no. The U.S. is not far behind this concept with the US Government taxing health care plans. But at least our government does not tax our holds other than the interest earned on it.
GREECE
A plan to cut the government work force by 150,000 is being laid out in order to placate creditors that Greece is serious about reducing government debt. Austerity measures, also in order to gain bailout money, creating hostility towards the government on a large scale. This can be a chase your tail type of thing, if the government ever gets on track to stabilize the economy, they may run out of patience with the population and find themselves replaced with a different political party and philosophy. And while the Greece government is forecasting a recovery on late 2013, the population has been taking money out of their banks fearing a collapse.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Gold and Silver News
While there is continuing debate in the Survival-Prepper circles about the value of having silver and gold bullion, and silver coins for melt or barter value on hand for when the dollar or economic collapse occurs,....and it is apearing more and more likely that it is a question of "when" and not "if",........it is still a good idea, even if you do not subscribe to having precious metals, to keep on top of what is occuring in the gold and silver market.
American Eagle gold bullion coin sales jump, by Kerry Hall, March 9, 2013 on www.mining.com
The US Mint sold 80,500 ounces of American Eagle gold bullion coins during February compared to 21,000 ounces the previous year in that month for a 283% increase, reports Mineweb.
In the first two months of 2013, sales were up 56% compared to the same period last year.
Overall, total gold coin sales for January and February were 430,500 ounces. During the same months last year, sales were 124,500 ounces.
January 2013 made the record book at sixth place with gold coin sales of 124,500 ounces.
For American Eagle silver bullion coins, reported sales were 3,368,500 ounces during the second month of the year. That's 126% more than the same month last year.
For January and February, silver coin sales were 10,866,500 ounces — up 43% from 2012 when 7,597,000 ounces were sold.
Will we see a silver breakout in 2013? from the Gold Report, March 13, 2013 on www.mining.com
Silver has been trading sideways so far in 2013, but what will the rest of the year bring? Will 2013 be the year silver prices break out or crash and burn?
What is a sustainable silver price for mining companies and where will the metal come from to supply the next generation of industrial and investment demand? Most important, how can investors make money off this volatile sector?
These were the burning questions The Gold Report took to analysts, money managers and heads of silver mining companies. The answers may surprise you.
One of the world's biggest silver investors, Eric Sprott, pointed to the availability ratio between silver and gold for why the metal price could jump from $30/ounce ($30/oz) to as high as $200/oz as he predicted in a recent radio interview.
He quotes statistics that show once the industrial use of silver and gold is subtracted from the production and recycling new supply calculations, three times more silver is available for purchase each year than gold. However sales of gold and silver at the U.S. Mint, through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Sprott's own Physical Trust, show that investors are buying many multiples more silver than gold and have been for years.
Sprott firmly believes that outsized demand in such a relatively small market ($9 trillion for gold and $150 million for silver) will result in price inflation. "We are surprised that the price of silver has remained at such a depressed level compared to gold. Historically, the price ratio between gold and silver has been 16:1. Today the ratio is 55:1, so what are the numbers telling us? We believe this is one of those times when smart investors will be well rewarded if they follow the money."
American Eagle gold bullion coin sales jump, by Kerry Hall, March 9, 2013 on www.mining.com
The US Mint sold 80,500 ounces of American Eagle gold bullion coins during February compared to 21,000 ounces the previous year in that month for a 283% increase, reports Mineweb.
In the first two months of 2013, sales were up 56% compared to the same period last year.
Overall, total gold coin sales for January and February were 430,500 ounces. During the same months last year, sales were 124,500 ounces.
January 2013 made the record book at sixth place with gold coin sales of 124,500 ounces.
For American Eagle silver bullion coins, reported sales were 3,368,500 ounces during the second month of the year. That's 126% more than the same month last year.
For January and February, silver coin sales were 10,866,500 ounces — up 43% from 2012 when 7,597,000 ounces were sold.
Will we see a silver breakout in 2013? from the Gold Report, March 13, 2013 on www.mining.com
Silver has been trading sideways so far in 2013, but what will the rest of the year bring? Will 2013 be the year silver prices break out or crash and burn?
What is a sustainable silver price for mining companies and where will the metal come from to supply the next generation of industrial and investment demand? Most important, how can investors make money off this volatile sector?
These were the burning questions The Gold Report took to analysts, money managers and heads of silver mining companies. The answers may surprise you.
One of the world's biggest silver investors, Eric Sprott, pointed to the availability ratio between silver and gold for why the metal price could jump from $30/ounce ($30/oz) to as high as $200/oz as he predicted in a recent radio interview.
He quotes statistics that show once the industrial use of silver and gold is subtracted from the production and recycling new supply calculations, three times more silver is available for purchase each year than gold. However sales of gold and silver at the U.S. Mint, through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Sprott's own Physical Trust, show that investors are buying many multiples more silver than gold and have been for years.
Sprott firmly believes that outsized demand in such a relatively small market ($9 trillion for gold and $150 million for silver) will result in price inflation. "We are surprised that the price of silver has remained at such a depressed level compared to gold. Historically, the price ratio between gold and silver has been 16:1. Today the ratio is 55:1, so what are the numbers telling us? We believe this is one of those times when smart investors will be well rewarded if they follow the money."
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Will The Government Confiscate Food or Guns first?
We received this question from William...."I'd like you're opinion on whether the government will confiscate food supplies from commercial places and from the population. A friend of mine got me into prepping for TEOTWAKI and he told me there is presidential orders that would allow the government to confiscate food during emergencies. I understand the gun confiscation issue. The government would have a hard time trying to get guns from people who will just hide them. But it would be hard to hide food or hide your gardens. "
UrbanMan's comment: William, the government is more likely to try to control or nationalize food supplies commercially before they suspend the 4th amendment and confiscate food from individuals. This is simply based on resources available to effect control. Based mostly on an Executive Order signed by Obama in March of last year, titled National Defense Resources Preparedness, there is a belief that the Government now has the power to seize civil transportation assets, farm equipment, farm facilities (producing and processing), food resources, fertilizers, and even utilize the population in forced labor schemes. This, in my mind, could only come about in a large, chaotic collapse.
You are also right that efforts to control or confiscate food would probably come before gun confiscation, which would simply cause large scale violence even civil war. Plus the adege of "controlling the food, controlling the population comes to mind". One could envision a program of turning in guns, ammunition and other related items in order to get access to government controlled food.
You can read the NDRP executive order here, however the crux is in how the government intreprets any law. Before the government conducts large scale food confiscation scheme, there would probably be a media campaign, psychological operations if you will, calling for people to "share" food stocks and capabilities, painting people who fail to comply as "food horders" and essentially pitting neighbors against neighbors.
However there is a movement in the government, to use someone else's term, called "Regulation Nation", that is restricting individuals rights to sell, trade or even produce food products. This follows a general orientation of government, especialy in the last four years, to restrict common and long standing freedoms.
Good luck trying to research you way into determining what powers the FDA and various levels of governments possess under the banners of "Food Safety", "Wholseale and Retail Food production and distribution",....again much if it is in how the government intreprets their powers.
Some agricultural communities see government regulation as a threat to their existing freedoms. The below article, taken from Food Renegade.com depicts the town of Sedgwick, Maine and their efforts to maintain their rights.
A small portion of the article:
Sedgwick, Maine has done what no other town in the United States has done. The town unanimously passed an ordinance giving its citizens the right “to produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing.” This includes raw milk, locally slaughtered meats, and just about anything else you can imagine. It’s also a decided bucking of state and federal laws.
This isn’t just a declaration of preference. The proposed warrant added, “It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance.” In other words, no state licensing requirements prohibiting certain farms from selling dairy products or producing their own chickens for sale to other citizens in the town.
What about potential legal liability and state or federal inspections? It’s all up to the seller and buyer to negotiate. “Patrons purchasing food for home consumption may enter into private agreements with those producers or processors of local foods to waive any liability for the consumption of that food. Producers or processors of local foods shall be exempt from licensure and inspection requirements for that food as long as those agreements are in effect.” Imagine that–buyer and seller can agree to cut out the lawyers. That’s almost un-American, isn’t it?
A selection of comments on the article:
I’m not one of the “lawyers here” but my observation is that when the local law chooses to prohibit more than the rest of the state, nation or organization they will usually get by with it. It is when local law moves to allow more latitude that the trouble starts.
For example, I can imagine that if a county in PA would take a Humbolt, CA position on raw milk, the state would take an it’s-up-to-them position. But if local law in an area moved to allow raw butter, cream, kefir & yogurt… I’m sure it would not get to first base.
Still, I say Kudos to the fine folks of Sedgwick Maine. Their common sense bravery warms the heart of every awake American. If nothing else, their move will bring the ridiculousness of the situation to the consciousness of another percent or so of Americans. One American at a time the tipping point will be reached.
UrbanMan's comment: William, the government is more likely to try to control or nationalize food supplies commercially before they suspend the 4th amendment and confiscate food from individuals. This is simply based on resources available to effect control. Based mostly on an Executive Order signed by Obama in March of last year, titled National Defense Resources Preparedness, there is a belief that the Government now has the power to seize civil transportation assets, farm equipment, farm facilities (producing and processing), food resources, fertilizers, and even utilize the population in forced labor schemes. This, in my mind, could only come about in a large, chaotic collapse.
You are also right that efforts to control or confiscate food would probably come before gun confiscation, which would simply cause large scale violence even civil war. Plus the adege of "controlling the food, controlling the population comes to mind". One could envision a program of turning in guns, ammunition and other related items in order to get access to government controlled food.
You can read the NDRP executive order here, however the crux is in how the government intreprets any law. Before the government conducts large scale food confiscation scheme, there would probably be a media campaign, psychological operations if you will, calling for people to "share" food stocks and capabilities, painting people who fail to comply as "food horders" and essentially pitting neighbors against neighbors.
However there is a movement in the government, to use someone else's term, called "Regulation Nation", that is restricting individuals rights to sell, trade or even produce food products. This follows a general orientation of government, especialy in the last four years, to restrict common and long standing freedoms.
Good luck trying to research you way into determining what powers the FDA and various levels of governments possess under the banners of "Food Safety", "Wholseale and Retail Food production and distribution",....again much if it is in how the government intreprets their powers.
Some agricultural communities see government regulation as a threat to their existing freedoms. The below article, taken from Food Renegade.com depicts the town of Sedgwick, Maine and their efforts to maintain their rights.
A small portion of the article:
Sedgwick, Maine has done what no other town in the United States has done. The town unanimously passed an ordinance giving its citizens the right “to produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing.” This includes raw milk, locally slaughtered meats, and just about anything else you can imagine. It’s also a decided bucking of state and federal laws.
This isn’t just a declaration of preference. The proposed warrant added, “It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the state or federal government to interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance.” In other words, no state licensing requirements prohibiting certain farms from selling dairy products or producing their own chickens for sale to other citizens in the town.
What about potential legal liability and state or federal inspections? It’s all up to the seller and buyer to negotiate. “Patrons purchasing food for home consumption may enter into private agreements with those producers or processors of local foods to waive any liability for the consumption of that food. Producers or processors of local foods shall be exempt from licensure and inspection requirements for that food as long as those agreements are in effect.” Imagine that–buyer and seller can agree to cut out the lawyers. That’s almost un-American, isn’t it?
A selection of comments on the article:
I’m not one of the “lawyers here” but my observation is that when the local law chooses to prohibit more than the rest of the state, nation or organization they will usually get by with it. It is when local law moves to allow more latitude that the trouble starts.
For example, I can imagine that if a county in PA would take a Humbolt, CA position on raw milk, the state would take an it’s-up-to-them position. But if local law in an area moved to allow raw butter, cream, kefir & yogurt… I’m sure it would not get to first base.
Still, I say Kudos to the fine folks of Sedgwick Maine. Their common sense bravery warms the heart of every awake American. If nothing else, their move will bring the ridiculousness of the situation to the consciousness of another percent or so of Americans. One American at a time the tipping point will be reached.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Emerging Biological Threat: New Super Bug
With the recent reports of the New Superbug it brings to light the necessity of having a plan, especially in the event of a collapse and expected refugee movement and degraded medical care making pandemics much more likely. This plan would be how you keep you and your survival team from being exposed to and infected by new and old communicable diseases.
How you interact with strangers - which is bound to happen even in the lost remote locations. Have you thought about quarantine protocols if and when these strangers/refugees or even members of your own group are thought to be contaminated? What are your disinfectant and sterilization procedures, and when do they become necessary? Do you have personal and group hygiene protocols? Methods and resources for water purification? Do you have procedures and requirements for handling any livestock you may have such as chickens, goats, even cattle?
The threat of rampant disease and pandemics, untreatable by any means we have now or the more minimal means we'll have in a total collapse scare the hell out of me as they should you.
CDC Article on the New Superbug
Emerging Superbug Requires Urgent Action, CDC Says. An emerging superbug is infecting an increasing number of people in the United States, and health officials are calling for urgent action to stop its spread.
During the first six months of 2012, nearly 200 hospitals and long-term acute care facilities together treated at least one person who had been infected by the superbug, known as Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The bacteria is resistant to a class of antibiotics known as carbapenem, powerful drugs that are typically used as a last resort to treat resistant bacterial infections, thus the origin of the superbug's name.
CRE can cause pneumonia and blood and urinary tract infections. CRE infections are still rare, and so far, nearly all cases have been seen in people who've had long-term care in hospitals, nursing homes or other healthcare facilities. But once a person becomes ill, the disease can be lethal, killing up to half of people who develop serious infections, the CDC said.
"CRE are nightmare bacteria. Our strongest antibiotics don’t work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. Doctors, hospitals and public health officials must work together to implement strategies to stop CRE's spread, Frieden said.
Enterobacteriaceae are a family of bacteria that include E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and typically live in the digestive tract, but can cause infections if they spread outside the gut, the CDC said. Over time, some of these bacteria have developed resistance to carbapenems.
CRE were first identified in the U.S. in 2001, and have now spread to 42 states. The new report, which examined U.S. health care infections, found that the percentage of Enterobacteriaceae that are resistant to carbapenems has increased fourfold during the last decade.
In 2012, 4.6 percent of hospitals and 18 percent of long-term acute care facilities, reported having a patient with a CRE infection, the CDC report said.
Healthy people don't usually develop CRE infections. People most at risk for infection are those whose care requires devices such as a ventilator or catheter, and who require a long course of antibiotics, the CDC said.
Hospital workers who don't properly wash their hands can spread the bacteria between patients, and the bacteria themselves can spread resistance to other similar bacteria.
Unlike methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), CRE hasn't spread into the community, Frieden said.
"That's really a message of hope: we still have a window of opportunity to stop it" before it becomes as prevalent as other antibiotic-resistant organisms like MRSA, Frieden said.
In 2012, the CDC created guidelines for preventing CRE infections in hospitals and other care facilities. These include following proper hand hygiene recommendations (hand-washing); grouping patients together who have CRE; dedicating certain staff members and equipment to people who have CRE; knowing which patients in a hospital have CRE and alerting other health care facilities about the infection if the patient is transferred; and using antibiotics wisely.
Facilities that have implemented these measures have seen a drop in their CRE infection rates, Frieden said.
Patients can also play a role in prevention. For instance, if they have a catheter put in, they can ask how long it will be in place, and ask that it be removed as soon as possible, Frieden said.
Continued research into tests to detect CRE, and ways to treat it, is critical as well, Frieden said. The report will be published this week in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
How you interact with strangers - which is bound to happen even in the lost remote locations. Have you thought about quarantine protocols if and when these strangers/refugees or even members of your own group are thought to be contaminated? What are your disinfectant and sterilization procedures, and when do they become necessary? Do you have personal and group hygiene protocols? Methods and resources for water purification? Do you have procedures and requirements for handling any livestock you may have such as chickens, goats, even cattle?
The threat of rampant disease and pandemics, untreatable by any means we have now or the more minimal means we'll have in a total collapse scare the hell out of me as they should you.
CDC Article on the New Superbug
Emerging Superbug Requires Urgent Action, CDC Says. An emerging superbug is infecting an increasing number of people in the United States, and health officials are calling for urgent action to stop its spread.
During the first six months of 2012, nearly 200 hospitals and long-term acute care facilities together treated at least one person who had been infected by the superbug, known as Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The bacteria is resistant to a class of antibiotics known as carbapenem, powerful drugs that are typically used as a last resort to treat resistant bacterial infections, thus the origin of the superbug's name.
CRE can cause pneumonia and blood and urinary tract infections. CRE infections are still rare, and so far, nearly all cases have been seen in people who've had long-term care in hospitals, nursing homes or other healthcare facilities. But once a person becomes ill, the disease can be lethal, killing up to half of people who develop serious infections, the CDC said.
"CRE are nightmare bacteria. Our strongest antibiotics don’t work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. Doctors, hospitals and public health officials must work together to implement strategies to stop CRE's spread, Frieden said.
Enterobacteriaceae are a family of bacteria that include E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and typically live in the digestive tract, but can cause infections if they spread outside the gut, the CDC said. Over time, some of these bacteria have developed resistance to carbapenems.
CRE were first identified in the U.S. in 2001, and have now spread to 42 states. The new report, which examined U.S. health care infections, found that the percentage of Enterobacteriaceae that are resistant to carbapenems has increased fourfold during the last decade.
In 2012, 4.6 percent of hospitals and 18 percent of long-term acute care facilities, reported having a patient with a CRE infection, the CDC report said.
Healthy people don't usually develop CRE infections. People most at risk for infection are those whose care requires devices such as a ventilator or catheter, and who require a long course of antibiotics, the CDC said.
Hospital workers who don't properly wash their hands can spread the bacteria between patients, and the bacteria themselves can spread resistance to other similar bacteria.
Unlike methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), CRE hasn't spread into the community, Frieden said.
"That's really a message of hope: we still have a window of opportunity to stop it" before it becomes as prevalent as other antibiotic-resistant organisms like MRSA, Frieden said.
In 2012, the CDC created guidelines for preventing CRE infections in hospitals and other care facilities. These include following proper hand hygiene recommendations (hand-washing); grouping patients together who have CRE; dedicating certain staff members and equipment to people who have CRE; knowing which patients in a hospital have CRE and alerting other health care facilities about the infection if the patient is transferred; and using antibiotics wisely.
Facilities that have implemented these measures have seen a drop in their CRE infection rates, Frieden said.
Patients can also play a role in prevention. For instance, if they have a catheter put in, they can ask how long it will be in place, and ask that it be removed as soon as possible, Frieden said.
Continued research into tests to detect CRE, and ways to treat it, is critical as well, Frieden said. The report will be published this week in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Survival Bug Out Bag's Re-visited,...Again
A reader of UrbanSurvivalSkills.com wrote in with the following question: "I currently have a ROTHCO survival kit (tin), an excursion bag with a two person eblanket and a Remington rain poncho, and several feet of paracord. I also have the book "stay alive"by john mccann. What else could you suggest?"
The background on this question is that the individual has some medical issues and he said he may find himself homeless before the collapse.
I have been involved in working with agencies who help the homeless. What I found in doing this was that some or even many of these homeless people preferred 'living on the streets" as opposed to the responsibility of maintaining a job and a residence, and, conforming to dress and behavior standards. Some were influenced by mental-cognitive issues and others from alcohol-drug problems. Having said that, I'm sure there are many homeless who desire a much better, more mainstream, lifestyle but can't for a number of reasons, among them the bureaucratic process involved in getting help is sometimes just over whelming,....unless you are a baby factory, cranking out babies for welfare dollars.
I will say this before I move on to the question at hand,.....if you are a veteran then please go to the nearest VA hospital or clinic and see what benefits are due you. Many times there will be a Veterans Advocacy desk there that can help you. Even sitting with other veterans can help point out what programs or benefits you are due.
In any event, if you choose to survive as a homeless person, being in that environment either as you choose to, or due to a situation outside your control, then preparation and planning are foremost in your arsenal. In short, Preparation in your equipment and your knowledge - without both you are essentially disarmed, and Planning where you are going to go,...how you are going to get there and your general scheme for survival are all vital.
I have a State Trooper friend who was called to investigate a homeless man begging at a Interstate off ramp at the out skirts of a fairly big city. When he rolled up he did not see anyone, but a flutter of tan color caught his eye. He was out on approach and discovered the homeless man in a makeshift tent (the tan color) about 200 yards from the interstate exit.
The way the Trooper explained it to me was that the homeless guy, in his late 40's or early 50's, was fully with his wits and cognitive function. He had a fire place with a makeshift grate using empty tin cans to heat water and cook out of. He had actually snared a rabbit, and while there is not much meat on a rabbit, he was sun drying the meat. There was a pile of stuff that the homeless survivor told the trooper that he fished out of dumpters including a pair of boots, clothing of all types, a bath towel, a bucket or two, newspapers and magazines that the homeless guy used to start fires and pad his sleeping area, and probably many others things that most would over look.
The homeless guy would get enough spare change from motorists that he never went hungry, buying canned and other goods from a nearby Dollar Store.
While sounding too much like the depressing movie "The Road" to me, you have to hand it to the homeless guy who is much better prepared than many of us to handle the stress and subsequent survival in a total collapse.
Anyway, to my fiend who wrote in, I would suggest several more things in your Bug Out Bag if you intend on, or plan on having to be homeless and surviving:
Folding knife and a fixed blade knife - be careful as a law enforcement encounter could get you arrested for a certain length.
Extra clothes. Heavy dury pants (jeans work well). Think about dressing in layers and for the temperature extremes you will be in.
Fishing items like mono-filament line and fish hooks. You can improvise poles and sinkers and even lures.
A roll of snare wire.
Another poncho, tarp or ground cloth. Depending upon the climate, you may need a pretty good sleeping bag.
Make sure you have good boots and have several extra pair of socks.
At least a couple butane lighters and a striker fire starter.
Bullion cubes,....40 or 50 of them don't take up much room and come in handy for flavoring up soup stock. A can of salt would be a good idea too, from everything from flavoring food, providing this electrolyte, to curing meat.
Water carrying capacity,...many canteens, hydration badders, etc.
Saws. Maybe a hacksaw blade or two, but a wire saw or small cross cut saw.
Combo fencing pliers/hammer. One version is called a Plammer....useful for cutting and mending fence lines you have to cross, bending wire for your needs, driving stakes for a tent or lean to.
Multi-tool. Leatherman or Gerber type - always good to have.
Personally, I would have a firearm, but as a homeless man, again, you are a law enforcement magnet and it could end up being bad for you.
A bottle of Aspirin, some sterile bandage material, anti-septic cleaner and anti-biotic ointment. You'll need it and will be glad that you have it.
A hard bar of soap in a plastic container.
A bucket and lid to carry other items, also serves as a camp stool and can be used to carry water, like from a store spigot, for cooking, cleaning, washing and treating to drink.
Good luck and safe travels. I hope providence finds you in the near future.
The background on this question is that the individual has some medical issues and he said he may find himself homeless before the collapse.
I have been involved in working with agencies who help the homeless. What I found in doing this was that some or even many of these homeless people preferred 'living on the streets" as opposed to the responsibility of maintaining a job and a residence, and, conforming to dress and behavior standards. Some were influenced by mental-cognitive issues and others from alcohol-drug problems. Having said that, I'm sure there are many homeless who desire a much better, more mainstream, lifestyle but can't for a number of reasons, among them the bureaucratic process involved in getting help is sometimes just over whelming,....unless you are a baby factory, cranking out babies for welfare dollars.
I will say this before I move on to the question at hand,.....if you are a veteran then please go to the nearest VA hospital or clinic and see what benefits are due you. Many times there will be a Veterans Advocacy desk there that can help you. Even sitting with other veterans can help point out what programs or benefits you are due.
In any event, if you choose to survive as a homeless person, being in that environment either as you choose to, or due to a situation outside your control, then preparation and planning are foremost in your arsenal. In short, Preparation in your equipment and your knowledge - without both you are essentially disarmed, and Planning where you are going to go,...how you are going to get there and your general scheme for survival are all vital.
I have a State Trooper friend who was called to investigate a homeless man begging at a Interstate off ramp at the out skirts of a fairly big city. When he rolled up he did not see anyone, but a flutter of tan color caught his eye. He was out on approach and discovered the homeless man in a makeshift tent (the tan color) about 200 yards from the interstate exit.
The way the Trooper explained it to me was that the homeless guy, in his late 40's or early 50's, was fully with his wits and cognitive function. He had a fire place with a makeshift grate using empty tin cans to heat water and cook out of. He had actually snared a rabbit, and while there is not much meat on a rabbit, he was sun drying the meat. There was a pile of stuff that the homeless survivor told the trooper that he fished out of dumpters including a pair of boots, clothing of all types, a bath towel, a bucket or two, newspapers and magazines that the homeless guy used to start fires and pad his sleeping area, and probably many others things that most would over look.
The homeless guy would get enough spare change from motorists that he never went hungry, buying canned and other goods from a nearby Dollar Store.
While sounding too much like the depressing movie "The Road" to me, you have to hand it to the homeless guy who is much better prepared than many of us to handle the stress and subsequent survival in a total collapse.
Anyway, to my fiend who wrote in, I would suggest several more things in your Bug Out Bag if you intend on, or plan on having to be homeless and surviving:
Folding knife and a fixed blade knife - be careful as a law enforcement encounter could get you arrested for a certain length.
Extra clothes. Heavy dury pants (jeans work well). Think about dressing in layers and for the temperature extremes you will be in.
Fishing items like mono-filament line and fish hooks. You can improvise poles and sinkers and even lures.
A roll of snare wire.
Another poncho, tarp or ground cloth. Depending upon the climate, you may need a pretty good sleeping bag.
Make sure you have good boots and have several extra pair of socks.
At least a couple butane lighters and a striker fire starter.
Bullion cubes,....40 or 50 of them don't take up much room and come in handy for flavoring up soup stock. A can of salt would be a good idea too, from everything from flavoring food, providing this electrolyte, to curing meat.
Water carrying capacity,...many canteens, hydration badders, etc.
Saws. Maybe a hacksaw blade or two, but a wire saw or small cross cut saw.
Combo fencing pliers/hammer. One version is called a Plammer....useful for cutting and mending fence lines you have to cross, bending wire for your needs, driving stakes for a tent or lean to.
Multi-tool. Leatherman or Gerber type - always good to have.
Personally, I would have a firearm, but as a homeless man, again, you are a law enforcement magnet and it could end up being bad for you.
A bottle of Aspirin, some sterile bandage material, anti-septic cleaner and anti-biotic ointment. You'll need it and will be glad that you have it.
A hard bar of soap in a plastic container.
A bucket and lid to carry other items, also serves as a camp stool and can be used to carry water, like from a store spigot, for cooking, cleaning, washing and treating to drink.
Good luck and safe travels. I hope providence finds you in the near future.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Obama's Secret Army?
I received this e-mail from a reader: "What do you know about the secret FEMA Youth Corps? I understand that they have just started building up and doing training but already have several hundred. It looks to me like Obama is creating the security force like he talked about 4 yesars ago. This is very disconcerting to me as this FEMA Corps is made of young, and therefore brainwashable youth. They also bought tons of ammunition. What is to keep Obama or the next dictator from using this FEMA Youth Corps as an army for martial law? Do these people have weapons?"
UrbanMan replies: I admit this caught me by surprise and I initially thought this was some internet legend until I started researching the FEMA Youth Corps which is easy to find information on. It is a legitmate government sponsored program to create a force of paid or volunteer young people capable of responding to national emergencies under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
I did see some comments on websites which called this group "Hitler Youth", "Homeland Youth" and "Obama Youth". There are concerns from legitimate segments of society that FEMA would be the agency coordinating or managing any declared martial law under their national emergency authorities. And there is some discussions about hidden or secret Obama executive orders concerning a wide range of topics such as weapons, confiscation, food confiscation, martial law and planned martial law areas, travel restrictions, shutting down the internet, etc.
In regards to the FEMA Youth Corps, while I understand how some people see the advantage of hiring impressionable young people,..... the perception that they serve as Obama's army as well as the totality of suspicion about the current administration, .....I still do not see any nefarious activity going on here. Other people and I will be checking on this from time to time, but unless this FEMA Corps is being trained in quelling civil disturbances, security operations, firearms and martial/military type subjects, I do not see too much to get worried about.
The below is from the Department of Homeland Security site detailing this first class of 231 volunteers who graduated last fall. I could not find any reference to continung classes.........maybe the government couldn't find any more volunteers.
Welcome to the FEMA Corps Inaugural Class FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino gives the keynote address at the Induction Ceremony for the inaugural class of FEMA Corps members. FEMA Corps members assist with disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities, providing support in areas ranging from working directly with disaster survivors to supporting disaster recovering centers to sharing valuable disaster preparedness and mitigation information with the public.
Yesterday, we welcomed 231 energetic members into the first ever FEMA Corps class. The members just finished off their first month of training with our partners at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and are one step closer to working in the field on disaster response and recovery. They will now head to FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness to spend the next two weeks training in their FEMA position-specific roles. Once they complete both the CNCS and FEMA training, these 231 dedicated FEMA Corps members will be qualified to work in one of a variety of disaster related roles, ranging from Community Relations to Disaster Recovery Center support.
FEMA Corps builds on the great work of AmeriCorps to establish a service cadre dedicated to disaster response and recover. To be sure, responding to disasters is nothing new for Americorps. In fact, the great work that AmeriCorps already does during disasters was the inspiration for FEMA Corps. When I visited communities all over the country that were devastated by disasters, from Joplin, MO to Bastrop, Texas, I always encountered the incredible members of AmeriCorps lending a helping hand to survivors. I was continually struck by the level of compassion, dedication, and skill these members brought to the table.
The inductees are pioneers, combining the exceptional record of citizen service at AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps with FEMA’s specialized mission of supporting survivors with their recovery after a disaster. The new members, who range in age from 18-24 years old, will contribute to a dedicated, trained, and reliable disaster workforce by working full-time for ten months on federal disaster response and recovery efforts. As we announced in March, FEMA Corps sets the foundation for a new generation of emergency managers; it promotes civic engagement and offers an educational and financial opportunity for young people; and is designed to strengthen the nation’s disaster response by supplementing FEMA’s existing Reservist workforce.
UrbanMan replies: I admit this caught me by surprise and I initially thought this was some internet legend until I started researching the FEMA Youth Corps which is easy to find information on. It is a legitmate government sponsored program to create a force of paid or volunteer young people capable of responding to national emergencies under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
I did see some comments on websites which called this group "Hitler Youth", "Homeland Youth" and "Obama Youth". There are concerns from legitimate segments of society that FEMA would be the agency coordinating or managing any declared martial law under their national emergency authorities. And there is some discussions about hidden or secret Obama executive orders concerning a wide range of topics such as weapons, confiscation, food confiscation, martial law and planned martial law areas, travel restrictions, shutting down the internet, etc.
In regards to the FEMA Youth Corps, while I understand how some people see the advantage of hiring impressionable young people,..... the perception that they serve as Obama's army as well as the totality of suspicion about the current administration, .....I still do not see any nefarious activity going on here. Other people and I will be checking on this from time to time, but unless this FEMA Corps is being trained in quelling civil disturbances, security operations, firearms and martial/military type subjects, I do not see too much to get worried about.
The below is from the Department of Homeland Security site detailing this first class of 231 volunteers who graduated last fall. I could not find any reference to continung classes.........maybe the government couldn't find any more volunteers.
Welcome to the FEMA Corps Inaugural Class FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino gives the keynote address at the Induction Ceremony for the inaugural class of FEMA Corps members. FEMA Corps members assist with disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities, providing support in areas ranging from working directly with disaster survivors to supporting disaster recovering centers to sharing valuable disaster preparedness and mitigation information with the public.
Yesterday, we welcomed 231 energetic members into the first ever FEMA Corps class. The members just finished off their first month of training with our partners at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and are one step closer to working in the field on disaster response and recovery. They will now head to FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness to spend the next two weeks training in their FEMA position-specific roles. Once they complete both the CNCS and FEMA training, these 231 dedicated FEMA Corps members will be qualified to work in one of a variety of disaster related roles, ranging from Community Relations to Disaster Recovery Center support.
FEMA Corps builds on the great work of AmeriCorps to establish a service cadre dedicated to disaster response and recover. To be sure, responding to disasters is nothing new for Americorps. In fact, the great work that AmeriCorps already does during disasters was the inspiration for FEMA Corps. When I visited communities all over the country that were devastated by disasters, from Joplin, MO to Bastrop, Texas, I always encountered the incredible members of AmeriCorps lending a helping hand to survivors. I was continually struck by the level of compassion, dedication, and skill these members brought to the table.
The inductees are pioneers, combining the exceptional record of citizen service at AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps with FEMA’s specialized mission of supporting survivors with their recovery after a disaster. The new members, who range in age from 18-24 years old, will contribute to a dedicated, trained, and reliable disaster workforce by working full-time for ten months on federal disaster response and recovery efforts. As we announced in March, FEMA Corps sets the foundation for a new generation of emergency managers; it promotes civic engagement and offers an educational and financial opportunity for young people; and is designed to strengthen the nation’s disaster response by supplementing FEMA’s existing Reservist workforce.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
How the Collapse of the Dollar Could Occur
US Dollar Collapse? Here Are 9 Ways It Could Happen, by Chris Ferreira on Economic Reason.com, which defines nine ways the dollar collapse could occur. He is spot on concerning the slow, gradual decline until a major event triggers the collapse. Until then most people will be fooling themselves, thinking market correction, chances to buy cheap and sell high, until it becomes apparent that there are other things more important than their financial holdings,....and those things of course are the ability to feed yourself and your family,.....and the ability to protect the same.
We all know that the US dollar is losing value through inflation every year; in fact, the dollar has lost over 97% of its purchasing power over the last century. When “real money” (i.e. backed up with intrinsic value) was used, a cup of coffee in the 1920s costed about a few cents. In a fiat world, where money’s value is ambiguous, a cup of coffee can cost upward to a 100 trillion dollars, as was the case in Zimbabwe in recent times. Just how much more can the remaining 3% be debased from the US dollar, and how fast can it happen?
A slow, gradual decline can occur without any one person ever even noticing the effects– until, that is, a “black swan”event comes along and triggers the psychology of investors to quickly reverse their thinking, and here a collapse can literally happen overnight. A “black swan,” a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his bestselling book The Black Swan, is “an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences.” In his book he describes the psychology biases that makes people individually and collectively blind to a rare event. He also notes that the more complex a system is, the more prone it is to failure as there is more room for glitches and errors. This analogy can be used to describe the complexity of the US global empire, complete with its massive debt and 900 military bases around the world. This article is taking a “black swan” approach to the US dollar.
Here are nine events that could trigger a black swan event that would result in a US dollar collapse. The reasons below are not in order of importance, and all them can prove to be negative for the US dollar.
1. The Fed Chooses to engage in currency wars by being the spender of last resort and printing money to oblivion. When people think of a collapse, they often think of a deflationary setting. But a collapse can also occur when the face value of the currency goes up–or skyrockets upwards, as did the currency in Zimbabwe, when everyone was suddenly eligible to be a “trillionaire.” (Webster needs to update their dictionary with this word). When the face value of a currency skyrockets, the purchasing power decreases, and these are usually the ingredients for hyperinflation and collapse.
It took the US 200 years to issue $3 trillion dollar in M3 money supply. Greenspan increased this to $10 trillion dollars in his eighteenth year as Fed chairman. How much has it increased under Ben Bernanke, in his seven years as chairman of the Fed? Your guess is as good as mine, actually, because the exact number is unknown: the Fed no longer reports this statistic as of 2006, exactly when Bernanke entered office. What a coincidence!
With QE 3 and QE 4, the Fed now prints a total of $85 billion a month, most of which is reportedly being held in reserves. Even with these rock bottom low interest rates, credit demand is weak. There is plainly too much uncertainty.
If the stock market were to crash again as it did in 2008, and the Fed were to consequently launch QE5, then QE6 and so on… This would hardly be, in reality, a “black swan” event since it is probable, but nevertheless, it could eventually lead to hyper-inflation and a total collapse of the dollar, where people would lose purchasing power of the dollar as in the case of Zimbabwe. This is more likely to occur if the US dollar also loses its reserve currency status.
2. The Fed’s printing press “jams” and ceases to stops printing money. As I’ve stated before, the Fed will most likely not stop printing money. During the December 2012. FOMC meeting, this belief was supported. The most important reason why the Fed needs to continue printing money is so that it can hold interest rates artificially low to stimulate the economy. Normally, higher interest rates would increase the value of the dollar, as this would cause people to deleverage from investments and increase the demand for dollars. However, the structural imbalances the economy has undertaken from a decade of artificial low interest rates would implode the economy from high interest rates now. Undoubtedly, if the Fed stops printing money, this will mostly cause higher interest rates. This will lead to increased bankruptcies, higher unemployment, more foreclosures, lower tax revenue for the US government, and increased interest on the national debt. In this situation it could lead to the bankruptcy of the US as they could default on their own debt.
Interest rates in the 80′s were increased signficantly to kill inflation, however the US debt was nowhere near what it is today (even in terms of % of GDP). At the present moment, the US is paying over $1 billion a day just in interest payments to service its debt. A slight increase in interest rates would significantly increase these payments and leave the US with even more debt than it already has, increasing their trillion dollar per year deficits. This is a scenario whereby the US could default just as Argentina did in the early 2000′s.
If they were to stop printing money, the Fed could trigger a dollar collapse, especially if foreigners decide to no longer lend the US any more money, and start dumping US debt from their foreign reserves.
3. Rise of “Gotham City” and the Vigilantes. We know that the US is currently the largest debtor nation in the history of the world, operating on yearly trillion dollar deficits. What if the US citizens were to “wake up” and collectively stop paying their taxes? What if they were to collectively choose to no longer support political decisions that serve to perpetually increase the debt? An increase in debt ruins the prospects for future generations, after all. Taxes are essentially the life-line of any government. A cut on this life-line is like cutting the main artery to the heart. Without a tax base, government can no longer pay its bills.
A significant internal revolution by citizens would entail a collective refusal against the paying of taxes and the continual raising of the debt ceiling. Perhaps these citizens might even become bond vigilantes and sell US bonds, especially if other countries became US bond vigilantes and sell their US bonds, as well. This would likely collapse the dollar, and send the US dollar into hyper-inflation.
4. China, the largest financier of the US debt, drops the debt bomb. The Chinese can drop the debt bomb on the US just by selling a fraction of their US treasury holdings. As of June 2012, the Chinese owned $1.16 trillion in US debt (US government treasury bonds). Japan owns $1.11 trillion and the OPEC nations, $261 billion. In the last few years, China has been lowering their purchases of US debt and replacing it with other assets. To circumvent this problem, the Fed of late has been stepping in to purchase treasury bonds to make up for the lost demand of the foreigners.
China’s power is the direct result of the symbiotic trade relationship with the US. The US buys goods from China in US dollars, and China ships them the products and uses the US dollar surpluses to buy US debt, among other assets.
It may not be in the interest of China to drop the debt bomb, but it definitely has the power to do it. If this is the case, there would be so much US debt on the market that other US debt holding countries could also throw their debt on the market as well as a result of panic and fear. Triggering an international run on US debt. The US Dollar will surely collapse in this scenario.
5. China, Japan, Russia, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Chile, UAE, India, and South Africa are bypassing the dollar and creating bi-lateral trade warfare.
What if now the Chinese, instead of dropping the debt bomb, create enough bi-lateral trade agreements to avoid the US dollar altogether with foreigners? In fact China, among other countries, has already done this by trading with the Chinese Yuan instead of the US dollar. If China, Japan, Russian, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Chile, USE, India, and South Africa would continue to do so, other larger countries may follow suit and before you know it, the majority of trade would be transacted in non-US dollars. At this point, the US dollar would no longer be needed, and its world reserve currency status would collapse along with its purchasing power.
What could also trigger a large decline in the US dollar would be if a relatively large oil-producing country (like Saudi Arabia) refuses to use the US dollar to sell its oil, choosing instead something more tangible (like gold). William R. Clark’s excellent book, Petrodollar Warfare, treats this issue precisely, going in depth into the Petrodollar collapse and how the US maintains its dollar supremacy with its current imperialistic foreign policy. If a major OPEC nation refuses to sell its oil in US dollars, this could result in a total loss of confidence in the US dollar, precipitating its collapse.
6. “Good-bye Dollar, Hello SDR!” The U.N. and IMF implement a New World Reserve Currency George Soros states in a recent video interview (see here) that the US needs a “New Financial World Order,” on the pretext that the current system is “broke” and creating huge trade imbalances. The Guardian stated the following:
“The International Monetary Fund warned that the colossal United States trade deficit was a noose around the neck of the economy, emphasizing that the once mighty dollar could collapse at any moment.”
Soros, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee–the same institution that created the IMF–is now promoting the Special Drawings Right (SDR) as a potential new world currency.
The progress for the SDR has been very slow and has not received much acceptance among other nations. However, note that the US currently controls the IMF by its voting powers (17% nominal interest, and a required of 85% majority for decisions). As more and more people lose confidence in the US dollar in general due to reckless monetary and fiscal policies, the IMF can instead back the SDR with gold to promote stability and confidence. That is certainly one realistic possibility considering that they reportedly own over 2,800 tons of gold. A shift in reserve currency from the US dollar to the SDR or other another currency would undoubtedly collapse the US dollar. It’s trade imbalance is sustained by it’s reserve status.
7. A “too-big-to-fail” corporation fails: A derivative shock-wave. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) released a list of 29 “too big to fail” corporations operating around the world. According to the FSB, these banks are considered to be “systemically important financial institutions” and a failure of any one of these corporations could result in “financial systemic failure.” Of the 29 corporations on the list, 17 are based in Europe, eight in the U.S., and four in Asia.
Bank of America
Bank of China
Bank of New York Mellon
Banque Populaire CdE
Barclays
BNP Paribas
Citigroup
Commerzbank
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
Goldman Sachs
Group Crédit Agricole
HSBC
ING Bank
JPMorgan Chase
Lloyds Banking Group
Mitsubishi UFJ FG
Mizuho FG
Morgan Stanley
Nordea
Royal Bank of Scotland
Santander
Société Générale
State Street
Sumitomo Mitsui FG
UBS
Unicredit Group
Wells Fargo
A failure of any one of these banks, but especially one in the US, could create a bank run, further destroying the ability to provide credit and increasing the likelihood of a dollar collapse.
What is most likely to create a bank failure is a derivative failure. Actually, a current derivatives scandal is threatening to take down the world’s oldest bank:
“Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank, was making loans when Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were young men and before Columbus sailed to the New World. The bank survived the Italian War, which saw Siena’s surrender to Spain in 1555, the Napoleonic campaign, the Second World War and assorted bouts of plague and poverty.
But MPS may not survive the twin threats of a gruesomely expensive takeover gone bad and a derivatives scandal that may result in legal action against the bank’s former executives. After five centuries of independence, MPS may have to be nationalized as its losses soar and its value sinks.”
The precise, total amount of global derivatives in the market is not exactly known, but estimates range from 650 trillion to 1.5 quadrillion dollars. This amount dwarfs the world’s GDP at approximately $70 trillion. (Refer to this article to see what $16 trillion looks like.) It is no wonder why Warren Buffet calls derivatives the “financial weapons of mass destruction.”
According to the Controller of Currency and National Banks, here are the stats for the following banks as of September 2012:
JPMorgan Chase
Total Assets: $1.85 trillion dollars
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $71.07 trillion dollars
Citibank
Total Assets: $1.365 trillion dollars
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $55.51 trillion dollars
Bank Of America
Total Assets: $1.448 trillion dollars
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $43.79 trillion dollars
Goldman Sachs
Total Assets: $120.43 billion (not trillion)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $41,23 trillion
Note that JP Morgan alone has more derivative exposure than the world’s GDP. A derivative collapse is definitely an event that could take down the whole financial system and collapse the US dollar. 8. A run on the gold and silver bullion exchanges. Andrew McGuire, a former Goldman Sachs trader, disclosed that the London bullion Market Association (LBMA) trades on a net basis each year of $5.4 trillion dollars, a little less than half the size of the US economy. The LBMA is the biggest gold commodity market in the world.
But how can the LBMA do this be when the gold market is such a tiny market? The world production of gold is about 2,500 metric tons of gold (88,184,905 oz) which at today’s price of $1,667 is approximately $147 billion in yearly production value.
The LBMA is the equivalent of a fractional reserve system in that it is leveraged 100 to 1. For every ounce of real gold that is sold, 100 ounces of paper gold is sold, meaning there are 100 claims on each and every ounce of gold. These numbers were verified by Jeffrey Christian, a gold expert and founder of CMP Group (a commodities research, consulting, investment banking, and asset management company). The leverage is absurd.
The LBMA can be compared with other exchanges. The world’s gold market is backed up by approximately 2.3% of real gold. If a mere 2.5% of people would start demanding their gold, the physical gold market would explode, subsequently crushing the dollar, as the value of the dollar is inversely proportional to the price of gold.
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass pointed out that the New York Comex has only approximately 3% of the bullion on hand to cover future contracts positions. and this game will continue if people do not demand delivery of their gold. The emperor has no clothes!
9. A central bank gold rush and foreign gold repatriation from the Fed – Gold Audit Venezuela has actually just recently received their last shipment of gold bars from the US.
“This was the largest type of operation to transport this type of metal in the last fifteen years,” said Merentes. “The repatriation of our gold was an act of financial prudence and sovereignty.” (Bloomberg)
The Germans and the Dutch have also recently requested their gold to be repatriated from the US. However, unlike Venezuela, Germany was told to wait seven years to get their gold back. That sounds odd, right?
Now the Swiss, under their recently launched Swiss Initiative to Secure the Swiss National Bank’s Gold Reserves, are hinting that they might want to get their gold back on Swiss soil. The Swiss government has a long standing tradition of backing their currency with gold.
This gold repatriation is turning out to be much bigger than a political statement. It is a total non-compliant/non-confidence vote for the US and the US dollar.
Which country is next? Mexico? They have 96% of their gold stored in the US and London.
A central bank gold rush to repatriate a country’s gold from the US can cause a huge upward demand for gold, pushing the price of gold upward and crushing the US dollar. (Especially if the Fed doesn’t have their gold and has been leased out into the market).
We have just gone through nine black swan events–events, remember, that are highly improbable but yet, when they do happen, have massive consequences.
Chris Ferrerra promises a Part 2 of this article, which he will go through five other “black swan” events that could cause the US dollar to collapse.
We all know that the US dollar is losing value through inflation every year; in fact, the dollar has lost over 97% of its purchasing power over the last century. When “real money” (i.e. backed up with intrinsic value) was used, a cup of coffee in the 1920s costed about a few cents. In a fiat world, where money’s value is ambiguous, a cup of coffee can cost upward to a 100 trillion dollars, as was the case in Zimbabwe in recent times. Just how much more can the remaining 3% be debased from the US dollar, and how fast can it happen?
A slow, gradual decline can occur without any one person ever even noticing the effects– until, that is, a “black swan”event comes along and triggers the psychology of investors to quickly reverse their thinking, and here a collapse can literally happen overnight. A “black swan,” a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his bestselling book The Black Swan, is “an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences.” In his book he describes the psychology biases that makes people individually and collectively blind to a rare event. He also notes that the more complex a system is, the more prone it is to failure as there is more room for glitches and errors. This analogy can be used to describe the complexity of the US global empire, complete with its massive debt and 900 military bases around the world. This article is taking a “black swan” approach to the US dollar.
Here are nine events that could trigger a black swan event that would result in a US dollar collapse. The reasons below are not in order of importance, and all them can prove to be negative for the US dollar.
1. The Fed Chooses to engage in currency wars by being the spender of last resort and printing money to oblivion. When people think of a collapse, they often think of a deflationary setting. But a collapse can also occur when the face value of the currency goes up–or skyrockets upwards, as did the currency in Zimbabwe, when everyone was suddenly eligible to be a “trillionaire.” (Webster needs to update their dictionary with this word). When the face value of a currency skyrockets, the purchasing power decreases, and these are usually the ingredients for hyperinflation and collapse.
It took the US 200 years to issue $3 trillion dollar in M3 money supply. Greenspan increased this to $10 trillion dollars in his eighteenth year as Fed chairman. How much has it increased under Ben Bernanke, in his seven years as chairman of the Fed? Your guess is as good as mine, actually, because the exact number is unknown: the Fed no longer reports this statistic as of 2006, exactly when Bernanke entered office. What a coincidence!
With QE 3 and QE 4, the Fed now prints a total of $85 billion a month, most of which is reportedly being held in reserves. Even with these rock bottom low interest rates, credit demand is weak. There is plainly too much uncertainty.
If the stock market were to crash again as it did in 2008, and the Fed were to consequently launch QE5, then QE6 and so on… This would hardly be, in reality, a “black swan” event since it is probable, but nevertheless, it could eventually lead to hyper-inflation and a total collapse of the dollar, where people would lose purchasing power of the dollar as in the case of Zimbabwe. This is more likely to occur if the US dollar also loses its reserve currency status.
2. The Fed’s printing press “jams” and ceases to stops printing money. As I’ve stated before, the Fed will most likely not stop printing money. During the December 2012. FOMC meeting, this belief was supported. The most important reason why the Fed needs to continue printing money is so that it can hold interest rates artificially low to stimulate the economy. Normally, higher interest rates would increase the value of the dollar, as this would cause people to deleverage from investments and increase the demand for dollars. However, the structural imbalances the economy has undertaken from a decade of artificial low interest rates would implode the economy from high interest rates now. Undoubtedly, if the Fed stops printing money, this will mostly cause higher interest rates. This will lead to increased bankruptcies, higher unemployment, more foreclosures, lower tax revenue for the US government, and increased interest on the national debt. In this situation it could lead to the bankruptcy of the US as they could default on their own debt.
Interest rates in the 80′s were increased signficantly to kill inflation, however the US debt was nowhere near what it is today (even in terms of % of GDP). At the present moment, the US is paying over $1 billion a day just in interest payments to service its debt. A slight increase in interest rates would significantly increase these payments and leave the US with even more debt than it already has, increasing their trillion dollar per year deficits. This is a scenario whereby the US could default just as Argentina did in the early 2000′s.
If they were to stop printing money, the Fed could trigger a dollar collapse, especially if foreigners decide to no longer lend the US any more money, and start dumping US debt from their foreign reserves.
3. Rise of “Gotham City” and the Vigilantes. We know that the US is currently the largest debtor nation in the history of the world, operating on yearly trillion dollar deficits. What if the US citizens were to “wake up” and collectively stop paying their taxes? What if they were to collectively choose to no longer support political decisions that serve to perpetually increase the debt? An increase in debt ruins the prospects for future generations, after all. Taxes are essentially the life-line of any government. A cut on this life-line is like cutting the main artery to the heart. Without a tax base, government can no longer pay its bills.
A significant internal revolution by citizens would entail a collective refusal against the paying of taxes and the continual raising of the debt ceiling. Perhaps these citizens might even become bond vigilantes and sell US bonds, especially if other countries became US bond vigilantes and sell their US bonds, as well. This would likely collapse the dollar, and send the US dollar into hyper-inflation.
4. China, the largest financier of the US debt, drops the debt bomb. The Chinese can drop the debt bomb on the US just by selling a fraction of their US treasury holdings. As of June 2012, the Chinese owned $1.16 trillion in US debt (US government treasury bonds). Japan owns $1.11 trillion and the OPEC nations, $261 billion. In the last few years, China has been lowering their purchases of US debt and replacing it with other assets. To circumvent this problem, the Fed of late has been stepping in to purchase treasury bonds to make up for the lost demand of the foreigners.
China’s power is the direct result of the symbiotic trade relationship with the US. The US buys goods from China in US dollars, and China ships them the products and uses the US dollar surpluses to buy US debt, among other assets.
It may not be in the interest of China to drop the debt bomb, but it definitely has the power to do it. If this is the case, there would be so much US debt on the market that other US debt holding countries could also throw their debt on the market as well as a result of panic and fear. Triggering an international run on US debt. The US Dollar will surely collapse in this scenario.
5. China, Japan, Russia, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Chile, UAE, India, and South Africa are bypassing the dollar and creating bi-lateral trade warfare.
What if now the Chinese, instead of dropping the debt bomb, create enough bi-lateral trade agreements to avoid the US dollar altogether with foreigners? In fact China, among other countries, has already done this by trading with the Chinese Yuan instead of the US dollar. If China, Japan, Russian, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Chile, USE, India, and South Africa would continue to do so, other larger countries may follow suit and before you know it, the majority of trade would be transacted in non-US dollars. At this point, the US dollar would no longer be needed, and its world reserve currency status would collapse along with its purchasing power.
What could also trigger a large decline in the US dollar would be if a relatively large oil-producing country (like Saudi Arabia) refuses to use the US dollar to sell its oil, choosing instead something more tangible (like gold). William R. Clark’s excellent book, Petrodollar Warfare, treats this issue precisely, going in depth into the Petrodollar collapse and how the US maintains its dollar supremacy with its current imperialistic foreign policy. If a major OPEC nation refuses to sell its oil in US dollars, this could result in a total loss of confidence in the US dollar, precipitating its collapse.
6. “Good-bye Dollar, Hello SDR!” The U.N. and IMF implement a New World Reserve Currency George Soros states in a recent video interview (see here) that the US needs a “New Financial World Order,” on the pretext that the current system is “broke” and creating huge trade imbalances. The Guardian stated the following:
“The International Monetary Fund warned that the colossal United States trade deficit was a noose around the neck of the economy, emphasizing that the once mighty dollar could collapse at any moment.”
Soros, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee–the same institution that created the IMF–is now promoting the Special Drawings Right (SDR) as a potential new world currency.
The progress for the SDR has been very slow and has not received much acceptance among other nations. However, note that the US currently controls the IMF by its voting powers (17% nominal interest, and a required of 85% majority for decisions). As more and more people lose confidence in the US dollar in general due to reckless monetary and fiscal policies, the IMF can instead back the SDR with gold to promote stability and confidence. That is certainly one realistic possibility considering that they reportedly own over 2,800 tons of gold. A shift in reserve currency from the US dollar to the SDR or other another currency would undoubtedly collapse the US dollar. It’s trade imbalance is sustained by it’s reserve status.
7. A “too-big-to-fail” corporation fails: A derivative shock-wave. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) released a list of 29 “too big to fail” corporations operating around the world. According to the FSB, these banks are considered to be “systemically important financial institutions” and a failure of any one of these corporations could result in “financial systemic failure.” Of the 29 corporations on the list, 17 are based in Europe, eight in the U.S., and four in Asia.
Bank of America
Bank of China
Bank of New York Mellon
Banque Populaire CdE
Barclays
BNP Paribas
Citigroup
Commerzbank
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
Goldman Sachs
Group Crédit Agricole
HSBC
ING Bank
JPMorgan Chase
Lloyds Banking Group
Mitsubishi UFJ FG
Mizuho FG
Morgan Stanley
Nordea
Royal Bank of Scotland
Santander
Société Générale
State Street
Sumitomo Mitsui FG
UBS
Unicredit Group
Wells Fargo
A failure of any one of these banks, but especially one in the US, could create a bank run, further destroying the ability to provide credit and increasing the likelihood of a dollar collapse.
What is most likely to create a bank failure is a derivative failure. Actually, a current derivatives scandal is threatening to take down the world’s oldest bank:
“Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank, was making loans when Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were young men and before Columbus sailed to the New World. The bank survived the Italian War, which saw Siena’s surrender to Spain in 1555, the Napoleonic campaign, the Second World War and assorted bouts of plague and poverty.
But MPS may not survive the twin threats of a gruesomely expensive takeover gone bad and a derivatives scandal that may result in legal action against the bank’s former executives. After five centuries of independence, MPS may have to be nationalized as its losses soar and its value sinks.”
The precise, total amount of global derivatives in the market is not exactly known, but estimates range from 650 trillion to 1.5 quadrillion dollars. This amount dwarfs the world’s GDP at approximately $70 trillion. (Refer to this article to see what $16 trillion looks like.) It is no wonder why Warren Buffet calls derivatives the “financial weapons of mass destruction.”
According to the Controller of Currency and National Banks, here are the stats for the following banks as of September 2012:
JPMorgan Chase
Total Assets: $1.85 trillion dollars
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $71.07 trillion dollars
Citibank
Total Assets: $1.365 trillion dollars
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $55.51 trillion dollars
Bank Of America
Total Assets: $1.448 trillion dollars
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $43.79 trillion dollars
Goldman Sachs
Total Assets: $120.43 billion (not trillion)
Total Exposure To Derivatives: $41,23 trillion
Note that JP Morgan alone has more derivative exposure than the world’s GDP. A derivative collapse is definitely an event that could take down the whole financial system and collapse the US dollar. 8. A run on the gold and silver bullion exchanges. Andrew McGuire, a former Goldman Sachs trader, disclosed that the London bullion Market Association (LBMA) trades on a net basis each year of $5.4 trillion dollars, a little less than half the size of the US economy. The LBMA is the biggest gold commodity market in the world.
But how can the LBMA do this be when the gold market is such a tiny market? The world production of gold is about 2,500 metric tons of gold (88,184,905 oz) which at today’s price of $1,667 is approximately $147 billion in yearly production value.
The LBMA is the equivalent of a fractional reserve system in that it is leveraged 100 to 1. For every ounce of real gold that is sold, 100 ounces of paper gold is sold, meaning there are 100 claims on each and every ounce of gold. These numbers were verified by Jeffrey Christian, a gold expert and founder of CMP Group (a commodities research, consulting, investment banking, and asset management company). The leverage is absurd.
The LBMA can be compared with other exchanges. The world’s gold market is backed up by approximately 2.3% of real gold. If a mere 2.5% of people would start demanding their gold, the physical gold market would explode, subsequently crushing the dollar, as the value of the dollar is inversely proportional to the price of gold.
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass pointed out that the New York Comex has only approximately 3% of the bullion on hand to cover future contracts positions. and this game will continue if people do not demand delivery of their gold. The emperor has no clothes!
9. A central bank gold rush and foreign gold repatriation from the Fed – Gold Audit Venezuela has actually just recently received their last shipment of gold bars from the US.
“This was the largest type of operation to transport this type of metal in the last fifteen years,” said Merentes. “The repatriation of our gold was an act of financial prudence and sovereignty.” (Bloomberg)
The Germans and the Dutch have also recently requested their gold to be repatriated from the US. However, unlike Venezuela, Germany was told to wait seven years to get their gold back. That sounds odd, right?
Now the Swiss, under their recently launched Swiss Initiative to Secure the Swiss National Bank’s Gold Reserves, are hinting that they might want to get their gold back on Swiss soil. The Swiss government has a long standing tradition of backing their currency with gold.
This gold repatriation is turning out to be much bigger than a political statement. It is a total non-compliant/non-confidence vote for the US and the US dollar.
Which country is next? Mexico? They have 96% of their gold stored in the US and London.
A central bank gold rush to repatriate a country’s gold from the US can cause a huge upward demand for gold, pushing the price of gold upward and crushing the US dollar. (Especially if the Fed doesn’t have their gold and has been leased out into the market).
We have just gone through nine black swan events–events, remember, that are highly improbable but yet, when they do happen, have massive consequences.
Chris Ferrerra promises a Part 2 of this article, which he will go through five other “black swan” events that could cause the US dollar to collapse.
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