I have had a back and forth between two friends of mine, the topic being Federal and State gun control efforts which my two friends stridently believe are an intentional precursor to Governmental preparations for the impending collapse which the Federal Government knows they cannot stop.
While I understand that gun registration is the obvious and mandatory first step to any gun confiscation, and that any Martial Law imposition would be much less effective with an armed civilian population, I don't see the failed gun registration in Connecticut as a joint liberal state-federal government test case for national registration and eventual confiscation. Nor being done because the federal government knows it cannot stop the economic collapse from happening and is preparing for martial law.
Who in their right mind would just let an economic collapse happen? And I say this believing an economic collapse is much more likely now, then it was last year, or the year before, but not due to a conspiracy but to a choke hold on ideology and incompetence of our governmental institutions.
To be sure, any gun control efforts are unconstitutional and if given a foot hold will diminish not only our unalienable rights, but our ability to protect ourselves from the tenuous environment of today's world through the vastly increased dangers of an economic or societal collapse.
I think gun control efforts are a product of the age old liberal way of thinking that they know better than the rest of us what is best for us. And I am grateful that the citizens of the very liberal state of Connecticut are pushing back against unlawful registration.
The Blaze reports that Officials in Connecticut are stunned by what could be a Massive, State-Wide Act of ‘Civil Disobedience’ by Gun Owners:
On Jan. 1, 2014, tens of thousands of defiant gun owners seemingly made the choice not to register their semi-automatic rifles with the state of Connecticut as required by a hastily-passed gun control law. By possessing unregistered so-called “assault rifles,” they all technically became guilty of committing Class D felonies overnight.
Police had received 47,916 applications for “assault weapons certificates” and 21,000 incomplete applications as of Dec. 31, Lt. Paul Vance told The Courant.
At roughly 50,000 applications, officials estimate that as little as 15 percent of the covered semi-automatic rifles have actually been registered with the state. “No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000,” the report states.
Needless to say, officials and some lawmakers are stunned.
Due to the new gun control bill passed in April, likely at least 20,000 individual people — possibly as many as 100,000 — are now in direct violation of the law for refusing to register their guns. As we noted above, that act is now a Class D Felony.
Then Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars writes a well written letter concerning the effects of unconstitutional governmental efforts to restrict gun ownership:
15 February 2014
To the men and women of the Connecticut State Police and the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection:
My name is Mike Vanderboegh. Few of you will know who I am, or even will have heard of the Three Percent movement that I founded, though we have been denounced on the national stage by that paragon of moral virtue, Bill Clinton. Three Percenters are uncompromising firearm owners who have stated very plainly for years that we will obey no further encroachments on our Second Amendment rights.
Some of you, if you read this carelessly, may feel that it is a threat. It is not. Three Percenters also believe that to take the first shot in a conflict over principle is to surrender the moral high ground to the enemy. We condemn so-called collateral damage and terrorism such as that represented by the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Waco massacre. We are very aware that if you seek to defeat evil it is vital not to become the evil you claim to oppose. Thus, though this letter is certainly intended to deal with an uncomfortable subject, it is not a threat to anyone. However, it is important for everyone to understand that while we promise not to take the first shot over principle, we make no such promise if attacked, whether by common criminals or by the designated representatives of a criminal government grown arrogant and tyrannical and acting out an unconstitutional agenda under color of law.
If we have any model, it is that of the Founding generation. The threat to public order and safety, unfortunately, comes from the current leaders of your state government who unthinkingly determined to victimize hitherto law-abiding citizens with a tyrannical law. They are the ones who first promised violence on the part of the state if your citizens did not comply with their unconstitutional diktat. Now, having made the threat (and placed the bet that you folks of the Connecticut State Police will meekly and obediently carry it out) they can hardly complain that others take them seriously and try by every means, including this letter, to avoid conflict.
Some of you are already working a major case on me, trying to figure out how I may be arrested for violating Conn. P.A. 13-3, which bears the wildly dishonest title of "An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children's Safety." (What part of "protecting children" is accomplished by sparking a civil war?) Not only have I personally violated this unconstitutional and tyrannical act by smuggling and by the encouragement of smuggling, defiance and non-compliance on the part of your state's citizens, but I have further irritated your wannabe tyrant bosses by sending them standard capacity magazines in my "Toys for Totalitarians" program. I further have annoyed them by pointing out -- and seeking more evidence of -- the existence of Mike Lawlor's KGB file (as well as his FBI and CIA counter-intelligence files).
In short, I have made myself a nuisance to your bosses in just about every way I could think of. However, their discomfiture reminds me of the wisdom of that great American philosopher of the late 20th Century, Frank Zappa, who said, "Do you love it? Do you hate it? There it is, the way you made it." Whether you will be able to make a case on me that sticks is, of course, problematic for a number of reasons which I will detail to you in the letter below. I have already done so to your bosses and include the links in this email so that you may easily access them.
But even if you are not working on my case you will want to pay attention to this letter, because tyrannical politicians in your state have been writing checks with their mouths that they expect you to cash with your blood. We have moved, thanks to them, into a very dangerous undiscovered country. Connecticut is now in a state of cold civil war, one that can flash to bloody conflict in an instant if someone, anyone, does something stupid. So please pay attention, for Malloy and Co. have put all your asses on the line and are counting on your supine obedience to the enforcement of their unconstitutional diktat.
I apparently first came to your attention with this speech on the steps of your state capitol on 20 April 2013. It was very well received by the audience but virtually ignored by the lapdog press of your state. If I may, I'd like to quote some of the more salient points of it that involve you.
"An unconstitutional law is void." It has no effect. So says American Jurisprudence, the standard legal text. And that's been upheld by centuries of American law. An unconstitutional law is VOID. Now that is certainly true. But the tricky part is how do we make that point when the local, state and federal executive and legislative branches as well as the courts are in the hands of the domestic enemies of the Constitution. Everyone who is currently trying to take away your right to arms starts out by saying "I support the 2nd Amendment." Let me tell you a home truth that we know down in Alabama -- Barack Obama supports the 2nd Amendment just about as much as Adolf Hitler appreciated Jewish culture, or Joseph Stalin believed in individual liberty. Believe what politicians do, not what they say. Because the lie is the attendant of every evil.
Before this year no one thought that other firearms and related items would ever be banned -- but they were, they have been. No one thought that the authorities of your state would pass laws making criminals out of the previously law-abiding -- but they did. If they catch you violating their unconstitutional laws, they will -- when they please -- send armed men to work their will upon you. And people -- innocent of any crime save the one these tyrants created -- will die resisting them.
You begin to see, perhaps, how you fit into this. YOU are the "armed men" that Malloy and Company will send "to work their will" upon the previously law-abiding. In other words, this law takes men and women who are your natural allies in support of legitimate law enforcement and makes enemies of the state of them, and bully boy political police of you. So you all have a very real stake in what happens next. But let me continue:
The Founders knew how to answer such tyranny. When Captain John Parker -- one of the three percent of American colonists who actively took the field against the King during the Revolution -- mustered his Minutemen on Lexington Green, it was in a demonstration of ARMED civil disobedience. . . The colonists knew what to do and they did it, regardless of the risk -- regardless of all the King's ministers and the King's soldiery. They defied the King. They resisted his edicts. They evaded his laws and they smuggled. Lord above, did they smuggle.
Now we find ourselves in a similar situation. The new King Barack and his minions have determined to disarm us. We must determine to resist them. No one wants a new civil war (except, apparently, the anti-constitutional tyrants who passed these laws and the media toadies who cheer them on) but one is staring us in the face. Let me repeat that, a civil war is staring us in the face. To think otherwise is to whistle past the graveyard of our own history. We must, if we wish to avoid armed conflict, get this message across to the collectivists who have declared their appetites for our liberty, our property and our lives -- WHEN DEMOCRACY TURNS TO TYRANNY, THE ARMED CITIZEN STILL GETS TO VOTE.
Just like King George, such people will not care, nor modify their behavior, by what you say, no matter how loudly or in what numbers you say it. They will only pay attention to what you DO. So defy them. Resist their laws. Evade them. Smuggle in what they command you not to have. Only by our ACTS will they be impressed. Then, if they mean to have a civil war, they will at least have been informed of the unintended consequences of their tyrannical actions. Again I say -- Defy. Resist. Evade. Smuggle. If you wish to stay free and to pass down that freedom to your children's children you can do no less than to become the lawbreakers that they have unconstitutionally made of you. Accept that fact. Embrace it. And resolve to be the very best, most successful lawbreakers you can be.
Well, I guess at least some of my audience that day took my message to heart. As Connecticut newspapers have finally begun reporting -- "Untold Thousands Flout Gun Registration Law" -- and national commentators are at last noticing, my advice to defy, resist and evade this intolerable act is well on the way. The smuggling, as modest as it is, I can assure is also happening. This law is not only dangerous it is unenforceable by just about any standard you care to judge it by. Let's just look at the numbers mentioned in the Courant story.
By the end of 2013, state police had received 47,916 applications for assault weapons certificates, Lt. Paul Vance said. An additional 2,100 that were incomplete could still come in.
That 50,000 figure could be as little as 15 percent of the rifles classified as assault weapons owned by Connecticut residents, according to estimates by people in the industry, including the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation. No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000.
And that means as of Jan. 1, Connecticut has very likely created tens of thousands of newly minted criminals — perhaps 100,000 people, almost certainly at least 20,000 — who have broken no other laws. By owning unregistered guns defined as assault weapons, all of them are committing Class D felonies.
"I honestly thought from my own standpoint that the vast majority would register," said Sen. Tony Guglielmo, R-Stafford, the ranking GOP senator on the legislature's public safety committee. "If you pass laws that people have no respect for and they don't follow them, then you have a real problem."
This blithering idiot of a state senator is, as I warned Mike Lawlor the other day, extrapolating. It is a very dangerous thing, extrapolation, especially when you are trying to predict the actions of an enemy you made yourself whom you barely recognize let alone understand. I told Lawlor:
You, you silly sod, are extrapolating from your own cowardice. Just because you wouldn't risk death for your principles, doesn't mean there aren't folks who most certainly will. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but folks who are willing to die for their principles are most often willing to kill in righteous self-defense of them as well. You may be ignorant of such people and their ways. You may think that they are insane. But surely even you cannot be so clueless that, insane or not from your point-of-view, such people DO exist and in numbers unknown. This is the undiscovered country that you and your tyrannical ilk have blundered into, like clueless kindergarteners gaily (no pun intended) tap-dancing in a well-marked mine field.
The Founders marked the mine field. Is it our fault or yours that you have blithely ignored the warnings? If I were a Connecticut state policeman I would be wondering if the orders of a possible KGB mole throwback were worth the terminal inability to collect my pension. Of course, you may be thinking that you can hide behind that "thin blue line." Bill Clinton's rules of engagement say otherwise.
The odds are, and it gives me no particular satisfaction to say it, is that someone is going to get killed over your unconstitutional misadventures in Connecticut. And if not Connecticut, then New York, or Maryland, or California or Colorado. And once the civil war you all apparently seek is kicked off, it would not be -- it could not be -- confined to one state.
This is not a threat, of course. Not the personal, actionable threat that you may claim. It ranks right along with -- no, that's wrong, IT IS EXACTLY LIKE -- an ex-con meeting me in the street and pointing to my neighbor's house saying, "Tonight I am going to break in there, kill that man, rape his wife and daughters and steal everything that he is, has, or may become." I warn him, "If you try to do that, he will kill you first. He may not look like much, but I know him to be vigilant and perfectly capable of blowing your head off." That is not a threat from me. It is simply good manners. Consider this letter in the same vein. I am trying to save you from yourself.
For, like that common criminal, you have announced by your unconstitutional law and your public statements in favor of its rigorous enforcement that you have a tyrannical appetite for your neighbors' liberty, property and lives. It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that this policy, if carried to your announced conclusion, will not end well for anybody, but especially for you.
Now let's examine those numbers in the Courant story. You know the size of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. Wikipedia tells us that "CSP currently has approximately 1,248 troopers, and is headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut. It is responsible for protecting the Governor of Connecticut, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, and their families." There are but 1,212 email addresses listed on the state website to which this email is going, which presumably includes everyone including secretaries, receptionists, file clerks, technicians, etc. Now, how many shooters for raid parties you may find among that one thousand, two hundred and forty eight that Wikipedia cites, or whatever number will be on the payroll when something stupid happens, only you know for sure. I'll let you do the counting.
They are daunting odds in any case, and as you will see, they get more daunting as we go down this road that Malloy and Company have arranged for you. (By the way, don't forget to subtract those on the Green Zone protective details, for your political masters will certainly see their survival as your mission number one.) So, how many folks would your superiors be interested in seeing you work their will upon? And of these, how many will fight regardless of cost?
Let's assume that there are 100,000 non-compliant owners of military pattern semi-automatic rifles in your state. I think it is a larger number but 100,000 has a nice round ring to it. Let us then apply the rule of three percent to that number -- not to the entire population of your state, not even to the number of firearm owners, but just to that much smaller demonstrated number of resistors. That leaves you with at least 3,000 men and women who will shoot you if you try to enforce this intolerable act upon them. Of course you will have to come prepared to shoot them. That's a given. They know this. So please understand: THEY. WILL. SHOOT. YOU. (In what they believe is righteous self defense.)
Now, if any of them follow Bill Clinton's rules of engagement and utilize the principles of 4th Generation Warfare, after the first shots are fired by your raid parties, they will not be home when you come to call. These people will be targeting, according to the 4GW that many of them learned while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war makers who sent you. This gets back to that "when democracy turns to tyranny, the armed citizenry still gets to vote." One ballot, or bullet, at a time.
This is all hypothetical, of course, based upon the tyrants' appetites for these hitherto law-abiding citizens' liberty, property and lives as well as upon your own willingness to enforce their unconstitutional diktat. And here's where you can do something about it. The first thing you have to realize is that the people you will be targeting do not view you as the enemy. Indeed, you are NOT their enemy, unless you choose to be one.
Again, an unconstitutional law is null and void. Of course you may if you like cling to the slim fact that a single black-robed bandit has ruled the Intolerable Act as constitutional in Shew vs. Malloy, but that will not matter to those three percent of the resistors -- your fellow citizens -- whom you target. They no longer expect a fair trial in your state in any case, which leaves them, if they wish to defend their liberty, property and lives, only the recourse of an unfair firefight. So to cite Shew vs. Malloy at the point of a state-issued firearm to such people is, well, betting your life on a very slender reed.
Thus, my kindly advice to you, just as it was to Lawlor, is to not go down that road. You are not the enemy of the people of Connecticut, not yet. The politicians who jammed this law down the peoples' throats are plainly flummoxed by the resistance it has engendered. In the absence of a definitive U.S. Supreme Court decision do you really want to risk not being able to draw your pension over some politician's insatiable appetite for power?
There are many ways you can refuse to get caught up in this. Passive resistance, looking the other way, up to and including outright refusal to execute what is a tyrannical law that a higher court may yet find unconstitutional and therefore null and void. Do you really want to have to kill someone enforcing THAT? Just because you were ordered to do so? After Nuremberg, that defense no longer obtains. (You may say, "Well, I'm just a secretary, a clerk, you can't blame me for anything." Kindly recall from Nuremberg one other lesson: raid parties cannot break down doors unless someone like you prepares the list in advance. In fact, you have at your keyboard and in your databases more raw, naked power than any kick-in-the-door trooper. And with that power comes moral responsibility. Adolf Eichmann didn't personally kill anyone. But he darn sure made up the lists and saw to it that trains ran on time. When the first Connecticut citizen (or, God forbid, his family) is killed as a result of your list-making, do you think that because you didn't pull the trigger that gives you a moral pass?)
So I call on you all, in your own best interest and that of your state, to refuse to enforce this unconstitutional law. There are a number of Three Percenters within the Connecticut state government, especially its law enforcement arms. I know that there have been many discussions around water-coolers and off state premises about the dangers that this puts CT law enforcement officers in and what officers should do if ordered to execute raids on the previously law-abiding.
You have it within your power to refuse to initiate hostilities in an American civil war that would, by its very nature, be ghastly beyond belief and would unleash hatreds and passions that would take generations to get over, if then.
Please, I beg you to understand, you are not the enemy, you are not an occupying force -- unless you choose to violate the oath that each of you swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. For their part, the men and women who will be targeted by your raids took an identical oath. Can you think of anything more tragic than brother killing brother over some politician's tyrannical appetite?
I can't. The future -- yours, mine, our children's, that of the citizens of Connecticut and indeed of the entire country -- is in YOUR hands.
At the very least, by your refusal you can give the courts time to work before proceeding into an unnecessary civil war against your own friends and neighbors on the orders of a self-anointed elite who frankly don't give a shit about you, your life, your future or that of your family. They wouldn't pass these laws if they thought that they would have to risk the potential bullet that their actions have put you in the path of. They count on you to take that bullet, in service of their power and their lies. Fool them. Just say no to tyranny. You are not the enemy. Don't act like one.
Sincerely,
Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters
PO Box 926
Pinson AL 35126
Showing posts with label Economic Collapse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economic Collapse. Show all posts
Monday, February 17, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
18 Months From the Collapse?
I received a call from a old buddy of mine (Jeff) ...not a text message or an e-mail, but an actual phone call such as he was worked up. Apparently he has been reading articles and listening to news program and at some point he started believing the end is near,...18 months to be specific to a collapse. He was planning on quitting his job, moving out of the East coast and basically sinking 100% in prepping.
My response was "Okay, but what is going to be the catalyst? What do you think is going to happen and how?" I have been seeing articles in the last month of so pretty much outlining the good possibility of an economic collapse within the next two years, but I wanted Jeff to articulate the facts or assumptions that are leading him to his own view. So I told Jeff, "you may be right. I certainly think things will be tougher in the next 18 months,.....commodities shortages,.....inflation if not severe inflation,......I think we'll see food riots in urban areas. And the government will not be able to do too much as their assets pool is significantly shallower than ever." But I stopped short of telling Jeff that I think the collapse will occur in 18 months. I don't want to be responsible for someone basing their survival plan on my opinion, plus I'm still really in the plan for the worst - survival prep, and hope for the best camp. Anyway, I scanned all my on-line sources and resources to see what a cross section of people are saying.
Chris Martenson wrote on his website, Peak Prosperity, an article with the title - Why Your Own Plan Better Be Different - Because the cavalry isn't coming. Pretty much summing up that the US Government is broke and will not be able to get out of insolvency. Martenson remarks that action at the individual level is your best bet right now. I think action at the individual level has always been the best bet.
When the Treasury Department estimates that the U.S. has a ~$65 trillion NPV (Net Present Value) shortfall in its main accounts, it's saying that using its assumptions, the U.S. government would need to have $65 trillion – today – in an account, earning a stated rate of interest, in order to be solvent.
Since the U.S. government don't have that have that kind of scratch, it's insolvent. But the real picture is likely worse. The Fed calculates the NPV shortfall to be closer to $100 trillion. And if you believe Lawrence Kotlikoff's math, the figure is closer to $200 trillion. Either way – $65 trillion, $100 trillion, or $200 trillion – the sum cannot be paid.
Paul Joseph Watson, from Investor's Forecaster, reports: "On Saturday (Feb 1, 2014) it emerged that HSBC was restricting large cash withdrawals for UK customers from £5000 upwards, forcing them to provide documentation of what they plan to spend the money on, a form of capital control that more and more banks are beginning to adopt. (Then) Fears of bank runs have escalated with the news that Russian lender ‘My Bank’ has banned all cash withdrawals until next week. Bloomberg reports that ‘My Bank’ – one of Russia’s top 200 lenders by assets – has introduced a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week. While the Ruble has been losing ground rapidly recently, we suspect few have been expecting bank runs in Russia.
These banking shenanigans (or are they tests?) follow a November 2013 incident where Chase Bank also recently imposed restrictions which prevent its customers from conducting over $50,000 in cash activity per month, as well as banning business customers from sending international wire transfers. Financial expert Gerald Celente said the news was a sign that Americans should prepare for a bank holiday.
And from Italy comes the headlines that "Italy’s president fears violent insurrection in 2014 but offers no remedy as events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on. Thousands of Italian companies are on the “brink of collapse”. Great masses of the working people are on the dole or at risk of losing their jobs. Very high rates of youth unemployment are leading to dangerous alienation.
Bob Rinnear writes - Housing ground to a virtual stop. The non-farm payroll report was horrid. The amount of folks not even in the workforce is almost 1/3 of the entire population. Food stamps, welfare, unemployment, and other fall back systems are overwhelmed. Just Monday 3 Feb 2014), the ISM report for the US hit. It could have been worse, but it would take work to do it. We saw the overall survey fall from 55.8 to 51. Inside the report, we saw the new orders index fall from 64 to 51, a 20% drop, the biggest drop since 1980. Yes you read that right. The biggest drop in 34 years........A likely scenario is that we bottom out, put in a massive bounce that comes up well shy of the highs, and then we roll over and plunge even lower.
Doug Casey, on Market Sanity.com said "We are heading toward The Greater Depression’ said The problem that we face in the world today is that almost all – in fact I’ll go so far as to say all of the world’s governments – are actually bankrupt, and the fact is, the world’s banking system is bankrupt as well…Both governments and the big banks are like a couple of drunks standing up holding each other up. The both should fall down. The entire world has become too financialized at this point. People are concentrating not on producing real goods and services, but on trading things and paper securities and so forth. This is a giant bubble that’s going to burst.” “I’ve been saying for years that we are heading for something that I call The Greater Depression…I call it The Greater Depression because I expect it to be much worse and much greater than what we went through in the 1930′s.”
James H. Kunstler wrote a column for Peak Prosperity titled "Get Ready For Strange Days - We're in the Twilight of American Federalism" . He makes an good argument about what the immediate aftermath of a collapse could look like with the states going it alone or perhaps banding together with other another state(s) to share and trade resources - from energy to commodities to defense capabilities.
The last time the USA faced a comparable political convulsion was the decade leading into the Civil War, but this time it will be more complex and confusing and it will have a different ending.
In the 1850s, the dominant Whig party choked to death on its own internal contradictions — mainly its failure to take a coherent position on slavery — and morphed into the Republican Party. The original Democratic Party broke apart into southern and northern factions. All of the doctrinal and legal debates of the day — states’ rights, property rights, et cet. — could not overcome the growing moral revulsion against human bondage. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, seven southern slave states seceded from the Union before his inauguration. The ferocity of the ensuing Civil War — the world’s first industrial-strength slaughter fest — came as a great shock to many who had expected little more than a few symbolic romantic skirmishes on horseback preceding a negotiated settlement.
I believe we are headed now into a breakup of the nation into smaller units, but this time there will be no reconstituting the original USA as in 1865. I realize this is a severe view, but the circumstances we face are more severe than the public seems to imagine. To some degree the coming political rearrangement would appear to be the unfinished business of the 1860s. The old animosities remain, mainly in cultural rather than economic terms. But the real driving force of schism will be catabolic economic collapse expressing itself in scale reduction of all our support systems: food production, energy production, transportation, finance, commerce, and governance.
Everything is going to have to get smaller, get more local, and be run differently. Just as political rhetoric failed to contain the revulsion against slavery, all the debates of the Left and Right in our time will not overcome the geophysical limits of energy resource scarcity and its affect on the other major systems of everyday life. Environmental degradation (including climate change) will amplify the journey downward in the viable scale of human operations.
My response was "Okay, but what is going to be the catalyst? What do you think is going to happen and how?" I have been seeing articles in the last month of so pretty much outlining the good possibility of an economic collapse within the next two years, but I wanted Jeff to articulate the facts or assumptions that are leading him to his own view. So I told Jeff, "you may be right. I certainly think things will be tougher in the next 18 months,.....commodities shortages,.....inflation if not severe inflation,......I think we'll see food riots in urban areas. And the government will not be able to do too much as their assets pool is significantly shallower than ever." But I stopped short of telling Jeff that I think the collapse will occur in 18 months. I don't want to be responsible for someone basing their survival plan on my opinion, plus I'm still really in the plan for the worst - survival prep, and hope for the best camp. Anyway, I scanned all my on-line sources and resources to see what a cross section of people are saying.
Chris Martenson wrote on his website, Peak Prosperity, an article with the title - Why Your Own Plan Better Be Different - Because the cavalry isn't coming. Pretty much summing up that the US Government is broke and will not be able to get out of insolvency. Martenson remarks that action at the individual level is your best bet right now. I think action at the individual level has always been the best bet.
When the Treasury Department estimates that the U.S. has a ~$65 trillion NPV (Net Present Value) shortfall in its main accounts, it's saying that using its assumptions, the U.S. government would need to have $65 trillion – today – in an account, earning a stated rate of interest, in order to be solvent.
Since the U.S. government don't have that have that kind of scratch, it's insolvent. But the real picture is likely worse. The Fed calculates the NPV shortfall to be closer to $100 trillion. And if you believe Lawrence Kotlikoff's math, the figure is closer to $200 trillion. Either way – $65 trillion, $100 trillion, or $200 trillion – the sum cannot be paid.
Paul Joseph Watson, from Investor's Forecaster, reports: "On Saturday (Feb 1, 2014) it emerged that HSBC was restricting large cash withdrawals for UK customers from £5000 upwards, forcing them to provide documentation of what they plan to spend the money on, a form of capital control that more and more banks are beginning to adopt. (Then) Fears of bank runs have escalated with the news that Russian lender ‘My Bank’ has banned all cash withdrawals until next week. Bloomberg reports that ‘My Bank’ – one of Russia’s top 200 lenders by assets – has introduced a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week. While the Ruble has been losing ground rapidly recently, we suspect few have been expecting bank runs in Russia.
These banking shenanigans (or are they tests?) follow a November 2013 incident where Chase Bank also recently imposed restrictions which prevent its customers from conducting over $50,000 in cash activity per month, as well as banning business customers from sending international wire transfers. Financial expert Gerald Celente said the news was a sign that Americans should prepare for a bank holiday.
And from Italy comes the headlines that "Italy’s president fears violent insurrection in 2014 but offers no remedy as events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on. Thousands of Italian companies are on the “brink of collapse”. Great masses of the working people are on the dole or at risk of losing their jobs. Very high rates of youth unemployment are leading to dangerous alienation.
Bob Rinnear writes - Housing ground to a virtual stop. The non-farm payroll report was horrid. The amount of folks not even in the workforce is almost 1/3 of the entire population. Food stamps, welfare, unemployment, and other fall back systems are overwhelmed. Just Monday 3 Feb 2014), the ISM report for the US hit. It could have been worse, but it would take work to do it. We saw the overall survey fall from 55.8 to 51. Inside the report, we saw the new orders index fall from 64 to 51, a 20% drop, the biggest drop since 1980. Yes you read that right. The biggest drop in 34 years........A likely scenario is that we bottom out, put in a massive bounce that comes up well shy of the highs, and then we roll over and plunge even lower.
Doug Casey, on Market Sanity.com said "We are heading toward The Greater Depression’ said The problem that we face in the world today is that almost all – in fact I’ll go so far as to say all of the world’s governments – are actually bankrupt, and the fact is, the world’s banking system is bankrupt as well…Both governments and the big banks are like a couple of drunks standing up holding each other up. The both should fall down. The entire world has become too financialized at this point. People are concentrating not on producing real goods and services, but on trading things and paper securities and so forth. This is a giant bubble that’s going to burst.” “I’ve been saying for years that we are heading for something that I call The Greater Depression…I call it The Greater Depression because I expect it to be much worse and much greater than what we went through in the 1930′s.”
James H. Kunstler wrote a column for Peak Prosperity titled "Get Ready For Strange Days - We're in the Twilight of American Federalism" . He makes an good argument about what the immediate aftermath of a collapse could look like with the states going it alone or perhaps banding together with other another state(s) to share and trade resources - from energy to commodities to defense capabilities.
The last time the USA faced a comparable political convulsion was the decade leading into the Civil War, but this time it will be more complex and confusing and it will have a different ending.
In the 1850s, the dominant Whig party choked to death on its own internal contradictions — mainly its failure to take a coherent position on slavery — and morphed into the Republican Party. The original Democratic Party broke apart into southern and northern factions. All of the doctrinal and legal debates of the day — states’ rights, property rights, et cet. — could not overcome the growing moral revulsion against human bondage. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, seven southern slave states seceded from the Union before his inauguration. The ferocity of the ensuing Civil War — the world’s first industrial-strength slaughter fest — came as a great shock to many who had expected little more than a few symbolic romantic skirmishes on horseback preceding a negotiated settlement.
I believe we are headed now into a breakup of the nation into smaller units, but this time there will be no reconstituting the original USA as in 1865. I realize this is a severe view, but the circumstances we face are more severe than the public seems to imagine. To some degree the coming political rearrangement would appear to be the unfinished business of the 1860s. The old animosities remain, mainly in cultural rather than economic terms. But the real driving force of schism will be catabolic economic collapse expressing itself in scale reduction of all our support systems: food production, energy production, transportation, finance, commerce, and governance.
Everything is going to have to get smaller, get more local, and be run differently. Just as political rhetoric failed to contain the revulsion against slavery, all the debates of the Left and Right in our time will not overcome the geophysical limits of energy resource scarcity and its affect on the other major systems of everyday life. Environmental degradation (including climate change) will amplify the journey downward in the viable scale of human operations.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Dollar Collapse, Banks Close,...What Will You Do?
One of our neighbors, a woman who always struck me as a busy body type, organized a neighborhood cleanup and a cook out afterwards. I consented to both the cleanup and the cook out as I had the agenda to get to assess my neighbors better - so I could categorize their personalities, strengths and weaknesses. Only six couples out the group came to the cookout after the cleanup with the women in the kitchen and the men congregating around the outdoor grill - it was fairly cold and the gas grill provided a little heat.
One the men (I'll call him Hal) and another man (I'll call him Frank) were discussing the upcoming Super Bowl, when Hal's wife walked up and asked Frank how the burgers were coming, then she looked at Hal and said "don't let me keep you from talking about the Zombie Apocalypse".....using her fingers to denote quotation marks for Zombie Apocalypse. Then she walked off and nobody said anything for maybe 10 seconds before Hal said "She's still mad at me from finding out I bought a couple of buckets of survival food. She asked me what it was for and I said something Like "I don't know,..possibly the Zombie Apocalypse", and she has been made for the past week.
I said to Hal, "well what did you buy it for?" Hal replied "It seemed like a good idea just to have some extra food, plus Melissa found a machete, camp axe and camp saw which she is also pissed about. While mentally pegging Hal's wife, Melissa, in that those who have a difficult personality category, I then said "Well, makes sense to me. Lot's of potential bad things that could happen where it would come in handy".
A couple of side conversations took place about how bad things seemed. One guy said his health care premium went from $300 something to over $800 a month.
Trying to get the conversation back to prepping, I said "well Hal what would you do if the Government called a bank holiday for, say four days, and that included the ATM machines and debit card transaction?"
Frank spoke first and said words to the effect that it would certainly screw up a lot of people and possibly cause panic.
Chris, another guy, said "that would never happen." I said, "well, just suppose it did happen, what would you do? Most people only have three of four days of food in their pantry. And even if food wasn't the immediate concern, people would be panicked without access to their accounts. I'll be there would be more than a few cars running out of gas and I'll be you robberies, especially around grocery stores, would increase."
Hal mumbled, "yeah, maybe I need to get a gun." I said, "you don't have a gun?". And to make a long story short, I fielded about a hundred questions about guns, buying guns, guns laws, training and the like. Frank has a 12 gauge hunting shotgun which he has never shot, and one of the other guys said he had a rifle given to him by his Dad, but he didn't know anything about it, the make/model or caliber.
Bottom line is that this cleanup and picnic, while a pain in the ass, paid off for me as I now have five new friends who see me as the "gun expert" and are going to call me to talk about buying a gun for personal protection and getting some firearms and shooting lessons.
By the way, the bank scenario didn't just come of the blue. Read below what is happening in England, from Yahoo news a couple weeks ago. Are you prepared for any of it? Stocked food and water/ firearms for protection? Cash on hand? Someplace to go and a plan in case it all comes crashing down?
If you bank at HSBC in England, don’t plan on making any large cash withdrawals. At least not without a good explanation. Or, maybe even a permission slip.
That’s because a previously unannounced change in banking policy is blocking some customers from making large withdrawals without “evidence” explaining why they need the money from their accounts.
The policy affects customers attempting withdrawals for amounts as little as £5,000 ($8,253).
HSBC says it’s all done in the name of customer protection.
"The reason being we have an obligation to protect our customers, and to minimize the opportunity for financial crime,” HSBC said in a statement. “However, following feedback, we are immediately updating guidance to our customer facing staff to reiterate that it is not mandatory for customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash withdrawals, and on its own, failure to show evidence is not a reason to refuse a withdrawal. We are writing to apologize to any customer who has been given incorrect information and inconvenienced."
The change in approach comes after the BBC aired reports from multiple HSBC customers who said they were denied in their recent attempts to make cash withdrawals.
Banking customer Stephen Cotton says he attempted to withdraw approximately $11,000 to repay a loan from his mother but was blocked from doing so.
"When we presented them with the withdrawal slip, they declined to give us the money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory explanation for what the money was for,” he told the BBC. “They wanted a letter from the person involved."
Cotton says the bank wouldn’t even tell him how much he was allowed to withdraw under the new policy, which was not announced to customers when taking affect last November.
"So I wrote out a few slips. I said, 'Can I have £5,000?' They said no. I said, 'Can I have £4,000?' They said no. And then I wrote one out for £3,000 and they said, 'OK, we'll give you that.' "
In the U.S. there have been rumors of similar restrictions that major banks such as Citibank have denied. After the massive security breach at Target retail stores in December, JP Morgan did place a temporary limit on how much cash customers could withdraw from Chase ATM’s at Target stores and how much they could spend on their debit cards at one time. But that limit has since been removed.
A Conservative member of the British Parliament said the change in policy “infantilizes the customer.” However, the head of retail at the British Bankers Association defended the policy.
"I can understand it's frustrating for customers,” Eric Leenders told the BBC. “But if you are making the occasional large cash withdrawal, the bank wants to make sure it's the right way to make the payment."
One the men (I'll call him Hal) and another man (I'll call him Frank) were discussing the upcoming Super Bowl, when Hal's wife walked up and asked Frank how the burgers were coming, then she looked at Hal and said "don't let me keep you from talking about the Zombie Apocalypse".....using her fingers to denote quotation marks for Zombie Apocalypse. Then she walked off and nobody said anything for maybe 10 seconds before Hal said "She's still mad at me from finding out I bought a couple of buckets of survival food. She asked me what it was for and I said something Like "I don't know,..possibly the Zombie Apocalypse", and she has been made for the past week.
I said to Hal, "well what did you buy it for?" Hal replied "It seemed like a good idea just to have some extra food, plus Melissa found a machete, camp axe and camp saw which she is also pissed about. While mentally pegging Hal's wife, Melissa, in that those who have a difficult personality category, I then said "Well, makes sense to me. Lot's of potential bad things that could happen where it would come in handy".
A couple of side conversations took place about how bad things seemed. One guy said his health care premium went from $300 something to over $800 a month.
Trying to get the conversation back to prepping, I said "well Hal what would you do if the Government called a bank holiday for, say four days, and that included the ATM machines and debit card transaction?"
Frank spoke first and said words to the effect that it would certainly screw up a lot of people and possibly cause panic.
Chris, another guy, said "that would never happen." I said, "well, just suppose it did happen, what would you do? Most people only have three of four days of food in their pantry. And even if food wasn't the immediate concern, people would be panicked without access to their accounts. I'll be there would be more than a few cars running out of gas and I'll be you robberies, especially around grocery stores, would increase."
Hal mumbled, "yeah, maybe I need to get a gun." I said, "you don't have a gun?". And to make a long story short, I fielded about a hundred questions about guns, buying guns, guns laws, training and the like. Frank has a 12 gauge hunting shotgun which he has never shot, and one of the other guys said he had a rifle given to him by his Dad, but he didn't know anything about it, the make/model or caliber.
Bottom line is that this cleanup and picnic, while a pain in the ass, paid off for me as I now have five new friends who see me as the "gun expert" and are going to call me to talk about buying a gun for personal protection and getting some firearms and shooting lessons.
By the way, the bank scenario didn't just come of the blue. Read below what is happening in England, from Yahoo news a couple weeks ago. Are you prepared for any of it? Stocked food and water/ firearms for protection? Cash on hand? Someplace to go and a plan in case it all comes crashing down?
If you bank at HSBC in England, don’t plan on making any large cash withdrawals. At least not without a good explanation. Or, maybe even a permission slip.
That’s because a previously unannounced change in banking policy is blocking some customers from making large withdrawals without “evidence” explaining why they need the money from their accounts.
The policy affects customers attempting withdrawals for amounts as little as £5,000 ($8,253).
HSBC says it’s all done in the name of customer protection.
"The reason being we have an obligation to protect our customers, and to minimize the opportunity for financial crime,” HSBC said in a statement. “However, following feedback, we are immediately updating guidance to our customer facing staff to reiterate that it is not mandatory for customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash withdrawals, and on its own, failure to show evidence is not a reason to refuse a withdrawal. We are writing to apologize to any customer who has been given incorrect information and inconvenienced."
The change in approach comes after the BBC aired reports from multiple HSBC customers who said they were denied in their recent attempts to make cash withdrawals.
Banking customer Stephen Cotton says he attempted to withdraw approximately $11,000 to repay a loan from his mother but was blocked from doing so.
"When we presented them with the withdrawal slip, they declined to give us the money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory explanation for what the money was for,” he told the BBC. “They wanted a letter from the person involved."
Cotton says the bank wouldn’t even tell him how much he was allowed to withdraw under the new policy, which was not announced to customers when taking affect last November.
"So I wrote out a few slips. I said, 'Can I have £5,000?' They said no. I said, 'Can I have £4,000?' They said no. And then I wrote one out for £3,000 and they said, 'OK, we'll give you that.' "
In the U.S. there have been rumors of similar restrictions that major banks such as Citibank have denied. After the massive security breach at Target retail stores in December, JP Morgan did place a temporary limit on how much cash customers could withdraw from Chase ATM’s at Target stores and how much they could spend on their debit cards at one time. But that limit has since been removed.
A Conservative member of the British Parliament said the change in policy “infantilizes the customer.” However, the head of retail at the British Bankers Association defended the policy.
"I can understand it's frustrating for customers,” Eric Leenders told the BBC. “But if you are making the occasional large cash withdrawal, the bank wants to make sure it's the right way to make the payment."
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Collapse Scenario: A Civil War or World War Three?
Would You Prefer a Civil War or World War Three?
This is the question from Dave Hodges on International Forecaster, who wrote this thought provoking article. I still think it is much more likely for the collapse to be caused from economic conditions and if severe enough will cause societal breakdown and a possible military response by the government for control, especially of population centers and resource centers, but Dave Hodges gives us some things to ponder, even if they are so terrible in nature.
This is what Dave say's: America is on a collision course with a brutal civil war. We can argue if the coming civil war will be conventional or guerrilla. However, many of us feel that we have reached the point of no return and that civil strife is unavoidable. A political solution to our multiple issues would have been my preferred choice, but that ship sailed a long time ago. I know that the cognitive dissonance crowd will not believe this, however, nobody from that mindset can answer the most important question in the debate based upon the present circumstances: If a civil war was not inevitable, then explain how the military and this administration are going to get past the fact that this “false flag” President has fired over 200+ military command officers?
And there is a second important question: Why have 14 state governors restructured their respective state military organizations so that they are not under the control of Obama?
A Military Rebellion Is Unavoidable
Whenever 200+ leaders of any organization are fired in a short period of time, the person doing the firing has formed a group which opposes them. These military leaders had great influence and close ties over those that they have commanded. Obama just did not fire over 200+ military commanders, he alienated, tens if not hundreds of thousands of military personnel who based their professional loyalty to their military commanders and they will resist their foreign born Commander-In-Chief as a result of this betrayal of trust.
This is not a question of some of us in the media who desire for this happen. We have no say in the matter. And father time is defeating many of us, as several of us are too old to fight and too fat to run! It is not up to us as these conditions, which are ripe for a civil war, were forced upon our nation by Obama and his handlers.
Some Questions for the Fence-Sitting Sheep
Do you not think the executive officers under the command of the fired military leaders understood the issues behind the firing of their commanding officers? Was not the entire command structure in Afghanistan alienated from Obama when McChrystal was fired, largely over rules of engagement? Do you not think that all service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan understand that this buffoon of a President increases their chances of not coming home alive, because of Obama’s treasonous rules of engagement which endangers American soldiers?
Do you not think that if many of us in the alternative media can find evidence of a massive Russian troop buildup, including the presence of Russian heavy equipment on our soil, that the military is not already resentful of the fact that they have to wet nurse these future martial law enforcing troops and that they are from a nation that has repeatedly threatened to nuke America in the past 15 months? Do you think our military commanders are looking forward to the participation of Chinese and Russian soldiers in the upcoming RIMPAC war games?
Do you not think that the upper echelon of the military is not scared to death that in a time of civil unrest, or civil war, that we have 200,000 troops, stationed in foreign countries, who will not likely get home? Do you think the Generals in the Pentagon do not know the commanders in Afghanistan, or Iraq? Do you not think there are not close personal relationships in and among our military leaders stationed around the world and there is not an overall awareness in the military that the President is playing for the other side? Do you sheep really believe that the next time our noncommissioned officers send another young American home in a body bag because of the President’s rules of engagement, that the resentment towards this administration does not grow exponentially? Do you not think that present active duty personnel do not hear from their veteran friends who have come back home, that the Obama administration now refers to veterans, in DHS documents, as domestic terrorists and that Obama is going after their guns because he fears them?
If we can find out about Obama’s fake birth certificate and his anti-American sentiment, do you not think that our troops have not learned these lessons a long time ago? Most American military commanders are loyal to each other and have been trained to risk their lives on behalf of their fellow soldiers. Why do you think that when someone from the executive branch flies into Afghanistan, that the troops must be disarmed because of previous shooting incidents?
Does anyone really believe that our military enjoys sleeping with the enemy? And who do you think they blame? After considering all of these facts, do you sheep still believe that it will not take much provocation to get the troops to act against the modern day KGB in America (i.e. DHS)? Hell, even Ray Charles could see this is fertile breeding ground for a civil war! If this was Stalinist Russia, these military officers would have been shot in the back of the head. Fortunately for these 200+ deposed military commanders, our modern communications system would make it impossible for Obama to purge the military in the same manner as Stalin did without incurring the ire of an entire nation.
However, the end result is the same. The military is being purged because it will not act against the American people and you can take that to the bank. The best we can hope for in the present set of circumstances, is a military coup and that, my friends, never ends well and I lose sleep over this possibility. If we do not change course, our greatest fears will be realized because the sides are already drawn and it will not be long until all hell breaks loose across our country.
An Epic Struggle Is Taking Shape
In one corner, we have the DHS led federal agencies accompanied by their muscle; the Chinese, the Russians and the Canadians. If this group prevails in the upcoming struggle, Mao will have to forfeit his title as the most murderous dictator in world history. There are members of the NWO who do not want two stones left together in this country. They want as many of us to die as possible (see the Georgia Guide Stones). They want to leave no trail of the traditional American notions of freedom and independence because these notions are a formidable roadblock to the lethal scientific dictatorship being installed on this planet. Americans are in the crosshairs of history.
American Christians will soon become the most hunted game on the planet because we represent freedom, autonomy and obedience to God’s laws and not blind obedience to the dictates of genocidal leaders. In our corner, the other corner, we have a large segment of the American military and some of the American citizenry, largely veterans,who will oppose the attempts to finalize the tyranny being installed across the planet. This is an all-stakes, winner-take-all battle. Soon, even the sheep are going to be forced to choose sides.
No Pleasant Alternatives
The coming conflict will not have a good outcome no matter who wins. If the military and the American citizens prevail, all we will likely accomplish is to replace one brutal dictatorship with another. If the other side wins, there is nowhere that will be safe.
All of us will become, by definition, an endangered species. Fourteen Governors Have Acquired Some Temporary Courage Against Tyranny I have previously written that I have recently spoken with a high ranking military officer who was fired because he would not help DHS to completely control a fully integrated state-to-state national guard organization. He was unwilling to voluntarily hand the keys to the car to a communist such as Obama whom he perceived as someone who was dedicated to the destruction of this country. This officer’s resolve was shocking, but now I understand why. In retrospect, he was lucky that he was only fired.
Why has DHS armed to the teeth? The answer is simple, Obama is facing opposition to not only his failed policies like Obamacare and he is facing the possibility of organized military resistance at the state level in several locations. There is presently an armed uprising directed at him by the select governors of 14 different states and that number is continuing to grow. To the previous point I raised as to why Obama is moving to nationalize the National Guard Forces, the answer is simple. Fourteen governors are militarily organizing against Obama. States such as Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina, are saying no to the increasing level of tyranny. These state military entities have been structured in such a way that they cannot become federalized. This is highly significant because the vast amount of federal/DHS resources used to federalize local police forces is now being undermined in these 14 states.
Obama Is Not Just Facing An Armed Rebellion From the Military
Fourteen state governors have reestablished State Defense Forces which includes any and all militias and the national guard. The authority over these troops does not rest with the President and he is furious. Obviously, these 14 governors are talking and planning amongst each other because their actions are so uniform and have happened in such a narrow time frame, that their actions are clearly an act of insubordination to Obama. In 14 states, the 10th Amendment still has life. These actions by the 14 governors are one short step away from armed rebellion. I am confident that any and all attempts on the part of the Hessian troops on American soil to move against dissident Americans and to enforce martial law will be militarily opposed in these 14 states. When will 14 governors militarily opposed to Obama become 30, become 40?
I cannot overstate how significant this development is. We are “One shot heard around the world” from all hell breaking lose.
Conclusion
It is clear that the peoples’ closest elected representatives have had enough of this criminal organization as have our military. All citizens in the 36 states who are not militarily rising up against Obama, need to demand the same actions from their respective governors. Obama cannot act against a nation that is unified against him. However, this does mean that the bankers will push for WWIII to bring about their desired result if an internal takeover of America cannot be accomplished.
This is what Dave say's: America is on a collision course with a brutal civil war. We can argue if the coming civil war will be conventional or guerrilla. However, many of us feel that we have reached the point of no return and that civil strife is unavoidable. A political solution to our multiple issues would have been my preferred choice, but that ship sailed a long time ago. I know that the cognitive dissonance crowd will not believe this, however, nobody from that mindset can answer the most important question in the debate based upon the present circumstances: If a civil war was not inevitable, then explain how the military and this administration are going to get past the fact that this “false flag” President has fired over 200+ military command officers?
And there is a second important question: Why have 14 state governors restructured their respective state military organizations so that they are not under the control of Obama?
A Military Rebellion Is Unavoidable
Whenever 200+ leaders of any organization are fired in a short period of time, the person doing the firing has formed a group which opposes them. These military leaders had great influence and close ties over those that they have commanded. Obama just did not fire over 200+ military commanders, he alienated, tens if not hundreds of thousands of military personnel who based their professional loyalty to their military commanders and they will resist their foreign born Commander-In-Chief as a result of this betrayal of trust.
This is not a question of some of us in the media who desire for this happen. We have no say in the matter. And father time is defeating many of us, as several of us are too old to fight and too fat to run! It is not up to us as these conditions, which are ripe for a civil war, were forced upon our nation by Obama and his handlers.
Some Questions for the Fence-Sitting Sheep
Do you not think the executive officers under the command of the fired military leaders understood the issues behind the firing of their commanding officers? Was not the entire command structure in Afghanistan alienated from Obama when McChrystal was fired, largely over rules of engagement? Do you not think that all service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan understand that this buffoon of a President increases their chances of not coming home alive, because of Obama’s treasonous rules of engagement which endangers American soldiers?
Do you not think that if many of us in the alternative media can find evidence of a massive Russian troop buildup, including the presence of Russian heavy equipment on our soil, that the military is not already resentful of the fact that they have to wet nurse these future martial law enforcing troops and that they are from a nation that has repeatedly threatened to nuke America in the past 15 months? Do you think our military commanders are looking forward to the participation of Chinese and Russian soldiers in the upcoming RIMPAC war games?
Do you not think that the upper echelon of the military is not scared to death that in a time of civil unrest, or civil war, that we have 200,000 troops, stationed in foreign countries, who will not likely get home? Do you think the Generals in the Pentagon do not know the commanders in Afghanistan, or Iraq? Do you not think there are not close personal relationships in and among our military leaders stationed around the world and there is not an overall awareness in the military that the President is playing for the other side? Do you sheep really believe that the next time our noncommissioned officers send another young American home in a body bag because of the President’s rules of engagement, that the resentment towards this administration does not grow exponentially? Do you not think that present active duty personnel do not hear from their veteran friends who have come back home, that the Obama administration now refers to veterans, in DHS documents, as domestic terrorists and that Obama is going after their guns because he fears them?
If we can find out about Obama’s fake birth certificate and his anti-American sentiment, do you not think that our troops have not learned these lessons a long time ago? Most American military commanders are loyal to each other and have been trained to risk their lives on behalf of their fellow soldiers. Why do you think that when someone from the executive branch flies into Afghanistan, that the troops must be disarmed because of previous shooting incidents?
Does anyone really believe that our military enjoys sleeping with the enemy? And who do you think they blame? After considering all of these facts, do you sheep still believe that it will not take much provocation to get the troops to act against the modern day KGB in America (i.e. DHS)? Hell, even Ray Charles could see this is fertile breeding ground for a civil war! If this was Stalinist Russia, these military officers would have been shot in the back of the head. Fortunately for these 200+ deposed military commanders, our modern communications system would make it impossible for Obama to purge the military in the same manner as Stalin did without incurring the ire of an entire nation.
However, the end result is the same. The military is being purged because it will not act against the American people and you can take that to the bank. The best we can hope for in the present set of circumstances, is a military coup and that, my friends, never ends well and I lose sleep over this possibility. If we do not change course, our greatest fears will be realized because the sides are already drawn and it will not be long until all hell breaks loose across our country.
An Epic Struggle Is Taking Shape
In one corner, we have the DHS led federal agencies accompanied by their muscle; the Chinese, the Russians and the Canadians. If this group prevails in the upcoming struggle, Mao will have to forfeit his title as the most murderous dictator in world history. There are members of the NWO who do not want two stones left together in this country. They want as many of us to die as possible (see the Georgia Guide Stones). They want to leave no trail of the traditional American notions of freedom and independence because these notions are a formidable roadblock to the lethal scientific dictatorship being installed on this planet. Americans are in the crosshairs of history.
American Christians will soon become the most hunted game on the planet because we represent freedom, autonomy and obedience to God’s laws and not blind obedience to the dictates of genocidal leaders. In our corner, the other corner, we have a large segment of the American military and some of the American citizenry, largely veterans,who will oppose the attempts to finalize the tyranny being installed across the planet. This is an all-stakes, winner-take-all battle. Soon, even the sheep are going to be forced to choose sides.
No Pleasant Alternatives
The coming conflict will not have a good outcome no matter who wins. If the military and the American citizens prevail, all we will likely accomplish is to replace one brutal dictatorship with another. If the other side wins, there is nowhere that will be safe.
All of us will become, by definition, an endangered species. Fourteen Governors Have Acquired Some Temporary Courage Against Tyranny I have previously written that I have recently spoken with a high ranking military officer who was fired because he would not help DHS to completely control a fully integrated state-to-state national guard organization. He was unwilling to voluntarily hand the keys to the car to a communist such as Obama whom he perceived as someone who was dedicated to the destruction of this country. This officer’s resolve was shocking, but now I understand why. In retrospect, he was lucky that he was only fired.
Why has DHS armed to the teeth? The answer is simple, Obama is facing opposition to not only his failed policies like Obamacare and he is facing the possibility of organized military resistance at the state level in several locations. There is presently an armed uprising directed at him by the select governors of 14 different states and that number is continuing to grow. To the previous point I raised as to why Obama is moving to nationalize the National Guard Forces, the answer is simple. Fourteen governors are militarily organizing against Obama. States such as Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina, are saying no to the increasing level of tyranny. These state military entities have been structured in such a way that they cannot become federalized. This is highly significant because the vast amount of federal/DHS resources used to federalize local police forces is now being undermined in these 14 states.
Obama Is Not Just Facing An Armed Rebellion From the Military
Fourteen state governors have reestablished State Defense Forces which includes any and all militias and the national guard. The authority over these troops does not rest with the President and he is furious. Obviously, these 14 governors are talking and planning amongst each other because their actions are so uniform and have happened in such a narrow time frame, that their actions are clearly an act of insubordination to Obama. In 14 states, the 10th Amendment still has life. These actions by the 14 governors are one short step away from armed rebellion. I am confident that any and all attempts on the part of the Hessian troops on American soil to move against dissident Americans and to enforce martial law will be militarily opposed in these 14 states. When will 14 governors militarily opposed to Obama become 30, become 40?
I cannot overstate how significant this development is. We are “One shot heard around the world” from all hell breaking lose.
Conclusion
It is clear that the peoples’ closest elected representatives have had enough of this criminal organization as have our military. All citizens in the 36 states who are not militarily rising up against Obama, need to demand the same actions from their respective governors. Obama cannot act against a nation that is unified against him. However, this does mean that the bankers will push for WWIII to bring about their desired result if an internal takeover of America cannot be accomplished.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Wall Street Advisor Advocates Survival Prepping
A top financial advisor, worried that Obamacare, the NSA spying scandal and
spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social
disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a “bug-out bag” that includes
food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.
David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, in a article to investors titled "Be prepared: Wall Street advisor recommends guns, ammo for protection in collapse" said that Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.”
His memo is part of a series addressing the potential for a “financial apocalypse.” His view, however, is that the problems plaguing the country won't result in armageddon. “There is the possibility of a precipitous decline, although a long and drawn out malaise is much more likely,” said the Charlottesville, Va.-based president of Marotta Wealth Management.
UrbanMan's comment: I think it is more likely for the economic collapse to come on gradually. In fact, I think it has already started.
Marotta said that many clients fear an end-of-the-world scenario. He doesn’t agree with that outcome, but does with much of what has people worried.
“I, along with many other economists, agree with many of the concerns expressed in these dire warnings. The growing debt and deficit spending is a tax on those holding dollars. The devaluation in the U.S. dollar risks the dollar's status as the reserve currency of the world. Obamacare was the worst legislation in the past 75 years. Socialism is on the rise and the NSA really is abrogating vast portions of the Constitution. I don't disagree with their concerns,” he wrote.
In his latest note, he said that Americans should have a survival kit to take in case of a financial or natural disaster. It should be filled with items that will help them stay alive for the first 72-hours of a crisis, including firearms.
“A bug-out bag is a good idea depending on where you live even if the emergency is just power outages, earthquakes and hurricanes. And with your preparedness you will be equipped to help others who might be in need,” he wrote. “Be prepared. Especially because it keeps you from being scared.”
Marotta provides a list of items on his website, with a desription of, and recommended Bug Out Bag items straight from Wikipedia.
The suggested contents of a bug-out bag vary, but most of the following are usually included:
• Enough food and water to last for 72 hours. This includes: Water for washing, drinking and cooking. Canada recommends 2 litres per person per day for drinking plus an additional 2 litres per person per day for cleaning and hygiene. In addition to 6litres/6kg of water for personal hygiene for 3 days the Canadian government also recommends carrying a portable shower, nail clippers, hairbrush, cosmetics, shaving gear or beard trimmer (if electric then carry a portable generator and petrol), shampoo, deodorant, acne cream, incontinence pads, a dinner suit/gown (you never know what will happen on your adventure, it could be quite exciting, maybe a new romance).
Forget trying to walk, you'll need a car because your survival backpack will be too heavy to carry. Have a nice disaster. New Zealand recommends 3 litres per person per day for drinking. US recommends 1 gallon (3.78 litres) per person per day.
• Non-perishable food
• Water purification supplies
• Cooking supplies
• A first aid kit
• Fire starting tool (e.g., matches, ferrocerium rod, lighter, 9volt battery, etc.)
• A disaster plan including location of emergency centers, rallying points, possible evacuation routes, etc.
• Professional emergency literature explaining what to do in various types of disaster, studied and understood before the actual disaster but kept for reference
• Maps and travel information •Standard camping equipment, including sanitation supplies
• Weather appropriate clothing (e.g., poncho, headwear, gloves, etc.)
• Bedding items such as sleeping bags and blankets
• Enough medicine to last an extended evacuation period
• Medical records
• Pet, child, and elderly care needs
• Battery or crank-operated radio
• Lighting (battery or crank operated flashlight, glow sticks)
• Cash and change, as electronic banking transactions may not be available during the initial period following an emergency or evacuation
• Positive identification, such as drivers license, state I.D. card, or social security card
• Birth certificate or passport
• Fixed-blade and folding knife
• Duct tape and rope or paracord
• Plastic tarps for shelter and water collection
• Wire for binding and animal traps
• Compass Some users include the following.
These items are appropriate and legal in some areas:
• Slingshot, pellet gun, blowgun or other small game hunting equipment
• Firearms and appropriate ammunition
UrbanMan's comment: Then just when you think this guy is providing some decent type of service to people who are pretty clueles about Survival and Preping, Marotta say's this:
Just to be clear. Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms . But in most disasters, including I suspect TEOTWAWKI, most people you meet will be civil.
UrbanMan's comment: Yep!! I'm banking on people being civil, listening to reason, not trying to take what I have,....and I rely on my neighbors to protect me and my family. NOT!!
David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, in a article to investors titled "Be prepared: Wall Street advisor recommends guns, ammo for protection in collapse" said that Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.”
His memo is part of a series addressing the potential for a “financial apocalypse.” His view, however, is that the problems plaguing the country won't result in armageddon. “There is the possibility of a precipitous decline, although a long and drawn out malaise is much more likely,” said the Charlottesville, Va.-based president of Marotta Wealth Management.
UrbanMan's comment: I think it is more likely for the economic collapse to come on gradually. In fact, I think it has already started.
Marotta said that many clients fear an end-of-the-world scenario. He doesn’t agree with that outcome, but does with much of what has people worried.
“I, along with many other economists, agree with many of the concerns expressed in these dire warnings. The growing debt and deficit spending is a tax on those holding dollars. The devaluation in the U.S. dollar risks the dollar's status as the reserve currency of the world. Obamacare was the worst legislation in the past 75 years. Socialism is on the rise and the NSA really is abrogating vast portions of the Constitution. I don't disagree with their concerns,” he wrote.
In his latest note, he said that Americans should have a survival kit to take in case of a financial or natural disaster. It should be filled with items that will help them stay alive for the first 72-hours of a crisis, including firearms.
“A bug-out bag is a good idea depending on where you live even if the emergency is just power outages, earthquakes and hurricanes. And with your preparedness you will be equipped to help others who might be in need,” he wrote. “Be prepared. Especially because it keeps you from being scared.”
Marotta provides a list of items on his website, with a desription of, and recommended Bug Out Bag items straight from Wikipedia.
The suggested contents of a bug-out bag vary, but most of the following are usually included:
• Enough food and water to last for 72 hours. This includes: Water for washing, drinking and cooking. Canada recommends 2 litres per person per day for drinking plus an additional 2 litres per person per day for cleaning and hygiene. In addition to 6litres/6kg of water for personal hygiene for 3 days the Canadian government also recommends carrying a portable shower, nail clippers, hairbrush, cosmetics, shaving gear or beard trimmer (if electric then carry a portable generator and petrol), shampoo, deodorant, acne cream, incontinence pads, a dinner suit/gown (you never know what will happen on your adventure, it could be quite exciting, maybe a new romance).
Forget trying to walk, you'll need a car because your survival backpack will be too heavy to carry. Have a nice disaster. New Zealand recommends 3 litres per person per day for drinking. US recommends 1 gallon (3.78 litres) per person per day.
• Non-perishable food
• Water purification supplies
• Cooking supplies
• A first aid kit
• Fire starting tool (e.g., matches, ferrocerium rod, lighter, 9volt battery, etc.)
• A disaster plan including location of emergency centers, rallying points, possible evacuation routes, etc.
• Professional emergency literature explaining what to do in various types of disaster, studied and understood before the actual disaster but kept for reference
• Maps and travel information •Standard camping equipment, including sanitation supplies
• Weather appropriate clothing (e.g., poncho, headwear, gloves, etc.)
• Bedding items such as sleeping bags and blankets
• Enough medicine to last an extended evacuation period
• Medical records
• Pet, child, and elderly care needs
• Battery or crank-operated radio
• Lighting (battery or crank operated flashlight, glow sticks)
• Cash and change, as electronic banking transactions may not be available during the initial period following an emergency or evacuation
• Positive identification, such as drivers license, state I.D. card, or social security card
• Birth certificate or passport
• Fixed-blade and folding knife
• Duct tape and rope or paracord
• Plastic tarps for shelter and water collection
• Wire for binding and animal traps
• Compass Some users include the following.
These items are appropriate and legal in some areas:
• Slingshot, pellet gun, blowgun or other small game hunting equipment
• Firearms and appropriate ammunition
UrbanMan's comment: Then just when you think this guy is providing some decent type of service to people who are pretty clueles about Survival and Preping, Marotta say's this:
Just to be clear. Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms . But in most disasters, including I suspect TEOTWAWKI, most people you meet will be civil.
UrbanMan's comment: Yep!! I'm banking on people being civil, listening to reason, not trying to take what I have,....and I rely on my neighbors to protect me and my family. NOT!!
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Five Stages of Collapse
I have been hearing the term "Five Stages of Collapse" from a couple different sources, so I decided to look it up and see what people were referring to. I found references to the 5 stages of collapse from this article from the Market Oracle in the United Kingdom. Yep, the same United Kingdom who faces many of the same problems we in the U.S. face,......devalued fiat currency, growing radical muslim population, growing poverty population, encroachment of governmental powers. But the U.K. has worse issues than us with their restrictive gun control laws and the physical footprint of living on an island greatly reduces mobility and Bug Out planning.
We are witnessing the beginning stages of political collapse. The government and its leaders are being discredited on a daily basis. The mismanagement of fiscal policy, foreign policy and domestic policy, along with the revelations of the NSA conducting mass surveillance against all Americans has led critical thinking Americans to question the legitimacy of the politicians running the show on behalf of the bankers, corporations and arms dealers. The Gestapo like tactics used by the government in Boston was an early warning sign of what is to come. Government entitlement promises will vaporize, as they did in Detroit, with pension promises worth only ten cents on the dollar.
Total social and cultural collapse could resemble the chaotic civil war scenarios playing out in Libya and Syria. The best case scenario would be for a collapse similar to the Soviet Union’s relatively peaceful disintegration into impotent republics. I don’t believe we’ll be this fortunate. The most powerful military empire in world history will not fade away. It will go out in a blaze of glory with a currency collapse, hyper-inflation, and war on a grand scale.
The day of reckoning for a century of putting our faith in the wrong people with wrong ideas and evil intentions is upon us. Dmitry Orlov provides a blueprint for the collapse in his book – The Five Stages of Collapse – Survivors’ Toolkit:
Stage 1: Financial Collapse. Faith in “business as usual” is lost. The future is no longer assumed to resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings wiped out and access to capital is lost.
Stage 2: Commercial Collapse. Faith that “the market shall provide” is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm.
Stage 3: Political Collapse. Faith that “the government will take care of you” is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance.
Stage 4: Social Collapse. Faith that “your people will take care of you” is lost, as social institutions, be they charities or other groups that rush to fill the power vacuum, run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.
Stage 5: Cultural Collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for “kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity.” Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes “May you die today so that I can die tomorrow.”
The collapse is occurring in fits and starts. The stages of collapse do not necessarily have to occur in order. You can recognize various elements of the first three stages in the United States today. Stage 1 commenced in September 2008 when this Crisis period was catalyzed by the disintegration of the worldwide financial system caused by Wall Street intentionally creating the largest control fraud in world history, with easy money provided by Greenspan/Bernanke, fraudulent mortgage products, fake appraisals, bribing rating agencies to provide AAA ratings to derivatives filled with feces, and having their puppets in the media and political arena provide the propaganda to herd the sheep into the slaughterhouse.
The American people neglected their civic duty to elect leaders who would tell them the truth and represent current and future generations equally. They have neglected the increasing lawlessness of Wall Street, K Street and the corporate suite. The American people have lived in denial about their responsibility for their own financial well-being, willingly delegating it to a government of math challenged politicians who promised trillions more than they could ever deliver. The American people have delayed tackling the dire issues confronting our nation, including: $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities, the military industrial complex creating wars across the globe, militarization of our local police forces, domestic spying on every citizen, allowing mega-corporations and the financial elite to turn our nation from savings based production to debt based consumption, and allowing corporations, the military industrial complex, Wall Street, and shadowy billionaires to pick and control our elected officials. The civic fabric of the country is being torn at the points of extreme vulnerability.
“At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where, during the Unraveling, America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action. Anger at “mistakes we made” will translate into calls for action, regardless of the heightened public risk. It is unlikely that the catalyst will worsen into a full-fledged catastrophe, since the nation will probably find a way to avert the initial danger and stabilize the situation for a while. Yet even if dire consequences are temporarily averted, America will have entered the Fourth Turning.” - The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
Our Brave New World controllers (bankers, politicians, corporate titans, media moguls, shadowy billionaires) were able to avert a full-fledged catastrophe in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 which would have put an end to their reign of destruction. To accept the rightful consequences of their foul actions was intolerable to these obscenely wealthy, despicable men. Their loathsome and vile solutions to a crisis they created have done nothing to relieve the pain and suffering of the average person, while further enriching them, as they continue to gorge on the dying carcass of a once thriving nation. Despite overwhelming public outrage, Congress did as they were instructed by their Wall Street masters and handed over $700 billion of taxpayer funds into Wall Street vaults, under the false threat of systematic collapse. The $800 billion of pork stimulus was injected directly into the veins of corporate campaign contributors. The $3 billion Cash for Clunkers scheme resulted in pumping taxpayer dollars into the government owned union car companies, while driving up the prices of used cars and hurting lower income folks.
Ben Bernanke has peddled the false paradigm of quantitative easing (code for printing money and airlifting it to Wall Street) as benefitting Main Street. Nothing could be further from the truth. He bought $1.3 trillion of toxic mortgage backed securities from his Wall Street owners. He has pumped a total of $2.8 trillion into the hands of Wall Street since September 2008, and is singlehandedly generating $5 billion of risk free profits for these deadbeats by paying them .25% on their reserves. Drug dealer Ben continues to pump $2.8 billion per day into the veins of Wall Street addicts and any hint of tapering the heroin causes the addicts to flail about. Ben should be so proud. He should hang a Mission Accomplished banner whenever he gives a speech. Bank profits reached an all-time record in the 2nd quarter, at $42.2 billion, with 80% of those profits going to the 2% Too Big To Trust Wall Street Mega-Goliath Banks. It’s enough to make a soon to retire, and take a Wall Street job, central banker smile.
“The money rate can, indeed, be kept artificially low only by continuous new injections of currency or bank credit in place of real savings. This can create the illusion of more capital just as the addition of water can create the illusion of more milk. But it is a policy of continuous inflation. It is obviously a process involving cumulative danger. The money rate will rise and a crisis will develop if the inflation is reversed, or merely brought to a halt, or even continued at a diminished rate. Cheap money policies, in short, eventually bring about far more violent oscillations in business than those they are designed to remedy or prevent.” – Henry Hazlitt – 1946
Any serious minded person knew Wall Street had too much power, too much control, and too much influence in 2008 when they crashed our economic system. When something is too big to fail because it will create systematic collapse, you make it smaller. Instead we have allowed our sociopathic rulers to allow these parasitic institutions to get even larger. Just 12 mega-banks control 70% of all the banking assets in the country, with 90% controlled by the top 86 banks. There are approximately 8,000 financial institutions in this country. Wall Street will be congratulating themselves with record compensation of $127 billion and record bonuses of $23 billion for a job well done. It is dangerous work making journal entries relieving loan loss reserves, committing foreclosure fraud, marking your assets to unicorn, making deposits at the Fed, and counting on the Bernanke Put to keep stocks rising. During a supposed recovery from 2009 to 2011, average real income per household grew pitifully by 1.7%, but all the gains accrued to Bernanke’s minions. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.2% while bottom 99% incomes shrunk by 0.4%. Therefore, the top 1% captured 121% of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery. This warped trend has only accelerated since 2011.
When the financial collapse reaches its crescendo, the just in time supply chain, that keeps cheese doodles and cheese whiz on your grocery store shelves, Chinese produced iGadgets in your local Wal-Mart Supercenter, and gasoline flowing out of gas station hoses into your leased Cadillac Escalade, will break down rapidly. The strain of $110 oil is already evident. The fireworks will really get going when ATM machines run dry and the EBT cards stop functioning. Within a week riots and panic will engulf the country.
“At some point we are bound to hear, from across two oceans, the shocking words “Your money is no good here.” Fast forward to a week later: banks are closed, ATMs are out of cash, supermarket shelves are bare and gas stations are starting to run out of fuel. And then something happens: the government announces they have formed a crisis task force, and will nationalize, recapitalize and reopen banks, restoring confidence. The banks reopen, under heavy guard, and thousands of people get arrested for attempting to withdraw their savings. Banks close, riots begin. Next, the government decides that, to jump-start commerce, it will honor deposit guarantees and simply hand out cash. They print and arrange for the cash to be handed out. Now everyone has plenty of cash, but there is still no food in the supermarkets or gasoline at the gas stations because by now the international supply chains have broken down and the delivery pipelines are empty.” – Dmitry Orlov – The Five Stages of Collapse
We are witnessing the beginning stages of political collapse. The government and its leaders are being discredited on a daily basis. The mismanagement of fiscal policy, foreign policy and domestic policy, along with the revelations of the NSA conducting mass surveillance against all Americans has led critical thinking Americans to question the legitimacy of the politicians running the show on behalf of the bankers, corporations and arms dealers. The Gestapo like tactics used by the government in Boston was an early warning sign of what is to come. Government entitlement promises will vaporize, as they did in Detroit, with pension promises worth only ten cents on the dollar.
Total social and cultural collapse could resemble the chaotic civil war scenarios playing out in Libya and Syria. The best case scenario would be for a collapse similar to the Soviet Union’s relatively peaceful disintegration into impotent republics. I don’t believe we’ll be this fortunate. The most powerful military empire in world history will not fade away. It will go out in a blaze of glory with a currency collapse, hyper-inflation, and war on a grand scale.
The day of reckoning for a century of putting our faith in the wrong people with wrong ideas and evil intentions is upon us. Dmitry Orlov provides a blueprint for the collapse in his book – The Five Stages of Collapse – Survivors’ Toolkit:
Stage 1: Financial Collapse. Faith in “business as usual” is lost. The future is no longer assumed to resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings wiped out and access to capital is lost.
Stage 2: Commercial Collapse. Faith that “the market shall provide” is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm.
Stage 3: Political Collapse. Faith that “the government will take care of you” is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance.
Stage 4: Social Collapse. Faith that “your people will take care of you” is lost, as social institutions, be they charities or other groups that rush to fill the power vacuum, run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.
Stage 5: Cultural Collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for “kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity.” Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes “May you die today so that I can die tomorrow.”
The collapse is occurring in fits and starts. The stages of collapse do not necessarily have to occur in order. You can recognize various elements of the first three stages in the United States today. Stage 1 commenced in September 2008 when this Crisis period was catalyzed by the disintegration of the worldwide financial system caused by Wall Street intentionally creating the largest control fraud in world history, with easy money provided by Greenspan/Bernanke, fraudulent mortgage products, fake appraisals, bribing rating agencies to provide AAA ratings to derivatives filled with feces, and having their puppets in the media and political arena provide the propaganda to herd the sheep into the slaughterhouse.
The American people neglected their civic duty to elect leaders who would tell them the truth and represent current and future generations equally. They have neglected the increasing lawlessness of Wall Street, K Street and the corporate suite. The American people have lived in denial about their responsibility for their own financial well-being, willingly delegating it to a government of math challenged politicians who promised trillions more than they could ever deliver. The American people have delayed tackling the dire issues confronting our nation, including: $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities, the military industrial complex creating wars across the globe, militarization of our local police forces, domestic spying on every citizen, allowing mega-corporations and the financial elite to turn our nation from savings based production to debt based consumption, and allowing corporations, the military industrial complex, Wall Street, and shadowy billionaires to pick and control our elected officials. The civic fabric of the country is being torn at the points of extreme vulnerability.
“At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where, during the Unraveling, America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action. Anger at “mistakes we made” will translate into calls for action, regardless of the heightened public risk. It is unlikely that the catalyst will worsen into a full-fledged catastrophe, since the nation will probably find a way to avert the initial danger and stabilize the situation for a while. Yet even if dire consequences are temporarily averted, America will have entered the Fourth Turning.” - The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
Our Brave New World controllers (bankers, politicians, corporate titans, media moguls, shadowy billionaires) were able to avert a full-fledged catastrophe in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 which would have put an end to their reign of destruction. To accept the rightful consequences of their foul actions was intolerable to these obscenely wealthy, despicable men. Their loathsome and vile solutions to a crisis they created have done nothing to relieve the pain and suffering of the average person, while further enriching them, as they continue to gorge on the dying carcass of a once thriving nation. Despite overwhelming public outrage, Congress did as they were instructed by their Wall Street masters and handed over $700 billion of taxpayer funds into Wall Street vaults, under the false threat of systematic collapse. The $800 billion of pork stimulus was injected directly into the veins of corporate campaign contributors. The $3 billion Cash for Clunkers scheme resulted in pumping taxpayer dollars into the government owned union car companies, while driving up the prices of used cars and hurting lower income folks.
Ben Bernanke has peddled the false paradigm of quantitative easing (code for printing money and airlifting it to Wall Street) as benefitting Main Street. Nothing could be further from the truth. He bought $1.3 trillion of toxic mortgage backed securities from his Wall Street owners. He has pumped a total of $2.8 trillion into the hands of Wall Street since September 2008, and is singlehandedly generating $5 billion of risk free profits for these deadbeats by paying them .25% on their reserves. Drug dealer Ben continues to pump $2.8 billion per day into the veins of Wall Street addicts and any hint of tapering the heroin causes the addicts to flail about. Ben should be so proud. He should hang a Mission Accomplished banner whenever he gives a speech. Bank profits reached an all-time record in the 2nd quarter, at $42.2 billion, with 80% of those profits going to the 2% Too Big To Trust Wall Street Mega-Goliath Banks. It’s enough to make a soon to retire, and take a Wall Street job, central banker smile.
“The money rate can, indeed, be kept artificially low only by continuous new injections of currency or bank credit in place of real savings. This can create the illusion of more capital just as the addition of water can create the illusion of more milk. But it is a policy of continuous inflation. It is obviously a process involving cumulative danger. The money rate will rise and a crisis will develop if the inflation is reversed, or merely brought to a halt, or even continued at a diminished rate. Cheap money policies, in short, eventually bring about far more violent oscillations in business than those they are designed to remedy or prevent.” – Henry Hazlitt – 1946
Any serious minded person knew Wall Street had too much power, too much control, and too much influence in 2008 when they crashed our economic system. When something is too big to fail because it will create systematic collapse, you make it smaller. Instead we have allowed our sociopathic rulers to allow these parasitic institutions to get even larger. Just 12 mega-banks control 70% of all the banking assets in the country, with 90% controlled by the top 86 banks. There are approximately 8,000 financial institutions in this country. Wall Street will be congratulating themselves with record compensation of $127 billion and record bonuses of $23 billion for a job well done. It is dangerous work making journal entries relieving loan loss reserves, committing foreclosure fraud, marking your assets to unicorn, making deposits at the Fed, and counting on the Bernanke Put to keep stocks rising. During a supposed recovery from 2009 to 2011, average real income per household grew pitifully by 1.7%, but all the gains accrued to Bernanke’s minions. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.2% while bottom 99% incomes shrunk by 0.4%. Therefore, the top 1% captured 121% of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery. This warped trend has only accelerated since 2011.
When the financial collapse reaches its crescendo, the just in time supply chain, that keeps cheese doodles and cheese whiz on your grocery store shelves, Chinese produced iGadgets in your local Wal-Mart Supercenter, and gasoline flowing out of gas station hoses into your leased Cadillac Escalade, will break down rapidly. The strain of $110 oil is already evident. The fireworks will really get going when ATM machines run dry and the EBT cards stop functioning. Within a week riots and panic will engulf the country.
“At some point we are bound to hear, from across two oceans, the shocking words “Your money is no good here.” Fast forward to a week later: banks are closed, ATMs are out of cash, supermarket shelves are bare and gas stations are starting to run out of fuel. And then something happens: the government announces they have formed a crisis task force, and will nationalize, recapitalize and reopen banks, restoring confidence. The banks reopen, under heavy guard, and thousands of people get arrested for attempting to withdraw their savings. Banks close, riots begin. Next, the government decides that, to jump-start commerce, it will honor deposit guarantees and simply hand out cash. They print and arrange for the cash to be handed out. Now everyone has plenty of cash, but there is still no food in the supermarkets or gasoline at the gas stations because by now the international supply chains have broken down and the delivery pipelines are empty.” – Dmitry Orlov – The Five Stages of Collapse
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Warning from Bob Rinear
Warning from Bob Rinear
Robert "Bob" Rinear is a noteworthly financial advisor
Robert "Bob" Rinear, who is a noteworthly financial advisor, wrote an article
basically making the case for the artificial growth of the stock market due to
Bernanke's FED pushing $85 billion a month into the money supply. This last
week Rinear was cautioning us that on September 18th, 2013 Bernanke would make
a decision on continuing or tapering Quanitive Easing (QE) which could be the
long awaited taper of worthless fiat curency being floated into the market.
Rinear's supposition, in part from bogus Governmental reports that the economy was building strength, as that the larger a QE taper, the larger a stock market drop. The stronger the economy, the less need for QE. But at some point in time QE has to taper or stop. When it does there will be hell to pay on the stock market. Stocks and bonds and therefore our pensions plans invested in these will devalue. How much will they devalue would be dependent upon just how far the market drops.
Some of you saying "what the hell dude,.....the stock market has nothing to do with the economy any more. Wall Street is a fraud and just manipulates false values and people's emotions." Well, you won't get an argument from me. But the stock market crashing or tanking significantly will have an impact on our lifes. It could be the catalyst for the long awaited economic collapse that places 100 million of our fellow citizens looking for food and shelter on a day by day basis ( 1 in 7 Americans are living in poverty right now). It also just may not be so bad,...... it may eliminate the middle class,...making us all part of the lower class, making life hard, but liveable.
And Rinear isn't the only one forecasting a market fall. Gina Martin Adams who happens to be a Wells Fargo strategist, watched the S&P 500 add 21 percent. And on this past Thursday's, a day after the FED's announcment to continue pumping money into the system, Adams reiterated her call that the index would close out the by dropping 16 percent erasing all gains this years.
We are indeed in interesting times.
Now the warning from Rinear.
Did you notice Poland just did? At first I thought it was a bad joke, one of the internet rumors gone wild. But it isn’t. Basically they just announced that they were confiscating 50% of all PRIVATE pensions. Did you read that?
Remember Cyprus and the idea of a “bail in” where deposit money will be used to support failed banks? Well Poland is taking it a step further.
Poland has a “debt ceiling” that prevents it from issuing debt over 55% of GDP. Well they were dangerously flirting with breaking that rule in a big way. By confiscating and stealing (“nationalizing”) the Polish citizens’ private pension money, they are now booking that money as a straight-up cash asset on the government’s balance sheet, thus “freeing up room” against the GDP-to-debt threshold so that the Polish government can … issue more debt and spend even more.
When you see banks laying out rules for “bail in’s” and see Governments looking at private pensions as their own little piggy banks, it certainly brings me back to an article I wrote for you all way back in 2011. I suggested that at “some point” Uncle Sam is going to look at the 10 trillion in 401K’s and IRA’s and the almost 10 trillion in annuities and private pensions and “take it”. Hey, look at it like a crooked politician for a minute.
Here’s 20 trillion dollars just “sitting” in accounts. Why not take it, use the money to do stupid things, replace the holdings with Government issuance like bonds, and keep partying like it’s 1999? Poland just saw that light.
The US will do that if necessary and frankly it’s necessary now. So far they’ve danced around the issues, used Fed money, etc, but this won’t last for ever. So while a taper out of the Fed might beat gold and silver down some, I will indeed buy the dip. What is safer, ten boxes of gold coins or some digital receipt that says I have 100K in a 401K at some mutual fund outfit? You know the answer. If Uncle sam wants my physical, he’s going to have a pretty hard time getting it. If he wants my 401K my only defense is a phone call. No thanks.
So Rinear is telling us the possiblity of us losing all our externally stored wealth,....in my case it's just savings...but mnore important is how would migitate the coming effects that an easing of, or a complete stopping of QE would have on the market and therefore our wealth and possible government confiscation of existing wealth in order to keep the government afloat, albeit for a short time? Wow! That's a complication question but he answer is simple but not necessarily easy to execute. The way we mitigate financial market collapse and the requisite economic chaos is through proper management of the Survivalist's Portfolio,........a portfolio that does not relay on diverse holdings between bonds,stocks, mutual funds and 401K plans, but instead ensures that we have enough commodites on hand and physically held such as cash, gold, silver, firearms, ammunition, stored foods, ability to grow food - stored seeds, and the equipment and material we'll need to see us through hard times.
Rinear's supposition, in part from bogus Governmental reports that the economy was building strength, as that the larger a QE taper, the larger a stock market drop. The stronger the economy, the less need for QE. But at some point in time QE has to taper or stop. When it does there will be hell to pay on the stock market. Stocks and bonds and therefore our pensions plans invested in these will devalue. How much will they devalue would be dependent upon just how far the market drops.
Some of you saying "what the hell dude,.....the stock market has nothing to do with the economy any more. Wall Street is a fraud and just manipulates false values and people's emotions." Well, you won't get an argument from me. But the stock market crashing or tanking significantly will have an impact on our lifes. It could be the catalyst for the long awaited economic collapse that places 100 million of our fellow citizens looking for food and shelter on a day by day basis ( 1 in 7 Americans are living in poverty right now). It also just may not be so bad,...... it may eliminate the middle class,...making us all part of the lower class, making life hard, but liveable.
And Rinear isn't the only one forecasting a market fall. Gina Martin Adams who happens to be a Wells Fargo strategist, watched the S&P 500 add 21 percent. And on this past Thursday's, a day after the FED's announcment to continue pumping money into the system, Adams reiterated her call that the index would close out the by dropping 16 percent erasing all gains this years.
We are indeed in interesting times.
Now the warning from Rinear.
Did you notice Poland just did? At first I thought it was a bad joke, one of the internet rumors gone wild. But it isn’t. Basically they just announced that they were confiscating 50% of all PRIVATE pensions. Did you read that?
Remember Cyprus and the idea of a “bail in” where deposit money will be used to support failed banks? Well Poland is taking it a step further.
Poland has a “debt ceiling” that prevents it from issuing debt over 55% of GDP. Well they were dangerously flirting with breaking that rule in a big way. By confiscating and stealing (“nationalizing”) the Polish citizens’ private pension money, they are now booking that money as a straight-up cash asset on the government’s balance sheet, thus “freeing up room” against the GDP-to-debt threshold so that the Polish government can … issue more debt and spend even more.
When you see banks laying out rules for “bail in’s” and see Governments looking at private pensions as their own little piggy banks, it certainly brings me back to an article I wrote for you all way back in 2011. I suggested that at “some point” Uncle Sam is going to look at the 10 trillion in 401K’s and IRA’s and the almost 10 trillion in annuities and private pensions and “take it”. Hey, look at it like a crooked politician for a minute.
Here’s 20 trillion dollars just “sitting” in accounts. Why not take it, use the money to do stupid things, replace the holdings with Government issuance like bonds, and keep partying like it’s 1999? Poland just saw that light.
The US will do that if necessary and frankly it’s necessary now. So far they’ve danced around the issues, used Fed money, etc, but this won’t last for ever. So while a taper out of the Fed might beat gold and silver down some, I will indeed buy the dip. What is safer, ten boxes of gold coins or some digital receipt that says I have 100K in a 401K at some mutual fund outfit? You know the answer. If Uncle sam wants my physical, he’s going to have a pretty hard time getting it. If he wants my 401K my only defense is a phone call. No thanks.
So Rinear is telling us the possiblity of us losing all our externally stored wealth,....in my case it's just savings...but mnore important is how would migitate the coming effects that an easing of, or a complete stopping of QE would have on the market and therefore our wealth and possible government confiscation of existing wealth in order to keep the government afloat, albeit for a short time? Wow! That's a complication question but he answer is simple but not necessarily easy to execute. The way we mitigate financial market collapse and the requisite economic chaos is through proper management of the Survivalist's Portfolio,........a portfolio that does not relay on diverse holdings between bonds,stocks, mutual funds and 401K plans, but instead ensures that we have enough commodites on hand and physically held such as cash, gold, silver, firearms, ammunition, stored foods, ability to grow food - stored seeds, and the equipment and material we'll need to see us through hard times.
Monday, July 29, 2013
18 Similarities Between The Last Financial Crisis And Today
By Michael Snyder on The Economic Collapse Blog, posting an article with the title "It Is Happening Again: 18 Similarities Between The Last Financial Crisis And Today"
#1 According to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch equity strategy team, their big institutional clients are selling stock at a rate not seen "since 2008".
#2 In 2008, stock prices had wildly diverged from where the economic fundamentals said that they should be. Now it has happened again.
#3 In early 2008, the average price of a gallon of gasoline rose substantially. It is starting to happen again. And remember, whenever the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has risen above $3.80 during the past three years, a stock market decline has always followed.
#4 New home prices just experienced their largest two month drop since Lehman Brothers collapsed.
#5 During the last financial crisis, the mortgage delinquency rate rose dramatically. It is starting to happen again.
#6 Prior to the financial crisis of 2008, there was a spike in the number of adjustable rate mortgages. It is happening again.
#7 Just before the last financial crisis, unemployment claims started skyrocketing. Well, initial claims for unemployment benefits are rising again. Once we hit the 400,000 level, we will officially be in the danger zone.
#8 Continuing claims for unemployment benefits just spiked to the highest level since early 2009.
#9 The yield on 10 year Treasuries is now up to 2.60 percent. We also saw the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries rise significantly during the first half of 2008.
#10 According to Zero Hedge, "whenever the annual change in core capex, also known as Non-Defense Capital Goods excluding Aircraft shipments goes negative, the US has traditionally entered a recession". Guess what? It is rapidly heading toward negative territory again.
#11 Average hourly compensation in the United States experienced its largest drop since 2009 during the first quarter of 2013.
#12 In the month of June, spending at restaurants fell by the most that we have seen since February 2008.
#13 Just before the last financial crisis, corporate earnings were very disappointing. Now it is happening again.
#14 Margin debt spiked just before the dot.com bubble burst, it spiked just before the financial crash of 2008, and now it is spiking again.
#15 During 2008, the price of gold fell substantially. Now it is happening again. #16 Global business confidence is now the lowest that it has been since the last recession.
#17 Back in 2008, the U.S. national debt was rapidly rising to unsustainable levels. We are in much, much worse shape today.
#18 Prior to the last financial crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured the American people that home prices would not decline and that there would not be a recession. We all know what happened. Now he is once again promising that everything is going to be just fine.
Are the American people going to fall for it again?
Add to Michael Synder's points is that the stimulus from the Fed's printing money and dumping into the market is or has to stop at some point. Everything Bernanke makes a comments about slowing or stopping the fiat currency printing, the markets go crazy in a bad way. Not that I have any trust in the market financials anyway. They are hocus pocus.
The welfare rolls continue to grow. We are on target for 1/3 of the American population to be on welfare and this is not counting Social Security Insurance or Disability. Add to the underfunded state and muncialaity retirement costs from cities like Detroit going bankrupt, and there will be many more, is ading to the population rosters of financially strapped and therefore at risk.
#1 According to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch equity strategy team, their big institutional clients are selling stock at a rate not seen "since 2008".
#2 In 2008, stock prices had wildly diverged from where the economic fundamentals said that they should be. Now it has happened again.
#3 In early 2008, the average price of a gallon of gasoline rose substantially. It is starting to happen again. And remember, whenever the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has risen above $3.80 during the past three years, a stock market decline has always followed.
#4 New home prices just experienced their largest two month drop since Lehman Brothers collapsed.
#5 During the last financial crisis, the mortgage delinquency rate rose dramatically. It is starting to happen again.
#6 Prior to the financial crisis of 2008, there was a spike in the number of adjustable rate mortgages. It is happening again.
#7 Just before the last financial crisis, unemployment claims started skyrocketing. Well, initial claims for unemployment benefits are rising again. Once we hit the 400,000 level, we will officially be in the danger zone.
#8 Continuing claims for unemployment benefits just spiked to the highest level since early 2009.
#9 The yield on 10 year Treasuries is now up to 2.60 percent. We also saw the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries rise significantly during the first half of 2008.
#10 According to Zero Hedge, "whenever the annual change in core capex, also known as Non-Defense Capital Goods excluding Aircraft shipments goes negative, the US has traditionally entered a recession". Guess what? It is rapidly heading toward negative territory again.
#11 Average hourly compensation in the United States experienced its largest drop since 2009 during the first quarter of 2013.
#12 In the month of June, spending at restaurants fell by the most that we have seen since February 2008.
#13 Just before the last financial crisis, corporate earnings were very disappointing. Now it is happening again.
#14 Margin debt spiked just before the dot.com bubble burst, it spiked just before the financial crash of 2008, and now it is spiking again.
#15 During 2008, the price of gold fell substantially. Now it is happening again. #16 Global business confidence is now the lowest that it has been since the last recession.
#17 Back in 2008, the U.S. national debt was rapidly rising to unsustainable levels. We are in much, much worse shape today.
#18 Prior to the last financial crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured the American people that home prices would not decline and that there would not be a recession. We all know what happened. Now he is once again promising that everything is going to be just fine.
Are the American people going to fall for it again?
Add to Michael Synder's points is that the stimulus from the Fed's printing money and dumping into the market is or has to stop at some point. Everything Bernanke makes a comments about slowing or stopping the fiat currency printing, the markets go crazy in a bad way. Not that I have any trust in the market financials anyway. They are hocus pocus.
The welfare rolls continue to grow. We are on target for 1/3 of the American population to be on welfare and this is not counting Social Security Insurance or Disability. Add to the underfunded state and muncialaity retirement costs from cities like Detroit going bankrupt, and there will be many more, is ading to the population rosters of financially strapped and therefore at risk.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Inflation or Deflation?
Occassional I get questions on the differences between inflation and deflation as it relates to it affecting the economy, causing a economic collapse and therefore regulating people to daily survival. I struggle to explain either and am much better at explaining the effects. Kinda like explaining a sharp stick jammed into your eye,........I can't explain the medical effects other than the fact that it would subsequently hurt like hell, affect your vision and depth perception, and maybe be a cause for life threatening infection.
Then along comes this good article from Tyler Durden on Zero Hedge. Titled "Will It Be Inflation Or Deflation? The Answer May Surprise You", this article is easy to read and understand and may give the prepper some ammunition to explain causes and effects as it relates to the need to prepare for a collapse. The enitre article with graphs and charts cane be found on Zero Hedge.
Is the coming financial collapse going to be inflationary or deflationary? Are we headed for rampant inflation or crippling deflation? This is a subject that is hotly debated by economists all over the country. Some insist that the wild money printing that the Federal Reserve is doing combined with out of control government spending will eventually result in hyperinflation. Others point to all of the deflationary factors in our economy and argue that we will experience tremendous deflation when the bubble economy that we are currently living in bursts. So what is the truth? Well, for the reasons listed below, we believe that we will see both.
The next major financial panic will cause a substantial deflationary wave first, and after that we will see unprecedented inflation as the central bankers and our politicians respond to the financial crisis. This will happen so quickly that many will get "financial whiplash" as they try to figure out what to do with their money. We are moving toward a time of extreme financial instability, and different strategies will be called for at different times.
So why will we see deflation first? The following are some of the major deflationary forces that are affecting our economy right now...
The Velocity Of Money Is At A 50 Year Low
The rate at which money circulates in our economy is the lowest that it has been in more than 50 years. It has been steadily falling since the late 1990s, and this is a clear sign that economic activity is slowing down. The shaded areas in the chart represent recessions, and as you can see, the velocity of money always slows down during a recession. But even though the government is telling us that we are not in a recession right now, the velocity of money continues to drop like a rock. This is one of the factors that is putting a tremendous amount of deflationary pressure on our economy...
The Trade Deficit
Even single month, far more money leaves this country than comes into it. In fact, the amount going out exceeds the amount coming in by about half a trillion dollars each year. This is extremely deflationary. Our system is constantly bleeding cash, and this is one of the reasons why the federal government has felt a need to run such huge budget deficits and why the Federal Reserve has felt a need to print so much money. They are trying to pump money back into a system that is constantly bleeding massive amounts of cash. Since 1975, the amount of money leaving the United States has exceeded the amount of money coming into the country by more than 8 trillion dollars. The trade deficit is one of our biggest economic problems, and yet most Americans do not even understand what it is. As you can see below, our trade deficit really started getting bad in the late 1990s...
Wages And Salaries As A Percentage Of GDP
One of the primary drivers of inflation is consumer spending. But consumers cannot spend money if they do not have it. And right now, wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP are near a record low. This is a very deflationary state of affairs. The percentage of low paying jobs in the U.S. economy continues to increase, and we have witnessed an explosion in the ranks of the "working poor" in recent years. For consumer prices to rise significantly, more money is going to have to get into the hands of average American consumers first...
When The Debt Bubble Bursts
Right now, we are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world. When a debt bubble bursts, fear and panic typically cause the flow of money and the flow of credit to really tighten up. We saw that happen at the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930s, we saw that happen back in 2008, and we will see it happen again. Deleveraging is deflationary by nature, and it can cause economic activity to grind to a standstill very rapidly.
During the next major wave of the economic collapse, there will be times when it will seem like hardly anyone has any money. The "easy credit" of the past will be long gone, and large numbers of individuals and small businesses will find it very difficult to get loans.
When the debt bubble bursts, cash will be king - at least for a short period of time. Those that do not have any savings at all will really be hurting.
And some of the financial elite seem to be positioning themselves for what is coming. For example, even though he has been making public statements about how great stocks are right now, the truth is that Warren Buffett is currently sitting on $49 billion in cash. That is the most that he has ever had sitting in cash.
Does he know something?
Of course there will be a tremendous amount of pressure on the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve to do something once a financial crash happens. The response by the federal government and the Federal Reserve will likely be extremely inflationary as they try to resuscitate the system. It will probably be far more dramatic than anything we have seen so far.
So cash will not be king for long. In fact, eventually cash will be trash. The actions of the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve in response to the coming financial crisis will greatly upset much of the rest of the world and cause the death of the U.S. dollar.
That is why gold, silver and other hard assets are going to be so good to have in the long-term. In the short-term they will experience wild swings in price, but if you can handle the ride you will be smiling in the end.
In the coming years, we are going to experience both inflation and deflation, and neither one will be pleasant at all.
UrbanMan 's comments: While to some investors having cash on hand, and I mean in your safe, is not a wise way to have money work for you, but is averages the effects of several posibilities,..inflation and deflation, bank closures, ability to purchase items in the early days ot a total collapse until paper fiat currency isn ot accepted.
Then along comes this good article from Tyler Durden on Zero Hedge. Titled "Will It Be Inflation Or Deflation? The Answer May Surprise You", this article is easy to read and understand and may give the prepper some ammunition to explain causes and effects as it relates to the need to prepare for a collapse. The enitre article with graphs and charts cane be found on Zero Hedge.
Is the coming financial collapse going to be inflationary or deflationary? Are we headed for rampant inflation or crippling deflation? This is a subject that is hotly debated by economists all over the country. Some insist that the wild money printing that the Federal Reserve is doing combined with out of control government spending will eventually result in hyperinflation. Others point to all of the deflationary factors in our economy and argue that we will experience tremendous deflation when the bubble economy that we are currently living in bursts. So what is the truth? Well, for the reasons listed below, we believe that we will see both.
The next major financial panic will cause a substantial deflationary wave first, and after that we will see unprecedented inflation as the central bankers and our politicians respond to the financial crisis. This will happen so quickly that many will get "financial whiplash" as they try to figure out what to do with their money. We are moving toward a time of extreme financial instability, and different strategies will be called for at different times.
So why will we see deflation first? The following are some of the major deflationary forces that are affecting our economy right now...
The Velocity Of Money Is At A 50 Year Low
The rate at which money circulates in our economy is the lowest that it has been in more than 50 years. It has been steadily falling since the late 1990s, and this is a clear sign that economic activity is slowing down. The shaded areas in the chart represent recessions, and as you can see, the velocity of money always slows down during a recession. But even though the government is telling us that we are not in a recession right now, the velocity of money continues to drop like a rock. This is one of the factors that is putting a tremendous amount of deflationary pressure on our economy...
The Trade Deficit
Even single month, far more money leaves this country than comes into it. In fact, the amount going out exceeds the amount coming in by about half a trillion dollars each year. This is extremely deflationary. Our system is constantly bleeding cash, and this is one of the reasons why the federal government has felt a need to run such huge budget deficits and why the Federal Reserve has felt a need to print so much money. They are trying to pump money back into a system that is constantly bleeding massive amounts of cash. Since 1975, the amount of money leaving the United States has exceeded the amount of money coming into the country by more than 8 trillion dollars. The trade deficit is one of our biggest economic problems, and yet most Americans do not even understand what it is. As you can see below, our trade deficit really started getting bad in the late 1990s...
Wages And Salaries As A Percentage Of GDP
One of the primary drivers of inflation is consumer spending. But consumers cannot spend money if they do not have it. And right now, wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP are near a record low. This is a very deflationary state of affairs. The percentage of low paying jobs in the U.S. economy continues to increase, and we have witnessed an explosion in the ranks of the "working poor" in recent years. For consumer prices to rise significantly, more money is going to have to get into the hands of average American consumers first...
When The Debt Bubble Bursts
Right now, we are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world. When a debt bubble bursts, fear and panic typically cause the flow of money and the flow of credit to really tighten up. We saw that happen at the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930s, we saw that happen back in 2008, and we will see it happen again. Deleveraging is deflationary by nature, and it can cause economic activity to grind to a standstill very rapidly.
During the next major wave of the economic collapse, there will be times when it will seem like hardly anyone has any money. The "easy credit" of the past will be long gone, and large numbers of individuals and small businesses will find it very difficult to get loans.
When the debt bubble bursts, cash will be king - at least for a short period of time. Those that do not have any savings at all will really be hurting.
And some of the financial elite seem to be positioning themselves for what is coming. For example, even though he has been making public statements about how great stocks are right now, the truth is that Warren Buffett is currently sitting on $49 billion in cash. That is the most that he has ever had sitting in cash.
Does he know something?
Of course there will be a tremendous amount of pressure on the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve to do something once a financial crash happens. The response by the federal government and the Federal Reserve will likely be extremely inflationary as they try to resuscitate the system. It will probably be far more dramatic than anything we have seen so far.
So cash will not be king for long. In fact, eventually cash will be trash. The actions of the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve in response to the coming financial crisis will greatly upset much of the rest of the world and cause the death of the U.S. dollar.
That is why gold, silver and other hard assets are going to be so good to have in the long-term. In the short-term they will experience wild swings in price, but if you can handle the ride you will be smiling in the end.
In the coming years, we are going to experience both inflation and deflation, and neither one will be pleasant at all.
UrbanMan 's comments: While to some investors having cash on hand, and I mean in your safe, is not a wise way to have money work for you, but is averages the effects of several posibilities,..inflation and deflation, bank closures, ability to purchase items in the early days ot a total collapse until paper fiat currency isn ot accepted.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Is the Chance of a Collapse Decreasing?
Are you one of the preppers who has started to slow preparation for, or even days go by when you are not thinking of a potential collapse? I have several friends of mine who either say or do things to indicate a general belief that the chance of a major SHTF is decreasing. One of my friends bought a very expensive dining room set and the other a small sports car. Me? It was like "Dude's, are you kidding me? Now is not the time to incur more debt especially with items that will have no intrinsic value if the economy tanks.
This prompted me to ask some more people I know who are prepping if they thought there is better possibility that an economic collapse is being delayed and/or potentially could be staved off.
One guy told me that fuel prices, food and other commodities costs are all holding steady. Interest rates still at historic lows, so he is optimistic that a collapse can be avoided. I reminded him that I, too, hope for the best, but still prepare for the worst.
Another person says it looks like the federal government is solving the funding problem, finding ways around sequestration and it is more likely some problems will be resolved even given the vast diferences between the two parties in power. I didn't even reply to this but I sure as hell thought "What planet are you living on?"
Here's my short list just on recent events that tell me different, that point to ignored problems and an increased likelyhood of a coming collapse,....and in fact the longer it is put off my sleight of hand programs, policies or artificial money coming into play, the bigger and deeper the collapse will be.
CNN Money is reporting that England's economy is falling back. The United Kingdom's debt has rating has been downgraded to 'AA+' from 'AAA', due to the lack of growth, annual deficit and growing debt - and no prognosis to get better. In fact, the prognosis for England is dim, with recesson appearing on the horizon.
Lack of Food. Here in the states we see several large cities with food banks for the truly needy about empty. I am not talking about the "welfare cheats" but the absolute desperate who rely on community food banks to eat.
Severe Environmental conditions in the U.S. with overall Exceptional Drought conditions and some places experiencing the worst drought in the last 100 years. The heartland is producing less and less food while the demand is greater and this of course is a recipe for increased prices. We have over 47 million Americans on food stamps with another estimated 12 to 15 million that are eligible. There is a huge government effort to get these people signed up. Regardless of how you see this program, the simple fact is that we can't afford it. To be sure there are some people who think we can afford it, and a host of other spending as well.
U.S Cities falling. Large and medium U.S. cities, such as Detroit MI, Dayton OH, Las Vegas NV, Fresno CA, Chicago IL, El Paso TX, Sanford FL, Newark NJ, Philadelphia PA and I am sure others are all facing one or more problems relating to deficit spending, increased local taxes, abandoned buildings, shrinking population (tax base), growing debt usual associated with decreased revenue and increased pension outlays, increased crime and violence which will increase yet because of por economic conditions and reduced law enforcement budgets.
Even after gun control legislation failed, all over the United States there is an ammunition shortage that is really unprecedented. From a couple of my geographically diverse friends, common calibers such as .22LR, 9mm, .38 Spl, .40 cal, .223, and .308 are practically impossible to buy. Other calibers like .300 Win Mag, 7mm, and .243 are available. There has been a reported shortage of 12 gauge buckshot, but slugs are still routinely available. BTW, keep your eyes and ears tuned for another round of anti-second amendment laws to be proposed.
On the precious metals market there has been panic buying of physical gold and silver, as China, Russia, India and others started increasing their physical gold purchase. Preppers are telling me that their local shops don't have Silver bullion. The main reliable precious metals has been silver coins for melt value. Prices will go up before the supply gets stabilized, if it does get stabilized. Buy it while you can.
The Possible Collapse scenario of terrorist strikes of a very significant nature or smaller terrorist strikes which would prompt widespread martial law are higher today than they were three weeks ago with the much publicized terr bombing at the Boston Marathon and the lesser publicized event at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant where a security guard had a chance contact with, and interdicted an armed trespasser who inserted by boat onto the property. Shots were fired, no casualties. Trespasser withdrew. All we all know that Islamic terrorists would like nothing more than to target U.S. Nuclear, conventional power and chemical plants with the emphasis being on chemical and nuclear due to their serious contamination issues.
All in all, I'd say that the collapse is much more likely now, and in fact, we just may be heading unimpeded to towards SHTF. Don't be the ostrich who has it's head in the ground.
This prompted me to ask some more people I know who are prepping if they thought there is better possibility that an economic collapse is being delayed and/or potentially could be staved off.
One guy told me that fuel prices, food and other commodities costs are all holding steady. Interest rates still at historic lows, so he is optimistic that a collapse can be avoided. I reminded him that I, too, hope for the best, but still prepare for the worst.
Another person says it looks like the federal government is solving the funding problem, finding ways around sequestration and it is more likely some problems will be resolved even given the vast diferences between the two parties in power. I didn't even reply to this but I sure as hell thought "What planet are you living on?"
Here's my short list just on recent events that tell me different, that point to ignored problems and an increased likelyhood of a coming collapse,....and in fact the longer it is put off my sleight of hand programs, policies or artificial money coming into play, the bigger and deeper the collapse will be.
CNN Money is reporting that England's economy is falling back. The United Kingdom's debt has rating has been downgraded to 'AA+' from 'AAA', due to the lack of growth, annual deficit and growing debt - and no prognosis to get better. In fact, the prognosis for England is dim, with recesson appearing on the horizon.
Lack of Food. Here in the states we see several large cities with food banks for the truly needy about empty. I am not talking about the "welfare cheats" but the absolute desperate who rely on community food banks to eat.
Severe Environmental conditions in the U.S. with overall Exceptional Drought conditions and some places experiencing the worst drought in the last 100 years. The heartland is producing less and less food while the demand is greater and this of course is a recipe for increased prices. We have over 47 million Americans on food stamps with another estimated 12 to 15 million that are eligible. There is a huge government effort to get these people signed up. Regardless of how you see this program, the simple fact is that we can't afford it. To be sure there are some people who think we can afford it, and a host of other spending as well.
U.S Cities falling. Large and medium U.S. cities, such as Detroit MI, Dayton OH, Las Vegas NV, Fresno CA, Chicago IL, El Paso TX, Sanford FL, Newark NJ, Philadelphia PA and I am sure others are all facing one or more problems relating to deficit spending, increased local taxes, abandoned buildings, shrinking population (tax base), growing debt usual associated with decreased revenue and increased pension outlays, increased crime and violence which will increase yet because of por economic conditions and reduced law enforcement budgets.
Even after gun control legislation failed, all over the United States there is an ammunition shortage that is really unprecedented. From a couple of my geographically diverse friends, common calibers such as .22LR, 9mm, .38 Spl, .40 cal, .223, and .308 are practically impossible to buy. Other calibers like .300 Win Mag, 7mm, and .243 are available. There has been a reported shortage of 12 gauge buckshot, but slugs are still routinely available. BTW, keep your eyes and ears tuned for another round of anti-second amendment laws to be proposed.
On the precious metals market there has been panic buying of physical gold and silver, as China, Russia, India and others started increasing their physical gold purchase. Preppers are telling me that their local shops don't have Silver bullion. The main reliable precious metals has been silver coins for melt value. Prices will go up before the supply gets stabilized, if it does get stabilized. Buy it while you can.
The Possible Collapse scenario of terrorist strikes of a very significant nature or smaller terrorist strikes which would prompt widespread martial law are higher today than they were three weeks ago with the much publicized terr bombing at the Boston Marathon and the lesser publicized event at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant where a security guard had a chance contact with, and interdicted an armed trespasser who inserted by boat onto the property. Shots were fired, no casualties. Trespasser withdrew. All we all know that Islamic terrorists would like nothing more than to target U.S. Nuclear, conventional power and chemical plants with the emphasis being on chemical and nuclear due to their serious contamination issues.
All in all, I'd say that the collapse is much more likely now, and in fact, we just may be heading unimpeded to towards SHTF. Don't be the ostrich who has it's head in the ground.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
How Will a Cashless Society Affect Survivalists?
This is part of an article entitled "Winds Of Digital Change" by Bob Rinear, that was sent to me by a retired investment banker who is now an avowed prepper moving from the North to establish a home in Northern Arizona awaiting what he believes is the economic collapse of America. I am posting this to stimulate thought on how a cashless society can effect our ability to prepare to survive. I'm not too worried about having digital money after a economical or financial collapse as digital money will give way to barter or dealing in preciuous metals - hence the need to own physical gold and silver - but the longer we live in a cashless society, the greater of an impact, a negative impact, it will have on our preparations.
There's absolutely no doubt that at some point in the future, they are going to abandon the idea of "cash" and all transactions will be done with a swipe.
Consider "money" for a while. It has been around in one form or another for thousands of years. When the first coinage was used to "buy" goods instead of using the barter system, there's no doubt that several things happened. One is that it became stupendously easier to get what you wanted or needed. But by association it creates a massive boom in "business". For instance let us suppose you were the farmer and you had hundreds of cows and steer. Well you might want to get a pair of pants or some boots. But the shoemaker didn't want a milk cow or a steer. So you guys couldn't do a lot of business and your feet still hurt. Once the concept of using coins (lets just say currency) really took hold, you could buy your pants and boots from the Shoe maker, and the house builder could "buy" your cows and meats. The velocity of business increased exponentially. Expanding that, all forms of increasing "good" took place.
People could "buy" books and pay tuition to schools. They could easily pay for musicians to play for their parties, etc. Education exploded, the arts became more widely accepted.
Money was a darned good thing.
Then of course there came a time when they figured out that carrying gold around was a bit of a pain, and the first concepts of "currency based on gold" was issued. This was the first good stabs at "currency". The idea being you'd use a slip of paper with a number on it as your vehicle to buy something. The paper "note" would correspond to an amount of gold you could exchange the note for if you wished. While many credit the Europeans for coming up with this and to some extent they were very important as to it's ultimate adoption, the Chinese began the practice 2000 years ago.
The Song Dynasty in China was the first to issue paper money, called "jiaozi", around the 10th century AD. Although the notes were valued at a certain exchange rate for gold, silver, or silk, conversion was never allowed in practice. Then, the successive Yuan Dynasty tried again and was the first dynasty in China to use paper currency as the predominant circulating medium. The founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, issued paper money known as Chao in his reign. The original notes during the Yuan Dynasty were restricted in both area and duration as in the Song Dynasty. (notice that even today most will call the Chinese currency the "yuan" instead of the Renminbi which is its actual official name).
Of course you all know that here in the states President Nixon closed the "gold window" which basically severed our currency from any backing what so ever. We became "fiat" meaning that our currency was only backed by Uncle Sam saying it has value. It couldn't be exchanged at the banks for gold any more. Since that time, we've seen all manner of things happen, just as they have in the past. They PRINTED ever more gobs of the stuff. Well guess what? We've seen all that before. All of it.
The Romans printed money, the Greeks, the Argentineans, the Germans, you name it. All through history they have printed more money than they had "metal" (gold or silver) to back it and it always ended badly. It has only been in the past 45 years that we've embarked on what amounts to a completely "fiat" global situation. No one's money is backed by anything any more. This is new.
We have to ask the question, what happens when they push us into a completely digital cash-less society? We know that when we went from barter to "money" our societies saw a massive increase in activity. We know that when we went to a "currency backed by money" system the entire world experienced the biggest growth spurt the planet had ever seen. But in the last 40 years we've gone to a "currency backed by nothing" system and we're seeing that groan and creak because of the abuses of printing too much of it. Not to mention the downsides of theft, extortion, illegal activity, etc. It is a failure, and they know it. The system will be revamped.
So consider this. At "some" point, even if the so-called currency of the future is indeed backed by some percentage of gold, there will be NO PAPER MONEY. Every transaction will be a card swipe, a smart phone pass, etc.
So there it is folks. At some point in our not too distant future, the idea of "cash" will be tossed in the garbage bin. Everything you do will be recorded digitally. Now we have to try and figure out just how that affects us. For some the effects will be quite large. Consider the drug dealer. He plies his trade in the dark and uses cash. Well if there's no cash in our system, how does he get paid? Consider all the "under the table" folks. You know, the guy that cuts ten of his neighbors lawns each weekend for 30 bucks cash. How does he get paid now? If it is all digital, there's a trail, a completely unbroken trail. He can't hide that from the IRS any more.
Consider anything you buy. Did you think you'd be slick when you were cheating on your spouse by buying him/her gifts with cash? No longer, now the wife would be able to find those "charges". In fact, if Uncle Sam is dead set on knowing every single thing about you, then a cash less society is his orgasmic fantasy. But what I want to know is this... what is the resultant effect on the economy? Will sales rise because you can swipe faster than you can trade cash and wait for change? Will jobs be created because it will no longer benefit someone to hire someone else "under the table", or will the percentage of poor explode because those folks will not be utilized anymore?
As much as a cash society is flush with the ability for abuse, how does one measure the "good" that hidden transactions represent? I have found no logical way to explore it to be honest with you. But I know that there have been times in my life where I've "lent" some money to someone, where it bailed them out of a tough jam, and it would have been disaster if they had to let others know they "needed" the funding.
There's been other times where just handing my table waitress an extra tip, brought us service above and beyond the normal. What is the ancillary effect of moving cash around that isn't attached to a digital string? How does one give their kids an allowance, or pay the neighbor kid for shoveling your driveway? How many businesses were built in America by someone with dogged determination starting out by going door to door selling cookies or shoveling snow? Would all those kids be forever pushed out of the budding entrepreneurial pool?
How big is the Bureaucracy going to be that tries to watch over all that digital snow? Who's the Government troll that will dissect all the digital payments you make? Is not Government intervention in our lives at a level we already see as abusive? Then we have the security side of it all. What happens when there's the "glitch" like we've seen lately, where you log in and your bank account shows "0" in it? You can't even buy a gallon of milk until you get that account fixed, how long does that take? Then consider the implications for "them" to completely stop you in your tracks. If cash is not accepted for any good or service, the Government can absolutely crush you simply by shutting off your "digital account". Think about it deeply folks because the implications for abuse boggle the mind.
I have thought a lot about this over the past few months as I see more and more digital card readers pop up in every area of our lives. You see commercials for readers you pop onto your phone so you can swipe cards wherever you are. You saw the beginning of it when years ago McDonalds put card readers in their outlets. Now it's Starbucks and virtually every convenience store. The march towards a completely digital world is marching forward and picking up steam. Just 40 years ago the concept would have been science fiction. Today it is not only reality, it is roaring forward.
From where I sit, it is my opinion that right now all of this digital money is being seen as a benefit. That is because it "supplements" the status quo, it "adds" to your ability to do business. But, once the hammer falls and it is "law", I see a much different picture. I see disruptions in so many areas, that the "net net" of it all is very negative. It is the ultimate "big brother" eye in the sky. With that in mind, it "has" to stifle economic activity.
Let me leave you with this thought. Imagine a major drug dealer in say Miami. While selling drugs is clearly illegal, and many people are hurt by it (the drug user, turf wars, etc.) the fact is that the millions made by the dealer and his gang is spent. Homes are built, cars are sold, pools installed, travel booked, etc. Despite the creation of the cash being illegal, the resultant spending of the cash is "good" for the economy. A digital society could put the dealer out of business, which is good. But the businesses that would have benefitted from that dealer spending his illegal gains is hurt, which is bad.
Which one will end up having more societal impact? It is a troubling question.
Governments are broke and they're on a wild hunt for tax income and tracing money is their game. Digital money makes it easy. Just this week we see news that the IRS is allowed to read personal emails. We saw news stating that they inspect Facebook and twitter for hints that you might have more money than you're stating. Digital dollars is their golden goose and thus it will be implemented. We all have to understand that, and decide what it means to each of us. I can't tell you the day, but there's no doubt in my mind that it will happen in the next ten years. A long time you say? Nope, just the blink of an eye, ask my great grand mom, she'll tell you.
There's absolutely no doubt that at some point in the future, they are going to abandon the idea of "cash" and all transactions will be done with a swipe.
Consider "money" for a while. It has been around in one form or another for thousands of years. When the first coinage was used to "buy" goods instead of using the barter system, there's no doubt that several things happened. One is that it became stupendously easier to get what you wanted or needed. But by association it creates a massive boom in "business". For instance let us suppose you were the farmer and you had hundreds of cows and steer. Well you might want to get a pair of pants or some boots. But the shoemaker didn't want a milk cow or a steer. So you guys couldn't do a lot of business and your feet still hurt. Once the concept of using coins (lets just say currency) really took hold, you could buy your pants and boots from the Shoe maker, and the house builder could "buy" your cows and meats. The velocity of business increased exponentially. Expanding that, all forms of increasing "good" took place.
People could "buy" books and pay tuition to schools. They could easily pay for musicians to play for their parties, etc. Education exploded, the arts became more widely accepted.
Money was a darned good thing.
Then of course there came a time when they figured out that carrying gold around was a bit of a pain, and the first concepts of "currency based on gold" was issued. This was the first good stabs at "currency". The idea being you'd use a slip of paper with a number on it as your vehicle to buy something. The paper "note" would correspond to an amount of gold you could exchange the note for if you wished. While many credit the Europeans for coming up with this and to some extent they were very important as to it's ultimate adoption, the Chinese began the practice 2000 years ago.
The Song Dynasty in China was the first to issue paper money, called "jiaozi", around the 10th century AD. Although the notes were valued at a certain exchange rate for gold, silver, or silk, conversion was never allowed in practice. Then, the successive Yuan Dynasty tried again and was the first dynasty in China to use paper currency as the predominant circulating medium. The founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, issued paper money known as Chao in his reign. The original notes during the Yuan Dynasty were restricted in both area and duration as in the Song Dynasty. (notice that even today most will call the Chinese currency the "yuan" instead of the Renminbi which is its actual official name).
Of course you all know that here in the states President Nixon closed the "gold window" which basically severed our currency from any backing what so ever. We became "fiat" meaning that our currency was only backed by Uncle Sam saying it has value. It couldn't be exchanged at the banks for gold any more. Since that time, we've seen all manner of things happen, just as they have in the past. They PRINTED ever more gobs of the stuff. Well guess what? We've seen all that before. All of it.
The Romans printed money, the Greeks, the Argentineans, the Germans, you name it. All through history they have printed more money than they had "metal" (gold or silver) to back it and it always ended badly. It has only been in the past 45 years that we've embarked on what amounts to a completely "fiat" global situation. No one's money is backed by anything any more. This is new.
We have to ask the question, what happens when they push us into a completely digital cash-less society? We know that when we went from barter to "money" our societies saw a massive increase in activity. We know that when we went to a "currency backed by money" system the entire world experienced the biggest growth spurt the planet had ever seen. But in the last 40 years we've gone to a "currency backed by nothing" system and we're seeing that groan and creak because of the abuses of printing too much of it. Not to mention the downsides of theft, extortion, illegal activity, etc. It is a failure, and they know it. The system will be revamped.
So consider this. At "some" point, even if the so-called currency of the future is indeed backed by some percentage of gold, there will be NO PAPER MONEY. Every transaction will be a card swipe, a smart phone pass, etc.
So there it is folks. At some point in our not too distant future, the idea of "cash" will be tossed in the garbage bin. Everything you do will be recorded digitally. Now we have to try and figure out just how that affects us. For some the effects will be quite large. Consider the drug dealer. He plies his trade in the dark and uses cash. Well if there's no cash in our system, how does he get paid? Consider all the "under the table" folks. You know, the guy that cuts ten of his neighbors lawns each weekend for 30 bucks cash. How does he get paid now? If it is all digital, there's a trail, a completely unbroken trail. He can't hide that from the IRS any more.
Consider anything you buy. Did you think you'd be slick when you were cheating on your spouse by buying him/her gifts with cash? No longer, now the wife would be able to find those "charges". In fact, if Uncle Sam is dead set on knowing every single thing about you, then a cash less society is his orgasmic fantasy. But what I want to know is this... what is the resultant effect on the economy? Will sales rise because you can swipe faster than you can trade cash and wait for change? Will jobs be created because it will no longer benefit someone to hire someone else "under the table", or will the percentage of poor explode because those folks will not be utilized anymore?
As much as a cash society is flush with the ability for abuse, how does one measure the "good" that hidden transactions represent? I have found no logical way to explore it to be honest with you. But I know that there have been times in my life where I've "lent" some money to someone, where it bailed them out of a tough jam, and it would have been disaster if they had to let others know they "needed" the funding.
There's been other times where just handing my table waitress an extra tip, brought us service above and beyond the normal. What is the ancillary effect of moving cash around that isn't attached to a digital string? How does one give their kids an allowance, or pay the neighbor kid for shoveling your driveway? How many businesses were built in America by someone with dogged determination starting out by going door to door selling cookies or shoveling snow? Would all those kids be forever pushed out of the budding entrepreneurial pool?
How big is the Bureaucracy going to be that tries to watch over all that digital snow? Who's the Government troll that will dissect all the digital payments you make? Is not Government intervention in our lives at a level we already see as abusive? Then we have the security side of it all. What happens when there's the "glitch" like we've seen lately, where you log in and your bank account shows "0" in it? You can't even buy a gallon of milk until you get that account fixed, how long does that take? Then consider the implications for "them" to completely stop you in your tracks. If cash is not accepted for any good or service, the Government can absolutely crush you simply by shutting off your "digital account". Think about it deeply folks because the implications for abuse boggle the mind.
I have thought a lot about this over the past few months as I see more and more digital card readers pop up in every area of our lives. You see commercials for readers you pop onto your phone so you can swipe cards wherever you are. You saw the beginning of it when years ago McDonalds put card readers in their outlets. Now it's Starbucks and virtually every convenience store. The march towards a completely digital world is marching forward and picking up steam. Just 40 years ago the concept would have been science fiction. Today it is not only reality, it is roaring forward.
From where I sit, it is my opinion that right now all of this digital money is being seen as a benefit. That is because it "supplements" the status quo, it "adds" to your ability to do business. But, once the hammer falls and it is "law", I see a much different picture. I see disruptions in so many areas, that the "net net" of it all is very negative. It is the ultimate "big brother" eye in the sky. With that in mind, it "has" to stifle economic activity.
Let me leave you with this thought. Imagine a major drug dealer in say Miami. While selling drugs is clearly illegal, and many people are hurt by it (the drug user, turf wars, etc.) the fact is that the millions made by the dealer and his gang is spent. Homes are built, cars are sold, pools installed, travel booked, etc. Despite the creation of the cash being illegal, the resultant spending of the cash is "good" for the economy. A digital society could put the dealer out of business, which is good. But the businesses that would have benefitted from that dealer spending his illegal gains is hurt, which is bad.
Which one will end up having more societal impact? It is a troubling question.
Governments are broke and they're on a wild hunt for tax income and tracing money is their game. Digital money makes it easy. Just this week we see news that the IRS is allowed to read personal emails. We saw news stating that they inspect Facebook and twitter for hints that you might have more money than you're stating. Digital dollars is their golden goose and thus it will be implemented. We all have to understand that, and decide what it means to each of us. I can't tell you the day, but there's no doubt in my mind that it will happen in the next ten years. A long time you say? Nope, just the blink of an eye, ask my great grand mom, she'll tell you.
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