Saturday, December 25, 2010

Let's Think Radio

Merry Christmas everyone. Last night I kicked off my first radio broadcast on Blogtalk Radio. I first started blogging several months ago when I got laid off. I wanted to figure out what was going on to cause such a high unemployment because a 10 day layoff turned into my company going out of business. I've gotten a lot of positive responses from my blog, so I've decided to branch out into radio to reach a few more. The Auto play button is on so you'll be able to listen to my first ever show.

To follow this radio show click here

Thursday, December 23, 2010

No pain with plunge protection

Have you ever heard of the “Plunge Protection Team” or PPT? If you're like me then the answer is no. Today I was watching an interview on MSNBC's “Closing Bell” interview with Charles Beterman. In this interview he talked about how individuals are doing major sell offs in equities, but the government was purchasing the stocks that people were selling because of QE2. When I decided to look into this I came across PPT, but it's official name is the Working Group.



PPT's official goal is to
“...keep the markets operating in the event of a sudden, stomach-churning plunge in stock prices -- and to prevent a panicky run on banks, brokerage firms and mutual funds. Officials worry that if investors all tried to head for the exit at the same time, there wouldn't be enough room -- or in financial terms, liquidity -- for them all to get through. In that event, the smoothly running global financial machine would begin to lock up.....In the 1987 crash, government officials worked feverishly -- and, ultimately, successfully -- to avoid precisely that bleak scenario.”
In simple terms, if we have a market crash like the housing and credit bubble that started to burst in 2007 the Federal Reserve, along with other agencies, would step in and prop up the market.

After reading this article, I took a trip back in the way back machine to 1907. In 1907 we had a similar crash. The market went so low that margins were being called and many people were on the verge of bankruptcy and ruin. If it wasn't for J.P. Morgan coming out and promising loans we might have had our Great Depression in 1907 instead. After J.P. Morgan went public with loan promises, the market rallied. Many believe that this is what led to the Roaring 20's or at least allowed it to happen. However, 22 years later, we had another crash, but people decided to get out of the market unlike the 1907 crash where people jumped right back in and the market rallied.


If you've ever watched the movie “The Recruit”, there's a scene where the main character was asked if he preferred a walk in the rain or to feel no pain. His first answer was to walk in the rain, but as he was walking out he told the truth, he wanted to feel no pain. I think with the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 was what has led us down the road to feel no pain. After so many people had gone through the Great Depression, they wanted to make sure that future generations wouldn't feel any pain either, hence our entitlement programs starting with Social Security and the New Deal. The thing is every politician since has campaigned on the promise to let the general public feel no pain, which brings me to my favorite quote from the Tao Te Chang.


“If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts and the world will govern itself.


The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be. The more weapons you have, the less secure people will be. The more subsidies you have, the less self reliant people will be.


Therefore the master says; I let go of the law, and people become honest. I let go of economics, and people become prosperous. I let go of religion, and people become serene. I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass.”


It seems to me that in our quest to feel no pain, we've caused even more pain than if we would have left things alone. There was 22 years between the crash of 1907 and the crash of 1929, it's been 20 years between Black Monday 1987 and the financial collapse of 2007. Economists have said that our current financial crisis is mirroring the Great Depression that started in 1929, but their propaganda lately is how we're coming out of this recession although anyone who's paying attention will see that everything is about to collapse.


The thing that is most important to take from this is that although things look like they may be getting better, they're not, the Federal Reserve is propping up the market to give an illusion of stability. During the Great Depression the market had upswings and crashed again and again. The main problem for the common man during that time period was jobs, over 30% of the population was unemployed. Some of the big differences between that time and now is that we were an emerging economy just like China whereas we're number 2 in the world now. Also, most of the people during that time had family farms or property, so they could grow their food. Right now, we don't own property and if we do, there's not enough land to grow a big enough space for a crop to survive for a year. Another thing that was important back then, they had little to no regulation so it was easier to start up a business compared to today. Most of all, during that time a war could bring an economy out of ruins unlike today where it's actually a drag because we don't make anything here.


I think we need to start feeling the pain. If we feel no pain, there's no real gain. By having hardships and working your way through rough times, it builds character and confidence. Right now with the Federal Reserve propping up the stock market, it's only making it worse. A couple years ago I got a spider bite. At first it was a bite, but then the redness started spreading. I took the attitude that it'll either pass or if I just ignore it, it will go away. After about two weeks my leg was so red and my foot so swollen that I went to the ER. The doctor had to cut open my leg which was so painful that when I squeezed my wife's hand, I almost broke it. A few days later the part of the infection in my foot finally exploded as well. The moral of the story was that if when I had the problem I took care of it, I would not have had to go through that ordeal which cost me money and pain. We, as a country, need to stop trying to ignore the problem like it's going to go away and let the impending crash happen because if we don't, we'll pay a higher price. The sooner we start to take care of our problem, the less pain and quicker we can get back on our feet. I believe it was Iceland who did just that, now they're coming out of their recession and starting to become productive.
 
Sources:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwlQ5PjITJ8
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=114&contentid=7474&page=2
http://oddcitizen.com/?p=116
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/MrBadExample/senate-votes-for-wall-str_n_567063_46581780.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Group_on_Financial_Markets
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/blackm/plunge.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/blackm/blackm.htm

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Path to self destruction

“I'm just a patsy”, that's what Lee Harvey Oswald said just before he was shot. I think the banks are the patsies and the culprit at the same time. All these bail outs and public debt is not because of anything other than the banks failing, but the question is why are we even bailing them out. Now, all the people who said these banks were going to fail are now saying let them fail, including the countries that are failing as well. So, where's the logic in all of this?



Let's look at the banks for just a second. The banks made all these bad loans, packaged them up and sold them to investors. This allowed the banks to give the money out while betting against people being able to pay their loans. I would love to bet both sides, but I don't go to race tracks, and the stock market is the biggest form of legalized gambling in the world. Because of federal regulation the banks were required to give out a certain percentage of bad loans. The banks got two sweeteners to do this. The banks were able to write off the bad loans on their taxes if people defaulted and the government secured the debt.


My question is did the banks do this on purpose to get richer or did they just get greedy and didn't have any consequences for their actions? I think it's a combination of both. Anyone in their right mind would go after more wealth if they could, so increasing the amount of high risk loans to get more to write off and not even really lose any money would be in their best interest. For the banks, there's no losing, so why not be reckless? The politicians made these deals so they could say they did a good thing and the banks made out like bandits.


Now the States are in trouble. I went to the usdebtclock.org and looked at my home state, Oregon, I saw that we're only at 23% debt to GDP. Thinking to myself I began to ask, was this all a scare tactic by the media? The answer is no. Let's look at New Jersey for example. New Jersey has about 17% debt to GDP. New Jersey has $8 billion in revenue, $11 billion in debt, and is short $10 billion dollars. New Jersey has started cutting services so that they've actually come out with a $400 million surplus this year according to Governor Chris Christie, so their debt to GDP is going down. The thing to see here is that if New Jersey decided to borrow money instead of cut back, their debt to GDP would go from 17% to around 34%. This doesn't give long before the state is at 100% of debt to GDP.


Most, if not all, States require that a budget be balanced every year. So, for most states you're going to have to cut services, cities too. What I find to be absolutely backward is that these states and cities are choosing to pay for pension liabilities while cutting essential services like police, fire, and rescue. A great example of this would be Detroit. Detroit is reducing coverage of 20% of its city because of budget shortfalls while not expecting any concessions from the police, fire, and rescue. Another example would be Illinois. Illinois is about 6 months behind on payments, not even local gas stations will accept state credit cards for gas. What is Illinois doing with their money, paying pensions and shorting everyone else?


These people, who I regard highly, that are asking to let these states and institutions fail aren't really looking at the unintended consequences. My favorite quote from Chris Martenson is “the next 20 years will not be like the last 20 years”. People like Peter Schiff and Bob Chapman see this as a good thing, but let's look at what will happen in the event of a collapse.


In the event of a collapse or letting states and institutions fail, there will be a giant power grab by Washington's elite, bankers, and corporations. Everyone is going to want to have a stake in the pie because they want to keep what they have. The banks want their wealth, even if it means 50 years of depression. The corporations want to make sure they stay in business because they'll be in power once everything settles. The politicians, they're just power hungry, they believe that we're their servants instead of the other way around. The one thing they forgot is that when people are oppressed enough, they will revolt, that's what started the American Revolution in 1776.


I think that what people don't realize, except the politicians in Washington, is that we've been groomed for so long to feel that we're entitled to certain things. Since the Great Depression, no one in this country has ever felt true hardship. We've become so accustomed to our lives, our trinkets, and our entitlements that we'll follow anyone who promises to keep us comfortable. In the end, I don't think freedom and inalienable rights will win out, but entitlements and complacency will win the day.


At this point it doesn't matter what you believe in, as long as you believe in something, which has been missing from this country for a long time. If you're like me, you believe in Natures God and that this is an inevitable cycle that we're going through. The Earth can only handle so many people before the people start to get crowded. With crowding comes excessive wars, famine, death, corruption, and greed. Although many people talk about global warming and our carbon footprint, they forget that Nature has it's own supernatural powers. You can only have so much of something before you have nothing then you're led down the path of self destruction, which is where we as a planet and country are heading.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Federal and State governments insolvent

**For those readers that are my regular readers, I apologize for not posting regularly. I've been working long and hard on this current article. Please spread the word**



If you watched 60 minutes this weekend, you've been informed of what's going on. There's a bigger story here which leads to politicians, corruption, and banks. All of these different entities have played a big part in our impending collapse. If the States are bailed out next year when they collapse, then I would expect by the end of 2012 we'll have a complete financial collapse of the whole US which includes debt, currency, and the economy.


Politicians


Our political leaders only job is to get re elected. After August 1971 President Nixon put a stop to the mass liquidation of our gold by telling the nations of the world that they could accept the dollar in exchange for paying our debt. This took the US fully off of the gold standard, which was what FDR wanted during the Great Depression, and also put us as the global exchange currency. I think Nixon did this with good intentions, but the very entities that were supposed to keep watch over our currency were corrupted along with the politicians.


Have you ever noticed that politicians, when trying to be elected, make all these campaign promises. These promises are made so that they can get votes. They end up making deals with Unions and promise gold standard pensions. Unions weren't the only ones, the corporations bought the politicians as well so they could have influence the create legislation to stamp out their competition. After the Campaign finance reform, this allowed special interest groups, which tend to be to one extreme or another, to buy politicians as well.


Glenn Beck asked a great question before the November elections. He asked how long does a politician campaign. He was told that they start campaigning 2 years in advance. The next question he asked was how much money do these politicians have to raise and how many people do they owe favors to by the time they get elected. Those were two great questions, this gives us the complete insight into why we have so much corruption inside Washington D.C.


Currency


All this talk about currency collapsing, what exactly are they talking about? Think of things based upon supply and demand. If the supply is up, the demand is down which gives it less value, if supply is down then it's more expensive. The US used to be on the gold standard, this means that every ounce of gold represented 1 dollar, you could take your dollar to the Treasury Department and exchange it for 1 ounce of gold. Based upon the diversity of metals that the Treasury department has allowed that specific amount of paper money to be printed. This put limits on the amount of money that can be printed. This is also what made our currency so strong and so stable.


After Nixon took us completely off of the gold standard, this took the ceiling off of the amount of currency being able to be printed. This is actually where inflation comes from. The more money that is printed, the less your dollar can buy, this is where prices actually rise and they call it inflation. During President Reagan's campaigning he made a big deal about having a 1 trillion dollar deficit, but by the end of his presidency he had allowed it to increase 3.4 trillion dollars. Before G. W. Bush left office his biggest deficit was 587 billion dollars, now we're running a starting year deficit of 1 trillion dollars. Remember, every time we run a deficit the Federal Reserve prints money in exchange for Treasury bonds of different denominations.


Banks


In my opinion, this is where history will lay the blame. Banking was invented early in history, but really took off when capitalism was implemented here in the US. There was nothing wrong with the banks until the implementation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. The Federal Reserve loaned our currency to us at an interest rate and also created the fractional reserve system. During the Great Depression some people thought that the Federal Reserve didn't print enough money to help bail everyone out, this is why FDR wanted to get away from the gold standard. After getting away from the gold standard in 1971, this opened the flood gates to put us on the path we're on now.


As much as I want to blame the banks, this also has a lot to do with how corrupt our system has become. Remember, politicians owe favors, some favors are deals with the devil. With Wall Street being based off of profitability and growth, banks wanted to make even more money. With credit being given away so readily, this padded the banks books. Eventually so much credit would be given away that there came a point when no one could get any more credit and the banks became insolvent which was part of the credit bubble that crashed starting in 2007.

Don't forget the creation of Fannie and Freddie really took off in the 1980's. Fannie was originally a New Deal program created by the government to promise loans to people with little to no credit or just bad credit. The federal government let Fannie go private in 1968 and then created Freddie to counter balance Fannie. This allowed a private company to put loans together for those who couldn't get a loan, but the government backed these mortgages. This is what lead to the housing bubble that crashed starting in 2007.

Once these banks became insolvent because of government regulation, the government bailed them out. Remember what I said earlier about currency, the more you have, the less it's worth. The Bush and Obama administration both authorized and signed the bailout bills. The bailouts were a 3 phase operation. Phase 1, give banks money to cover their bad debt, phase 2 and 3, the Federal Reserve drove down interest rates to keep people in their homes along with buying government bonds to artificially create a demand and drive bond rates extremely low.


Economy


For years since the Great Depression our countries economy has been built on spending and manufacturing. After 1971 with the US being the global exchange currency, the US exports and manufacturing declined with the last trade surplus being in 1976. From that period on, we've been building upon debt with more debt because we don't make anything. Once the housing and credit bubbles burst in 2007, our economy made a change, but the politicians didn't figure it out. Have you ever noticed how our politicians are telling you to go out and spend so you can start the economy with their different forms of stimulus? How can you spend when you're so broke paying minimum payments and you can't get credit.


I believe the economy is going to shrink, this might lead to mass starvation and even mass exodus to other countries. If you're economy is strictly based upon offering services, there's only so many people you can employ. We have two choices at this point, either reduce wages to bring manufacturing jobs back or devalue our currency so that its is not only no longer the reserve currency, but so that it's cheaper to do business here than anywhere else. What made America the industrial might it used to be was because of the cost of doing business, resources, and manufacturing. Now that we don't do this, we either need to get back to that, or realize that there's only so much room we can maneuver inside a non export economy because our only export, the US dollar, is about to cease to exist.


The Ultimate Collapse


We have so many factors playing into our current economic situation. There are also so many organizations pulling at every free spot of fabric of our nation, there's no way that we can keep the gravy train going. There are many extreme organizations inside of the US that want to pull us in their direction, there are different countries that we've made enemies out of, and there are those who are so bent on power that they'll sell a whole country down the river just to have it.


The biggest threat to our way of life would be a tie between debt and politicians, but they go hand in hand. Our politicians for so long have been telling us that they will give us this and that and expand services for the majority of voters in their area, but my question is, did anyone stop to think about how we're going to pay for that? The thing I was told growing up, especially during the 90's, is that America is rich, so we can afford it. If you have a million dollars, would you ever stop to think about paying a thousand dollars for something you want, the answer would probably be no for a poor person and yes for a rich person. I think that the farther we got away from the Great Depression, the easier it was to forget what hard times were and how to be responsible.


According to 60 minutes between 50-100 states and cities will be bankrupt and are currently unable to pay their basic bills because previous politicians made sweetheart deals with special interest groups and unions that they knew they wouldn't be responsible for. One of two things will happen, either the Fed will bail out the States and stave off destruction for one more year(After a year of bailouts by the IMF the Euro is expected to be dead by the end of 2011) or they will let the States declare bankruptcy and this will cause a domino effect and the US will collapse by the end of 2011.

The Future


Although I can't predict the future, I can look at recent events and get an idea. In Europe a country that represented 2% of the Euro economy, Greece, was bailed out because they thought that it would cause a domino effect and collapse the whole European Union. Once Greece fell other countries such as Ireland fell and Spain and Portugal are expected to be next. In exchange for these countries being bailed out, pretty much the banks not the government, the IMF came in and offered to bail these countries out, but they had to do Austerity programs. This caused the civil unrest we've seen on the news coming from Greece.


If you compare the EU to the US, you'll the same similarities between states and a centralized power. So, if the States go bankrupt as expected next year, the Fed will take the place of the IMF and bail them out. In exchange for bailing them out though, I'm willing to bet that they'll merge the states into one super state or something similar. The thing is though, unlike the EU where everyone's currency fails, the US Dollar will collapse and the IMF will come in with the same Austerity programs for the whole country, if we haven't had a civil war.


This is probably the scariest part, I believe the IMF is acting as the instigator for the new world order. With everyone being bailed out by the IMF, you get a new currency, a world currency. In order to have a world currency, you'll need a world government. Think UN with actual power to govern. I think this is most suitable under Obama because if there is enough civil unrest, he can suspend elections or even appoint who he wants as Reps. and Senators. Considering he's a one worlder, he's going to want to merge the US into this global government. This will ultimately be the end of the US as we know it and if anyone resists, they'll be squashed because at this point the US will be outnumbered. This will be like the movie Serenity where the country no longer exists, so the resisters will be labeled as rebels and allow the State to eradicate them.
 
Sources:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsdUpzSjaEA
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66I05U20100719
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2817995.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNm3AWF_qE
http://www.chinatranslated.com/?p=993
http://www.cardeapartners.com/aoi/fincad-derivatives-market-could-be-worth-700-trillion-by-year-end/
http://hubpages.com/hub/Survive-Total-Economic-Collapse
http://www.ehow.com/how_4546748_survive-sudden-economic-collapse.html
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7171.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAT__cgdoPs
http://www.benzinga.com/10/08/443492/faber-and-schiff-the-american-bond-bubble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktEiN2zXZbo
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/314/416/Buying_Gold:_Why_Are_The_Chinese_Gobbling_Up_Gold_Like_There_Is_No_Tomorrow.html
http://bobchapman.blogspot.com/
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/314/416/Buying_Gold:_Why_Are_The_Chinese_Gobbling_Up_Gold_Like_There_Is_No_Tomorrow.html
http://www.trutv.com/video/conspiracy-theory/full-episodes/wall-street.html
http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pro/1011PSIENDVD/MPSILC22/PR?o=230927&s=233550&u=51973801&l=197794&g=156&r=Milo
http://business.financialpost.com/2010/07/26/michigan-residents-turn-to-alternative-currency/
http://libertymaven.com/2010/07/19/competing-currency-being-accepted-across-mid-michigan/10234/
http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/Tijuana-Airport-to-Stop-Accepting-U-S-Dollars/3KGwK6NUaEyuA52yquO91g.cspx
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/19/AR2010121903022.html?wpisrc=nl_pmopinions
http://bobchapman.blogspot.com/2010/12/bank-bailout-boondoggle-of-billions.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703886904576031401310024990.html?mod=WSJ_Bonds_LEFTTopNews
http://peterschiffblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/three-investment-themes-for-2011.html
http://jimrogers-investments.blogspot.com/2010/12/things-are-happening-with-dollar-that.html
http://bobchapman.blogspot.com/2010/12/bob-chapman-hyperinflation-end-of.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_banking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/1/

Friday, December 17, 2010

President meets with most powerful leaders in America

Sometimes things just don't add up or they do add up, but you don't want to think the worst. Today on “Follow the Money” they did a segment about the top Union leaders meeting with the President to cool them down after this latest compromise about the Bush-era tax cuts. Yesterday, the top corporate leaders met with the President as well. If you're a conspiracy theorist, you're going bazerk at this point.




In post WWII a group of the wealthiest leaders in the world met at the Bilderberg hotel, which is where the group gets its name. These leaders include old money, new money, corporate leaders including media, and financial leaders. What makes this group such a target for conspiracy theorists is because the group meets in such secret that not even the media covers it. It wasn't until the 1960's that people even knew about it. So, the President meeting with the top corporate leaders means that these CEO's are probably part of the Bilderberg group.



During the Presidential campaign of 2008, then candidate Obama, made a stop in Virginia where the Bilderberg group was having their meeting. The President told the press that he was stepping off for just a minute, then the doors closed and the plane took off. The press was all over this so quick because they've never been snuffed by a Presidential candidate. When the press decided to look into it, they found out that he may have actually attended the Bilderberg group after a meeting at Hillary Clinton's home.



If you listen to Glenn Beck or any Republican they'll call the Unions the enemy of the State. Unions and special interest groups have had more access to the White House than ever before. Unions were the one's backing Obama Care, were able to get partial control of GM, and have raised more money for Obama than any other group, so I'm sure President Obama owes several million dollars worth of favors to the Unions.



I have no fact of corruption from the Bilderberg groups influence on world policy or if they want a new world order or new world government. What I do know is that the amount of secrecy by the group is suspicious along with the fact that the Unions are openly being corrupt. I think that if you were a conspiracy theorist, you'd be thinking it's the end of the world, but they're in the minority. What I do want to do is call attention to the fact that the President of the United States has been meeting with some of the most powerful people in the country. The reason the Tea Party movement took such traction was because they were trying to snuff out the corruption and special interests in Washington, but is the President making these deals behind closed doors. I would love to have been a fly on the wall so I could report to you that all is well and the economy will be in better shape next year, but I can't.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Headline news

Today a site where I posted a lot of my articles decided to ban me from posting because of the subjects of my blogs. When I wrote the administrator of the site, he was just as just as rude and unprofessional as I've ever seen. I tell you here and now, I'm not an Alex Jones supporter, nor have I ever supported him. He does have some good points, but I don't trust his sourcing. A few months ago Glenn Beck did a segment on the Chinese not purchasing anymore US bonds and 15 days to the New World Order. Thinking he was crazy, I decided to research it on my own. Glenn Beck was right to a point, but I don't think anyone really knows what's going to happen. I do know that if we make it to 2012, it will be a miracle and I might just start believing in God again, but I don't see that happening.

Today on "Freedom Watch" Judge Napaletanno talked about European civil unrest coming here to America and its possibilities. The following show "Follow the Money" not only did Eric Bolling talk about European civil unrest coming to America, but also an economic collapse happening as well. Peter Schiff who predicted the housing and credit bubbles bursting also tonight predicted the bond bubble bursting which I wrote about on Monday. What's starting to concern me is that this is starting to be talked about more and more by the mainstream media and they're accepting it. This isn't just one kook talking about it, heads of companies and reporters are starting to tell people, hey this is coming.

Anyone who knows me knows I only deal in facts although my wife says facts are subjective. The fact is the military does war game simulations of martial law frequently, what's different this time is they're actually moving food around which tells me they know its coming. Fact is, the Federal Reserve can't buy bonds quick enough to keep rates from raising. The Federal Reserves QE1 started out at $600 billion and turned into $1.8 trillion. Fact  is, if interest rates rise, more and more people will not only lose their homes due to high payments, but unemployment will go higher for those industries that rely on the housing market. Fact is, our economy will never be what it was because our economy was based upon borrowing money we didn't have, that's what got us here in the first place. Fact is, not only is the House talking about passing a $1.2 trillion spending bill, but they've already agreed to pass a $900 billion stimulus 2 which includes extending unemployment for 13 months and retaining the Bush-era tax cuts. Fact is, even with the new Republicans coming into the House next year, spending will continue to soar. Fact is, China is buying shorter term bonds and starting to diversify in Gold and Commodities.

Call me crazy if you want. Call me a fear monger even, but facts are facts and you can't run from them, just ignore them. If you haven't prepared, start preparing, you don't have much time. If you don't know how to survive an economic collapse, research it or read my older blogs. If you don't know how to survive martial law, research it or read my older blogs. Anything you don't know, check my older blogs first, then research it if I haven't covered it. Get out of money, buy Gold and Silver. One thing I'm doing that my grandfather told me is going to the bank and looking for pre 1970 coins. Anything before 1970 has 40% silver and anything before 1964 has 90% silver. Do what you have to do, but make sure you're prepared, because if you aren't, it's no one's fault but your own. If I'm wrong, hey, you just got rich accidentally, but if I'm not, you're prepared.

Sources:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175113/Michael_Klare_the_great_superpower_meltdown
http://peterschiffblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/market-update-commodities-us-dollar.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704828104576021413142892094.html?mod=WSJ_Bonds_LEFTTopNews
http://pragcap.com/northern-trust-qe1-failed-why-will-qe2-work
http://www.sooperarticles.com/finance-articles/investing-articles/federal-reserve-launches-qe15-157842.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-quantitative-easing-is-bad-for-the-economy-2010-11#
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/npage/2_3051.html?mod=2_3002&sid=1224040&page=bond

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Saving our future

This last weekend my grandfather and I sat down and discussed what would happen and how to survive if the economy collapsed. He made sure to remind me at the start that I don't know what hard times are, and he's right. There's always been a program around to help people out weather it be welfare, unemployment, or even food stamps. No one in this country really knows what hard times are like compared to what the people during the Great Depression went through. They had one thing going for them, they had land and knowledge to grow food along with most of the public not really being city dwellers. Today it's quite the opposite. The majority of people are city dwellers, what's worse is we have gotten away from our agrarian roots.



There are two models to look at to decide what the possible outcomes are for us in the event that there is a major crash of our currency and economy. When Russia collapsed their two main exporting partners were North Korea and Cuba. When trade was cut off with North Korea the government just let their people starve. Now most of the people in North Korea are either government employees or cannibals. Cuba on the other hand did things different. Cuba sent out a mandate and loosened up their rules to require that every person start growing their own food. Any available land was to be used for gardening, people in a way had property rights, but this was the key to their survival. The main difference between North Korea and Cuba is that North Korean's are starving while Cubans started prospering more than they had in the past. Looking at this example, we need to start thinking about following the Cuban example.


There is a big possibility that we may not even have a collapse, although my opinion is that it's already happening. If there is no collapse, we could get accidentally rich, if there is a collapse we're prepared and will have a greater chance of survival. We as a society need to start pulling together now instead of waiting for the collapse to happen, then react. I think by pulling together we could actually save our country and bring it back into prosperity and in line with the Constitution again.


If you own vacant land you can do many things and this actually puts you in a better position than most. You have the opportunity to turn that land into a Liberty Garden (Term used during the Great Depression for gardens within the cities). 1 acre of land could feed up to 5 people including yourself if you manage it just right, think of share cropping. Another idea is allowing those who are dislodged from their homes the ability to camp on the property. I think 1 acre could fit up to 5 families, but it would allow them to have a place to stay and have security in numbers. They could even grow mini gardens. I'm not saying let people live there for free or that their entitled to have a piece of your land, but what I am saying is there are many barter deals that can be worked out such as giving a small portion from each garden to you for usage of the land. If there is surplus, you can either donate or sell the remainder, but several people would be grateful and this would be a step on a positive direction for our country, but I'll let you work out the details.

If you don't own land, but you own a house with a small yard, there's many possibilities there too. There are plenty of people in apartments that would be willing to do a little work to have a garden, me being one of them. For example, I would be willing to rototiller and buy the seeds myself if I just had a place to grow a garden if I were to be able to grow in someone's back yard. It would only be fair that we both work the garden, but I'm willing to do the hard work in order to get a reward that I would otherwise not have. If things got really bad, being able to camp in a back yard next to the garden would be most beneficial because I know that I would safe and I could do work around the house to pay for being able to have a place to live. In a collapse money will be worthless, so barter is the only way to go. The good thing about barter is it will weed out the crooks really quick so that you'll end up dealing with mostly honest people within a year or so.


Right now the U6 unemployment rate is around 20% which is just over 60 million people out of work. There is about another 20% or 60 million people who are underemployed. There are a total of around 120 million people hurting in our society and trying to make things work, so even if there's not a collapse, there's a lot of people who could benefit from a hand up under the current conditions. The most important things that people need in the hardest of times are food, water, and shelter. The great thing about being a Christian nation is knowing that we're all in this together regardless of religion, race, or creed. There's a reason why Glenn Beck is going to Wilmington Ohio, which has partially inspired this article.


There are those who do not have property or a house, but you have knowledge. It's a good idea to make sure that you take the time to teach us city dwellers how to garden. There's a lot to gardening such as soil, planting, and drying out seeds. Instructing people is just as valuable as having property or a house, so don't be shy.

There's no point in doing any of this though if you don't get the word out. There are plenty of community engagements where you can make announcements and let people know to get prepared or at least get them to pull together to help the people in the community. This brings to mind what my grandma told me about Apple Valley California where she just moved from. She has told me that there are so many people there that are out of work and most of them are over 40. She's told me stories of going to the grocery store and buying them a couple bags of groceries, but she's also fortunate to be well off as well.


I think we as a society have forgotten what made us great. I think the older generations in our society have a great role to play because they've got the life experiences the younger generations don't have. This is a chance for us to come together and change the tide of things to come. What made the Depression generation so strong is that they banded together and realized that there are more important things in life than life's distractions. What will save use from our utter destruction is our pulling together. I've been taught through mentors over the years about people having roles in society and its time to step up and accept our roles because we've gotten away from that and that's what's been hurting our society for the last 20+ years.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Bond bubble about to burst

Today the Fed bought up 9.7 billion in US Treasury bonds. From what I understand of the bond market is that the Treasury issues bonds at a specific starting interest rate and gives them to the Fed and the Federal Reserve sends over cash in exchange. If there are high demands on bonds then the rate will go lower, if there are low demands on the bonds the rate goes up. Last week after the Obama tax cut deal with the Republicans, the bond market had a huge sell off which rose interest rates almost .5%. This is a big deal because people's mortgage payments go up based upon these interest rates. Today the Fed bought up bonds which dropped interest rates a little lower.



The speculation is that without keeping interest rates lower it will allow people to borrow more and keep those people who can afford their homes in there without putting extra pressure with rising interest rates which raise their mortgage payments. The thing the people are denying is that by creating this cheap money it's driving bond investors away for a couple of reasons. One reason is that we're devaluing our currency by monetizing our debt which is growing bigger by the day. Another would be that bond investors see how much debt we currently have and realize that our spending habits aren't changing which will ultimately cause us to either default or even worse monetize our debt even more.


This is all part of a chain reaction. In 2006-07 the housing bubble burst which caused the credit bubble to burst which will lead to the bond market bubble bursting. Bubbles are defined as exceptionally high demand artificially driving up prices or in a bond market, driving down prices. When the housing bubble burst, people had to choose between paying a credit card or mortgage payments. Most people chose to pay their mortgage. With some people defaulting on their mortgage and even more on their credit cards the banks started requesting bailouts. With the Fed printing money to pay for these bailouts it caused accelerated devaluing of our currency which in turn started a bond sell off because of loss of market confidence. With this happening the fed started the QE program. This is what will ultimately be linked to the bond bubble bursting and collapse of the US economy.


The Federal Reserve has put itself between a rock and a hard place with these QE's. Either Bernanke wants to collapse the US economy and currency or he just doesn't have basic common sense that an IT guy with a computer and the internet can figure out. Because of the credit bubble bursting the economy will not be back to the way it was during the 80's and 90's because we no longer make things. Our wealth has been borrowed away for the last 25 our of 30 year. The only reason that America's economy was so robust is because we could use our credit to borrow to pay for that new car, house, or trinket that we want. The thing is until we start making things here and manufacturing, we're going to be at this rate of prosperity for a very long period of time because we need to pay off our debt so that we can go back to borrowing. Bernanke is trying to artificially keep interest rates lower so the whole country including the government can borrow money at low rates, but if everyone is in so much debt, you can't load them up with more otherwise it's robbery.


People are complaining because the banks are holding onto an estimated $2+ trillion dollars including businesses. The question I ask you, why wouldn't banks hold onto their money? I think they're seeing the bond market crashing while the Fed is artificially propping it up through QE's that they're preparing for bank runs and possibly worse case scenarios than that. This is their only hope of staying alive once everything goes belly up. The only thing they have on their side, from what I hear, is that they're not being required to give high risk loans anymore. With the economy almost in shambles and just barely plugging along, no one has good enough credit to get any loans. I know people who have over 750 beacon scores who can't even get a good car loan and they've even had their job for years. Before my mother's boyfriend passed away from cancer his credit score was so high he could get a million dollar loan on just a signature, he only made about $35k a year.

There's two things you should take away from this article. First, the economy is going to remain in its current state as long as we're not manufacturing goods, a service based economy is no longer sustainable. Secondly, the bond market is about to crash, but when? As long as people keep getting out of the US bond market we're going to have to keep doing QE's. Every time we do a QE, we're going to have to make it bigger and bigger. Sooner or later, within next couple of years, we're going to be the Wiemar Republic. People will start burning money because it will be cheaper than firewood.
 
Sources:
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101213-712553.html?mod=rss_Bonds
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-fixed-income-bonds.html?mod=WSJ_topnav_markets
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/govt.htm

What is real?

12:01 AM by Hegrins · 0 comments
Labels: ,
I ask this question to all my readers, who do you trust and why? I'm not talking about family, I'm talking about sources of media, news, and information. After stumbling across COINTELPRO, I feel like either my eyes are open, or I'm just not willing to trust anyone or anything anymore. I'm to the point that I don't even trust myself almost. What I mean by not trusting myself is that all the news I read on a daily basis comes from independent or mainstream media sources, I'm not sure who to believe anymore.



After writing last nights article about the second 9/11, I decided to see what I could find on Dr. Manning who held the trial to convict President Obama and Columbia University of 17 counts of fraud and other things. I wanted to contact the Dr. to get more information and possibly write an article about him, then I found out that he was being investigated by D.H.S. and the Secret Service about a video “Tea Party Please Go Birth Certificate Viral”.


After watching this video I began to wonder, is this guy part of COINTELPRO or is he just a little more excited than he should be. The thing that I've learned about these government counter intelligence programs is that they not only infiltrate up to the top of the organization, but they also go out of their way to discredit the movement by making radical accusations and that's exactly what the video was doing. I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the Birthers, but I'm saying that this man is calling for 1,000 protests for 1,000 days and the assassination of Bush, Obama, Hillary, and Cheney.



His main appeal is to the ultra right wing conservatives who don't believe Obama is a US citizen. Everyone has the right to an opinion, but I only deal in facts. It's almost like he's using a pulpit to organize those who are on the right to start rioting in the streets among other things. The thing that concerns me the most is that he's claiming to be a pastor, but he has a law degree. It's my understanding, because my father in law wanted to be a pastor, that pastors have to go to a bible college. My question is why isn't he adding that to his list of accreditation's. Instead he's using the pulpit as a political instrument to incite violence.



One thing I learned about the Founding Fathers is that they didn't want war or violence. These men were trying to use influence and law to their advantage by pleading with the King of England. Ultimately, they realized they had to declare independence and deal with the consequences, but they exhausted every other means first. Dr. Manning isn't even doing that, but yet he claims to be trying to restore the Constitution. I think there is a lot to be said about this man and it requires further investigation, but after learning about COINTELPRO, I'm not who and what I can trust anymore.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Second 9/11 in America

11:12 AM by Hegrins · 2 comments
Labels: , ,
Last night I was talking about Presidential Directive 51, but I think this is a little bigger than that. There is a bigger picture that I've come across and Directive 51 is just the official piece of legislation that allows complete government control. In my research I came across an article about COINTELPRO which is a program started by the FBI in the 60's to destroy dissenters, the Church commission has even accused COINTELPRO of MLK's death. Also, I've come across two important articles about the market, one being J.P. Morgan shorting the silver market, second one being the major sell off of bonds after the Obama compromise. Another interesting thing I came across that was never covered in the media is that Obama was found guilty of various counts of fraud in May concerning his past including his birth and attendance to Columbia which ends up linking him to being a CIA asset.



All of these seen separately would seem like an insignificant story, but you should really put them together because when things happen, it takes a long time with minor changes each time to keep under the radar. If all of a sudden the President came out and said, I'm your ruler, people would lynch him instantly. If you, over time, create laws and regulation along with slowly breaking down society, then you can have a silent coupe.


Presidential Directive 51 gives ultimate control of the government to the President under martial law or national emergency. What's concerning about this if you're a patriotic American is that the directive allows just about anything to be a national emergency. When this directive is imposed, there will be no elections, the president pretty much gets control over congress, and that's only what we know because only a small portion was released. This is the biggest silent power grab in US History.


COINTELPRO was a program used by the FBI in the 60's and possibly before to destroy dissenters. The thing is the dissenters are anyone that doesn't agree with the administration or anything deemed a threat. According to the Church Commission, COINTELPRO spied on anyone they deemed a threat without any oversight. What's even worse are these 60's radical groups may not have been as radical as they were made out to be. COINTELPRO was reported to have infiltrated many of the radical groups including the Black Panthers, SDS, MLK's group, and has even become the leaders of these groups. When COINTELPRO would infiltrate these groups they would be what are considered agitators and were the ones with the more radical plans to begin with. Even today COINTELPRO has continued its work although the Church Commission has stated that they have stopped, but at some of these peaceful demonstrations there are agitators. A lot of the time the group realizes they're cops and tries to run them off. A COINTELPRO whistle blower from 2000 has also warned that Wikileaks is part of COINTELPRO, so be cautious when supporting or defending Wikileaks.

In May of this year President Obama was found guilty for multiple counts of fraud such as mail and wire fraud, but no one has heard about this. This is way more serious than anything that Clinton did by far because of what he was trying to hide. A pastor from Harlem was trying to get some information on presidential candidate Obama about his attendance to Columbia. According to the pastor this is where he found out that Obama was a CIA asset during the 80's and used Columbia as a cover. I suggest you look up more on this yourself, but this is interesting because even his birth certificate was called into question because he got a certification of live birth not a certificate of live birth.


Monday, when President Obama announced his deal with the Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts and also extending unemployment for 13 months. Starting on Tuesday there was a major sell off in the bond market. The reason why this concerns me is this is how Greece and Ireland got into its current situation. In Greece there was such a huge amount of short term sell offs in the bond market that it caused interest rates to spike which caused the government to be unable to borrow money and banks were required to raise interest rates on loans. This process took 4 months to collapse Greece. Economists say that low interest rates are what's keeping most people in their homes and if bonds were to go up even 1% we could see even more record foreclosure rates. What's becoming even more concerning is every financial network or planner is saying not to get into bonds and if you do, do it short term.


Glenn Beck keeps repeating Van Jones “top down, bottom up, inside out” speech. If you look at COINTELPRO, the bond market, and the results of the Columbia Treason Trial, this may be exactly what's happening. It's almost like there's a conspiracy between the CIA and Banks to take over America. Once the bond market collapses, we'll see riots in the streets, and if the Republicans start slashing the budget we could see civil unrest even earlier. Once people start staging peaceful demonstrations, some members from COINTELPRO will start agitating to make a peaceful demonstration turn violent. Once civil unrest becomes violent, President Obama could invoke directive 51 which would make him, in a way, a supreme dictator and suspend any elections. The only hope we have is that Congress will invoke the National Emergencies act and not extend martial law past 2 years, but we don't know the extent of power given to the President under directive 51.


The most important thing to take away from this article is that things aren't what they seem, even when you think you've figured it out, it changes. I am now certain that the American public is under assault by its own government and we don't even know it. If the people do realize it, it will be too late. We need to start getting our friends away from mind numbing news and television and get them into alternative media or at least get them to listen to some form of news other than what Prince Charles is doing for his wedding. We need to start taking the time and getting our friends and neighbors to start getting informed, this is our only defense against what we have coming down the pipe at us. We're just pawns, but pawns will no longer be pawns if they decide to wake up and get informed.
 
Sources:
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/12/08/VI2010120805911.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zXxwYt737o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBqq4iiIrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYvbubGeTKE
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-depression-of-2011-23-economic-warning-signs-from-financial-authorities-all-over-the-globe
http://www.roshawnwatson.com/2010/06/will-economy-collapse-in-2011.html
http://peterschiffblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/video-dollar-is-now-collapsing.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhPpzWZDyx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-Msb7A8t4
http://www.overlordsofchaos.com/html/2009.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxzjkbrZxxU
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/59df7994-04aa-11e0-a99c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz17ltCu8X3
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_bi_ge/us_credit_markets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8gJSMoOJc
http://seekingalpha.com/article/238670-china-and-russia-dump-dollar-in-mutual-trade-no-big-deal-in-the-short-run
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-40109820090605
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdES2umAf7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq0a2paXMA
http://moneymorning.com/2010/12/10/quantitative-easing-the-real-reason-the-fed-may-go-for-qe3/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgpgJPxenFo
http://www.moneynews.com/Headline/Zillow-Home-Values-Plunge/2010/12/09/id/379442?s=al&promo_code=B468-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_and_Homeland_Security_Presidential_Directive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Emergencies_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_bubble
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/12/08/VI2010120805911.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zXxwYt737o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNBqq4iiIrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYvbubGeTKE
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-depression-of-2011-23-economic-warning-signs-from-financial-authorities-all-over-the-globe
http://www.roshawnwatson.com/2010/06/will-economy-collapse-in-2011.html
http://peterschiffblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/video-dollar-is-now-collapsing.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhPpzWZDyx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-Msb7A8t4
http://www.overlordsofchaos.com/html/2009.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxzjkbrZxxU
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_bi_ge/us_credit_markets
http://seekingalpha.com/article/238670-china-and-russia-dump-dollar-in-mutual-trade-no-big-deal-in-the-short-run
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-40109820090605
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdES2umAf7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq0a2paXMA
http://moneymorning.com/2010/12/10/quantitative-easing-the-real-reason-the-fed-may-go-for-qe3/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgpgJPxenFo
http://www.moneynews.com/Headline/Zillow-Home-Values-Plunge/2010/12/09/id/379442?s=al&promo_code=B468-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Emergencies_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_bubble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9DaGXYZlK8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zejpx_1Fs5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2DK-c_KLPA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKZ8vqfA6kE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e8GMfjgE58

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Presidential Directive 51

12:15 AM by Hegrins · 0 comments
**Blogger Note: This is strictly an opinion article that I will finalize tomorrow once more research is done**


While searching the Internet for interesting articles about the pending collapse of the US and what will lead to civil unrest, I stumbled across a news reel from “The Real News Network” talking about “Security Directive 51”. After looking into it briefly, I started to see a lot of things that made red flags go up in my mind.

Here's the time line I've seen:



1976- National Emergencies act was passed to limit the length of “national emergencies” to two years without congressional approval. Among other provisions, this act requires the President to declare formally a national emergency and to specify the statutory authorities to be used under such a declaration.
2001- 9/11 happens and the Department of Homeland Security is created under the Patriot act.

2007- May of 2007 National Security and Homeland Security directive 51 was signed by President Bush. This is the first directive ever to be partially published by any president. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_and_Homeland_Security_Presidential_Directive

2007- October 2007 the Secretary of Treasury issues a notice that the housing bubble has burst.

2008- In the last couple of months of President Bush's term in office he passes TARP along with other bailouts to save the economy from collapse.

2009- President Obama is sworn in and early that year passes a 787 Billion dollar stimulus. November of 2009 President Obama ordered USNORTHCOM to station 1 million US troops inside the US in the event of civil unrest or economic collapse by Jan 30 2010.

2010- Unemployment has hovered between 10.1-9.6%. Republicans win a landslide election on the backs of the TEA Party movement to reduce the size of government. Come the close of the year the Republicans and Democrats strike a deal to extend unemployment 13 months while keeping the Bush Tax Cuts, but the extreme on both sides could hold it up from being passed.

If you've ever watched President Bush give an interview after his presidency, you'll see how much passion and love he has for this country no matter what side of the isle you're on. I do not believe that Presidents run this country since the JFK assassination, so I look at every president as a puppet. I find it odd that no other president has ever published a directive, but he published what he could, it's almost as if he's giving a warning sign if people are willing to look. When you look at the signing of the directive along with the chain of events after it, you'll start to see a very scary picture arise. I will be looking into this further and report on it fully tomorrow with all the links to my findings.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Social Security no longer taboo

I use a message board called Congress and today one of the posts was about the census report. I've never been so mad in my life, made me want to start rioting in the street almost. The report states that the wealth gap is increasing between wealthy and poor, this means the middle class is shrinking yet again. Another part of the report stated that household income decreased all while experiencing inflation (flooding the market with more money than gold and silver can back). What infuriated me most were the two claims that the baby boomers are the wealthiest part of our society and that politicians will be less likely to cut social security than any other entitlement program. What infuriated me most about this is not the fact that the baby boomers are the wealthiest in our society because that's to be expected of every generation, but the fact that politicians are more inclined to cut education and other entitlement programs than social security and medicare/medicaid which is what's killing our budget in the first place. In my opinion, this is the greatest generational theft in history. Those born after 1970 will not be able to collect Social Security.


When asked to provide my facts I decided to look up the baby boom generation and the biggest entitlement programs we have. The baby boom started in 1946 and ended in 1960, my mom and dad are the last of the boomers. The first boomer came of age to vote in 1964, so any policies put forth from 1963 to 1978-79 would be baby boomer responsibility, but considering they've been the largest voting block since 1964 until 2000, we'll give them 50% of the blame from 1979 on. Here's a list of some of the major budget items of the day and when they started.
  • Social Security was started in 1935, but a majority of the population of that generation wouldn't live long enough to collect Social Security. My grandfather on my mother's side is the last of them to die off and he's 89, he's also the last of the WWII generation.
  • Food Stamps was started in 1940, but a skeleton form of what we know today. In 1965 with LBJ's “great society” he expanded an emergency program and it was made permanent 1969 under Nixon. Welfare was later reformed under President Clinton and a Republican Congress in 1994.
  • Medicare/Medicaid as we know it today was created in 1965, this was another part of “great society” by LBJ.
  • 1940 welfare is created as an “emergency” service and in 1965 welfare is made permenent and expanded as another part of “great society” by LBJ.
  • 1974 HUD was created.
Baby boomers started retiring as early as 3 years ago, so we're only going to see our financial crisis get worse. A lot of baby boomers have pensions, saved money, or invested it. Considering the current housing crisis, the stock market and cash will be the only assets that these baby boomers will be able to liquidate in order to enjoy their 20+ years of retirement. This will in turn cause the stock market to either crash or just remain stagnate.
The baby boomers had it good until around 1978 when the cost of living rose to where you needed at least 2 incomes to make ends meet for the middle and lower classes. This was caused by two key factors according to Chris Martenson. First, in 1971 Nixon completely took us away from the “Gold Standard”, and secondly, because of taking us off of the “Gold Standard” which took away any bank responsibility and allowed for an endless ceiling of money to be created out of thin air.
I've always held some animocity towards the baby boom generation, but not for the reason's you would think. Looking at my parents who were baby boomers, I see the baby boomers as those who wanted instant gratification and didn't think of the consequences, or as George Carlin said, “They went from Cocaine to Rogain”. As I learned when my mother's boyfriend passed away, his doughter was stuck with his outstanding debt, and so will I. I think the hippie movement was a real identity crisis for our country, but we spent like crazy depressed shoppers and left the bill to later generations. The worst part of all this is mine and my wife's generation are robbing our child by extending unemployment to 3 years and trying to create a free education system, but that's what the Tea Party movement is supposed to be all about stopping.

What this is all leading to is that we need to think about what we're doing. You can't ask me to give up everything for you and you give up nothing. Social Security shouldn't be taboo anymore because if you're going to cut education, welfare, and other programs, then you should be willing to take the hit yourself as well by doing things such as means testing or an immediate jump in retirment age. Come the 2012 election the baby boomers will be losing significant voting power as quickly as they came into power, that's why President Obama is starting to pander to the younger voters. You can't ask someone to let you move in with them, then tell them they have to wait hand and foot on you. The baby boom generation is mostly repsonsible for a lot of our deficit, so think twice before urging your congressman not to cut social security because, in essence, you'll be doing a disservice to the whole country. I've been wondering what will cause the riots in the US like they're having in Europe, I think I just found my answer.

Part 2 of 2: Surviving Martial Law

If you think I'm the only nay sayer writing about the impending collapse of the US and martial law then you haven't listened to Bob Chapman (retired investment broker), Peter Schiff (manager of Eurocapital), Bill Cooper (retired military intelligence and some think he was assassinated 10/2001), Glenn Beck, Jessie Ventura (former Navy Seal, former governor, and former wrestler), Alex Jones (conspiracy theorist), Chris Maretenson, Michael Rupert (interviewed for the documentary “collapse”, former LA police officer, and investigative journalist for 30 years), and Ron Paul (Representative from Texas). Here are some headlines from the last few years just to bring you up to speed.
  • Since 2009 President Obama has been preparing for civil unrest and ordered that 1 million troops be stationed inside the US by Jan 2010.
  • Currently the US military is undergoing “Unified Quest 2011” for 1 year to decide how to handle possible US or global economic collapse and civil unrest due to large budget cuts
  • Republicans win a landslide victory in November 2010 behind the Tea Party.
  • US has ended combat operations in Iraq.
  • Greece and Ireland have been bailed out with Spain and Portugal expected to fall next.
  • Euro expected to collapse.
  • Chinese have bought 500% more gold in 2010 than they did in 2009. Peter Schiff reported that the Chinese are buying shorter term US Bonds and are diversifying out of the dollar.
  • 2005 Civil Engineers grade US infrastructure a D and needing 1.6 Trillion to fix or repair.
  • 2006-2007 Housing bubble bursts
  • 2008 Banks on verge of collapse and are bailed out with TARP money.
  • 2009 GM bailed out, but recently went public in November of this year.
  • 2010 looks like the Bush tax cuts will be extended along with adding another 13 months of unemployment on top of the current 99 weeks which will cause an estimated budget deficit of 900 billion.
  • Although President Obama states that we've been out of the recession in September of 2009. Unemployment hasn't dropped below 9.6% and just recently adjusted after census workers finally not being included to 9.8%. Unemployment has been as high as 10.1%, but some estimate that real unemployment is between 17-21%.
  • US is currently at 94% debt to GDP. The debt commission recently voted 11-7 on measures to fix our current debt situation, but needed 14 votes in order to pass it. Although this didn't pass, there are Republican Representatives that want to implement 85% of the plan according to reports from the debt commission's chairman. I doubt that they'll implement the tax increases, but they will implement the budget cuts.
  • Jan 2010 President Obama signs an Executive Order establishing the counsel of governors.

Currently the youngest baby boomer will be turning 51 this year and there are some interesting factors to consider because the baby boomers retiring over the last 10 years and the next 10 years will put significant strain on our economy because they will be going from tax payers to social security collectors. My grandparents each had 5 kids which meant that the contributions from their kids would support them when they reached the age to collect social security, but my parents generation had on average of 2 kids and my generation will have on average 1 kid.

The reason why we had to bail the banks out with TARP is because of a credit crunch. Although we thought that bailing them out would save us from impending economic collapse, it just prolonged the pain. Our economy is based upon continuing growth where each generation has at least 3 kids which will in turn spike the demand on the supply, but the 1st world is doing the opposite. We have incurred so much debt in our personal lives and government that our children's children won't be able to pay for it.

Another thing to realize is that any recovery will be stifled by energy costs. Depending on who you ask they'll say we reached peak oil production between 6-10 years ago which means that supply will dwindle while demand increases. It's expected that oil should reach around $93 a barrel by the end of the year and be about $200 a barrel within the next two years which means $6-10 a gallon gas prices. Oil doesn't just run our cars with gasoline, about 80% of everything in your home has some form of an oil bi-product in it. The cost of everything from driving our cars to buying a new shirt will go up while your wages stay the same. President Bush thought it would be a good idea to put 10% ethanol in our gas to make it stretch father, but do you realize how many thing we eat or make that have some bi-product of corn in them? The end goal is to have 15% ethanol in our gas which would use all the current corn producing crops inside the US just to produce that much ethanol for the US.

In part 1 I outlined what would be expected to happen under martial law. I wanted to take part 2 and give all the facts about what's leading up to this. US collapse is on its way no matter what because we've been hit by so many catastrophes in such a short period of time, but it's important to connect the dots and see where the civil unrest is coming from because we already know how to deal with the punch, but we need to know when to duck. Currently our deficits are reaching a trillion dollars a year, we're in a security state because of the 9/11 attack, participating in 2 wars, dealing with a housing and credit bubble bursting, and burning our food supply to extend the life of our luxuries. During the Revolutionary war it was George Washington who kept the troops together, not Congress because they weren't even paying the troops a lot of the time. We need to start preparing to go back to being a part of nature and forgetting our city dwelling habits because they won't be lasting much longer. The sooner you prepare, the greater chance you have at survival.

In my last thoughts, Michael Ruppert said in his interview for “Collapse” that the earth's population stayed around a billion people until 1900 when oil was introduced into society, then our population skyrocketed to almost 8 billion people. Once oil is gone, the earth will balance out because oil will be taken out of the equation. Those who have the survival skills will outlast everyone, those who don't may turn into cannibals. It's estimated at current levels that we'll run out of oil between 2035-2055. I think the most important thing to do from here on out is to pass along the basic survival skills to our children so that even if martial law or the collapse the United States doesn't happen, they can be prepared just in case.

Sources:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-signs-executive-order-establishing-council-governors
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/anonymous-4chan-wikileaks-mastercard-paypal
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse/chapter-6-what-money
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse/chapter-7-money-creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3_Q1SiRN-A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM7rITeNW6U
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7137552/ns/us_news/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_bubble

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Part 1 of 2: Surviving Martial Law

12:16 AM by Hegrins · 1 comments
As far back as December 2009 President Obama has been preparing for a civil war within the United States. In November of 2009 he directed USNORTHCOM to make sure that there are at least 1 million troops inside the US by Jan 2010 while still continuing conflicts abroad. It makes sense why he's ending both Iraq and Afghanistan so early. Currently the military is participating in Unified Quest 2011 where they are preparing strategies on how to deal with a financial local or global collapse or if there are huge slashes in the budget. Considering earlier last month Berkeley students almost beat a police officer to death because of talks about raising tuition at a state ran school, I would expect with the incoming freshman to Congress that the same types of rioting on a more massive scale will be happening.


When civil unrest happens, weather coordinated by crooked individuals or not, martial law will be declared. So, what does martial law include? Under martial law the federal government will seize all fuel, food, labor, and set up a curfew in short. There are a number of executive orders that have been enacted under Presidents as far back as Kennedy outlining what will need to happen under martial law, below are some examples I've found.

Under martial law, the last thing you want to do is run to the woods. There are two reasons for this, first, you're liable to get picked up and thrown into a detention camp, and secondly, if there are people out in the woods, they may end up shooting you. So, let's take a civil approach to this and think of some simple survival tips because the well being of your family is most important.

First and foremost a little trick I learned from being homeless for 5 years is being in small groups is an instant survival technique. Talk with your neighbors and friends about what to do if even a huge disaster hits your town. When forming your small group, realize everyone is in it for survival, so if you can't contribute, you wont last long. The reason why you travel in groups being homeless is because of security and common interests. Think of it like this, everyone acts independently and for the group. No one is going to attack 10 people with 3 people. Also, everyone has different skills and resources that can be used for the group that can ensure everyone's survival, in a way it'll be like barter.

Swallow your pride, you might be humiliated or searched, but cooperation ensures survival. Last thing you want is to go to a FEMA camp. Under martial law, the military is the law, so unless it's immoral, follow the instructions. There will be plenty of people fighting and rioting to take suspicion away from you if you just cooperate. Even in prison the guy who's good and cooperates with the guards gets more freedom than the guy trying to make a stand.

Avoid areas there there is civil unrest. Putting yourself right in the middle of the action would not make logical sense. Unless you're forced to, don't go there, call into work if you have to or call the authorities to see what the best course of action is. This might be small, but it could save your life.

While watching the documentary “Collapse” with Michael Rupert, he talked about when India had their financial collapse. Everyone drove their cars to the airport and purchased a one way ticket home. It's always good to be close to family if you can, so if you see that things are deteriorating, take some time and go be with your family.

Talk with your friends and neighbors, ask them to be calm during this situation, even offer them help. One thing drug dealers are good for is keeping crime rate low because when the police show up it hurts business. Take that same approach towards your neighborhood. If you can be a peace maker and keep the heat out of your neighborhood it will either allow this to go away quicker or allow authorities to focus on other areas.

Remember, the soldiers coming to your house are Americans too. Although certain entities in our society have taken upon themselves the responsibility of driving a wedge between public servants and the public doesn't mean you need to take it out on them. Remember, our soldiers have seen the ugliness of battle trying to defend this country, last thing they want to do is kill an American. Our police officers, although laws have been created to demonize them, are doing what the law allows them to do. They don't want to hurt anyone unless they're being threatened themselves no matter how much the media has demonized them. Realize those are the guys you'll be running to when you're in trouble, so don't burn that bridge.

Keep organic seeds for the aftermath. Once this is all over society will be dust. Expect that food and water may be scarce depending on the area of the country you are in. Be prepared to rebuild your community from scratch because society may be thrown back 70 years. Remember work, skills, and food are always the best currency.

**Blogger Note: This is part 1 of a 2 part article. Part 2 will be published tomorrow night.**

Sources:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/297/980/1984_Style_Homeland_Security_Telescreens_at_Walmart_video.html
http://www.secretsofsurvival.com/survival/martial_law.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law
http://sidlinger.tripod.com/ml.html

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Unified Quest 2011

Today I saw an article on Glenn Beck regarding “Unified Quest 2011” and decided to look into myself. If you watch the MSNBC video you'll see the scenario's they're preparing for such as global economic collapse, dramatically reduced budgets, and US economic collapse. So, the real question is how likely is it to happen and what will happen if these scenario's play out?

Recently the Presidents debt commission offered up its plan to reduce the deficit, but was not passed because they needed 14 votes and only received 11. Recently the Chairman of the debt commission was on FBN. The Chairman said that if the debt commission was unable to come to an agreement that the incoming freshman wont take a level headed approach to the debt, they were elected to cut spending and that's exactly what they'll do. Since the debt commission wasn't able to come to an agreement, expect a drastic reduction in the budget, but this is only federal spending.


Currently all the States are in trouble financially. Everyone understands that California, New York, Illinois, and other states are reaching their point where, in order to cover their budgets, are going to start cutting services. When you start cutting services such as state employee's, police, and firefighters everything will start to fall apart. Some states will rely on the federal government to bail them out, but with the new freshman in office, I'd doubt that will happen.


Could there be a global economic collapse? Yes, we're starting to see signs of the Euro collapse and China has been caught red handed hiding their debt estimated now at 60% of their GDP from the 15% they were trying to pass onto the world. Everyone is looking at Europe saying that they're on the verge of collapse, but people haven't even started taking a look at the US. The US is 40% of the worlds GDP in imports, so our economic health is most important. If the states start defaulting or needing to be bailed out, that will trigger an economic collapse starting in the US and spreading like a virus to the rest of the world.


Another thing that could stop and crash the world economy is Oil. I just received my daily newsletter from Uncommon Wisdom stating that in the next two years oil will be past $200 because the world has passed it's “peak production” about 10 years ago. Fed Chairman Bernanke stated in a 60 minutes interview that he sees the economy taking as long as 5 years to recover to 2008 standards. If there is any type of recovery going on within the next 2 years or even a recession, $200 a barrel of Oil will bring any economy to a stop. Oil is such an important part of our every day life that the cost of energy, transportation, and goods will skyrocket so that only a few will be able to afford it.

So, what is it that will happen? Well, the military is already planning how to handle these events when they occur. I don't think there will be an IF at this point in the game. As recently as 2008 the US military was deployed according to http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/21-4

“The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded information from the government about reports that an active military unit has been deployed inside the U.S. to help with "civil unrest" and "crowd control" - matters traditionally handled by civilian authorities. This deployment jeopardizes the longstanding separation between civilian and military government, and the public has a right to know where and why the unit has been deployed, according to an ACLU Freedom of Information request filed today.”

“According to a report in the Army Times, the Army recently deployed an active military unit inside the United States under Northern Command, which was established in 2002 to assist federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities. This deployment marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command.”


“Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Department of Defense has dramatically expanded its role in domestic law enforcement and intelligence operations, including the National Security Agency's warrant less wiretapping programs, the Department of Homeland Security's use of military spy satellites, and the participation of military personnel in state and local intelligence fusion centers. The ACLU has repeatedly expressed concern about these incremental encroachments of the military into domestic affairs, and the assignment of active duty troops to Northern Command only heightens these concerns.”


You can expect the US to deploy active duty military, although unconstitutional, inside the borders of the US. You can expect that there may not even be any elections allowed either because of civil unrest or economic collapse. You can expect curfews, people being sent to FEMA camps, and the loss of all your basic rights under the Constitution. When the rest of the country decides to act up the military will be called up and there will be nothing at that point you can do. It's not hopeless, but follow your survival instincts. Pack up food and get out of whatever currency you have and buy precious metals like gold and silver because they will be the only currency that is usable when the collapse happens.. Most importantly, make sure to ban together with your neighbors and friends because they will be the key to your survival in many ways.



**Blogger Note: My next few articles will be regarding the survival of an economic collapse and how to survive Marshall law**
 
Sources:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2v0girL8pk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9wK8fSPETY
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/297/001/Pentagon_War_Gaming_Large_Scale_Economic_Breakdown.html
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/the-us-government-is-prepping-for-unlikely-events-like-war-catastrophic-collapse-of-society-and-even-asteroids-are-you_10262010
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/homeland-security-to-regionalize-emergency-supplies-over-next-90-days_11012010
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/national-guard-training-for-riot-control-mass-detentions_06152010
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/21-4

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