Many people laugh when you mention the Dollar collapsing and Martial Law. This is for For anyone interested in learning just how screwed the U.S. really is.

I stumbled onto this blog ( The Last Great Stand) today and found something that I felt I needed to share. There is so much information here. So much research and data has been compiled that I was compelled.
For those who are teetering on the fence......
It is time to open your eyes and see the possibilities of what our future could very well be.
Do we know for sure any of this will take place?
No one can be 100% sure.
Was anyone 100% sure that the Great Depression would take place?
I am betting that those who took their lives after the crash , never in their wildest dreams thought anything quite like that would take place. I am also willing to bet they would have laughed at anyone warning them of the impending doom about to descend on their prosperous lives.
Still feeling strong in your convictions of ridicule and conspiracy theory labeling?
How many listened when the financial trouble of 2008 was being discussed?
It hit most like a runaway train.
Question is ......has it rattled your sense of reality enough to bring you out of your little idyllic dream world?
If it has , then do not let the length nor the volume of information in these presentations deter you. Here you will find information you may already be aware of and items that had never even occurred to you. In either case it is well worth the time invested.
I hope you will give it a go , you have nothing to lose but a bit of time and so much to gain.
For those who are still poo pooing good luck to you . I sincerely wish you well.
~Desert Rose~

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MY PERSONAL PREDICTIONS IN DETAIL
JUST USING COMMON SENSE
(WITH A TOUCH FROM PARTS I-IX)

For anyone interested in learning just how screwed the U.S. is, I am doing what will end up being about 10 Part Series. Many people laugh when you mention the Dollar collapsing and Martial Law. I’m afraid it’s no laughing matter. I put these together to explain to the nay sayers as best I could:

by reasonvoice

The Last Great Stand

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The Last Great Stand

Part I: Saudi Arabia Acting Like an Anchor Weight Around the Petrodollar…

by reasonvoice
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The largest oil exporter in the Middle East has teamed up with the second largest consumer of oil in the world (China) to build a gigantic new oil refinery and the mainstream media in the United States has barely even noticed it. This mammoth new refinery is scheduled to be fully operational in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu by 2014. Over the past several years, China has sought to aggressively expand trade with Saudi Arabia, and China now actually imports more oil from Saudi Arabia than the United States does. In February, China imported 1.39 million barrels of oil per day from Saudi Arabia. That was 39 percent higher than last February. So why is this important? Well, back in 1973 the United States and Saudi Arabia agreed that all oil sold by Saudi Arabia would be denominated in U.S. dollars. This petrodollar system was adopted by almost the entire world and it has had great benefits for the U.S. economy. But if China becomes Saudi Arabia’s most important trading partner, then why should Saudi Arabia continue to only sell oil in U.S. dollars? And if the petrodollar system collapses, what is that going to mean for the U.S. economy?
Those are very important questions, and they will be addressed later on in this article. First of all, let’s take a closer look at the agreement reached between Saudi Arabia and China recently.
The following is how the deal was described in a recent China Daily article….
In what Riyadh calls “the largest expansion by any oil company in the world”, Sinopec’s deal on Saturday with Saudi oil giant Aramco will allow a major oil refinery to become operational in the Red Sea port of Yanbu by 2014.
The $8.5 billion joint venture, which covers an area of about 5.2 million square meters, is already under construction. It will process 400,000 barrels of heavy crude oil per day. Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake in the plant while Sinopec will own the remaining 37.5 percent.
At a time when the U.S. is actually losing refining capacity, this is a stunning development.
Yet the U.S. press has been largely silent about this.
Very curious.
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part II: The Beginning of the End of the Petrodollar: And The United States

by reasonvoice

Throughout history, empires and their civilisations have come and gone. During the first part of the last century, the US quietly built its empire, first in the North and Central Americas and in South America. Soon after the Second World War, the US worked to maximise the advantages it gained, and the power it assumed, between 1943 and 1945, from its victory over Germany and Japan, and as a consequence of massive Soviet casualties, and large British debt and financial burden caused by the war. The USA assumed the leading role in the Western world by, on one hand, containing the Soviet Union and preventing the spread of communist revolution beyond the borders of the Soviet bloc; and on the other hand, ensuring uncontested American supremacy within the Western world.

During the Cold War years, there was little or no challenge to the dominant position of the US in the Western world. However, with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the knot tying the basic objectives of the US global strategy together began to come unravelled. Once the communist danger was off the table, American supremacy ceased to be an automatic requirement of the Western system.
Since 20 September 2002, the US government has abandoned its former multilateral approach to global affairs, and adopted an imperial posture known as the so-called Bush doctrine.
This new agenda is based on militarist and imperial values with some theocratic overtones. This current agenda looks much like what some people see in US foreign policy at the end of the 19th century, and the beginning of the 20th, when the US actively sought to dominate the entire Caribbean basin, Central America and even the western Pacific.
Six months after the Bush doctrine was announced, the new American doctrine was applied as a justification for an unprovoked war against Iraq by the neo-conservative administration of the US government. Toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime without the support of the UN, and in the face of strong opposition from traditional US allies, was a clear presentation of a new unilateralist American foreign policy. The “regime change” in Baghdad was not an isolated event, but only an opening salvo in a much broader neo-conservative agenda. The neo-conservatives ‘advocate a paradigm shift in which the United States spreads American values by asserting American power-by force, if necessary’. This agenda seeks to reshape American hegemonic practices according to old imperial doctrines, but with new post-colonial political and military tools.
Since 2005, there is a looming crisis brewing over Iran. In the media the phantom of Iran “threat” is being amplified across the world. In order to justify a military operation against Iran, the neo-conservative rulers of the US have started a demonization campaign against this country, presenting the latest incarnation of America’s enemy, in much the same way Saddam Hussein was in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. They have put a lot of effort into making people believe that Iran is ruled by dangerously crazy people who are trying to make a nuclear bomb, and that they would not hesitate to bomb one or more US cities. In view of such a danger, the only answer is to wage a preventive war. Speculations about possible U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran have reached a stage of war propaganda by Western media. A recent report by the Oxford Research Group revealed that any bombing of Iran by U.S. forces, or by their Israeli allies, would result in the unnecessary death of many innocent lives.
Many observers view the US neo-conservative clique and its agenda as a conspiracy. This article, however, is based on the premise that they are merely part of a larger equation of global economic and political conditions. This view is rooted in an understanding that vested interests representing the energy, electronics, weapons, and influential segments of the media and communications industries in the US are always entrenched in key sectors of government. These interests are concerned with maintaining their privileged position. And key elements of the US economic and political elite are now responding directly to changes in global conditions that have arisen since the end of the Cold War. This is not a conspiracy. It is only business as usual.
Since the end of the Cold War, the US has waged four wars – two in Iraq, one in the former-Yugoslavia, and one in Afghanistan- and is threatening more. All this aggression is not the result of a paranoid theory, but simply a convergence of political and economic interests, travelling under the rubric of “war on terror”. This argument is not based on the image of a few evil people, conspiring in secret, against the people for their evil aims. However, diverging from conspiracy theory does not ignore the fact that indeed there are real conspiracies, criminal or otherwise. In particular, the US political landscape is littered with examples of illegal political, corporate and government conspiracies, such as Watergate, and the Iran-Contra scandal.
Having said that I generally consider the belief in conspiracy theories a pointless diversion of focus, and waste of energy. While real conspiracies have existed throughout history, history itself is not a conspiracy.
Since the end of the Cold War, the power of the United States is in decline. Particularly its share of world trade and manufacturing is substantially less than it was just prior to the end of the Cold War, and its relative economic strength measured against the EU and the East Asian economic group of Japan, China and Southeast Asia is similarly in retreat. The persistent use of US military power can be viewed as a reaction to its declining economic power and not merely as a response to the post-Cold War geopolitical picture. The American neo-conservative leaders see the military power of the US ‘as a trump card that can be employed to prevail over all its rivals’, and thus stop this decline. This is what the Bush administration is trying to achieve: to create a militarised world in which the strength of the US military forces can change and re-define the rules of the game. This is a clear goal, a specific agenda, which does not constitute a conspiracy. It is merely the way in which the system currently works, and the US is taking advantage of existing structural opportunities. This article is an attempt to provide primarily a macroeconomic explanation to the origins of and motivations behind the recent US policies shaped by the neo-conservative Bush administration.
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part III: Why Are We Letting China Buy American companies?

by reasonvoice

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INFLATION ALL HITTING THE SYSTEM AT ONCE?

IN MY OPINION, THAT PUTS THE STOCK MARKET’S REAL VALUE AT LESS THAN AN OUNCE OF GOLD WHEN THE FINANCIAL HOUSE OF CARDS FINALLY DOES COME CRASHING DOWN. ITS ALMOST COMPLETELY WORTHLESS, REGARDLESS OF THE NUMBER IT READS. OF COURSE STOCKS ARE GOING TO PLUNGE!

This takeover, the largest takeover of a US company by a Chinese firm, represents a precedent that will damage the American economy and cost jobs in the long run.
It also may have emboldened China. Weeks after permission was granted by Washington, Beijing claimed the airspace over some contested islands in the East China Sea as “a defense identification zone.” Chinese saber rattling forced the Pentagon to dispatch two unarmed B-52 bombers to fly in the airspace to send a message to China that it was overstepping its bounds.
China’s ambitions are multi-pronged and the Smithfield Foods transaction is another questionable invasion by Beijing. Currently, American authorities only evaluate foreign takeovers on the basis of national-security issues or shareholder rights and securities laws. But these criteria are inadequate.
A fairer test in the case of Smithfield, and future buyout attempts by China, should also require reciprocity: Only corporations from countries that allow Americans to buy large companies should be allowed to buy large American companies.
That’s not the case with China, Middle Eastern sheikhs or Russians. Critics of reciprocity label this as protectionism. It’s not. It’s protectiveness.
Here’s why.
Last year, Chinese banks were also allowed for the first time to buy several financial institutions. Next year, in the absence of curbs, China will likely launch a bid for a sizeable resource company. This was last attempted in 2005, when a Chinese oil giant bid $18.5 billion to buy Unocal Corporation. Congress and the media reacted negatively and the Chinese withdrew the bid.
But Wall Street has been lobbying to allow China in to make big takeovers so it can earn larger fees.
They and others argue that restricting China would be unfair and foolish because American companies have been allowed to invest billions in China. But investments there are restricted to “green fields” — high-risk start-up operations or minority ownership. The fact is that Coca-Cola or General Motors or Maytag cannot take control of an existing, established Chinese rival.
Smithfield has become the branch plant of its new proprietor — a holding company called Shuanghai International Holdings Limited, the biggest meat processor in China. But the ultimate beneficial owner is the Chinese government, and Shuanghai answers to the politics, policies and edicts of Beijing. This is the nature of “China Inc.”
The Smithfield buyout is a great loss because the company has become a huge exporter, to Japan and elsewhere, and has developed, with taxpayer assistance, systems and technologies that are best in class.
Of course, that was why it became a target and why China Inc. overpaid to get it. But the only American beneficiaries will be a handful of investors. The rest of Smithfield’s stakeholders, and the American economy, will be bruised.
The damage includes the fact that Smithfield’s technology, research and development and patents will be transferred to the Chinese parent company. Smithfield will be hollowed out and the head office will be moved to China. Talent will leave.
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part IV: Get Ready America. It’s Going to be US In the Nike Sweatshops Very Soon!

by reasonvoice

The Role These Chinese Buys Will Play In Our Downfall
What is FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING and why does it matter?
I talked about our lack of ability to PRODUCE for ourselves if we had to.
The Article Talks About the Chinese Investments

HOW IS ALL THIS WORKING TOGETHER?

THINK… NONE OF THIS FACTORS OUR DOMESTIC FINANCIAL WOES

ARTICLE BELOW DOES AN UNREAL JOB EXPLAINING THE CURRENT TRANSITION

What Russia has done is allow the Chinese to become the wholesale brokers of Russian oil. The deal is between Russian Rosneft the biggest oil company in the world and China’s Sinopec. The deal is valued at $85 billion and will supply China with 100 million tons of Crude oil. On top of that LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) deal was signed that will sell 3 million tons of LNG per year to China as well . The energy deals between the two partners is worth $270 Billion over the course of 25 years. Over 21 trade deals in total have been signed by the two powers and none of them have anything to do with the dollar.
imply incredible is what I can say that has transpired in the last 6 years since the collapse of the US economy in 2008. Folks what we are witnessing right now is the final paragraphs of the final chapter that was the US economic superpower. I am not kidding you nor am I using any form of hyperbole when I say that this year is critical. Though I do not posses a crystal ball to tell you “EXACTLY” when the end will come, what I do posses is major market as well as global indicators that can give me an idea as to a time frame.
Using the vast amount of data at my fingertips what I can tell you is this: 2014 is the year to prepare and get your life in order and I will detail this as clearly as I can to show you why.

First and foremost there is a major global reconfiguration away from the dollar as a the preferred means of trade settlement.

I have often stated that the largest economies have taken strategic steps already to trade in a world without the dollar. The chief architects of this plan are the Russians and Chinese and what they have done and are doing is dismantling with precision the petro-dollar supremacy. Case in point, Russia is the largest oil producer in the world and they have back in 2013 set up a deal with the Chinese. That deal was the first major shot into the Dollar’s armor as world reserve currency and it’s grip to the pricing of oil

So what does it mean? Simple the largest oil producer is handing off the distribution of it’s product to the largest economy in world (China) to sell it in YUAN bypassing the dollar!!! In order to put this in proper perspective you have to get into your head that the entire Petro-Dollar scheme was based off the idea of cheap Saudi oil supplied perpetually. Well that reality is coming apart in a major way, lets take a second and look at Saudi oil and it’s history.
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part V: The Coming Economic Enslavement of Communism

by reasonvoice
Experts Warning of Coming Global Financial Meltdown This all is starting to make a lot of sense now. In the last month there has been 8 mysterious death of 8 bankers across the globe. Maybe they knew something and were trying to warn others before its too late. From Bank of America’s head of global technical strategy warning that the U.S. dollar is in serious trouble, to Capitol One’s unprecedented policy change where they will now show up at Credit Card users homes to collect on debts, it seems even the big banks are going into panic mode.

In spite of all the government media propaganda, the warning signs are getting harder and harder to ignore. The fact is, our economy has teetered on the edge of the financial abyss for quite some time; and with the government now racking up over $1 trillion dollars a year in debt, it’s only a matter of time before the house of cards comes crashing down.U.S. about to hit the Debt Ceiling Yet Again…We are now only a couple of weeks away from another possible government default, as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warns the government will run out of money to pay the nation’s bills, unless congress yet again raises the federal debt limit.
As part of the so-called budget deal that reopened the government last October, Congress suspended the $16.7-trillion debt limit through Feb. 7, 2014. With that deadline now passed, we’re now only weeks away from another possible default, causing some to wonder how much more this economy can take. In fact, former Harvard Economist Terry Burnham is so worried that he pulled all of his money out of Bank of America, and started warning everyone that they might want to consider doing the same.
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part VI: China Starts To Make A Power Move Against The U.S. Dollar

by reasonvoice
With the Chinese buying up and owning our few (relative) existing factories, we will be weak and at the mercy of others. We will be beyond any level of weakness the United States has ever known. In comes FEMA Cammps…

In order for our current level of debt-fueled prosperity to continue, the rest of the world must continue to use our dollars to trade with one another and must continue to buy our debt at ridiculously low interest rates. Of course the number one foreign nation that we depend on to participate in our system is China. China accounts for more global trade than anyone else on the planet (including the United States), and most of that trade is conducted in U.S. dollars.
This keeps demand for our dollars very high, and it ensures that we can import massive quantities of goods from overseas at very low cost. As a major exporting nation, China ends up with gigantic piles of our dollars. They lend many of those dollars back to us at ridiculously low interest rates. At this point, China owns more of our national debt than any other country does. But if China was to decide to quit playing our game and started moving away from U.S. dollars and U.S. debt, our economic prosperity could disappear very rapidly. Demand for the U.S. dollar would fall and prices would go up. And interest rates on our debt and everything else in our financial system would go up to crippling levels. So it is absolutely critical to our financial future that China continues to play our game.
Unfortunately, there are signs that China has now decided to start looking for a smooth exit from the game. In November, I wrote about how the central bank of China has announced that it is “no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves”. That means that the pile of U.S. dollars that China is sitting on is not going to get any higher.

In addition, China has signed a whole host of international currency agreements with other nations during the past couple of years which are going to result in less U.S. dollars being used in international trade. You can read about many of these agreements in this article.
This week, we learned that China started to dump U.S. debt during the month of December. Many have imagined that China would try to dump a flood of our debt on to the market all of a sudden once they decided to exit, but that simply does not make sense. Instead, it makes sense for China to dump a bit of debt at a time so that the market will not panic and so that they can get close to full value for the paper that they are holding.
As Bloomberg reported the other day, China dumped nearly 50 billion dollars of U.S. debt during the month of December…

China, the largest foreign U.S. creditor, reduced holdings of U.S. Treasury debt in December by the most in two years as the Federal Reserve announced plans to slow asset purchases.
The nation pared its position in U.S. government bonds by $47.8 billion, or 3.6 percent, to $1.27 trillion, the largest decline since December 2011, according to U.S. Treasury Department data released yesterday.

This is how I would do it if I was China. I would try to dump 30, 40 or 50 billion dollars a month. I would try to make a smooth exit and try to get as much for my U.S. debt paper as I could.
So if China is not going to stockpile U.S. dollars or U.S. debt any longer, what is it going to stockpile?
It is going to stockpile gold of course. In fact, China has been voraciously stockpiling gold for quite some time, and their hunger for gold appears to be growing.
According to Bloomberg, more than 80 percent of the gold that was exported from Switzerland last month went to Asia…
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part VII: U.S. Stock Market Takes a Dive – Is The Bubble Beginning to Pop?

by reasonvoice

Down graph in front of newspaper stock market tables

THIS ARTICLE IS IN MY SERIES FOR ONE REASON, AND ONE REASON ONLY.

NO ONE CAN PREDICT EXACTLY WHEN THE CRASH IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

THERE ARE TOO MANY VARIABLES THIS TIME, vs. THE HOUSING BUBBLE.

IN A LATER PIECE I WILL DESCRIBE HOW I SEE IT ALL FITTING TOGETHER…

BUT FOR NOW… JUST FACTS IN PARTS I-VII

In regard to the U.S. stock market bubble it’s not a question of if it will pop, but rather of when (and what excuse the so called experts that denied that it was coming will use to distract from the real cause). They’ll tell you it was due to slow downs in emerging markets, some disappointing jobs report or lower than expected corporate earnings, but this is like blaming a blade of grass that a soap bubble lands on for its demise. Bubbles pop because they are bubbles. Once they are inflated the result is inevitable. The wind may carry it a bit farther than expected (QE3) but sooner or later the laws of nature always prevail.
Read More Here

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The Last Great Stand

Part VIII: 25 Fast Facts About The Federal Reserve – Please Share With Everyone You Know

by reasonvoice

Most Americans are under the illusion the FED is somehow part of our government. Whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing is really irrelevant, because it’s not. The FED is an independently owned bank that operates for the benefit of one group of people and one group of people only… the owners of the Fed.
As we approach the 100 year anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, it is absolutely imperative that we get the American people to understand that the Fed is at the very heart of our economic problems. It is a system of money that was created by the bankers and that operates for the benefit of the bankers. The American people like to think that we have a “democratic system”, but there is nothing “democratic” about the Federal Reserve. Unelected, unaccountable central planners from a private central bank run our financial system and manage our economy. There is a reason why financial markets respond with a yawn when Barack Obama says something about the economy, but they swing wildly whenever Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opens his mouth. The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does by a huge margin.
THE FED IS THE BIGGEST PONZE SCHEME IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, and if the American people truly understood how it really works, they would be SCREAMING for it to be abolished immediately. The following are 25 fast facts about the Federal Reserve that everyone should know…
#1 The greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was whenthere was no central bank.
#2 The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the Federal Reserve was created. In the century before the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation was about half a percent. In the century since the Federal Reserve was created, the average annual rate of inflation has beenabout 3.5 percent, and it would be even higher than that if the inflation numbers were not being so grossly manipulated.
#3 Even using the official numbers, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by more than 95 percent since the Federal Reserve was created nearly 100 years ago.
#4 The secret November 1910 gathering at Jekyll Island, Georgia during which the plan for the Federal Reserve was hatched was attended by U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department A.P. Andrews and a whole host of representatives from the upper crust of the Wall Street banking establishment.
#5 In 1913, Congress was promised that if the Federal Reserve Act was passed that it would eliminate the business cycle.
#6 The following comes directly from the Fed’s official mission statement: “To provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded.”
#7 It was not an accident that a permanent income tax was also introduced the same year when the Federal Reserve system was established. The whole idea was to transfer wealth from our pockets to the federal government and from the federal government to the bankers.
#8 Within 20 years of the creation of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy was plunged into the Great Depression.
#9 If you can believe it, there have been 10 different economic recessions since 1950. The Federal Reserve created the “dotcom bubble”, the Federal Reserve created the “housing bubble” and now it has created the largest bond bubble in the history of the planet.
#10 According to an official government report, the Federal Reserve made 16.1 trillion dollars in secret loans to the big banks during the last financial crisis. The following is a list of loan recipients that was taken directly from page 131 of the report…

Citigroup - $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion
Bank of America - $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC - $868 billion
Bear Sterns - $853 billion
Goldman Sachs - $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion
Deutsche Bank - $354 billion
UBS - $287 billion
Credit Suisse - $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland - $181 billion
BNP Paribas - $175 billion
Wells Fargo - $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia - $142 billion
Dresdner Bank - $135 billion
Societe Generale - $124 billion
“All Other Borrowers” - $2.639 trillion

The Last Great Stand

Part IX: Explaining The Federal Reserve, Inflation, and the Economic Bubbles About To BURST In Layman’s Terms

by reasonvoice

DO YOU EVER WONDER?

Ever wonder about why our economy is in trouble? How can so many people can be in so much debt at the same time? Does it seem strange to you no matter how hard one works, and in spite of all the advances in society, most hard working people cannot escape the treadmill of perpetual debt?
Why are so many families losing their homes to foreclosure? Why are many households dependent upon credit cards to supplement their income? Why does it take TWO spouses to maintain a household when it used to take just one? Why have so many retirement savings been wiped out? Why do prices always creep up?
Did you know that close to 1/3 of all income taxes are consumed just to pay interest on the Federal Debt? (National Debt currently 17 TRILLION DOLLARS , or about $165,000 per household.) Think about it. Every penny that you pay in income tax from January 1 - April 1 is consumed just to pay interest on Federal debt, much of it to foreign banking families! And let’s not forget the Government’s unfunded future liabilities, estimated at 75 TRILLION. (an additional $750,000+ per household.)
Add those staggering sums to the 11 Trillion in total consumer debt (mortgages, car loans debt, credit cards, etc), student loan debt (1 Trillion more), State debt, County debt, City/Town debt, small business debt, big business debt, and you will see that the total of these debts actually exceeds (BY FAR) the amount of money supply in circulation.
So, how can such astronomical debt ever be repaid? Well, if you haven’t figured it out yet – IT CAN’T. The only way for society to service just the interest on these monstrous debts is to constantly inject new debts into the system.
Finally, on top of all your Federal, State, gasoline, and local taxes, (30% – 40% of your gross income) and on top of your personal debt service burden (another 25%-50%), there’s this thing called “inflation”, or ”the cost of living.” What exactly is “the cost of living?” What causes it? Why does a dollar buy less and less each year while wages stay flat?

Is the stress of perpetual debt and rising prices keeping you up at night? How many strokes, heart attacks, and even suicides are induced by financial stress each year? Money and debt may even have led to your drinking problem, or perhaps even to depression. Debt may have been the underlying cause of your divorce or that of some couple that you know.
You know in your gut that something isn’t right in this country. But you don’t have the “Economics education” to figure it out. It all seems too complicated for you to put your finger on, so you just keep slaving away to pay interest and taxes as your dollar buys less and less. All you can do is keep working like a dog and leave the matter to the Wall Street “experts” and politicians to handle for you.
But it’s all quite simple really. So simple in fact, even a dummy can understand it when it is broken down to basic elements.
Read More Here
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The Last Great Stand

Part X: A Storm is Brewing on the Horizon – Martial Law Before 2016?

by reasonvoice

All Out Political Revolution and War is Upon America in 2014?????

Problems I See As Unavoidable:

This is a perfect chance for my two cents on the monetary system. Parts I – IX gave all the technical reasons the Dollar doesn’t stand a chance in the long run. I think it’s far more common sense than all those technical reasons, but I wanted to shut up all the nay sayers.
First, I think we can assume a worthless Dollar is VERY bad. That takes away our ability to import things we don’t produce domestically. That means whatever we use to sustain ourselves as a nation has to be here. Let’s think about it: As Part III put, we have not only outsourced almost all of our production capability overseas for cheap labor, what little production capacity we have left is being rapidly bought up by the Chinese so they can get out of our Dollar and retain something of value: namely our production capability.
How do 300 million people survive if we can’t import anything and don’t produce squat because we are a “service” economy now? Short answer? We don’t. Not enough for everyone. That means if you have food, people will do whatever is necessary for them and their loved ones. Chances are if you have none, you’ll do the same. THAT is how a worthless Dollar plays out. Period. There will be a TON of violence for those without somewhere safe, heavily stocked with food, and well protected.

NOW, THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: DO WE EVER GET TO THAT POINT?

1. Hyperinflation:

Right now the Fed is monitizing our debt to the tune of about 85 BILLION per month. That is over $5 TRILLION OUT OF THIN AIR since Obama took office. What does that mean? It means they are printing that money out of thin air. That does two things. First, it debases our currency as can be seen by one look at the dollar index. LOOK YOURSELF! The dollar has been in free fall. The ONLY thing saving the Dollar is that it is still the world reserve currency… but don’t get too excited because I’ll get to that later. Don’t count on that continuing for long. In addition to debasing the currency, it creates inflation. MASSIVE INFLATION.
The government tells us inflation is like 2%. Um. Ok. Gas went from under $2.00 to close to $4.00. What is that? Food prices are going up – but NOTHING like they will be soon. The same bag of dog food I used to get for $9.50 is now about $13.00. What is that if not inflation? That doesn’t sound like 2% to me. Anyone in your family who does the food shopping KNOWS food prices are going up much more than 2%.
We have not even begun to feel the inflation that is coming as a result of the printing presses Obama and his economic advisors have been running around the clock.
As I mentioned we use a system of banking called Fractional Reserve Banking. Everyone knows banks have been tight on lending money. Familiarize yourself with how Fractional Reserve Banking works, and imagine when the full extent of all this printed money IS actually all in circulation. OMG. Prices will SKYROCKET… and I’m still not even touching the reserve currency status yet. I’m assuming we still have that thus far. Stay tuned for more on that.
Remember those baby boomers on fixed incomes? How are those skyrocketing prices going to work out for them? Expect ramped up foreclosures and parents moving back in with their kids. As more people experience financial hardship they’ll buy less stuff, causing companies to cut back MORE – that means more layoffs, more foreclosures, and the cycle keeps going. This is when I see the Dow ultimately dipping to around 5,000.
Furthermore, if there are skyrocketing prices, and super high unemployment, how will people feed their families? Hmmm. I sense this could create some MAJOR problems. I fully predict neighbor will be robbing neighbor trying to feed starving family members, so you better be armed and ready to protect your food…. oh wait… Obama wants your guns. Wow.

2. Healthcare: Even without the atrocity otherwise known as Obamacare, the costs of healthcare have already been increasing exponentially, so healthcare is potentially the first domino in a long line of dominos that ultimately bring down the financial strength of this nation. How? I am a simple man, so I’ll use simple arithmetic:

We have the largest generation in American history just entering retirement. Consequently, as a nation we will face the largest expenditures for healthcare probably in human history, but at the very least in American history. Where are these baby boomers going to get the money to pay those medical bills? The “stock market” (which is a term I will use generally for retirement investments) is where most of this enormous group of Americans have the bulk of their wealth tied up. Not all do, but a huge majority of them.
Prior to the 2008 crash it was estimated about 40% of Americans had enough money saved for retirement. Let’s be REALLY optimistic and say that after the crash 35% still had enough. First of all, that would be LUDICROUS, but lets assume so anyway. It’s obviously a MUCH lower number.
As the baby boomers begin to cash in those investments for their ungodly high medical bills and their retirement living in general, the stock market is inevitably going to drop as money is pulled out. It MIGHT not be so bad if Generation X or their employers were contributing even a fraction of what their baby boomer parents did to replace the withdrawls. HOWEVER, the reality is that so many Generation X ‘s are out of work or underemployed, so there is NOWHERE NEAR enough going in to replace what will be coming out. Furthermore, about 50% of the money in the stock market right now is “Institutional Investors.” When the Fed is lending at 0%, why not borrow and invest speculatively if you’re a huge financial institution?
Guess what? BUBBLE #1: We have another stock bubble brewing, but that is the smallest of the bubbles presently brewing. At some point, the institutional investors will begin the selloff and start to get out of the overpriced market while the getting is good. In an attempt to minimize losses to their retirement funds, the mom and pops of the country are going to be scrambling to get out as fast as they can. Prices will be dropping like a rock as institutions pull out in volume, and mom and pop always panic. It’s like clockwork. THEN, stocks REALLY start to drop like a ROCK as everyone is trying desperately to get into CASH. On a side note, when the market bottoms out and the mom and pops are all cleaned out and devastated, THAT is when the institutional investors will jump back in at low prices and ride the wave back up that screws the average investor again. It’s a cycle. That’s assuming we’re not under Martial Law by then- but I’ll get to that in a bit.
As stock prices drop, eventually we’ll see a mad selloff driven by fear like in 2008. In turn, since corporations could care less about the welfare of their employees, and they only care about the almighty shareholder – it will be LAYOFF time. MASSIVE LAYOFFS will be needed to cut costs so share prices stay up as much as possible. The more people continue to get laid off, you can count on the cycle of people not making their mortgage payments to start up again. THEN, another super round of foreclosures will begin. Banks still haven’t gotten rid of all the previous foreclosures on the books from 2008, so expect prices of homes to drop faster than you can say FAST as the selloff begins again.
More people pull out of the market, leads to more layoffs, leads to more jobless, leads to more foreclosures, and the cycle will be rapid. I could easily see the Dow and an ounce of gold both being around $5,000. Yes – I said 5,000. I am very well aware we’re at 16,000 now. But how you ask? Calm down, I’m getting there.

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Saturday, March 15, 2014