The Financial IdolsAre Coming Down

Dateline: 30 August 2015

Hugo Salinas Price

"If the monetary system of the world is not reformed, then we are headed towards the end of industrial civilization. I won't say that we're going to the end of humanity. But it's just going to be absolute collapse of our world as we have known it. Because it can not function on fiat money. And none of those who are responsible for this want to admit it. 
But that is a fact."

—Hugo Salinas Price 

(May 17 2015)

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Earlier in the year (around March) I was speaking with a man I've known since high school days. He owns a business with several employees. He's a smart and successful guy. I asked how his business was doing. He told me last year was a good year and he was expecting another good year this year. Then he said something that really surprised me. He said the stock market was doing great and he was making money there.

The instant he said that I realized my friend was getting all his financial information from the mainstream, corporate-media propaganda purveyors. He was gauging the health of the American economy by the American stock market. He seemed to be unaware (or unconcerned) that the stock market was artificially high; that it no longer reflects economic reality.

I must have made some sort of facial response at his comment about the stock market because he then said, "Don't you think things are looking good for this year?" I mumbled something about problems brewing in Europe and the world economy being so interconnected. He replied, " Well, yeah." and that was the end of the economic discussion.

That conversation bothered me for days. It bothered me because if my friend is so hoodwinked by the mainstream news media, and blind to the serious fundamental economic problems that underly our economic system, then most of the country must also be similarly ignorant of these things. That is disturbing.

But, for my part, I may be totally blind to anything hopeful or optimistic about the world economic situation. And that's because, instead of watching and listening to MSNBCBS (or whatever those television stations are now) I regularly (as in, several times a day) check out the articles at Zero Hedge. If you want alternative economic perspective, Zero Hedge is the place to start. And I really do think that web site reflects more of the reality of our world economic situation better than any other source. The recent "Black Monday" stock market crash was no surprise to Zero Hedge readers.

I'm sure many people who read this blog (a very aware group of contrarians) are already tapped into Zero Hedge.

Only God knows exactly how, in His providence, He will tear down the modern idols of The Love of Money, Trust in Money, and The Pursuit of Ease and Affluence. But it would appear that we are coming much closer to a perfect storm of financial chaos on a worldwide level. Actually, we're already seeing a confluence of smaller storms already wreaking their carnage, and they will coalesce at some point.

The fundamental problem in the financial world is debt. Too much of it. It can't all be paid. It won't all be paid. National economies, managed (manipulated) by central bankers, will default in some manner on their loans. The worldwide banking system may seize up, as almost happened in 2008.

If that happens, all bets are off, so to speak. The just-in-time distribution of goods and services would then be severely impaired. Commerce as we now know it will be stifled.

No country, no bank, no persons will take responsibility for the financial crisis to come. All parties will be pointing fingers at other parties and making accusations. American politicians and financial heads will probably accuse the Chinese and the Russians (the usual suspects). But if any country is to blame, it is America, and the rest of the world knows it.

Our American dollar, the world reserve currency that was once "good as gold," is no longer so, and this nation has run up more unplayable debt than anyone.

Watch out for the Powers That Be in Washington (an entity with interests separate from the people of the United States of America) as they will likely identify more nations in the world to clandestinely destabilize, or go to war with. War is a diversion. War is big business. War is necessary to perpetrate the Empire of Washington DC.

The alternative economic scuttlebutt is that the American dollar will eventually cease to be the world reserve currency. This eventuality is already in the works. There will be some sort of new monetary scheme. Or, if things really fall apart, there may not be a global monetary scheme for some time.

My advice, for what it's worth, has not changed over the years. I routinely direct readers of this blog to my January 2008 post titled, An Agrarian Economic Self-Defense Plan. More recently, I posted A Different Perspective On Wise Investing, which meshes perfectly with the agrarian self-defense plan.

The way it looks to me, making money by investing (especially in conventional ways) is a moot subject. The challenge anyone with money faces these days (if they are cognizant of current economic reality) is not making more money, but preserving the wealth they already have. 

It saddens me to see some alternative financial opportunists advertising that there are ways to profit from the coming collapse. That's Pride and The Love of Money for you.

I don't reckon anyone below the 1% is going to profit from this coming crisis. And I suspect that many of those 1% will also be victims. Living an ostentatious (or even just prosperous) lifestyle could be a liability in the days ahead.

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As an aside, if you have not already seen Kathy Lee Gifford's Eulogy To Frank, please take a few moments to watch it. You will be blessed.

The one part of the eulogy that sticks in my mind is Frank Gifford's early life during the Great Depression. His family moved more than 50 times as his father tried to find work. They ate dog food to survive, and they were thankful for it.

People like Frank Gifford, who experienced the reality of our nation's last financial depression, are now pretty much all gone. Few Moderns have a clue about how difficult life will be in the next depression that lies before us.