The Five Stages of Economic Collapse

Guest Post by David Meyer

Society as we know it will break down and collapse in a five stage process outlined here. While it can be accelerated by certain events like war, a natural disaster, pandemic, terrorist attack, or even an impending asteroid impact, history has shown that economic collapse will essentially happen in this five stage process. To survive the collapse, it is important to read and interpret the signs and understand what assets are important to the current situation so you can be prepared for the worst thereby allowing you to survive intact and with as little damage as possible.

STAGE 1. The Decay Begins

Everything is good and the economy is thriving. A high standard of living has been achieved. This is the way things should be. Goods are cheap and readily available. Everything seems to be in abundance. Stores are filled with retail items ready to be purchased. Life in general is good. The nation’s working infrastructure is solidly intact and working well. However, the idea that everyone is entitled to have what others have earned now permeates society. Redistribution of Wealth Policies are implemented and quietly woven into the fabric of society. Unchecked and under the guise of fairness and equality, these policies slowly decrease productivity and increase dependency on government entitlement and welfare programs.

Primary Assets:

1. Career


2. Home Value


3. Savings


4. Investments – Stocks and bonds


5. Health Insurance


6. Lifestyle Image


7. Good Credit Rating for Debt Accumulation

STAGE 2. The Slippery Slope

The economy goes into a slow but steadily increasing decline. Unemployment is on the rise. Ever increasing numbers of people receive government assistance in one form or another. People are paid not to work. Government spending has increased dramatically. The price of gold, silver, and other precious metals rise to prices unheard of just a few years earlier. Inflation reaches the double digit levels.

Primary Assets:

1. Cash


2. Precious Metals, Gold and Silver coins


3. Job Stability


4. Elimination of debt


5. Health Insurance


6. Home Equity


7. Automobile with good MPG


8. Acquiring secluded land more than 40 miles from densely populated areas

STAGE 3. It is Going to Get Worse

The total collapse of the economy begins after a significant and prolonged decline. The government implements price controls. Shortages on essential goods become widespread. Foreclosed houses sit vacant and deteriorating by the tens of thousands. Middle class neighborhoods begin to look like slums. The government begins to print currency to pay its bills and support the tens of millions on public assistance. Inflation increases even more and unemployment exceeds 25%. Banks and businesses fail at ever increasing rates. Nobody seems to have any money. Many are now homeless. Labor unions instigate strikes, civil unrest, and large scale riots. Government services are interrupted and unreliable. Local and national infrastructure is in decay. Violent gangs begin to appear and assert themselves. The government begins confiscation of firearms from law abiding citizens. Violence is everywhere. Cities and urban areas become very dangerous places to live.

At this stage, the country seems pretty much beyond the point of no return. However, things can still be reversed even at this stage if the right person at the top really believes in the basic fundamental concepts of Freedom, Independence, Liberty, and Individual Rights and is not afraid to do what is necessary to reverse the current trend. He will be vilified and hated because of his attitude toward personal responsibility, cutting entitlements, and ending welfare programs. Of course, if the right person were in power and did what needed to be done, none of this would have happened in the first place.

Primary Assets:

• Gold and Silver coins


• Cash


• Job


• Automobile


• Home


• Short term food supplies


• Short term fuel stores


• Firearms and ammo


• Plans to relocate to a secluded rural hideaway


• Small livestock – chicken, rabbit, fish…


• A close network of like minded people


• Survival knowledge and skills

STAGE 4. The Grab for Power

The collapse can transition to this stage at any time after Stage 3. Most of the middle class have lost everything. What used to be well manicured middle class neighborhoods are filled with the carcasses of empty houses damaged and destroyed by vandals. The nation’s infrastructure has been seriously neglected and is in need of a major overhaul. The power grid becomes unreliable. Rolling blackouts are a daily occurrence. You can no longer buy or sell gold or own foreign currency. Inflation is out of control. Now the economy collapses. There is a rush for everything and the shelves go empty in a matter of hours. Society falls into chaos. The control of urban areas shifts when violent gangs takeover control of the streets and urban neighborhoods. The government issues restrictive measures in an attempt to control the economy. Everything is in short supply and heavily rationed. Food and gasoline is very expensive and there are very long lines to get them when they are available. Affordable quality health care is non-existent and your job is a distant memory. You will do without what you are unable to provide for yourself. You will discover what it is to live in a third world country.

Primary Assets:

1. Relocation to the rural hideaway


2. Firearms and ammo


3. Long term food supplies (1 year minimum)


4. Adequate fuel stores


5. Security plan to protect the group and assets


6. Trained dog for security


7. A working knowledge of survival gardening


8. Survival knowledge and skills

Once all of the above has come to pass, the realization of the current circumstances at this moment must be all too obvious. It is too late to prepare at this point. What you did not acquire earlier, you are not going to possess now. Anything of value necessary for your survival has already been claimed. The situation gets worse… much worse.

Stage 5 is next… and it is not pretty.

STAGE 5. Freedom, Liberty, and Independence is Lost

The government implements martial law. Fighting between civilians and government forces break out nationwide. Maintaining more than a 30 day supply of food is considered hoarding food and is illegal. Severe poverty and starvation become a common sight. The government offers marginally acceptable food, water and shelter in exchange for your Freedom, Liberty, and Independence. Democracy ends and a Socialist form of government takes over under the guise of fixing society’s problems with the false promise that peace and prosperity will return better than it was just a few years ago. A Totalitarian regime assumes power and the individual freedoms and liberties once enjoyed by the people are completely eliminated.

Primary Assets:

1. Rural Hideaway


2. Security plan to protect the group and assets


3. Living below the radar in a community of like minded people


4. Firearms and the ability to use them


5. Guard dog for security


6. Survival knowledge and skills


7. A working and producing garden capable of feeding 150% of the group


8. A stable supply of clean water


9. Vegetable seeds for long term food production and barter


10. The will to live and survive in a harsh political climate

As you can see, priorities change as the world changes. Your most prized assets of today – your good credit, luxury automobile, and career are no longer important after the economy collapses.

FAILURE TO PREPARE TODAY WILL INCREASE THE MAGNITUDE OF YOUR SUFFERING TOMORROW.

It is better to prepare 10 years too early than 10 minutes too late. Many who lack vision will say that it will never happen and for those who decide to live unprepared should consider the following statement.

LACK OF PLANNING ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART.

This article has been contributed by David Meyer. You can read more of his editorials at the Target of Opportunity web site.

Author:
David Meyer

Date: February 28th, 2012

Website: http://www.targetofopportunity.com

11 Reasons To Get Your Kids Out Of The Government Schools

Guest Post by Michael Snyder

It should be painfully obvious to everyone by now that it is time to get all of our kids out of the government schools. The public school system in the United States has been dramatically declining for a long time, and in most areas of the country the public schools are open sewers at this point. Yes, there are some U.S. public schools that are still very good and that do a decent job of preparing our young people for their adult lives. But those good schools are the exception to the rule. Hopefully the school shooting that just happened in Ohio will be a wake up call to millions of parents out there. Drugs, sex and violence are rampant in American public schools today. The "teachers" are endlessly pushing specific political and social agendas down the throats of our kids, and the skills that our children really need such as reading, writing and mathematics are often badly neglected. Hopefully we can get more parents educated about what is really going on in these schools. After all, why would any parents want to send their children into an environment that is going to be highly destructive for them for six to eight hours a day?

Sadly, "destructive" is not too hard a word to use for the environment in these public schools. I went to public schools all my life, and they were absolutely horrible. Unfortunately, they have gotten even worse since the time that I left them.

The following are 11 reasons to get your kids out of the government schools....

#1 You Could Be Arrested For Something That Your Child Does

Yes, you read that correctly. If your child writes a story or draws a picture which a teacher or an administrator takes the wrong way, you could end up in jail.

The following example is from thestar.com....

A Kitchener father is angry at police after he was arrested at his child’s school and later strip-searched at the police station, all because his 4-year-old daughter drew a picture of a gun in class.

“I’m picking up my kids and then, next thing you know, I’m locked up,” Jessie Sansone, 26, said of his ordeal on Wednesday. “I was in shock. This is completely insane.”

The school principal, police and child welfare officials, however, all stand by their actions. They say they had to investigate to determine whether there was a gun in Sansone’s house that children had access to.

#2 Your Child Could Be Arrested While At School For Just About Anything These Days

As I have written about previously, children all over the United States are being arrested by police in government school classrooms for some absolutely crazy things. Just check out the following examples....

*A 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume at a public school in Texas.

*A 13-year-old kid attending a public school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.

*A 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York was marched out of her public school in handcuffs by police just because she doodled on her desk. "I love my friends Abby and Faith" was what she reportedly scribbled on her desk.

*When a little girl recently kissed a little boy at one Florida elementary school, it was considered to be a "possible sex crime" and the police were called out.

#3 Your Child Might Be Bodily Harmed By Security Thugs

All over the nation, public schools students are being bodily injured (sometimes permanently) by school security thugs. The following are a couple of examples....

*A security thug at one school in California actually fractured the arm of one 16-year-old girl because she left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning up some cake that she had spilled.

*In Allentown, Pennsylvania a 14-year-old girl was tasered in the groin area by a school security thug even though she had put up her hands in the air to surrender to him.

#4 Virtually Everything That Your Child Does At School Is Being Put Into A Database Somewhere

As I described in a previous article, public schools (in conjunction with the federal government) have become obsessed with watching, monitoring and recording the activities of our kids.

According to the New York Post, the Obama administration is planning a vast new database which will collect all sorts of information about our children. Is this the kind of information that you want the federal government to keep track of?....

The administration wants this data to include much more than name, address and test scores. According to the National Data Collection Model, the government should collect information on health-care history, family income and family voting status. In its view, public schools offer a golden opportunity to mine reams of data from a captive audience.

#5 Our Kids Are Not Learning Anything In These Public Schools

As I have documented before, American public school students are being dumbed-down and millions of them end up dumb as a rock and yet still are able to graduate from high school somehow....

The following are some of the absolutely amazing results of a study conducted a few years ago by Common Core....

*Only 43 percent of all U.S. high school students knew that the Civil War was fought some time between 1850 and 1900.

*More than a quarter of all U.S. high school students thought that Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean after the year 1750.

*Approximately a third of all U.S. high school students did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion. (This is a topic that I touched on yesterday).

*Only 60 percent of all U.S. students knew that World War I was fought some time between 1900 and 1950.

Sadly, we are rapidly falling behind the rest of the globe. At this point, 15-year-olds that attend U.S. public schools do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy.

#6 Our Public School Kids Are Being Forced To Take Large Numbers Of Vaccines

All over the nation, children that have not received all of the "required vaccines" are being banned from school.

Many parents do not want dozens of toxic vaccines injected directly into the bloodstreams of their kids, but in many states today you will not be able to send your kids to the public schools if they don't submit to the shots.

This is just another reason why all American families should pull their kids out of these government schools immediately.

#7 Exposed To Rampant Sexual Promiscuity

When you send your kid to a government school, you are sending them into an environment where they will be exposed to rampant sexual promiscuity on an endless basis.

When the kids around you are constantly talking about sex and joking about sex, it makes it nearly impossible to escape it.

What makes things even worse is that the "sex education" courses are becoming more detailed and more graphic than ever. One example of this phenomenon was detailed in the New York Times....

IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he and his classmates were given “risk cards” that graphically named a variety of solitary and mutual sex acts? Or if, in another lesson, he was encouraged to disregard what you told him about sex, and to rely instead on teachers and health clinic staff members?

In some U.S. public schools, kids are even having sex in the school bathrooms.

Do you want that to happen to your kid?

#8 Teachers Are Having Sex With The Students

It seems like almost every single day there is another news story about teachers having sex with public school students.

The following are just a few of the headlines that I found from this week....

-"More California Teachers Accused Of Sex Crimes"

-"Teacher Accused Of Sex With Student Appears In Court"

-"Queen's Teacher's Aide Charged With Child Sex Abuse"

-"Teacher Caught In Bed With Teen Student"

#9 U.S. Public Schools Are Dominated By Radical Control Freaks That Are Teaching Our Kids How To Live Like Slaves

The level of control that is exerted over the lives of children in many of our public schools is absolutely frightening.

I know that I have mentioned the following example several times, but it is worth repeating because it shows just how far things have gone. One 4-year-old girl recently had her lunch confiscated by a control freak at one U.S. preschool because it did not meet USDA guidelines....

A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.

The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day.

The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs - including in-home day care centers - to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.

Do you want sick control freaks inspecting the lunches that your kids bring from home every single day?

If not, perhaps it is time to pull them out of the government schools.

#10 Specific Social And Political Agendas Are Being Shoved Down The Throats Of Our Kids In U.S. Public Schools

If you think that the government schools are "neutral places" where all social, political and religious beliefs are tolerated, then you are either ignorant or you are delusional.

The truth is that very specific social and political agendas are built into the curriculums of most public schools. Often, these social and political agendas are the same ones that are being force-fed to public school children in other western nations.

If your children are attending a government school, a system of "right and wrong" is being pounded into their heads that may be very different from what you would teach them.

In one recent New York Times article, a district superintendent admitted that particular agendas are integrated into classroom instruction anywhere that they will fit....

“We’re trying to integrate it into anything where it naturally fits,” said Jackie Taylor, the district’s superintendent. “It might be in a math lesson. How much water are you really using? How can you tell? Teachers look for avenues in almost everything they teach.”

If you want to see where all of this is going, just check out what is going on in Europe. In the UK, teachers that don't promote the "correct agenda" face harsh disciplinary action.

Those that control the public schools don't just want to "educate" your children.

They want to indoctrinate them.

#11 If Your Children Attend Public Schools They Could End Up Dead

Sadly, the school shooting that just happened in Ohio reminds us all once again that this is a matter of life and death. Our schools are not safe and they are becoming less safe all the time.

While the odds are not great that your children will actually be murdered in our public schools, the truth is that there is a very good chance that they could be scarred for life by the destructive environment in these schools.

Most Americans that have gone through the public school system emerge from it with deep emotional scars. If you have some of these emotional scars you know exactly what I am talking about.

The vast majority of our public schools are horrible places. Just ask kids that are going to public high schools right now. Most of them hate it.

Sometimes people argue that we should keep our children in the public schools so that they can be a "light" and so that they can be a good influence.

Unfortunately, that is just not the reality of the situation. Our kids go there to be taught, and it is the teachers that have the authority. Our children are far more likely to be changed by their teachers and their friends than they are to significantly change the system around them.

When you are young and insecure, it can be incredibly difficult to take a stand for what is right when all of your teachers and all of your friends are going the other way.

We need to protect our children and we need to put them into environments where they will be safe, protected and will receive a quality education.

Growing up is hard enough without having to spend 30 to 40 hours a week in a nightmarish hellhole where you will be physically, mentally and emotionally tortured.

So what do all of you think about the state of U.S. public schools?

Do you believe that we should get our kids out of the government schools?

Feel free to post a comment with your opinion below....

Original Article

The Road to Collapse - Stop the Machine

12 Preparedness Tips for Families with Children

Guest Post by Gaye Levy

Something I have not given much thought to is how to deal with survival and preparedness matters when there are young children in the household. Perhaps it was watching the children on Doomsday Preppers that set me on this path or perhaps it was just something I started thinking about on my own.

Whatever the reason, I have always treated young children as mini-adults, able to rationalize and understand and feel the emotions and body language of the adults around them. And I love kids. Even though I don’t have any of my own, I recognize and love that they are fresh and unspoiled by life and it’s failures. For no other reason, I wish to share my thoughts on preparedness for families with little ones under the roof.

A Dozen Preparedness Tips for Families

1. Include children in family preparedness discussions. Explain what you are talking about in a calm, assured manner and answer questions honestly and simply. Focus the conversation on the safety issues that will insure their survival.

2. Regardless of their age, teach young children to memorize their basic personal information such as full name, address, telephone number, and the names of their parents or guardians. This will be invaluable in the event they become separated from their family following a disaster.

3. Learn the disaster response policies of you child’s school or daycare center. Be sure to establish a backup plan so that someone is available to pick them up and/or care for them if you are unable to do so. A good idea would be to have the backup person check on them, regardless, just to be sure. (After all, you may be hurt and unable to call the backup person yourself.)

4. Make sure the school or daycare center always has current emergency contact information for your children. They should also have a list of persons authorized to pick your children up from school. The last thing you want is for a kidnapper to take advantage of the chaos and snatch your child away for some nefarious reason.

5. Establish more than one family meeting site and make sure you child knows where it is. This will help if you can not return to your home.

6. Establish an out-of-state contact person and make sure that your child and the school knows how to reach this person. Remember that although local phone lines may be down, long distance circuits often will be working following a disaster.

7. Teach your children how to use 9-1-1 and practice what they should say to the dispatcher when they do call.

8. Educate your children regarding the need to stay away from downed trees, downed utility poles and any wires that may be lying on the ground. Also teach them to recognize the small of gas and – this is important – to tell an adult they smell gas even if they are not 100% sure. Include instructions to get outdoors and leave the home or building if they even think they smell gas.

9. Practice evacuation strategies and evacuation routes as a family project. Make an outing of it and while you don’t want to diminish the importance of the practice mission, make it fun as well.

10. If you live in an earthquake or other natural disaster zone, teach them basic responses such as Drop, Cover and Hold or Stop, Drop and Roll.

11. Prepare a mini Go-Bag for each child. Include a family picture, a toy, and a game, book or puzzle to keep him or her occupied. Also include some treats.

12. In the adult/family Go-Bag, include copies of the children’s birth certificates, recent photos and additional kiddie comfort foods.

The Final Word

One thing I used to hate when I was a child was the grown-ups talking about something and assuming that I was either not interested or worse, unable to understand. In reality, I had an innate curiosity and even though I only understood half of what the adults were saying, I still soaked it up like a sponge.

With that in mind, I can not think of a better situation for including your children than a family discussion about planning for an emergency of survival situation.


Original Article

World Bank Wants Control Of The High Seas

Guest Post By Brandon Smith

As a proponent of legitimate free markets, I am always up for a little creative entrepreneurship. However, there is a considerable difference between building productive markets, and engaging in monopolistic piracy. Global conglomerates and the elites that operate them have long been familiar with the pirate’s life, and not the fun filled adventure-time rope swinging swashbuckling brand. In fact, it was elitists like Sir Francis Drake, commissioned by the English monarchy, who embodied this disturbing covert bedlam. We’re talking murder, mayhem, and blood-money, folks! So, it should be of no surprise to anyone that the thieving mercantile swine of our era are returning to the high seas to plunder once again, only in a much more subversive and devious manner.



This past week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick made his organization’s intentions for oceanic regimentation known, at least in a candy coated way, at the Economist World Oceans Summit in Singapore. (Source)




Over the last several years, World Bank has seen fit to insinuate itself into the environmental movement as a “bastion” of green ideology. In reality, World Bank has long used the threats of environmental destabilization (some of them real, some of them fake) as tools for the centralization of resources into the hands of mega-corporations. In fact, if one was to attempt to sum up exactly what it is that World Bank actually does in a single phrase, it would probably be “resource domination”. This domination is achieved through the strict lending guidelines that sovereign countries have to commit to in order to attain financing from the supranational entity.

Like a greasy loan shark working for a hardboiled mob cartel, World Bank’s M.O. is to lend large capital packages (made with money or credit created out of thin air) which the target country and its government obviously cannot afford to pay back. These loans often stipulate that the country relinquish control of its natural resources, the true wealth of the nation, over to international corporate bodies for “management”. Through this process, World Bank removes competition from a market and hands designated companies (globalist front-companies) the keys to the kingdom.




Environmental manipulation has been used in the past by World Bank as a cover for resource piracy. Global corporations including Enron, Bechtel, GM, and Monsanto from the late 90’s onward have been handed coveted water rights to entire communities and nations under the guise of managing “water scarcity”. This control of the water supply has extended even to rainwater collection. World Bank’s argument in the case of water privatization was that monetizing the resource would create “incentives” for populations to conserve water. That is to say, the higher they could increase the cost of water, the more coveted it would become, and the more careful people would be when using it. This feudalistic idea was expressed clearly in a World Water Council (founded with the help of the Vice President of World Bank) document entitled “The Long Term Vision For Water, Life, And Environment”:

http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsaca/i/fulltext/mirh/education.pdf




In 1998 the World Water Forum expounded a need for control and regulation over the planet’s water supply. This meeting was packed with top multinational corporations and commissioned by a viper’s nest of global elites, including:



-Dr Ismali Serageldin (Commission Chair), Vice President, World Bank, and Chair of Global Water Partnership

-Margaret Catley-Carlson, President, Population Council

-Gordon Conway, President, The Rockefeller Foundation

-Mohamed T. El-Ashry, Chair and CEO of the Global Environment Facility

-Howard Hjort, former Deputy Director, FAO

-Enriquo Iglesias, President, Inter-American Development Bank


-Yolanda Kababadse, President, World Conservation Union

-Jessica Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA

-Robert S. McNamara, Co-Chair, Global Coalition for Africa

-Maurice Strong, Chair, Earth Council, member of Commission on Global Governance, and a chief adviser in charge of the UN reform process

-Wilfred Thalwitz, former Senior VP, World Bank

-Jerome Mondo, Chair of the Supervisory Board, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux



In March of 2000, the forum made the following statement:



“Water is an economic good and its economic value should be recognized in the allocation of scarce water resources to competing uses. While this should not prevent people from meeting their basic needs for water services at affordable prices, the price for water must be set at a level that encourages conservation and wise use...”




http://www.waternunc.com/gb/secwwf11.htm



This methodology of artificially raising prices through the issuance of securities to enforce a particular environmentalist ideal, in the end, has NOTHING to do with protecting the environment. Essentially, it creates the derivitization of natural resources that is the calling card of globalized tyranny. Cap and Trade programs were designed to monetize air usage. Energy derivatives were used by Enron to allow easier manipulation of electric and oil prices. Water privatization was designed to corporatize a free flowing resource and create artificial scarcity. And now, World Bank wants to apply the same con game to one of the last economic commons; the ocean. The only beneficiaries in these schemes have always been large conglomerates, along with a smattering of stock investors who revel in the idea of erecting entire markets out of absolutely imaginary products with no real inherent value.



As with water privatization, the flood of massive bureaucracy in the guise of corporate management over oceanic usage will only create a mind boggling maze of red tape that will thwart all business interests except the largest. This is entirely deliberate.



Not only does it cause prices to rise to levels beyond what the impoverished (a global majority) can pay for a commodity, but it also squeezes out small business owners whose only advantage was the level playing field of an open resource. On the oceans of World Bank, a small fishing outfit will have no chance to make a living, because the permit process, new taxes, and new legal requirements, will empty their bank accounts before they ever get started, leaving only the big boys to ravage the seas at will, and legally, because they will have paid the exorbitant fees for the right to do so.



There is also a very good reason why Zoellick at the World Oceans Summit mentioned fishery issues so often, and why he is so keen on the idea of international regulations on their operations.



On dry land, companies like Monsanto are the slavemasters of food supply. The centralization of national farming infrastructures has given these companies unrivaled power over how we eat, and thus, how most of the populace survives. However, the ocean, an unparalleled food source, is still a decentralized region of production. Anyone can fish it, almost anywhere, without having to ask permission from the government, or a private company. This obviously does not sit well with World Bank, not because they fear overfishing, but because it provides a sovereign means of survival, allowing people to remain independent from the globalist system.




By utterly corporatizing resources that have through all of time been freely accessible to every human being, World Bank and the elitists they serve hope to build a framework for total centralization of all means of production and sustenance on Earth. Does this sound like mad scientist stuff? Absolutely. Does that make it any less factual or terrifying? Not a chance.



The real cleverness in using the environmental aspect of ocean management lay in the reality that there is, indeed, severe damage being done to many parts of the ocean’s ecosystems. Cap and trade is based on the lie of anthropomorphic global warming and highly misrepresented data on the effects of CO2 (just ask any global warming enthusiast why NASA and the CRU have never released the source data for their experiments to prove that their claims are true). The monetization of the air we breathe can be defeated in the minds of the general public for this reason. But with the oceans, legitimate pollution is occurring. This gives World Bank a much more tangible argument for supranational regulation in the name of environmentalism. What people must realize, though, is that this regulation will have no effect on the deterioration of the seas. In fact, it will likely hasten their destruction.



The international nature of how the oceans are utilized also opens the globalization door to World Bank. When a supranational entity is given de facto governance over a region that is used by all sovereign countries, it gives that entity the ability to interfere in the decision making processes of those nations without any input or respect to the people who live within them. For Americans, this means being susceptible to laws created by men far outside our borders who we cannot vote in, vote out, or chase down with our pitchforks when the voting is rigged. This has always been the goal of globalists; to create the most dominant and unaccountable ruling body in history, while at the same time convincing the masses that we cannot live without it.



At bottom, centralization is the foundation for the collectivist fallacy; that there is a “greater good” that must be maintained by the establishment. This process makes the establishment indispensable in the minds of the public. The elites in power today have chosen environmental dogma as their version of the “greater good”, because the “end of the world as we know” can be used to rationalize almost any brand of despotic behavior, from food and water rationing as a method for social conditioning, to population control or even depletion in the name of “saving the planet”. Always beware the true motivations of any governing institution that seeks to assert itself as the purveyor of all that is “best” for the people. Such groups are rarely if ever what they seem…

Brandon Smith is the founder of Alt-Market is an organization designed to help you find like-minded activists and preppers in your local area so that you can network and construct communities for mutual aid and defense. Join Alt-Market.com today and learn what it means to step away from the system and build something better or contribute to their Safe Haven Project. You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com





Original Article

State Department Uses 'Nuclear Option' Propaganda to Justify More Preemptive War

Guest Post by Eric Blair

Yesterday, the State Department "quietly" warned that Syria's nuclear weapons program "may still be in operation" and their other suspected WMDs threaten the region. In other words, the final push for another war is being sold using the same marketing strategy that's been proven to work time and time again.




Foreign Policy magazine writes:

This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria's neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria's WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable. For concerned parties both inside and outside the U.S. government, the demarche signifies that the United States is increasingly developing plans to deal with the dangers of a post-Assad Syria -- while simultaneously highlighting the lack of planning for how to directly bring about Assad's downfall.

Syria is believed to have a substantial chemical weapons program, which includes mustard gas and sophisticated nerve agents, such as sarin gas, as well as biological weapons. Syria has also refused IAEA requests to make available facilities that were part of its nuclear weapons program and may still be in operation. (My emphasis)

Swap out the word "Syria" for "Iraq" or "Libya" and we've all read this press release for the business of war before. What worked for attacking an innocent Iraq worked for attacking an innocent Libya. And now it's also being used as an excuse to destroy two more nations which have never even threatened the West: Syria and Iran.

Even the blind should notice the same trends leading to war:

• Claim the leaders are bad guys (which is not difficult because most leaders are).


• Incite, fund and arm rebels (terrorists) to lure those governments into fighting back.


• Claim the leaders are killing their own citizens (which almost all leaders do including the good ole U.S.).


• Slap economic sanctions on the government while simultaneously creating a shadow government, central bank, and economy for the puppet rebel leaders.


• Scare domestic populations until they're okay with more war.


• Bypass any authority to commit tax money and troops for war.


• Drop billions of dollars in bombs by remote control destroying innocent life and infrastructure.



• Murder the former leader in cold blood if need be.


• Consolidate any and all resources into the hands of Western cartels.


• Fund these same cartels with more tax dollars to reconstruct the devastated war zone.


• Rinse and repeat.

The only difference lately is that "providing aid to terrorists" is no longer used as an excuse for war. Perhaps, this is because Israel and NATO, led by the U.S., are the only ones currently aiding terrorists, as they did to oust Gaddafi in Libya, and who they are now arming to instigate a civil war against Assad in Syria. They're even openly funding terrorists in Iran to do the exact same thing. Furthermore, the FBI has proven to be the only provider of aid to supposed domestic U.S. terrorists.




But you, Activist Post readers, already know all this. But understand that WMD is not just any propaganda, it's the "nuclear option" of propaganda. It's the only way to claim these countries are a threat of any kind, because they have very little or no history of actually attacking the West. And they will keep beating this WMD war drum because it works.



Whether the wars in the Middle East are really about oil, central banking control, or military-industrial profits seems irrelevant to the general public who have been only conditioned to believe in simple concepts like good versus evil. Obviously, everyone naturally views their side as good. Despite extraordinary evidence of our side's grotesque misdeeds, making the mental leap that we're the worst of the bad guys seems to be too big a gap to close for most people.



In the most recent GOP debate, a resolved Ron Paul received groans and boos from the crowd for attempting to explain the "just war" principle of using military for defense only when referring to Iran. He then received an awkward silence when he explained that war should only be acceptable if the people's representatives vote for it per the Constitution. Similarly, he heard crickets with his historical perspective of the USSR's thousands of proven nuclear warheads pointed at America to show what little threat Iran actually poses. Finally, he tried to explain that war is a bad idea economically; that we simply can't afford it.




Nothing seemed to sway much of the audience. They only see good and evil. And they've been told Iran and Syria are evil. Therefore, the evil doers must be dealt with through death and destruction like all the other GOP candidates advocate.



By the way, the Obama Administration supports the exact same war mongering as is obvious by the State Department's rhetoric and actions outlined above. Yet, anti-war liberals keep supporting him because he's their chosen "good guy". Bill Maher, who vehemently opposed the Iraq War, recently donated $1 million to Obama's war chest. These days, it seems political views on contraception trump issues of war and peace for liberals and conservatives alike. So it goes; we will have more illegal wars, but at least we'll have a heated debate about condoms in public school.



Somehow the masses, who are the only ones who can stop the bloodshed, continue to buy the propaganda and rubber stamp the murderous aggressive wars. The gullibility of the masses has surpassed embarrassing levels, and unless there is a rapid awakening, we are surely headed for blood.


Original Article

Gathering Economic Storm Front

Guest Post by Charlie McGrath

Is it time to panic? If you listen to the current administration, then the answer is, No. Things are getting better, and an 8.3% unemployment rate proves it.

With the exception of Ron Paul, the GOP candidates seem to be more concerned with reproductive choice and lowering gas prices. In fact, the rhetoric from both 'teams' is about what we'd expect, being that we're headlong into political playtime.

Looking at the world through twisted prism of the mainstream may leave you feeling that things are a bit challenging, but under control. But nothing could be further from the truth. We have a gathering storm front, and it promises to be a vicious storm indeed.

The fact that US military expansion is not the number one story nightly by Western media is utterly amazing. Ron Paul works hard at every opportunity to show how military projection is not only destroying our country financially, but also in the eyes of much of the world we are rapidly turning into the freedom-hating, terror-loving fanatics we claim to be fighting.

This world perception of the U.S. is with good reason: 900 bases in over 100 countries is one reason, but the constant beating of the drums of war is nearly deafening to the rest of the world, yet is barely mentioned on the nightly news or in one of the neverending GOP debates, unless it is in the context of how we need more war.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Nigeria, Uganda, Yemen, Syria, and the list keeps growing. Iran seemed to have sealed its fate when announcing the end of support of the petro dollar, but of course the public is told it is because they hate freedom, Israel, rights, women, Democracy, Christians, puppies, anything and everything but the truth -- control over the region’s energy resources.

If the tension over the threat of war is bad, then the economic condition of the planet is catastrophic. Countless billions have been spent, swelling 'sovereign' debt globally to save Big Banks from loss; bringing an end to representative Government to most of the world -- that is, of course, unless you can pay to be represented.

Yes the Dow crossed 13,000 -- doubling since 2009 -- and of course things must be better, because we are creating jobs, bringing the unemployed rate to just over 8% right? That's the impression one would get if one was gullible enough to buy into the propaganda. Well not only has the Dow doubled, but so too has the number of folks needing food stamps to feed their families; and, the fact is, it is easy to lower the unemployment rate, just use an eraser. Reduce the participation rate to near four-decade lows and call it job creation. In fact, if we used the participation rate advertised when Obama took office, we would have a U3 number of over 11% unemployed.

Other indicators show we are indeed heading directly into a super storm. One example, the Baltic Dry shipping index recently hit a 25-year low, falling 60% in the first 2 months of this year alone. Even though oil is trading at $100+ a barrel, shipping costs are the same today as 1986.

Perhaps the most ominous sign that geo-political and economic storms are combining to create the perfect storm is that there seems to be a mass exodus of super-elite from high-level positions. Just a few of the recent announcements of the rats fleeing the ship include the resignations of World Bank CEO, Zoellick; Anz Bank CFO Australia; Nicaraqua Central Bank President, Rosales; Credit Suisse Chief, Joseph Tan; German President, Christian Ruff; Royal Bank of Scotland, Australian CEO, Stephen Williams; Kuwait Central Bank CEO; Slovenia’s two largest banks' CEOs; Bank of India CEO, Chaturvedi; and there are even rumors that Lord Blankfein is thinking of hanging it up.

Are all these folks who are doing 'God’s' work getting out of the way of a soon-to-be very unhappy planet, when the average Joe Six-Pack wakes up and realizes he has been totally sold down the river and is now looking for some payback?

Batten down the hatches, folks, we are headed into uncharted waters and it promises to be a rough ride.

Respond to Charlie: info@wideawakenews.com and visit his website WideAwakeNews.com

Consequences To Expect If The U.S. Invades Iran

Guest Post by Brandon Smith

Let’s be honest, quite a few Americans love a good war, especially those Americans who have never had to bear witness to one first hand. War is the ultimate tribally vicarious experience. Anyone, even pudgy armchair generals with deep-seated feelings of personal inadequacy, can revel in the victories and actions of armies a half a world away as if they themselves stood on the front lines risking possible annihilation at the hands of dastardly cartoon-land “evil doers”. They may have never done a single worthwhile thing in their lives, but at least they can bask in the perceived glory of their country’s military might.

This attitude of swollen ego through proxy is not limited to the “Right” side of the political spectrum as some might expect. In fact, if the terrifyingly demented presidency of Barack Obama has proven anything so far, it is that elements of the “Left” are just as bloodthirsty as any NeoCon, and just as ready to blindly support the political supremacy of their “side” regardless of any broken promises, abandoned principles, or openly flaunted hypocrisies. No matter how reasonable or irrefutable the arguments against a particular conflict are, there will ALWAYS be a certain percentage of the populace which ignores all logic and barrels forward to cheerlead violent actions which ultimately only benefit a select and elite few.

They do this, though they rarely openly admit it, because of unbalanced and irrational biases which drive their decision making processes. In the case of the wars in the Middle East, the common public argument boils down to one of “self defense”. “They are coming to get us!” At least, that is what we are constantly told. And I’m sure that some Americans out there truly believe this. However, in their heart of hearts, others instead relish the idea of imposing their world views and philosophical systems upon others, even if it means using cluster bombs and predator drones.

Some people simply hate Muslims, for one reason or another. Some people believe that war will bring with it economic gain. Some are so afraid of what they do not comprehend that they only feel secure by attacking it. Some believe that the U.S. citizenry is morally obligated to become entangled with governments like Israel’s, and support them without question as if they are infallible, though they are often just as corrupt as the governments we are directed to despise. And yet others (for religious purposes), actually clamor for Middle Eastern destruction in the desperate hopes that their version of biblical prophecy will be vindicated. Ultimately, most Americans who support continued destruction in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter, do so out a selfish need for private absolution and elevation, not out of a sincere sense of patriotism, and not because nations like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, or Iran present a legitimate danger to their safety.

These men and women have invested their very identities into the mechanizations of collective war. They will not be swayed by evidence or honorable arguments. Any criticism of the actions of the collective will immediately be treated as a personal attack on their individual character, causing their minds to shut down completely.

As far as Iran is concerned, I am not here to convince the war-drum pounding zombie hoards infesting the mentally impotent sewage soaked wastelands of my country that their rationalizations for raining laser guided death on the third world is a “reprehensible thing”. Given their impenetrable biases, which I listed above, that would be a complete waste of time.

I could, indeed, point out how in 1953 the U.S. and Britain overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossaddegh, because he refused to allow global corporate interests to exploit his country’s oil resources. I could outline how the forced CIA installation of the Shah in Iran and the creation of his secret police led to the torture and murder of thousands of innocent people. I could list similar covert activities over the past 100 years or so, in countries all over the world, which have created the now universal disdain the third world has for the U.S. government. I could even show them a PBS special from 1987 which effectively details this history and warns of what is now going on today. The kind of mainstream news coverage that networks currently blacklist honest and daring journalists for:
























But what about all the nuclear talk being shoved down our throats lately? Doesn’t this supersede any historical concerns between Iran and the U.S.? What if the terrorists get their hands on “the bomb”?!

On this issue, I could easily interject the fact that countries supposedly hostile to the U.S., like North Korea, have long had nuclear capability, and certainly the means to use infiltrators to deliver that technology, yet, we haven’t sent the Western war machine after them. I would also set the record straight by mentioning that the ONLY country in the world that has used a nuclear weapon against another is the U.S. I could educate these people on the exposure of secret Israeli nuclear weapons programs since the 1970’s, and the fact that Israel even attempted to illegally sell this technology to Apartheid South Africa:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-05-24/israel-tried-to-sell-nuclear-weapons/839404

I could try to clear the air by reminding the uninformed that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently admitted that Iran has no nuclear weapons capability. And, that this fact was repeated by an Iranian nuclear scientist, Sharhram Amiri, who defected to the U.S. in 2010 with the help of the CIA in the hopes that he could be used to disseminate propaganda on “secret” nuclear weapons programs in his former homeland. Instead, he only reinforced the assertion that there are no such programs:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LG21Ak01.html

With the CIA made to look foolish, they have now decided that Amiri is “peripheral” to the Iranian nuke programs, and is no longer a solid source of information. I could follow by pointing out how decidedly convenient this is…

What about all the similarities between the lies on WMD’s in Iraq and the rhetoric against Iran today? What about the disinformation put forward by the IAEA and its cadre of foreign policy yes-men?

What about the fact that back when Iran was run by our own puppet leader, the Shah, an iron-fisted sociopathic dictator, we were more than happy that the country was developing nuclear power plants:



Sorry, but sharing this information with the warmongering percentage of our American culture is futile. None of this data means a thing to them. For these people, it’s not about facts; it’s about foggy perception, uncontrolled emotion, and false identity. Understanding the situation only complicates their pursuit of the next collectivist high; that frenetic freak frenzy that takes hold of a population and makes them swarm like mad bees, or hungry piranha, poisoning and devouring everything in their path.

With this in mind, the only recourse I could possibly think of to wake them up to their philosophical and moral folly is to expose them to very real and debilitating consequences they will face in their everyday lives in the wake of expanded conflict on the part of the U.S. That is to say, you may hate Iran, you may hate Iranians, you may despise Muslims, you may be driven by a childish need to live vicariously through the exploits of your government, or, you might actually believe the hype that Iran is in league with Al-Qaeda, that they really are after nuclear weapons in a diabolical plot to harm Americans, and you might truly believe that Israel is that “beacon of freedom” in the Middle East and that all its neighbors must be pacified for the sake of democracy. At bottom, whatever your deepest intentions, and whatever you might think, this is irrelevant in the face of the inevitable costs of war. If you support such a war, here is how it will affect you when it breaks loose:

Exploding Oil Prices

The U.S. has had a ban on Iranian oil imports since 1979, however, Iran still supplies about 5% of the global oil market. This might not seem like much, but Iran also has the means and ability to shut down the Straight of Hormuz, which is one of two major petroleum choke points in the world. Around 17 million barrels of oil per day are shipped through the Straight of Hormuz, or about 20% of all oil traded worldwide.



In 2006, during the last major Iran war scare, experts predicted gasoline price increases in excess of $10 a gallon if Iran was invaded.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/07/news/international/iran_oil/

This would devastate the U.S. economy, which is already hanging by a thin thread. Iran has announced this past weekend it will cease all oil shipments to Britain and France in protest of their support of economic sanctions. This alone is causing oil to spike today. A global energy crisis will financially decimate average citizens who will have their savings sapped by extreme price inflation, not just in gasoline, but in all goods that require the use of gasoline in their production and shipping. If you like this idea, then by all means, support an invasion of Iran.

War Domino Effect

In January of 2010, I wrote an article for Neithercorp Press entitled “Will Globalists Trigger Yet Another World War”. In that article, I warned about the dangers of an invasion of Iran or Syria being used to foment a global conflict, in order to create a crisis large enough to distract the masses away from the international banker created economic collapse:

http://www.alt-market.com/neithercorp/press/2010/01/will-globalists-trigger-yet-another-world-war/

In 2006, Iran signed a mutual defense pact with its neighbor, Syria, which is also in the middle of its own turmoil and possible NATO intervention. Syria has strong ties to Russia, and even has a revamped Russian naval base off its coast, a fact rarely mentioned by the mainstream media. Both Russia and China have made their opposition clear in the case of any Western intervention in Iran or Syria. An invasion by the U.S. or Israel in these regions could quickly intensify into wider war between major world powers. If you like the idea of a world war which could eventually put you and your family in direct danger, then by all means, support an invasion of Iran.

Dollar Collapse

Make no mistake, the U.S. dollar is already on the verge of collapse, along with the U.S. economy. Bilateral trade agreements between BRIC and ASEAN nations are sprouting up everywhere the past couple months, and these agreements are specifically designed to end the dollar’s status as the world reserve currency. An invasion of Iran will only expedite this process. If global anger over the resulting chaos in oil prices doesn’t set off a dump of the dollar, the eventual debt obligation incurred through the overt costs of war will. Ron Paul has always been right; it doesn’t matter whether you think invasion is a good idea or not. We simply CANNOT afford it. America is bankrupt. Our only source of income is our ability to print money from thin air. Each dollar created to fund new wars brings our currency ever closer to its demise.

This combination of disastrous economic policy and disastrous foreign policy has actually been used before. Great Britain once sat in the position of economic authority that the U.S. sits in today, and the pound sterling was once considered the world reserve because it was required in the global trade of oil, just as the dollar is now. However, British intrigues in the Middle East, and more specifically in Egypt, led them into extreme debt. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, international banks led by America and France threatened to dump British Treasury Bonds in response to their efforts to dominate Middle Eastern oil. Does any of this sound familiar?

This ultimately led to considerable devaluation of the pound. In 1967, the death blow was finally delivered when Prime Minister Harold Wilson artificially reduced the British exchange rate by 14% overnight! Meaning, in the span of a single evening, British citizens lost 14% of their buying power, and every product they went out to buy the next day would cost them 14% more.

It would be practical to mention that the move to destroy the British pound came right in time for the implementation of new programs for the construction of the European Union, and the Euro, the new supranational currency which would later become the standard. The EU and the Euro never could have come about while the Pound Sterling remained a world reserve. Just another amazing coincidence I’m sure, and one that couldn’t possibly have any relation to what is happening to the dollar in 2012, right…?

So, if you like the idea of losing 14% or more of your buying power overnight, and having that financial loss blamed on the tides of war, rather than on the corporate bankers who actually created the mess, then by all means, support an invasion of Iran.

Civil Liberties Destroyed

Do you like being able to walk down the street without having to suffer through constant pat-downs by low wage brain-dead cretins in blue gloves? Does it make you feel good to know that if you are ever arrested, whether you are guilty or not, you are guaranteed by law to receive a fair trial by your peers in a civilian court with a lawyer by your side? Do you enjoy taking a long drive with the family without facing check points, and predator drones constantly overhead every time you put the top down to feel the wind in your hair? Don’t get too comfortable, folks! These “luxuries” will soon be a thing of the past, especially as the U.S. financial situation deteriorates and war escalates. Think of all the new threats the elites in our government can use to rationalize the usurpation of Constitutional protections when war with Iran, or Syria, or Russia, or China, or all of them at once, breaks out.

The term “terrorist” will take on a whole different dynamic. Great national dangers often facilitate broader definitions of who is and who is not an “enemy of the state”. Crisis gives wings to legislation like the NDAA. In this kind of despotic environment, no one, even those citizens who support the state in nearly all of its enterprises, is safe. Maybe you love the idea of war with Iran, but at the same time, hate the idea of having a TSA goon manhandling your wife or daughter in a train station or on a street corner. Good luck with that. Speaking out could be treated as disruption of national security measures. Off to the gulag with you!

The “greater good” somehow always entails the dissolution of civil liberties for the common man. Invariably, the establishment in power favors no one, save a highly connected few. Being pro-establishment does not necessarily protect you from a government given free reign to do whatever it pleases in wartime. In the end, everyone is fair game.

If this is the kind of America you want to live in, by all means, support an invasion of Iran.

If You Can’t See The Big Picture, You Can’t See A Thing…

The relentless drive for war in the Middle East is not about “spreading democracy”. It is not about terrorism. It is not about oil (at least for the most part). It is not about Israel (at least, not the Israeli people). It is not even about corporate profiteering by the Military Industrial Complex. War in the Middle East is about changing the way our country and our world operates, culturally, socially, financially, and politically. War opens doors to social re-engineering that could never be accomplished otherwise. War creates fear, panic, rage, and allows dystopian fallacies to reign supreme. War, unjust and dishonorable war, makes countries weak, and ripe for violent change.

Iran is not a threat to our way of life, and never has been. But, war in Iran could easily upset the core of our entire country, and leave us wayward strangers in the land we were born.

While much of the rhetoric of preemptive invasion that America has been awash in these past few months is carefully crafted and disseminated by government entities whose intentions are far from honest, its effectiveness is mute without the helping hand of a thoughtless subsection of the public. Every decade or so, a new generation of idiot spawn comes of age to be willingly sacrificed on the chopping block of globalist conquest. This new decade brings with it the promise of not just more of the same, but perhaps the most costly tithe to the gods of war ever made in our country’s history. This is not our fight. This is a fight we are being conned into undertaking for the profit of others, and thus, it is a fight we cannot win. Perhaps when the blind mobs of this nation feel the abrupt sting of their foolishness in their narrow day-to-day existence, they will finally understand…

Original Article

A Warning Sign For The World

Guest Post by Michael Snyder

Any financial system that is based on debt is doomed to fail. Today, we are living in the greatest debt bubble that the world has ever seen, and if all of a sudden people could not use credit to buy things our economy would immediately ground to a halt. Unfortunately, no debt bubble can last forever. When this current debt bubble finally bursts, faith in the financial system is going to disappear, credit is going to freeze up and there is going to be a massive wave of bank failures. Right now, Greece is a warning sign for the world. Nobody wants to lend money to Greece, the Greek banking system is dying, one out of every four businesses has already shut down, unemployment is soaring and the Greek economy has now been in recession for five years in a row. Sadly, the economic implosion in Greece is rapidly accelerating. The Greek economy shrunk at a 7 percent annual rate during the 4th quarter of 2011. That wasn't supposed to happen. Things were supposed to be getting better in Greece by now. But instead the Greek depression is getting even worse, and very soon the rest of the world is going to be going through what Greece is currently experiencing.

Unfortunately, most in the mainstream media are treating what is happening in Greece as an "isolated incident" rather than as a very serious warning sign for the world.

Thankfully, there are at least a few reporters out there that are realizing the gravity of the situation. The following is how one reporter from the New York Times recently described what life is like in Greece now....

By many indicators, Greece is devolving into something unprecedented in modern Western experience. A quarter of all Greek companies have gone out of business since 2009, and half of all small businesses in the country say they are unable to meet payroll. The suicide rate increased by 40 percent in the first half of 2011. A barter economy has sprung up, as people try to work around a broken financial system. Nearly half the population under 25 is unemployed. Last September, organizers of a government-sponsored seminar on emigrating to Australia, an event that drew 42 people a year earlier, were overwhelmed when 12,000 people signed up. Greek bankers told me that people had taken about one-third of their money out of their accounts; many, it seems, were keeping what savings they had under their beds or buried in their backyards. One banker, part of whose job these days is persuading people to keep their money in the bank, said to me, “Who would trust a Greek bank?”

Can you imagine?

Greece is experiencing a full-blown economic collapse and nobody can see a light at the end of the tunnel at this point.

As I have written about previously, the overall rate of unemployment in Greece has now risen above 20 percent and the youth unemployment rate in Greece has soared to an astounding 48 percent.

Deleveraging can be an extremely painful process. Greece has been forced to try to reduce the size of its budget deficit, but every time it cuts government spending that causes economic activity (and thus government revenues) to slow down as well.

Now the EU and the IMF are demanding that even more very painful austerity measures be implemented in Greece even though Greece is already experiencing a full-blown depression.

The EU and the IMF are demanding that Greece fire 15,000 more government workers immediately and a total of 150,000 government workers by 2015.

The EU and the IMF are demanding that wages for government workers be cut by another 20 percent.

The EU and the IMF are demanding that the minimum wage be slashed by more than 20 percent.

The EU and the IMF are also demanding significant reductions in unemployment benefits and pension benefits.

Of course all of those cuts are going to make the short-term economic conditions in Greece even worse.

The rioting, looting and burning of buildings that we are witnessing right now in Greece is likely to continue for quite some time as exasperated citizens attempt to express their frustrations to politicians that simply do not seem to care.

According to the National Confederation of Greek Commerce, recent rioting resulted in damage to 153 businesses in Athens. 45 of those businesses were totally destroyed.

You can view some stunning footage of the current rioting in Greece right here.

Despite all of the austerity measures that have already been implemented, the truth is that Greece is very likely to default soon anyway.

There is a very good chance that the new austerity agreement that the Greek parliament just approved will never be implemented. There are new elections scheduled for April and the current party in power is polling in the single digits.

The new Greek government is likely to look much different from the current one, and nobody knows for sure if the new government will follow through on any of the promises being made by the current government.

In addition, the German parliament must approve this new deal with Greece, and the German parliament is not scheduled to vote on it until February 27th. Considering the mood in Germany right now, approval is not guaranteed.

So there are all kinds of things that could go wrong with the "deals" that are currently being discussed. The truth is that a Greek default in the coming months seems to become more likely by the day.

Some in the financial world almost seem eager for a Greek default. The following is what Jon Moulton, the chairman of Better Capital, recently told CNBC....

"If I was Greek, I wouldn’t be going for these measures, I’d be going for default and getting it over with. Would you like two to three years of pain or 20?"

But a disorderly Greek default would not be a pleasant thing for the global economy at all. A recent article in the Guardian detailed what some of the consequences of a Greek default and exit from the eurozone might be....

But default and "re-drachmatisation" would be a costly and chaotic process. In the long term the euro might be strengthened if some of its weaker members headed for the door. But in the short term banks across the eurozone might have to be closed to prevent a run on the single currency as investors speculated about which country might be next. A new wave of bank nationalisations would be likely to follow as lenders counted their losses on now worthless Greek debt.

Capital controls would have to be imposed and borders shut to stop money flooding out of Greece. Portugal, Italy and Spain would come under intense pressure from investors wary about the risk of another victim. Banks everywhere, already reluctant to lend, would cut back hard, nervous about their exposure to the bonds of all Europe's crisis-hit states.

And the financial crisis in Europe is going to continue to spread well beyond Greece. Moody's Investors Service just downgraded the credit ratings of six European nations. The following is how Bloomberg described the downgrades....

Spain was downgraded to A3 from A1 with a negative outlook, Italy was downgraded to A3 from A2 with a negative outlook and Portugal was downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2 with a negative outlook, Moody’s said. It also reduced the ratings of Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta.

Countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Hungary are heading down the exact same road that Greece has gone. Greece was the first one to experience a full-blown depression, but soon Greece will have a lot of company.

Greece is most definitely a warning sign for the world. If you keep recklessly piling up debt, eventually a day of reckoning comes. It is inevitable.

But Barack Obama does not seem to understand this. He continues to pile another 150 million dollars on to our national debt every single hour. He knows that cutting spending significantly right now would hurt the economy and that would significantly hurt his chances for another term.

Needless to say, Barack Obama is not likely to do anything that is going to significantly hurt his chances for another four years in the White House.

So we continue to roll on toward disaster.

The U.S. financial system is like a car with no brakes that is heading straight toward a 5,000 foot drop at 100 miles an hour.

It is all going to seem like fun and games to some people until we hit the canyon floor.

Once that happens, nobody will be laughing.

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Original Article

Doomsday Report: THREE MILLION PREPPERS IN AMERICA Are Getting Ready For The End of the World As We Know It

Guest Post Mac Slavo

In the autumn of 2008, as Presidential hopefuls sparred over whether we had entered a recession or not and well before the onset of the most serious global crisis since the 1930′s, trend forecaster Gerald Celente advised his Trends Journal subscribers to prepare for the worst and plan for the best. “It will be,” warned Celente, “like nothing we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.”

The aware and prepared … those understanding just how out of control society would become, and those who had acquired the skills for survival would stand the best chance of navigating the chaos safely.

But Americans were not prepared. Not by a long shot

Very few had the foresight to predict that the economic system and social fabric of our nation would be threatened with upheaval and disarray. But some, whether through independent education or through intuition, deduced that there was a real possibility of a system shock so significant that life as we know it could be on the verge of a major paradigm shift – perhaps even a complete collapse of our economy and resource infrastructure.

As natural disasters around the world took the lives of hundreds of thousands, space agencies warned of solar disruptions that threaten our power grid, the economies of the world slid further into depression, and tensions between the world’s financial and resource super powers grew, more and more people began to realize that the stability we have come to depend on to live our daily lives was nothing but illusion.

With very few places to turn for support, most headed for the internet, where communities had popped up to discuss possible disaster and collapse scenarios, and ways to minimize the impact on oneself and family. That it was happening or could happen was no longer the question.

The real question was how to survive it when it finally came to pass.

With none of us ever having experienced (or even imagined) such a possibility before, many turned to guidance from experts in their fields – people like Gerald Celente or Marc ‘Dr. Doom’ Faber, who had an uncanny ability to see developing trends, and authors like survival expert James Rawles who wrote the popular economic collapse and survival cult classic Patriots and William Forstchen who penned One Second After, a frighteningly realistic look at what life without the grid might look like. First it was thousands, then tens of thousands of concerned Americans who began learning the essentials of survival by learning from each other with resources offered at web destinations like the American Preppers Network, Doctor Prepper, Survival Mom, Off Grid Survival and Ready Nutrition.

Those who chose to insulate themselves against coming disaster were often vilified or dismissed as lunatics by friends and family alike. And while many chose to ignore the trend which had become quite apparent, those who had the willingness to consider a different reality than had been painted by the powers that be just kept on preppin’.

As global malaise continued and the people began to lose confidence in political platitudes and corporatist solutions, the movement towards preparedness, survival and self reliance grew. After having seen what took place in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, many came to the conclusion that if the worst were to happen there would be no government to help, no 9-1-1 to call, and no emergency management agency to distribute food or water.

Today, at the cusp of possibly the most trying times in human history, more Americans than ever before are preparing for the possibility of disaster.

As many as three million Americans now fall into the category dubbed ‘preppers’ – people who are making detailed plans for the end of the world as we know it.

The preppers are an ever-growing group of survivalists who take extreme measures to prepare for a major catastrophic event.

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More than 300,000 people a month visit the movement’s website, survivalblog.com, which catalogues how people are preparing for the worst.

The website has been set up by James Rawles, a former US Army intelligence officer, who is one of the movement’s leading figures.

Speaking to The Times, he said: ‘Should the worst happen, it’s become apparent that the Government can’t provide for everybody. And now that realisation is becoming more widespread.‘

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‘People invest so much money in life insurance,’ Mr Ralston told National Geographic. ‘This is life assurance.’

He is like some of the people featured on National Geographic’s new show Doomsday Preppers, which chronicles a new prepper each week, delving into their conceptions of the end and what they’re doing to prepare for it.

‘It’s not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle,’ Gloria Haswell told National Geographic. She and her husband spend 50 hours a week getting ready for a climate shift in the poles.

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‘These are not just a handful of people living in the mountains,’ National Geographic Channel’s executive vice president of programming Michael Cascio told the Wall Street Journal. ‘They’re everywhere.’

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The Journal notes that Nat Geo has begun appealing to a growing subculture that has seen the past disasters – from last year’s tsunami and earthquake in Japan to riots to economic uncertainty – and have wanted to prepare the best they can.

‘The last few years have probably exacerbated the doomsday fear,’ Mr Cascio told the Journal. ‘The world is changing.’

Source: UK Daily Mail

This week the National Geographic series Doomsday Preppers debuted to an audience of four million, a testament to the fact that preparing for disasters – regardless of the kind – is a growing trend, and one that’s popular even among those that have been affectionately dubbed the sheeple. No doubt some of those watching the show, who never considered the possibility of far-from equilibrium events, will take to preparing right away.

Most seasoned preppers will agree that those first few weeks and months of preparedness are the most stressful, with emotions being described by newbies as anxiety and panic. For those just getting started, you should feel better knowing that it’s better late than never.

What you may be experiencing today isn’t panic. It’s a sense of urgency, and that’s a positive motivator that can, with focus, drive you to quickly and effectively achieve your goals.

Panic is what we’ll see from those remaining 99% of Americans who have failed to take measures to protect themselves from the coming devastation.

(*Note: The preparedness books and websites mentioned in this article are only a handful of fantastic destinations you can visit to read articles and guides, join communities, and download resources. Check out the Web Destinations at SHTFplan.com and The Prepper Website for an extensive list of excellent resources.)

Original Article