PREPARATION ONE

It was forecast to get down to 48F last night. I don't know if it got that cold. I didn't look at the thermometer when I got up. It was in the fifties when I noticed. I was impressed by the beauty of the world. The Sun was brilliant. Everything looked so bright. Yet, one can feel Autumn on the horizon. There is a change in the offing; despite the 80s forecast for next week, we know the seasons are achanging. I noticed Wednesday, as we were driving through the countryside, the Red Maples were beginning to show red. It was especially noticeable on the edge of boggy areas.

I am not sure what we need to prepare for concerning a financial crisis. It has been discussed for a long time that the present course must end. When I was growing up, we were told frequently that we had stores of gold in Fort Knox to protect our money. When I first looked at dollar bills they were labeled Silver certificates. Coins still had face value. Dimes, quarters, and half dollars were silver. Nickels were nickel and pennies were copper. I was in graduate school [1964 to 66] when silver coins disappeared from circulation. It was rumored that the metal was worth more than the face value of the coins. They disappeared so fast it is hard to believe that individuals did it. I suspect the government vacuumed them up, but there was no word about it.

Over the years paper money went from being silver and gold certificates, to promissory notes and now they are labeled Federal Reserve Notes. Take note that the Federal Reserve is not part of the government. The transition from precious metal backed money, to fiat money, was gradual. I believe the last remnant of the gold standard died in the Nixon administration. It had to do with his refusal to honor a request from France to pay a promised debt in gold. From there, the gold standard was left behind both internationally and nationally.

I was not one to object to the switch to fiat money. I argued, at the time, that it is artificial, whether it is gold or paper, and if we all agreed to accept that a piece of paper, had such and such value; what difference would it make. I trusted the government not to poop in its own nest. If people are honorable, there is no reason, fiat money can't work.

However, there is greed, there is corruption, there is stupidity and it is much easier to manipulate, the national and world economy, if you can print all the money you want. Banks always had control, now they had a new instrument to use for manipulation. It is a good point to remind ourselves, that the Federal Reserve is a private corporation. It is not part of the government and congress in not capable of overseeing it.

It would take too long a blog to spell out, with clarity, how this became a problem. The world financial markets became a gambling casino for the greedy. Money may have always been used, as a tool for punishing individuals and countries, but it became refined in the hands of the current banking cabal.

I don't know what was in the mind of these folks. They obviously wanted world domination and money was there most powerful weapon. They must have known their system would collapse. They couldn't print money based on nothing forever. They must have believed their war strategy was going to be successful and they would have complete control of the World before the collapse.

They didn't count on a successful rebellion against the World Reserve Currency and the Petro Dollar, both of course in U.S. dollars.

What happened? The Petro Dollar has been in danger ever since some countries decided they could sell oil for other than U.S. dollars. They could no longer be punished militarily. It was to risky, and the cabal counted on most countries, having large caches of dollars, so they didn't want to jeopardize the value of the dollar, either. The dollar has continued to hold sway as the World Reserve Currency. All other currencies are valued against it, and in many World trade transactions, it is the preferred, if not the required currency.

Several countries, with the leadership of Russia and China, have formed their own monetary system in opposition. They have created banks, that are lending money to third world countries, and undercutting the current regime. It has been rumored for several years, that they were amassing gold reserves, and they would be issuing a gold backed currency that would challenge and replace the dollar, as the World Reserve Currency.

It appears that there is a foundation for these rumors and chaos in the world financial system will happen soon. The dollar would no longer be acceptable in world trade, if there was an alternative, that had real value.

There will be a world wide re-set of currency values. The dollar will lose greatly on the world stage. Domestically it may retain a third of its value. I wouldn't know how to foretell this. This event will signal the beginning of the collapse of the world financial institutions. The rest of the systems will follow.

This is a long preamble to discuss what I had planned for today. "How do we prepare?"

First of all, despite how dreadful it seems, there are people awakening at all levels of society and government. Many people have seen this coming. It is even rumored that the U.S. is preparing to issue new currency.

I think we should imagine, how we would get along, if suddenly we had no money for a period of, at least, a few months. It could be longer.

It was common where I grew up for families to have stores of food. My grandparents had stores of canned meat and vegetables. When freezers were available, they acquired them, and they were stocked. Likewise, my parents, always had reserves of food. My Mother had a large garden and she canned enough vegetables to last for a year. My dad would buy a whole pig and that would be frozen or canned. There was venison and fish that were caught. Before we acquired a freezer, we had meat, in a crate, outside on a porch roof, accessible from an upstairs window; only in the Winter, of course.

We, Jamie and I, spent seven years, living off the land and existing with very little money. Jamie did a great deal of canning and preserving food. We had no electricity, no running water, it is much easier with freezers; we have three now.

It is not a big deal storing enough food to last a couple months and perhaps, specialty items, like coffee etc. we may contribute to the community.

I have a great deal more to write, and I need to get at some chores. I have a list of suggestions. I will supply them on Monday. I don't think we are in that much of a hurry.

Whenever a disaster happens folks rise up to the occasion. We will be okay. We love each other.

Have a Happy Friday! Celebrate! Sing and dance!

Love and Peace, Gregg