Update: The Demise of the Dollar

The following is by Jim Rickards, an international economist, attorney, consultant to gov'ts, NYT Best-Selling author, and expert on the gold market.  It's not the whole piece, and it didn't copy onto this venue properly, but it's readable.  The print size is tiny because that's the only way I could get it onto this page.  [I'm a No-Tech person.]  This is the portion that I felt was most important.
................................................

September 9, 2016

Jim Rickards

Dear Reader,

I’ve been writing about the rise of world money, called the “special drawing 

right”(SDR), for years. 

I’ve especially been giving it a lot of attention recently because of the recent 

G-20 summit that took place in Hangzhou, China, earlier this week. And the IMF 

officially accepts the Chinese yuan into its basket of currencies making up its 

SDR later this month on Sept. 30.

The SDR is part of the global elite plan to displace the dollar as the global 

reserve currency and replace it with a new form of fiat money. This new form of 

money is controlled by the IMF and unaccountable to any elected democratic agency. 

The purpose of SDRs is to create global inflation after years of failure by 

central banks to do the same. 

It’s one thing to warn about a development. It’s another thing to see it unfold 

before your eyes…

In my 2011 book, Currency Wars, on Page 232, I wrote the following: “The IMF 

presented a blueprint for the creation of a liquid SDR bond market, the antecedent 

to replacing the dollar as the global reserve currency with SDRs. 

“The IMF’s paper identifies both potential issuers of SDR bonds, including the 

World Bank and regional development banks, and potential buyers…” (emphasis added). 

That was almost five years ago. 

The SDR market I predicted five years ago is taking shape before our eyes. 

The rise of SDRs is no longer a theoretical experiment; it’s happening in real-

time. 

The rise of SDRs is no longer a theoretical experiment; it’s happening in real-

time.

On July 15, 2016, the IMF issued a playbook calling for more “M-SDRs” (the “M” 

stands for “market” and is a reference to privately issued SDR instruments, 

as opposed to official SDRs, or “O-SDRs,” issued by the IMF itself). 

On Aug. 31, 2016, just six weeks after the IMF greenlight, its sister institution, 

the World Bank, issued SDR500 million (equal to $700 million) of bonds in the new 

world currency. Importantly, the new SDR bonds were issued in China (the lead 

underwriters were four Chinese banks), which has a keen interest in the success of 

the SDR market to undermine the dollar.

Why is the World Bank issuing SDR bonds? It’s not because they have trouble 

borrowing. The World Bank is one of the best credits in the world. They can 

borrow whatever they want, whenever they want, in any currency they want. 

The reason is so that China can invest in SDR assets. How can China buy SDR bonds 

if no one issues them? The World Bank is just accommodating Chinese demand. And 

the Chinese want to invest in SDRs so they can stop investing in dollars. 

There will be many more bond issues like this in the near future. Think of each 

SDR bond issue as another shovelful of dirt on the dollar’s grave.

How much longer will investors sit in dollars waiting for the wipeout to come? 

It’s important to diversify into 10% physical gold to preserve your wealth before 

it’s too late.

.........................

The movement away from the Dollar by various major countries has been 

proceeding slowly for a few years now.  Based on this info from Rickards, 

it seems very likely that movement will accelerate this year.  The world 

appears to be tiring of our Fed Gov't and its promulgation/promotion of 

USA Hegemony.  The propagandists here call it "leading the world", but 

anyone with any common sense at all knows better.

Once the Dollar no longer is the world's reserve currency, we are in for 

some very bad (possibly horrendous) economic times.  Be prepared.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well  

The International Financial Coterie is Destroying Us

Below the dotted line is a recent email I sent to my son, other family, and a few friends.  It has to do with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Financial Coterie (IFC), the latter not being an "official" designation (it was coined by the late Professor Carroll Quigley).
First a brief Preface---
If not the most powerful, then the IMF certainly is one of the very powerful financial institutions on the planet.  Most of us have heard of it; but most of us have no clue as to exactly what it does.  I suspect that even fewer of us know much about the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).  My son had sent me a piece from the IMF official website, a piece with a brief discussion of SDRs.  The SDR system basically is a "basket" of currencies that acts as an additional reserve to participating world central banks.  SDRs can be exchanged by participating members for freely usable currencies.  On October 1, 2016, China will join the elite SDR members.
..............................................................

Interesting.

The IMF & SDRs = another Oligarchical racket.  The People never voted on this stuff.  The reason the SDR kinda faded away "a few yrs after" it was formed (in 1969) is because of the "Nixon Shock" (fiat $$$ in 1971).  Now it's just another way to manipulate fiat bucks among the International Financial Coterie (IFC).  [Google "coterie"; I had to.  Had only a vague idea of what it is.  Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown U. & a well-respected macro-historian, wrote in 1966 that the IFC (his phrase) ran the world.  He was right, but very few paid attention.]  

The whole mess of politics is a fraud.  Repubs, Dems, Right, Left, etc. ALL (at the highest levels) are puppets of the IFC...sometimes called the "Shadow Gov't", which is recognized by many respected analysts such as Bill Moyers, David Stockman, Michael Hudson, William K. Black, & others.  Even FDR & JFK believed it (one has to dig a bit to find that info).  So do others on the "Right" besides Stockman.  Someday most Americans will wake up to this sad fact.  [The funny thing is, it's not any kind of "grand conspiracy"; it's just kinda an "organic" thing.  The IFC (I suspect) think of it merely as "good business practice".]

Thanks for the piece...revealing history, & straight from the horse's mouth (the IMF).

................................................

I strongly recommend that everyone do a bit of research on Carroll Quigley.  He was a brilliant historian, and specialized in the influence of banking and money on the evolution of civilizations.  His book, Tragedy and Hope, is an in-depth examination of how the Powers-That-Be rule the world...regardless of politics, elections, and any well-meaning institutions.  For the most part, he liked what they did; he considered himself a member of the Elite Class.  That's why he was given access to their private papers while writing the book.  Far from being any kind of "conspiracy theory" nutcake, Quigley was a top-notch researcher who dealt in facts and empirical analysis.

Until we understand the Shadow Government---again, a concept well-accepted by reputable analysts such as Bill Moyers--we will never be able to properly oppose it and have a free and democratic society.  The Elites practice the "Golden Rule":  whoever has the gold, rules.  Currently, it makes almost no difference who is in political office in the so-called "free" countries.  They all kow-tow to the International Financial Coterie...regarding politics, finance, economics, social matters, and war.  [None of it is a "conspiracy".  It's merely some people with common interests, and who think they're above the rest of us, working at times together---but mostly independently or in very small groups---to attain their mutual objectives.  It has nothing at all to do with bizarre rituals, esoteric symbols, and all the other nonsense promoted by some "researchers".  Those people may be well-meaning, but all they're doing is helping the Powers-That-Be by turning off the rest of us to the concept of the Shadow Gov't.]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Democratic & Republican Hierarchies FEAR Third Parties

Evidence of the truth of the title above can be found in the refusal to allow any Third Parties to participate in the upcoming Presidential Debates.  That refusal is the policy of the private corporation that manages the debates.  Republican & Democratic "aristocrats" run that corporation.  Evidence also can be found in harsh Ballot-Access Laws put in place by Dems & Repubs.

What are they afraid of...why do they fear Third Party participation?  It's simple:  Third Parties primarily talk about significant issues instead of personalities.  The very last things that elite Dems & Repubs want to talk about are the issues.  Look at the current campaign.  Except for a few Hot-Button social issues, the candidates of the Repub-Dem Party mostly talk about how horrible is each one's opponent.  Major issues either are not mentioned, or glossed over in a cursory way.  Neither candidate talks in depth about our controversial military adventures overseas, or our failing economy, or our support of dictators in various parts of the world, or our crumbling infrastructure at home, or the failed "War on Drugs", or the broken Fed Criminal Justice System, or the Israeli-Palestinian problem (& our part in it), or Climate Change, or the fact that for 2-3 decades wages have been stagnant while the incomes of the Super-Rich increased 700%, or the trashing of the Fourth Amendment, or Legislative Absolutism, or Executive Absolutism, or the Fed's failed Monetary Policy, or the WTO problem, or the TPP problem, or the Trans-Atlantic Trade Agreement problem (the acronym once was TATA, but they keep changing the name of that Agreement...I don't know what it is currently), or the Eminent Domain problem, or the Money/Debt Bubble problem, or the Wall Street Mega Bank Casino Capitalism problem, or Crony Capitalism in general, or the $1.5 quadrillion Derivatives Bubble problem...and on & on.

Noam Chomsky is right when he states that major political candidates are marketed just like toothpaste--- the objective is to get uninformed consumers/voters to make irrational choices about vaguely-described products/candidates.  [I refer you especially to Obama's 2008 Campaign...he won a top marketing award from the Ad Industry for that Hope-Change-Yes-We-Can effort.]  The last thing the Powers-That-Be want is for voters to be informed on the issues and thus make rational choices about candidates whose positions on issues are described in depth.  The second-to-the-last-thing they want is to have Third Party candidates who concentrate on the issues get on the ballot in all 50 States and speak in debates watched by millions of Americans.

There is no true, participatory democracy in the USA; there is, however, a Rigged System.  Boycott the national elections...or at the very least, vote for a worthy Third Party candidate.  Dump the Repub-Dem Party.  [As the Pulitzer-Prize-Winning journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out on Democracy Now today, the Clinton Dem Party is to the Right of Dubya Bush regarding Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank.  There really is only one major Party in this Land.]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Financial-Economic Crash Update

Below is an email I just sent to a few family and friends.  There's a tiny bit of editing... nothing important.
............................................

Maloney is correct (see link below):  this is undeniable evidence that we're in a Recession; there is no "recovery".  Since '08-'09, we've had a series of weak "dead cat bounces", not just of the Stock Market, but of the entire economy.  They haven't been sustainable.  The current Stock Market is a poor indicator anyway--- it's in an artificial Bubble created completely by the Fed... and the chickens are coming home to roost... probably within a year or so... at most, by no later than 2020 or thereabouts.  Just a guess.  No one knows "when", but there is no more "if".  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1He-bpM8MI

Sorry, folks, but now there's little to no doubt that we're in for really bad economic times.  Don't believe the Propaganda from the Powers-That-Be.  NeoFeudalism is on its way.

Get out of Mega Banks, get out of the Stock Market, stock up on household goods, hang onto and/or acquire as many hard assets as you can, cash in any T-Bills (Fed Bonds) you might have, squirrel away some cash, and watch the Bond Market rather than the Stock Market.  The current Housing Bubble is predicted to burst anywhere from very soon to no later than 2024.  The Dollar Crash could be anytime... all that's needed is for China, Russia, India, etc. to accumulate a little more gold.  Once China launches a (to some degree) gold-backed currency, the sound of the rush from the Dollar will be deafening.  That's only one event that could bring down the Dollar; there are several.

Once one Sector goes, the obscene, bizarre Financial Derivatives Market (estimated at $1.5 quadrillion) will bring everything down...probably worldwide.  Banks, Mega Hedge Funds, Insurance giants, et. al. are making billions off Derivatives sales (while creating essentially zero jobs in the process), but don't have enough reserves to cover all defaults.  It's 2008-09 on steroids...super steroids.  Be Prepared.

Don't let the State-Corporate Complex mold your mind anymore.  Reject all Edward Bernays style Propaganda Kool Aid.  You can't miss it; they don't even try to lie with subtlety anymore.  It's blatant lying:  "There's no price inflation worth mentioning"; "The unemployment rate is now only 5%"; "The dollar is strong"; "The Fed has it under control...they're doing a great job"; "The recovery is proceeding"; "Some banks are too big to fail [and prosecute]"; and on & on.  Please, enough of the lies.

By the way, this is not a Right v. Left issue.  Forget that paradigm; this is way above that distraction.  To use an educational metaphor:  this is at the post-doctorate level; the Right-Left paradigm is at the second grade level.

............................................

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"A Fraud...Upon the American People"

I remember well the days when the League of Women Voters, a totally nonpartisan group, was in charge of moderating Presidential Debates in this country.  That was in the 1970's and 1980's.  At the end of the League's stint, the Repubs & Dems rejected about 80 proposed questioners for the debate...as well as numerous tough questions.  Later, the Republicrats came up with a nontransparent contract sanitizing the debate, saying who should be in the audience, and determining the exact questions that would be allowed.  The League resigned with this statement:  "A fraud is being perpetrated upon the American People.".

That's how we wound up with a private corporation run by the Dems & Repubs, the Commission on Presidential Debates, being in charge of the debates.  The word "Commission" makes it sound as though it's some sort of public, representative, all-encompassing entity.  It isn't...not by a long shot.  This private company determines who is allowed to debate, who will moderate the event, what questions will be allowed, and who is allowed in the audience.  This is rigging to the Nth degree.

At least the top three "Third Parties" should be allowed to participate in the upcoming debates...regardless of any percentage in polls.  Why not?  Isn't that democracy in action?  If the Republicrats claim that there isn't enough time for that amount of participation, that's pure hogwash.  Look at how many candidates were in the Primary Debates.  Four, five, or even six candidates wouldn't hinder anything in the major Presidential Debates.  Quite the opposite:  such a scenario would enhance the choices for the electorate.  The fact is:  without being in those debates, a candidate has little to no chance to garner votes.  That's how the monopoly eliminates its competition.

[See the first featured segment on today's broadcast of Democracy Now, Thursday, August 18, 2016.  Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, and others have something important to say.]

A private corporation should not be allowed to have complete control over those debates.  That's not democracy...that's Soft Fascism.

Okay, you're all excited about politics.  In this Rigged System I can't imagine why, but good for you.  Now, why not insist that Oligarchical control be relinquished, and instead, genuine participatory democracy be instituted?  Why not?  Habit?  Break out of the box.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Extreme Ignorance of the Don... and the Rigged Game

Let me state again at the outset:  I don't support Clinton, either.  In fact, there isn't a single candidate running this year that I would even consider supporting... not necessarily because of the individual, but rather because the entire System is rigged.  In the present Crony Capitalist atmosphere, it doesn't really matter at all in any significant way who gets into high office.  For that to matter, first the corruption must be changed by peaceful pressure from outside the Rigged Game.  People have been trying to change it from the inside for at least about 100 years...no luck.

Donald Trump can't be a serious candidate...not with the statements he has made for months now.  I'm beginning to suspect that his only function is to guarantee the coronation of Clinton.  Following are just a few of (supposedly) the Don's beliefs... which are extremely ill-informed.

1.  He stated today or yesterday that Iran is the biggest supporter/promoter of State-sponsored terrorism in the entire world.  One only can assume that by "terrorism" he means that of ISIS and Al Qaida... you know, the ones who are Sunnis... the ones who are the sworn enemies of Iran... that same Iran that is in the Shia sect of Islam.  Apparently (& we certainly don't know this for a fact) Trump is unaware that there's a Sunni-Shia civil (or religious) war going on throughout the Muslim portion of the Middle East.  I find it quite incredible that a major candidate for national office here would be unaware of such a thing.

2.  Not long ago, he stated that Obama was the "Founder of ISIS".  He didn't explain why, but I'm fairly sure where that reasoning lies.  [By the way, I'm certainly no fan of Obama's...I think he's a Corporatist and a Perpetual War Hawk, as well as a gross violator of the Constitution.]  It is true that when Obama took office in January, 2009, he was in a big hurry to exit Iraq.  After we left that country, the U.S.-installed Shia gov't there began to oppress the Sunni residents even more...and the Muslim civil war continued, thus giving rise to ISIS (disaffected Sunnis).  Trump's reasoning, however, ignores the Americans who were 99% responsible for generating ISIS:  Dick Cheney, Dubya Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremer, and a whole slew of behind-the-scenes NeoCon theorists.  By the time Obama first got in office, the whole thing already was a complete shambles.

3.  His statements regarding "extreme vetting" and Cold War style identification & handling of those "hostile to our values" essentially is a call to return to the McCarthyism of the 1950's.  Any major candidate calling for such a thing nowadays would have to be a total ignoramus.  That rhetoric appeals to perhaps 10-15% of the electorate...and turns off everyone else.  No serious candidate would ever make such a proposal... because instituting that policy would be completely un-American.  [Instead of "Hoo-ah", the Don's call to action is "H.U.A.C.".]  Anyone who can't see why that would be an extremely dangerous, slippery slope simply is not thinking on all cylinders.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"Political Correctness is Fascism Pretending to..."

be Manners"  ~ the late, great George Carlin

Amen, George...and Rest in Peace

Do a YouTube Search for the title in order to see the brief clip.  Unlike his others, this one has no cussing... for those who may be offended by "bad" language.  It absolutely destroys the concept of PC...and does it with great humor.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well