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In the interview below, Elijah Johnson of Finance and Liberty talked to Dr. Jim Willie about the coming crash of the U.S. Dollar, and how it affects ordinary Americans, because that’s what we all care about isn’t it? How many of us really care how the collapse of the U.S. Dollar affects hedge fund managers? Since the topic can get a bit complicated, after the interview, I include an article titled, Why it Matters if the Dollar is the Reserve Currency, and I have embedded two videos within the article where I try to break down why the collapse of the Dollar is imminent, but I do so in layman’s terms.
NOTE: In the interview below, it is the second time I’ve head Dr. Willie discuss threats on his life from agents within the U.S. government for discussing the U.S. Dollar collapse. The first time was in a post titled, Dr. Jim Willie: “I Fear the U.S. Government Murder Squad, or Being Poisoned by my Government.”
In an interview within that post, the host of The Financial Argument asked Dr. Willie what he feared most, and Dr. Willie responded by saying, “I fear the U.S. government and their murder squads, I fear being gunned down or run over by a black SUV, or I fear being poisoned by my government like Catherine Austin Fitts was, at a recent event with a certain FBI official, who was trying to go public with certain information…”
Within hours of my posting that interview, it was removed from the Internet, and I’ve never been able to find it again. THAT should give you some idea how serious the issue of the Dollar’s collapse is. When a country is bankrupt ($20 TRILLION in debt), once the currency collapses, and there is nowhere left to borrow from, the situation can become rather complex. Supply lines into the country can become a real problem as I mention in the final video below. Since the U.S. imports 50% of our food, and we run a trade deficit of $500 BILLION dollars, most Americans cannot comprehend how difficult like will become here.
That is why I include an article by Michael Snyder discussing which items will disappear first during a major national emergency. That’s why you should take the time to get some of them ahead of time while you can, so there are links at the bottom to where you can get more survival supplies. In my opinion, the easiest and most important thing you ever have is: Be Ready For Any Emergency – The Crucial Guide For Any Family’s Safety. You can read the review or check out the VIDEO here. I have personally worn out the touchpad on my iPad from reading the guide so much.
DON’T MISS: Dr. Jim Willie: We Are Just Weeks Away From Worst Crisis in Global History (Video)
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WHY IT MATTERS THE DOLLAR IS THE RESERVE CURRENCY
We refer to the dollar as a “reserve currency” when referring to its use by other countries when settling their international trade accounts.
For example, if Canada buys goods from China, China may prefer to be paid in US dollars rather than Canadian dollars. The US dollar is the more “marketable” money internationally, meaning that most countries will accept it in payment, so China can use its dollars to buy goods from other countries, not solely the US. Such might not be the case with the Canadian dollar, and China would have to hold its Canadian dollars until it found something to buy from Canada. Multiply this scenario by all the countries of the world who print their own money and one can see that without a currency accepted widely in the world, international trade would slow down and become more expensive. In some ways, its effect would be similar to that of erecting trade barriers, such as the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 that contributed to the Great Depression.
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There are many who draw a link between the collapse of international trade and war. The great French economist Frédéric Bastiat said that “when goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.” No nation can achieve a decent standard of living with a completely autarkic economy, meaning completely self-sufficient in all things. If it cannot trade for the goods that it needs, it feels forced to invade its neighbors to steal them. Thus, a near-universally-accepted currency can be as vital to world peace as it is to world prosperity.
In the first video below, I break down many of the rumors surrounding Obama’s mythical recovery, and how using numbers provided by his own administration prove that he is not only lying by continuing his charade about a recovery, but he is also putting lives at risk by not telling people the truth and giving them time to prepare.
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What “Reserve Currency” Really Means
However, the foundation from which the term “reserve currency” originated no longer exists. Originally, the term “reserve” referred to the promise that the currency was backed by and could be redeemed for a commodity, usually gold, at a promised exchange ratio. The first truly global reserve currency was the British pound sterling. Because the Pound was “good as gold,” many countries found it more convenient to hold pounds rather than gold itself during the age of the gold standard. The world’s great trading nations settled their trade in gold, but they might accept pounds rather than gold, with the confidence that the Bank of England would hand over the gold at a fixed exchange rate upon presentment. Toward the end of World War II, the US dollar was given this status by treaty following the Bretton Woods Agreement. The US accumulated the lion’s share of the world’s gold as the “arsenal of democracy” for the allies even before we entered the war. (The US still owns more gold than any other country by a wide margin, with 8,133.5 tons compared to number two Germany with 3,384.2 tons.)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was formed with the express purpose of monitoring the Federal Reserve’s commitment to Bretton Woods by ensuring that the Fed did not inflate the dollar and stood ready to exchange dollars for gold at $35 per ounce. Thusly, countries had confidence that their dollars held for trading purposes were as “good as gold,” as had been the British pound at one time.
The Advent of the Fiat Reserve Currency
However, the Fed did not maintain its commitment to the Bretton Woods Agreement and the IMF did not attempt to force it to hold enough gold to honor all its outstanding currency in gold at $35 per ounce. During the 1960s, the US funded the War in Vietnam and President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty with printed money. The volume of outstanding dollars exceeded the US’s store of gold at $35 per ounce. The Fed was called to account in the late 1960s first by the Bank of France and then by others.
Central banks around the world, who had been content to hold dollars instead of gold, grew concerned that the US had sufficient gold reserves to honor its redemption promise. During the 1960s the run on the Fed, led by France, caused the US’s gold stock to shrink dramatically from over 20,000 tons in 1958 to just over 8,000 tons in 1970. At the accelerating rate that these redemptions were occurring, the US had no choice but to revalue the dollar at some higher exchange rate or abrogate its responsibilities to honor dollars for gold entirely. To its everlasting shame, the US chose the latter and “went off the gold standard” in September 1971. (I have calculated that in 1971 the US would have needed to devalue the dollar from $35 per ounce to $400 per ounce in order to have sufficient gold stock to redeem all its currency for gold.) Nevertheless, the dollar was still held by the great trading nations, because it still performed the useful function of settling international trading accounts. There was no other currency that could match the dollar, despite the fact that it was “delinked” from gold.
Why the Dollar Continued To Be a Reserve Currency
There are two characteristics of a currency that make it useful in international trade: one, it is issued by a large trading nation itself, and, two, the currency holds its value over time. These two factors create a demand for holding a currency in reserve. Although the dollar was being inflated by the Fed, thus losing its value vis-à-vis other commodities over time, there was no real competition. The German Deutsche mark held its value better, but the German economy and its trade was a fraction that of the US, meaning that holders of marks would find less to buy in Germany than holders of dollars would find in the US. So demand for the mark was lower than demand for the dollar. Of course, psychological factors entered the demand for dollars, too, since the US was the military protector of all the Western nations against the communist countries.
Today we are seeing the beginnings of a change. The Fed has been inflating the dollar massively, reducing its purchasing power and creating an opportunity for the world’s great trading nations to use other, better monies. This is important, because a loss of demand for holding the US dollar as a reserve currency would mean that trillions of dollars held overseas could flow back into the US, causing either inflation, recession, or both. For example, the US dollar global share of central bank holdings currently is 62 percent, mostly in the form of US Treasury debt. (Central banks hold interest-bearing Treasury debt rather than the dollars themselves.) Foreign holdings of US debt is currently $6.154 trillion. Compare this to the US monetary base of $3.839 trillion.
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Should foreign demand to hold US dollar denominated assets diminish, the Treasury could fund their redemption in only three ways. One, the US could increase taxes in order to redeem its foreign held debt. Two, it could raise interest rates to refinance its foreign held debt. Or, three, it could simply print money. Of course, it could use all three to varying degrees. If the US refused to raise taxes or increase the interest rate and relied upon money printing (the most likely scenario, barring a complete repudiation of Keynesian doctrine and an embrace of Austrian economics), the monetary base would rise by the amount of the redemptions. For example, should demand to hold US dollar denominated assets fall by 50 percent ($3.077 trillion) the US monetary base would increase by 75 percent, which undoubtedly would lead to very high price inflation and dramatically hurt us here at home. Our standard of living is at stake here.
So we see that it is in the interest of many that the dollar remain in high demand around the world as a unit of trade settlement. It is necessary in order to prevent price inflation and to prevent American business from being saddled with increased costs that would come from being forced to settle their import/export accounts in a currency other than the dollar.
Threats To the Dollar as Reserve Currency
The causes of this threat to the dollar as a reserve currency are the policies of the Fed itself. There is no conspiracy to “attack” the dollar by other countries, in my opinion. There is, however, a rising realization by the rest of the world that the US is weakening the dollar through its ZIRP and QE programs. Consequently, other countries are aware that they may need to seek a better means of settling world trade accounts than using the US dollar. One factor that has helped the dollar retain its reserve currency demand in the short run, despite the Fed’s inflationist policies, is that the other currencies have been inflated, too.
For example, Japan has inflated the yen to a greater extent than the dollar in its foolish attempt to revive its stagnant economy by cheapening its currency. Now even the European Central Bank will proceed with a form of QE, apparently despite Germany’s objections. All the world’s central banks seem to subscribe to the fallacious belief that increasing the money supply will bring prosperity without the threat of inflation. This defies economic law and economic reality. They cannot print their way to recovery or prosperity. Increasing the money supply does not and cannot ever create prosperity for all. What is more, this mistaken belief compounds a second mistake; i.e., that savings is not the foundation of prosperity, but rather spending is the key. This mistake puts the cart before the horse.
A third mistake is believing that driving their currencies’ exchange rate lower vis-à-vis other currencies will lead to an export-driven recovery or some mysteriously generated shot in the arm that will lead to a sustainable recovery. Such is not the case. Without delving too deeply into Austrian economic and capital theory, just let me point out that money printing disrupts the structure of production by fraudulently changing the “price discovery process” of capitalism. When this happens, capital is allocated to projects that will never be profitably completed. Bubbles get created and collapse and businesses are suddenly damaged en masse, thus, destroying scarce capital.
In the following video, I explain in layman’s terms what it means to be the World Reserve Currency, the benefits that come with it, as well as the responsibilities. Then I explain what life will be like for every day Americans once the Dollar has lost the World Reserve status. As I said above, when a country is bankrupt ($20 TRILLION in debt), once the currency collapses, and there is nowhere left to borrow from, the situation can become rather complex. Supply lines into the country can become a real problem as I mention in the final video below. Since the U.S. imports 50% of our food, and we run a trade deficit of $500 BILLION dollars, most Americans cannot comprehend how difficult like will become here. It won’t be pretty.
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Possible Future Scenarios
Because of this money-printing philosophy, the dollar is very susceptible to losing its vaunted reserve currency position to the first major trading country that stops inflating its currency. There is evidence that China understands what is at stake; it has increased its gold holdings and has instituted controls to prevent gold from leaving China. Should the world’s second largest economy and one of the world’s greatest trading nations tie its currency to gold, demand for the yuan would increase and demand for the dollar would decrease overnight.
Or, the long festering crisis in Europe may drive Germany to leave the eurozone and reinstate the Deutsch mark. I have long advocated that Germany do just this, which undoubtedly would reveal the rot embodied in the euro, the commonly held currency that has been plundered by half the nations of the continent to finance their unsustainable welfare states. The European continent outside the UK could become a mostly Deutsch mark zone, and the mark might eventually supplant the dollar as the world’s premier reserve currency.
The underlying problem, though, lies in the ability of all central banks to print fiat money; i.e., money that is backed by nothing other than the coercive power of the state via its legal tender laws. Central banks are really little more than legal counterfeiters of their own currencies. The pressure to print money comes from the political establishment that desires both warfare and welfare. Both are strictly capital consumption activities; they are not “investments” that can pay a return.
In a sound money environment, where the money supply cannot be inflated, the true nature of warfare and welfare spending is revealed, providing a natural check on the amount of funds a society is willing to devote to each. But in a fiat money environment both war and welfare spending can expand unchecked in the short run, because their adverse consequences are felt later and the link between consumptive spending and its harm to the economy is poorly understood. Thus, both can be expanded beyond the recuperative and sustainable powers of the economy.
The best antidote is to abolish central banks altogether and allow private institutions to engage in money production subject only to normal commercial law. Sound money would be backed 100 percent by commodities of intrinsic value — gold, silver, etc. Any money producer issuing money certificates or book entry accounts (checking accounts) in excess of their promised exchange ratio to the underlying commodity would be guilty of fraud and punished as such by both the commercial and criminal law, just as we currently punish counterfeiters. Legal tender laws, which prohibit the use (in many cases) of any currency other than the one endorsed by the state, would be abolished and competing currencies would be encouraged. The market would discover the better monies and drive out less marketable ones; i.e., better monies would drive out the bad or less-good monies.
We need to look at the concept of a reserve currency differently, because it is important. We need to look at it as a privilege and a responsibility and not as a weapon we can use against the rest of the world. If we abolish, or even lessen, legal tender laws and allow the process of price discovery to reveal the best sound money, if we allow our US dollar to become the best money it can — a truly sound money — then the chances of our personal and collective prosperity are greatly enhanced. - Source
37 ITEMS YOU WON’T FIND WHEN A CRISIS HITS
One day in the not too distant future, a major emergency will strike this nation, and that will set off a round of hoarding unlike anything we have ever seen before. Just think about what happens when a big winter storm or a hurricane is about to hit one of our major cities – inevitably store shelves are stripped bare of bread, milk, snow shovels, etc. Even though winter storms and hurricanes are just temporary hurdles to overcome, they still cause many people to go into panic mode. So what is going to happen when we have a real crisis on our hands?
We can get some clues about which items will disappear first during a major national emergency by taking a look at where such a scenario is already playing out. One recent survey found that over 80 percent of all basic foodstuffs are currently unavailable in Venezuela, and about half the country can no longer provide three meals a day for their families. Thankfully, some stores still have a few things that they are able to offer, but other key items are completely gone. The following comes from USA Today…
Oh, there are some things to buy. Besides salt, there are fresh vegetables and fruits, dairy products but no milk, some cereal, lots of snacks and a few canned goods.
The only meat is sausages; there are three kinds of cheese. The only problem: A kilogram of each costs more than a fourth of our monthly minimum wage of 15,050 bolivars.
But basic foodstuffs – the things most Venezuelans want to eat such as corn meal, wheat flour, pasta, rice, milk, eggs, sugar, coffee, chicken, mayonnaise, margarine, cooking oil and beef – are conspicuous by their absence. And there is no toilet paper, no sanitary napkins, no disposable baby diapers, no shampoo, no toothpaste, no hand soap and no deodorant.
Do you have plenty of the items in bold above stored up?
If not, you may want to stock up while you still can.
Venezuela was once the wealthiest nation in all of South America, but now lines for food often begin as early as three in the morning. Some people have become so desperate that they are actually hunting cats, dogs and pigeons for food, and there are even a few very sick people that have been killing and eating zoo animals.
Someday similar things will happen in the United States and Europe too.
When that day arrives, will you be prepared?
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One of the things that got my attention from the article quote above was the lack of milk. My wife is always telling me that we should store up more dried milk, and I believe that she is right.
Just imagine not having any milk and not being able to get any more.
What would you do?
Another thing that really stood out to me in the article was the fact that there is a severe shortage of personal hygiene items. Most people don’t really think of those as “prepper goods”, but the truth is that life will become very uncomfortable without them very rapidly.
What would you do if there was no more toilet paper?
And if you have a little one, how are you going to manage without any diapers?
In general, it is wise to always have an extra supply of just about everything that you use on a daily basis stored away somewhere in your home. The generation that went through the Great Depression of the 1930s understood this concept very well, but most of us that are younger have had it so good for so long that we don’t even really grasp what a real crisis looks like.
Another thing that we are seeing happen right now in Venezuela is the rise of a barter economy…
Many of my urban friends are now planting vegetables in their outdoor spaces – if they have any – or in pots. Another friend, who is a hairdresser, is charging clients food to do their hair. For a shampoo and dry, she charges a kilo of corn meal, saying that she doesn’t have time to stand in line like some of her clients.
As you prepare for what is ahead, you may want to consider stocking up on some items that would specifically be used for bartering in a crisis situation.
For example, you may not drink coffee, but there are millions upon millions of people that do. In a crisis situation, there will be many that will be extremely desperate to get their hands on some coffee, and so any coffee that you store away now may become a very valuable asset.
We live in a world where one out of every eight people already goes to bed hungry each night, and where one out of every three children is underweight. As global weather patterns become more extreme, as natural disasters continue to become more frequent and more intense, and as terror and war continue to spread, it is inevitable that the stress on the global food system is going to continue to grow.
Today you can waltz into Wal-Mart and buy giant cartloads of very inexpensive food, but it will not always be that way.
Unfortunately, more than half the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck, and most Americans do not have any emergency food stored up at all.
In addition to food and personal hygiene supplies, here are some other items that are likely to disappear very rapidly during a major national emergency…
-Flashlights
-Batteries
-Generators
-Propane
-Can Openers
-Water Filters
-Water Containers
-Anything Related To Self-Defense
-Axes
-Knives
-Sleeping Bags
-Tents
-First Aid Kits
-Matches
-Candles
-Firewood
-Shovels
-Bottled Water
-Warm Clothing
-Lanterns
-Portable Radios
So in addition to food and personal hygiene items, you may want to do an inventory of the items that I have listed above and see where you may have some holes in your preparation plans.
I understand that there will be some people that will read this article and think that all of us “preppers” are being just a tad ridiculous.
But when a major emergency strikes this nation and you haven’t done anything to prepare, you will dearly wish that you had bothered to take action while there was still time remaining to do so.
BE SURE TO CHECK THELASTGREATSTAND.COM FOR SURVIVAL GEAR!
FREE DETAILED GUIDE TO SURVIVING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE OR MARTIAL LAW HERE
IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, THE FOLLOWING POSTS ARE ESSENTIAL:
Peter Schiff: Don’t Believe the Hype! The Real Economic Fallout From Brexit (Video)
How Will the U.S. Conduct Trade With Worthless U.S. Dollars and No Gold? (Video)
Why Did Illuminated George Soros Liquidate 37% of His Stock to Buy Gold? (Video)
What Exactly Does Global Economic Collapse Coming May 2016 Mean?
Dr. Willie and Peter Schiff Together: Total Currency Collapse and Reset Coming
Economic Implosion Will Lead to Stock Market at 5,000 by 2017 Forecaster Says
FOR MORE GREAT MATERIAL FROM JIM WILLIE:
Dr. Jim Willie: Precious Metals Market (COMEX) on the Verge of Default (Video)
Dr. Jim Willie and the Systematic Bankruptcy of Western Society (Video)
Dr. Jim Willie: New World Order Elites in Absolute Terror of Gold Standard (Audio)
Dr. Jim Willie: Deutsche Bank Valued at -$1 Trillion; Economic Chaos Ahead
Dr. Jim Willie: The Corruption Cannot Stop the Masses! 3 Part Interview (Videos)
Dr. Jim Willie: Brexit Result Could Detonate Deutsche Bank!
Dr. Jim Willie: We’ve Got “Educated People” That Are Stupid As Bedposts
Dr. Jim Willie: Death Sentence for Banks, Businesses, Families, and the US Dollar
Dr. Jim Willie: There Are No Prisoners Taken in The Global Money War
Dr. Jim Willie: 7 Signs U.S. Economy Collapses; Gold Will Soon Back US Dollar!
Dr. Jim Willie: Western Economic Markets Collapsing; Eurasian Markets Rise
Dr. Jim Willie: The Dollar is Dead! Even Mainstream Media Realizes it!
Dr. Jim Willie – Secret Meeting at the G20 to Take Down the US Dollar
Dr. Jim Willie: Financial Deals Happening Behind Closed Doors; US Not Invited
Jim Willie: U.S. Dollar is Now a Matter of National Security Due to Poor Decisions
FOR MORE GREAT MATERIAL FROM PETER SCHIFF:
Peter Schiff: Expect An Economic Crisis Infinitely Worse Than 2008 (Videos)
Dr. Jim Willie and Peter Schiff: The Morgue Is Next Stop for U.S. Economy
Peter Schiff: Don’t Believe the Hype! The Real Economic Fallout From Brexit (Video)
Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers on the U.S. Economy: Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid (Videos)
Peter Schiff: Are People Going to Wake Up? The Economy Is Out of Road! (Video)
Peter Schiff: “Trump’s Very Massive Recession May Have Already Begun”
Peter Schiff: Americans Fear Future With ‘Dead-End Economy, Crap Jobs, and Awful Wages’
Peter Schiff: “Can Donald Trump Really Make America Great Again?”
Peter Schiff: Dollar Collapse Will Be the Single Biggest Event In Human History
Peter Schiff: Obama “Peddling Fiction” As Unemployed Tops 100 Million People
Peter Schiff: Here Comes the Great, Great, Great, Great Recession!
Peter Schiff: “Whatever Obama Was Calling Recovery… is OVER!”
Peter Schiff: Death of the US Dollar Is Imminent; Fed Out of Options
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Future titles for Jimmy (small) Willie’s talks:
American dollar down the Sewer!
Stench of the $ Dollar
US $$ down the pithole in 14 days
US Dollar Demise Assured within Days!
Final Nails in US Dollar Coffin
US Dollar in Sheer Hell end of this month
The US $ the Rotting Corpse
…what? did someone say these titles have already been taken and run? More to come, I am sure!
Why should they obey your rules, when it is they who creates the rules?
Their rules in the past is not their rules now! Cause it always been the power of the might, you get it?
You call everyone else stupid, you are standing here without pants and with a little Jim Willie.
Soon only I can stop them, not by my own but by us. Vague that is perfect.
Right mind.
iF YOU CAN NOT FIGHT THEN YOU DEAD, Mad Max!
If you think about what you want to actually post before you hit the send button you can pull it all off in one shot. Just sayin’.
They change the rules.