Groundhog Day
Hope you had a good one. You probably know the legend of Groundhog Day,
February 2:
If the old woodchuck comes out of his home that day under a
cloud cover, he confidently goes about his business getting ready for
Spring, and there will be only 6 more weeks of winter.
If the sun is out, the groundhog gets scared by his own
shadow and runs back inside for some more hibernation. Then winter won't
be over for about a month and a half.
It was a completely cloudy day with intermittent light rain
then heavy snow where I am, pretty good Groundhog Day weather! Hope you
were as lucky.
In any case, winter is half over no matter whether it is
sunny or cloudy on this day.
This groundhog tradition is a metaphor for the awareness of
looking ahead.
There are different ways of thinking of the future that may
or may not have any bearing on how it unfolds. Nonetheless it seems wise
to consider possibilities, plan and prepare.
What is to come is somewhat predictable by examining what
has happened previously and noticing the causes, effects, trends,
strategies, plans, policies, powers of control and similarities of
circumstance.
Time does not even exist in reality. There is only
the present, yet the past and future are considered in the present as
well.
From the perspective of a dimension outside of the agreed
on convention of time, everything occurs at the same instant.
A "time traveler" could select an event or period to
experience like we might choose among channels on television. The signal
frequencies have already been broadcast. What the visitor to a time
segment encounters depends on the tuning, the selection of a channel.
The thing is, once we are into the timeframe, we may
become really committed to the intensity of the unfolding scenario, and
participate in it full tilt without recalling or knowing the likely
details.
In other words, focusing on time as a condition of
awareness and thought, makes being surprised or shocked more likely.
In the realm of economics, experiences of time, surprise
and shock can be especially profound.
Economic Factors
~ The assets of the United States are increasingly in
foreign hands. Like Japan a few years ago,
China has been accumulating
massive amounts of U.S.
debt and dollars, and turning them into a lot of hard assets here. They
are
purchasing U.S. real estate,
especially in New York City, and there are rumors they are interested
in U.S. wild land resources.
~
The Federal Reserve Bank is actually the largest holder of U.S. debt.
Through the stages of Quantitative Easing, the
FED has accumulated trillions of dollar in assets
in the forms of mortgage
backed securities from banks and U.S. bonds using fiat dollars,
thus expanding the debt obligations of the United States, currently stated
to be between $17 and $18 trillion.
~ The FED is "tapering" their monthly creation of fake
money. (However, some economic commentators think they will come out with
"Quantitative Easing #5" before long as big banks go into failure.)
~ The U.S. Treasury has introduced their own FRNs ("Floating
Rate Notes"),
which are bonds with variable rate interest for greater appeal to
potential bond holders.
~ NOTE: The term "FRNs" also applies to "Federal Reserve
Notes", the banker play money. Most of us carry a small amount of
them around to trade for things in
the New World Order Empire
economy game. These
notes represent our own collective debt, but that's what we currently use
to do our business. (Perhaps they call this "currency" because it only has
value currently.)
~ Other nations, such as the "BRICS" (Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa) are taking steps to avoid FRN dollars,
which they anticipate will be losing a lot of value soon.
~ Saudi Arabia and OPEC may be nearing disengagement from
the trading of oil exclusively via the "petro dollar".
~ Most Americans have no idea of the repercussions of the
dollar losing status as "world reserve currency" and "petro dollar".
~ The U.S. is about to hit the "debt ceiling" again, as we
do every few months. (Will the DC players make another drama out of it
this time?)
~
The stock market has fallen recently and probably will zig-zag its way to
much lower. The big money boys have already
cashed out
of stocks expected to
take a big hit.
~ Inflation has been hidden by changes in the "Consumer
Price Index" (CPI), as well as in many product size reductions.
~ Amazing numbers of people are receiving food purchasing
assistance, which has just been cut a little. (Are more cuts to come? Will
they include Social Security? If there are substantial cuts will there be
social disturbances?)
~ The numbers of homeless are growing, and many more homes
are on the verge of foreclosure.
~
Real unemployment
is far higher than the
government's number, as they don't count the "discouraged workers" that
come off unemployment benefits who have abandoned the notion of getting a
full-time job at this time.
~ Underemployment is through the roof as businesses
avoid med insurance requirements by making employees part time, and
leaving the insurance obligation to them with less income to handle it.
~ Major retailers are laying off massive numbers (Sam's
Club, Sears, J.C. Penney, etc.). That was the only reasonably
healthy industry the U.S. had left besides government contractors.
~ Raising the minimum wage might cause cost-push inflation
price rises, make it more expensive for new business start-ups, and reduce
employment as marginal workers are cut.
(Government interference in the economy, as in "Keynesian
Economics", usually creates more problems than it solves.)
Financial Concerns
The economy is not in recovery.
The official statistics are manipulated and the leaders
bend the truth, to put it politely.
Is the U.S. dollar about to be abandoned worldwide?
Is the derivative-debt bubble about to burst?
(NOTE: Several of the world's executive bankers
have suddenly died recently, apparently by suicide.)
Will certain mega banks have to be "restructured" (i.e.,
cut up in pieces and sold off to smaller but healthier entities)?
If you have money in the bank, it could be taken by a "bail-in
haircut" to
save the banking system (as in the Cyprus beta test), because it's
actually their money as soon as you deposit the funds there. A depositor
is an "unsecured creditor" to the bank. (If the bank goes down,
unsecured lenders are down the asset claim list a way).
ALERT: There have recently been multiple instances of cash
withdrawal limits imposed at various banks around the world, even for
sizeable depositors. At the same time, there is not really an interest
incentive to keep funds in the bank.
A Harvard trained economist has
announced
about removing his
million dollars from the bank.
Perhaps your money would be safer hidden in a safe at home
than at a bank.
What about
retirement accounts?
Will those be
taken over
by the government before
long? Will you get as much as you expected in your golden years?
Perhaps silver and gold would help hold the value of any
wealth one has beyond the pinnacle assets of love, spiritual wisdom, food
and other necessities for future consumption, perhaps at a time when the
stores are not open because there is no power, or no food, or no value in
money, or no society.
However, could a major change to asset backed currencies
forestall economic collapse and revive the economy here and around the
world?
Alternative media blogs and talk shows have discussed the
possibility of a "global currency reset" for a couple of years. Even in
the mainstream media there have been hints of this lately, possibly
planned leaks.
Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, has used the term
"reset" multiple times in her recent remarks at financial conferences and
other events.
Further, a week ago Friday, Art Cashin, a well-known
financial market expert, said on a CNBC
TV segment
that the market fall-off
may be partly in anticipation of important currency changes coming soon
(which he said would likely be on a weekend).
What if there were a change to an asset backed digital
currency? (Interest in Bitcoin, Litecoin and several other digital
currencies is currently growing, as their value has increased with a
higher floor of the volatile fluctuations indicating these may be
stabilizing.)
J.P. Morgan
filed for a patent
not long ago on a new
digital payment system, a modification of an earlier patent of theirs.
What if there were a digital one world currency used
exclusively for international trade, leaving national currencies to be
used just in-country? Currency exchanges would then go through that
universal digital format, bringing an end to the direct exchanges between
national currencies.
What if your bank account could be managed by your just
wearing a tattoo instead of having to keep track of a card that could be
lost or stolen?
What if you just had a little RFID micro chip inserted
in your body that would be your ID, your payment account, your access to
work and other venues, your medical records, your fine account for
infractions of the corporate state regulations, your trackable location
finder, your monitor of acts, feelings and thoughts, and your programmer?
It
seems likely that before long we may experience several
major life changes.
