Smart people diversify their investments - some in cash, some in bonds, some in stocks, some in their house, some in a small business perhaps. But usually every single one of these investments is held in US dollars. What would happend to your savings if the US dollar drops (like the Argentinian dollar did overnight in 2001). Not likely you say? you might want to check out the seven US dollar facts below.

Most people, even smart people, know surprisingly little about the way money really works in Big Government. With the debt ceiling fiasco suddenly raising awareness of the possibility of a total global financial blowout, now seems like a good time to remind people of seven disturbing facts about money that are almost never acknowledge in the old media.

Fact #1 - There is no money in the FDIC insurance fund.
The money at your bank is insured against loss by the FDIC's insurance fund, right? Nope. That's total fiction. There is no actual money in the fund. The FDIC insurance money has already been looted by the U.S. Treasury which has simply replaced the money with a bunch of IOUs.

Fact #2 - There are no social security funds, either.
When you pay social security taxes, all that money goes into a trust fund that's held for safekeeping until the day it pays you back, right? Nope, another IOU.

Fact #3 - The U.S. Treasury is stealing money from you every day, even if you pay no taxes!
Here's a mind-boggling truth that most people just can't seem to get their heads around: The U.S. Treasury is stealing money from you every single day by the simple fact that they keep creating new money ... That's why prices keep going up all around you, folks: Food isn't suddenly worth more money; the truth is that your money is worth less! That's how the Treasury and the Federal Reserve steal from you without even breaking into your home.

Fact #4 - The "balanced solution" isn't balanced.
When you're spending more money than you're earning, that's not financial balance. When the White House says "balanced" what it really means is "compromised" -- as in, half way between the Republican position (spend us into purgatory) and the Democratic position (spend us into oblivion). Going from projected $9T deficit over 10 years to %7T deficit is still a $7T extra debt for our country!

Fact #5 - The government is going to steal everything from you before it collapses
Oh my, this is a tough one for people to get their heads around... especially those who naively trust governments to act in the interests of the People. The simple truth of the matter -- and I've publicly made this prediction before -- is that the government is going to STEAL almost everything you own as it heads toward a total financial implosion. This will include:

• The government theft of private retirement accounts. The feds will claim they're taking them over "for your protection." Yeah, right. And then one day they will simply all vanish. Kiss your IRA goodbye...

• The government theft of precious metals. Within the next 3 years, watch for a national emergency to be declared, followed by government confiscation of gold and silver. The feds will take your gold and hand you paper money in exchange. The paper money, of course, will be all but worthless shortly thereafter. Only the suckers, of course, will actually turn in their metals...

• Government takeover of your bank accounts. As banks begin to fail in the big collapse, the government will step in and take ownership of the failed institutions, just as it did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which used to be publicly-owned companies but are now largely just government finance operations). This will put your bank accounts under the direct control of the White House, which can use executive orders to do things like banning all wire transfers out of the country or limiting daily withdrawals and transfers. Sure, you'll still "own" your money in the bank, you just won't be able to freely access it!

Fact #6 - Most people have no idea about fractional reserve banking, derivatives, the money supply or the Federal Reserve
It's not just that most people don't understand banking and finance; it's that even members of Congress have no idea how all this works. With few exceptions (like Ron Paul), they're just clueless!

Fact #7 - Most people are betting their lives on the dollar
People buy insurance for their cars, their homes and even their health. But when it comes to money, 99 out of 100 people in America are betting their entire financial existence on the U.S. dollar! They get their paychecks in dollars, their savings accounts are in dollars, and all their assets are denominated in dollars. As a result, they have no diversity to protect them against dollar devaluation.

That's kinda crazy, considering just how quickly the dollar could collapse in the near future and become totally worthless. That's why smart people are diversifying their assets and converting dollars into land, gold, silver or even storable food. Here in central Texas, even ammunition has a long-term barter value that far exceeds dollars.

Looking around at the financial behaviors of others, I'm just stunned at how many people are betting everything on the dollar because they never realized they had any other option (that's the way the government likes to keep it, of course!).

This entry was posted on August 16, 2011 at 9:14 PM and has received 540 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This Wednesday Gathering we learn how to regain childlike ablities in flexible movement and breathing with Stephen Shafarman.

How can you breathe more easily.? Move more comfortably? Be stronger and more flexible? Improve your posture and balance? Relieve and outgrow back pain, arthritis, asthma, and other problem conditions?
Enhance your skills and enjoyment of yoga, dance, golf, tennis, and everyday activities?

FlexAware is a revolution in exercise, fitness, healing. These unique, breathing-directed exercises are based on the way very young children learn and move. Young children are much more flexible than adults and, for their size and weight, much stronger. They naturally move easily, efficiently, aligning with gravity and not fighting against it. You can regain that skill with FlexAware.

You, whatever your age and health condition, will benefit from FlexAware. And people enjoy doing these exercises.

You can reach Stephen at info (at) FlexAware (dot) com, 202-640-1373 or http://www.flexaware.com/

This entry was posted on August 13, 2011 at 8:57 PM and has received 1148 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This Wednesday Gathering we learn how to reach our limitless potential in the now with Matthew Horne.

His book “All We Have is NOW,” is a guide to embracing your power to create your life, your way, NOW! The premise is there are no perfect moments in life except the one’s which we create. Matthew’s belief is that every human being is a creator at their core, and life simply will not do things for you that you’ve been empowered to create for yourself. After reading Matthew C. Horne’s, “All We have is NOW,” the double dutch approach to life will be negated by the reality that we have the power to live our dreams, desires and inner-pictures of destiny, NOW!

Matthew C. Horne, success genius, motivational speaker and
author, presents speeches filled with inspiration, hope and
direction for everyone in attendance. His presentations radiate
positive energy, inspiration, passion, and great audience
participation!

His thought provoking and insightful speeches introduce
people to facets of themselves they never knew existed.

He is all about introducing you to your limitless possibilities
and enabling you to live your best life possible through
connecting with your dreams.

Matthew C. Horne, motivational speaker and author, is the president of Optimum Success International, a speaking and publishing company located in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. He is an international authority on Maximizing Human Potential. Matthew is the author of “The Universe Is Inviting You In,” and the newly released book “All We Have Is NOW,” which are both publicly endorsed by legendary motivational speaker Les Brown.

Growing up, Matthew’s ultimate vision for his life was to play basketball in the NBA. He positioned himself to live this reality through obtaining a full-athletic scholarship to play Division I basketball in college. Much to his surprise destiny revealed his true calling during his collegiate years, as he discovered a passion for motivational speaking. Matthew was told by his professors he would never make it as an English major, and to the astonishment of everyone he not only obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, but was offered his first book contract before he graduated in his last semester of college.

Matthew’s message is one of creating your own reality according your vivid destiny pictures. Matthew empowers audiences live their unique truth, independent of the opinions of others. Matthew’s message is quickly spanning the globe through his books, audios and motivational speeches. He is the co-host of the television show “How To Survive In A Bad Economy.” He has also been featured on the legendary radio station WOL with his weekly minute motivational segments. Matthew is also a regular contributor the internet’s leading motivational ezine: Let’s Talk Motivation Matthew will bring any event to life! Matthew is available for speeches, radio and television interviews, and book signings. All who encounter Matthew C. Horne will leave with a heightened awareness of their limitless possibilities, and be positioned to live their Best Life Possible.

You can reach Mathew at 240-605-1106, matt (at) matthewchorne (dot) com or http://www.matthewchorne.com/

This entry was posted on August 13, 2011 at 8:50 PM and has received 648 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Sometimes I forget to play. Then my life gets dull and I may even get sick. Come learn how to put joy and spirit into all parts of your life this week with Joe Kenndy Jr and his Universal Peace Journey. I first met Joe at the Capital Creativity Network and he is a playful, creative and fun guy! You may have met him at my Yule party too.

Here in Bolivia I got busy working on a TeraTech project (I work remotely using gotmypc and Skype) and researching resilient communities in South America. I over did this using the computer too may hours and staying up late every night. Then I got sick and was so tired I spent yesterday in bed all day. A message from my body to get outside and play every day! Also I am grateful for yoga - that helped me get well faster - wen I was too tired to sleep doing a little light yoga help me relax and then sleep.

I am noticing changes in my aura and pranic bodies in last few weeks. I think Solar activity has gone up, increasing Earth's radiation and so decreasing the size of energy bodies. I have been doing work to strengthen them (yoga, Holographic Healing, Mark Dunn, Donna Eden). Sometimes I feel very tired and have buzzy head/cold symptoms. Gets worse if I am next to computer or cell phone for long time - EMF related I think.

Secondly I have noticed a pattern with the programmers I am hiring. They keep getting sick or busy so they either can work for me at all or only reduced hours. I have done some work on releasing this pattern myself and perhaps it is just the general Earth clearing and assention. In the last month here is what has occurred:

1. I hired D, a week later she had family emergency and had to quit
2. I hired C, he worked hard for two weeks then was diagnosed with oral cancer and had to quit
3. I hired S to work 30 hours per week but after he started he could only do 14 hour per week due to other commitments
4. I hired J and he got sick too, very tired (he is back now)
5. I hired R and he has been healthy but he got a second job to make ends meet that makes him unavailable 11am-6pm
6. An old employee A who had been helping out got sick, very tired and though he wanted to help no longer could
7. Another old employee D always has had difficulty with procrastination, is actually getting better now!
8. I notice that I am calm when these changes happen, know that it will all work out and I take quick action to move forward.
   :-)
9. Clients are all happy and easy to get on with :-)

On money patterns I have seen movement

1. I am getting better at sending invoices to clients on time
2. Got movement on selling my car from someone who is helping me but procrastinated for 2 months
3. Got lead on selling some software that I had been listing on ebay for past month with no luck until this week
4. Moved forward with renting my room at my house with help of Sandra and Randy

What patterns are you noticing in your life?

This entry was posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:27 PM and has received 978 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I visited an old farm house in Bolivia this weekend - it is on hill above Lake Titicca - very peaceful. A bit primative - no shower or toilet. Does have running water from tap outside and electricity. My internet card didn't work there and I am going to buy another brand that should work there. The kitchen is adobe wood stove. Just like camping at Rainbow Gathering! :-) Unfortunately there is no water for growing veggies except when it rains in Sept - Dec, so I don't think it will make a permant home. I currently think I will live there for a week as a sort of "meditation cave" experiment. :-) And the hiking in the hills looks pretty too. Views of mountains with snow on them plus the deep blue of the lake. I discovered the lake is salty - a great inland sea - so not good for watering plants either.

I am going to check out another location in semi-tropical area of Bolivia where I can grow veggies. If you don't know Bolivia it is about the area of Alaska and contains many varied climates from high mountains, deserts, semi-tropical hills to tropical lowlands.

I also read about a valley in Chile that is good for permaculture:

These quotes from from SovereignMan.com you can read more on preparing for upcoming changes in his regular free newsletter.

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 6:14 PM and has received 732 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Interesting analysis of why we are really running $1T per year government deficit - to avoid 30% unemployment in a second Great Depression. Sound like a good idea you say? Only problem is that the deficit spending only delays the USA Great Depression II plus adds in currency crash and inflation to strip retiree and other assets values at the same time... That would be a Great Drepssion II++ I think.

http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/daniel-amerman/2011/08/04/us-faces-a-depression-level-unemployment-crisis

I think this is a good time to take persoanl preventative action. Check out key steps preparing for upcoming changes at http://sovereignman.com/aot/SixPillarsOfSelfReliance.pdf His regular newsletter is free.

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 6:09 PM and has received 834 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We have known the true debt is higher than the $14T for some time. What is interesting is this story is on NPR and so mainstream news. And the possible cure? Raise taxes 67% or cut all spending 40% across the board. Hmm maybe that is why the current politicians have done little on thsi problem... Might be good to have a Plan B country to live in tha doesn't have this kind of debt like Brazil or Australia both of who's national debts are essentially zero ...

When Standard & Poor's reduced the nation's credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, the United States suffered the first downgrade to its credit rating ever. S&P took this action despite the plan Congress passed this past week to raise the debt limit.

The downgrade, S&P said, "reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics."

It's those medium- and long-term debt problems that also worry economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served as a senior economist on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. He says the national debt, which the U.S. Treasury has accounted at about $14 trillion, is just the tip of the iceberg.

"We have all these unofficial debts that are massive compared to the official debt," Kotlikoff tells David Greene, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. "We're focused just on the official debt, so we're trying to balance the wrong books."

Kotlikoff explains that America's "unofficial" payment obligations — like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits — jack up the debt figure substantially.

Courtesy of Boston University

Laurence J. Kotlikoff served as a senior economist on President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and is a professor of economics at Boston University.

"If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That's the fiscal gap," he says. "That's our true indebtedness."

We don't hear more about this enormous number, Kotlikoff says, because politicians have chosen their language carefully to keep most of the problem off the books.

"Why are these guys thinking about balancing the budget?" he says. "They should try and think about our long-term fiscal problems."

According to Kotlikoff, one of the biggest fiscal problems Congress should focus on is America's obligation to make Social Security payments to future generations of the elderly.

"We've got 78 million baby boomers who are poised to collect, in about 15 to 20 years, about $40,000 per person. Multiply 78 million by $40,000 — you're talking about more than $3 trillion a year just to give to a portion of the population," he says. "That's an enormous bill that's overhanging our heads, and Congress isn't focused on it."

"We've consistently done too little too late, looked too short-term, said the future would take care of itself, we'll deal with that tomorrow," he says. "Well, guess what? You can't keep putting off these problems."

To eliminate the fiscal gap, Kotlikoff says, the U.S. would have to have tax increases and spending reductions far beyond what's being negotiated right now in Washington.

"What you have to do is either immediately and permanently raise taxes by about two-thirds, or immediately and permanently cut every dollar of spending by 40 percent forever. The [Congressional Budget Office's] numbers say we have an absolutely enormous problem facing us."

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 6:01 PM and has received 513 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Interesting real world cyber war stories Irsael used against Syria and Iran. Might be wise to be prepared in case you bank online banking or oter website are not working one day...
Michael

From http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/03/technology/cyber_attack/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

Repeated and constant cyber attacks against the United States have turned the country's assessment of national security threats on its head.

Just five years ago, the CIA was mostly worried about physical threats like bombings or chemical warfare. But now, the CIA thinks cyber attacks have the second greatest potential for national destruction behind only a nuclear attack.

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"Cyber will be part of any future conflict -- whether it's a nation state or terrorism," said Cofer Black, former director of the CIA's counterterrorist center, at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

It's not just that cyber will become part of warfare. It already has.

McAfee, a cybersecurity company owned by Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), announced late Tuesday that it uncovered a wide-ranging, global cyber attack that impacted 72 organizations.

A total of 36 corporations, 12 non-profits and 22 government organizations were affected, including 15 U.S. government agencies and the United Nations.

The broad-based nature of the attack means that every country and company must assume that they have been compromised, an executive at McAfee argued.

"You can't just deploy a firewall and assume you're safe," said Toralv Dirro, security strategist at McAfee. "Someone one way or another will get into a computer and attack your system."

McAfee found that a country launched a sponsored cyberespionage scheme, but it didn't go so far as to pin down the nation responsible. Though McAfee informed the companies and agencies that were spied on, most of those attacked didn't want the security company to name them publicly.

How they hack you

The scariest part of the scheme wasn't that it impacted so many organizations around the world, but that it has been going on, undetected, for the past five years. McAfee actually discovered the attack when the hackers finally made a mistake -- they left logs of their attacks on a command and control server that McAfee uncovered in 2009.

Cyberespionage poses a great threat since it gives the nations sponsoring the attacks a leg up in diplomacy, business competition and, should a conflict arise, warfare.

Countries have already shown how cyberattacks can be used to mitigate rivals' defenses.

In September 2007, Israeli F15s and F16s bombed a nuclear reactor construction site in Syria, but Syrian radars never picked up the planes crossing the border. That's because Israel had hacked Syria's radar software.

The most infamous example is Stuxnet, a bug so sophisticated that it significantly delayed Iran's nuclear program. The worm, which was likely loaded into the system on a thumb drive, ordered the centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility to spin out of control, ultimately destroying it. While that was happening, Stuxnet made all the readings tell Iranian engineers that everything was normal.

"I am here to tell you, and you can quote me, the Stuxnet attack is the Rubicon of our future," said Black. "Physical destruction of a national resource is huge."

It might not just be nations sponsoring these attacks one day, however. Black said Al Qaeda's abilities to launch physical attacks against the United States have largely been neutralized, but the group's potential ability to commit cyber warfare could wreak havoc on our resources.

"The natural inclination for Al Qaeda would be to fall back and enter the cyber world," he argued.

Though nations are unlikely to attack our systems for fear of response from the United States, terrorists wouldn't hesitate. That's a worry, since our government is woefully unprepared for such an event.

"Like the terrorist threat before 9/11, our leaders hear it but they don't believe it," Black said to the room of about 8,500 hackers and security professionals. "We're counting on you. The Code War is your war."

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 5:56 PM and has received 542 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I have noticed a lot of coworkers and friends getting sick or really tired in the last few weeks. Me too! I find yoga and energy healing helps me. I think there are some energy changes going on that are affecting people as we shift towards 2012. When makes this week's 20212 Mayan calendar initiation and dance timely! If you have been feeling very tired or sick will you let me know and tell me what has worked for you?

On a more scienctific basis increase in solar weather has knocked out cell phone networks and power grids in past and is getting worse. Long article with some interesting material in it including the part about times of total earth magnetic field collapse below. Perhaps this is related to why folks are getting sick - EMF affect people and their immune system...
Michael
http://www.realitysandwich.com/space_weather_talk_susan_joy_rennison

Well cosmic rays are at an all-time high but even in the solar minimum the number of cosmic rays was also high. We're getting these new records all the time now. In March, 2010 the International Space Agency said there are now times when the earth has no magnetic field. They talked about how the solar wind used to act as a "bullet-proof vest" stopping galactic cosmic rays coming in. Now they're talking about the earth's atmosphere acting as a bullet-proof vest. That's a huge difference. There are now times when the earth's magnetic field literally collapses and it doesn't exist.

When I read this I couldn't believe it. There was no major announcement, I picked this up about four weeks later and found it by accident, just something on their website. This is major news but people don't appreciate it. There was a major announcement that the solar wind was flagging; what NASA have been doing is putting announcements out like two weeks before Christmas, at times when not many people are going to be reading. I actually specifically look now at these times because I know that they're sneaking out these announcements. By law they need to inform people but they don't really want you to know, so they put these announcements out at times when people are busy and not paying attention.

 

and more from NOAA on this:

Solar Storms Could Debilitate Earth this Decade: NOAA

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal agency that focuses on the condition of the oceans and atmosphere, said that a severe solar storm could cause global chaos, debilitating satellite communications and taking down the most important global power grids. 

 

threaten the planet this decade. Similarly, NASA warned that a peak in the sun's magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could enable extremely high radiation levels.

Government studies revealed that extreme solar flare emissions could cause blackouts, possibly for years, in large portions of the U.S.

This type of storm could also induce geomagnetic currents that could debilitate transformers on the power grid. Electric power would be out for years or even decades. 

Nuclear plants would also be negatively affected as supplying power systems with enough fuel despite main power grids being offline for years would be a grave problem. Furthermore, spent fuel rods losing connection to the power grid could cause pools to boil over, fueling fires and releasing deadly radiation. 

A report by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory said that over the standard 40-year license term of nuclear power plants, solar flare activity enables a 33 percent chance of long-term power loss, a risk that significantly outweighs that of major earthquakes and tsunamis.

From http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/193644/20110806/solar-storms-earth-sun.htm

This entry was posted on August 8, 2011 at 5:53 PM and has received 1388 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Hmm how have I self-sabotaged myself in the past, let me count the ways. :-) From procrastinating over work tasks, to not looking after my health, to mis-communicating in relationships I have done it many ways. I had done a lot of work on becoming more self-aware and so this week's Sandbox on Awareness Process with Gene Freeheart is good. I have taken many workshops with Gene over the years plus went to his Sunday evening events and my experience is that he is great at creating safe spaces for deep sharing and is very kind and gentle in his approach.

I am back in Bolivia today and I noticed that my flight and immigration was much easier this time - so I think I must have had some self-sabotage running last time to make it a struggle! This time I bought a regular economy ticket on kayak.com and I checked the dates on the ticket. then two weeks ago I was checking how many bags I could take and La Paz is restricted to 2 bags due to the attitude for economy tickets... which was a problem because I have a lot of books and clothes! Then on the flight to London I was walking through first class and noticing the people. In the past I had a lot of judgments about people in first class - wasting money, who do they think they are etc. This time I noticed they are just people who happen to be sitting in different area and I felt love towards them. Oh, so what, you say? Well when I looked at my La Paz ticket more closely I discovered that I had been given a first class ticket by mistake!! My reaction was to accept what the universe had given me (I had to do a bit of releasing on that concept first however!). And then I enjoyed traveling in style and comfort plus the use of the lounge at Miami where I had a 5 hour layover. :-)

I have been reading a book "The Power of Receiving" by Amanda Owen, which talks about allowing things into your life when offered and I guess this plane trip was my exam from the universe on this topic! So here is my invitation to you - notice how you are when people offer you complements or other gifts. Can you receive with grace or do you push it away? After all it is impossible for someone to give without someone else receiving so we need both to occur so be can all flow in a space of love and generosity...

This entry was posted on July 31, 2011 at 4:14 PM and has received 762 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.