Great Depression-a Piece of Cake Compared to What’s Coming?

Poor Man Survival

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Great Depression-a Piece of Cake Compared to What’s Coming?

Understanding liberty isn't enough, just like declaring independence wasn’t enough for the Founding Fathers. 

I didn’t post a heartwarming 4^th of July message this year…I found that a challenge given the looming threat to American freedom in 2019.

For my entire career I’ve warned readers like you of the future debt crisis…

We created this blog because we were tired of seeing how Un-Self Reliant so many in our country has become. This has been the goal for those who favor Big [or Bigger] government or what is often referred to as the Nanny State.

That’s why everything we write about in the PoorManSurvival blog comes from us doing it. 

>Creating profitable businesses. 

>Avoiding taxes, acquiring gold & silver

>Investing in useful how-to, instructional resources 

>Living self-sufficiently. 

>Inceasing awareness of political environments-here & internationally

We teach you these things and so much more in every issue of this blog.

11 Years ago, I watched a groundbreaking documentary featuring Warren Buffet, Pete Peterson, David Walker, and a few other friends. I bought 100 copies of the DVD and gave them away to our most active subscribers.

Titled I.O.U.S.A., this documentary was a deep-dive into the greatest threat to America: Our own $22.4 Trillion dollar national debt.

I.O.U.S.A. was showcased at the Sundance Film Festival, and later aired on national primetime television.

That was over a decade ago… and while the American empire holds more debt than ever… an even larger threat to our freedom has emerged.

A threat the media refuses to report on.

Why?

Because the threat IS the media.

If you’ve ever wondered if the media is feeding you a false narrative…they have!  It is the reason the term ‘fake news’ became a reality for most discerning folks.

What 99% of Americans don’t realize is that behind the closed doors of our nation’s leading institutions, people are backing an unprecedented political action…

In the days to come, you’re going to start hearing friends, family members, people on the news start to talk about this.

They’ll tell you it will save America… it will give us our dignity back… it will right the wrongs of the past few years…

Unlike in other countries, here in America, we’ve been pretty safe from politics.

Despite arrogant leadership and over-regulation… we manage to go about our lives and keep this country on sound footing.

All that’s about to change.

24 prominent members of the American elite have already come out in support of radical political and financial “reform”… reform that will drastically “rebalance” power in this country…

And they’re not alone… large institutions like the Chicago Teacher’s Union, the American Monetary Institute, Catholics for Social Credit, the Huffington Post, the U.S. Mint, Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, the Heritage Foundation, Citibank, and even the Federal Reserve are starting to talk about this.

Have you heard of House bill HR 2990?

What about the Senate’s SR 759 bill?

You will soon, I’m sure…

 

...rumblings of a political “Pandora’s box”…

… once it is opened, it will not be easy to close.

… and for one group of Americans –which may include you– it will be a disaster.

Millions are going to change hands. Anyone with savings… who gets income… who has a substantial amount invested in stocks… who owns their home or business… will be affected.

But what about the “good guys” in Congress and our government? Will Trump just roll over and let this happen?

 A secret that’s about to set off a new crisis here in America.

But this won’t just be a financial crisis… it will be political… constitutional… and social.

Let me ask you…

Does it strike you as odd… that during the best economic growth in recent years…

… that 74% of American parents are still supporting adult children…

… that 1 in 5 Americans have more credit card debt than they have savings…

… that the number of seniors going bankrupt has TRIPLED… and the number of homeless seniors has exploded!

… that young men and women are flocking to extreme politics… with sometimes violent repercussions…

… that drug abuse is so high… it is lowering overall American life expectancy!

Those don’t strike me as signs of a healthy country.

 

Regardless of your politics… you have to admit: we’ve changed as a country.

You may remember a time in this country when you could work 40 hours a week… when only one spouse had to get a job… when you could retire at 60 with a full pension…

Today, even working 80 hour weeks… even with both spouses working full time… even working far past 60 years old…

. record numbers of young men aren’t even working…

Is it any wonder, then, that people are angry and desperate?

Is it any surprise that half of millennials identify as “socialists"?

It is any wonder that drug use and violence are on the rise?

Is it any wonder that Americans are increasingly divided when the median employee at Twitter makes $161,000 a year (a company with no real product or profits)… while the same guy at a highly successful company like Whirlpool makes just $19,000 a year!

Notice how America suddenly began losing big in international trade with our so-called allies…

Notice how wealth stopped flowing to real industries like farming and manufacturing… while Wall Street suddenly flourished; banks now own the economy!

Notice how the prices of necessities like healthcare, housing, and gas began to soar…

Imagine you put $10,000 in the bank in 1971… if we had kept the “gold standard” (as it was called)… that $10,000 today could be worth $279,400… without using stocks, bonds, or any sort of investment!

Because that’s exactly what happened to the price of gold.

But as you may know, the dollar LOST value after the 1970s!

Because in 1971, under pressure from bankers and foreign governments, Richard Nixon ended the gold standard… the dollar was no longer tied to gold.

Now you’ve likely heard about this event… and plenty of people will tell you it was a terrible thing…

They’re right… the dollar wound up losing 80% of its value!

What’s more… it gutted savers and forced Americans into the stock market where they made risky investments that only benefitted Wall Street.

 

Take a look at this quick snapshot of just how much our country has changed since the 1970s…

>> Hundreds of U.S. businesses competing for customers have been replaced by giant near-monopolies.

>> U.S. cash dollars and jobs have replaced steel as our country’s major exports… (Billions in cash dollars have been shipped overseas!)

>> Our supposed allies like China have been allowed to steal $600 billion worth of innovations from the U.S. every year… even as our enemies in North Korea and elsewhere have grown bolder…

>> Wages have gone flat…

They called it globalization… They called it progress…

But that’s not quite true.

Because “globalization” didn’t cause Japan or Germany to lose good manufacturing jobs…

Because “progress” didn’t cause Chinese wages to sink into oblivion…

The massive outflow of jobs and money from the United States was done on purpose… as America’s new economic system replaced the old…

and we went from an economy built on dollars… gold… savings… and hard work… to one built on another kind of currency entirely…

… a currency that has since become the most valuable part of the U.S. economy…

… I’m talking about credit…Without gold restraining them, our government and banks produced a virtually unlimited amount of credit…

As this new credit money washed into the system, it transferred billions and trillions of real wealth to Wall Street…

Wall Street used that wealth to buy up America’s corporate sector… moving jobs overseas to maximize short-term profits…

The government helped them by passing laws like NAFTA or the 2000 China trade agreement…

In the beginning, the scary effects of this disappearing wealth were covered up… even celebrated(!)… by the media and academics…

It was hailed as a feminist revolution when American mothers left their children to make up for their husbands’ falling wages and rising expenses…

It was hailed as a victory for “international cooperation” when U.S. companies were forced to move jobs overseas…

It was called “socially responsible” when government spending on entitlements climbed to make up for lost retirements, stagnant wages and out of control medical costs…

Eventually, however, these stopgaps weren’t enough…

And an entire generation of Americans turned towards the only tool they had left to plug a deepening financial hole… more debt.

AN EMPIRE OF DEBT

This is our credit system… at $68 trillion, it’s the biggest in the history of the world.

It’s more than twice the value of every single home in America put together…

… more than three times the value of every single U.S. bank’s assets combined…

… more than 20 times the trillions of dollars the U.S. government collects in taxes every year.

It’s how…

… despite stagnant wages… and rising costs……America still appears to be getting richer and richer. (at least on paper… )

There’s a problem though…This massive credit system… is about to collapse.

…and the media ignore this [as well the reality of how Communists have infiltrated Congress with a big push at further destroying our nation…see our previously published piece about how Justice Democrats recruited & trained seven of our newly elected “Democrats” including AOC, Omar, Rashida of MI and others]

You see, a credit system can only continue running so long as lenders believe that they can be paid back… that there’s enough money to go around.

Here’s the truth: there isn’t.

There is only one legal currency in America —cash dollars, officially called Federal Reserve Notes.

And there are only $1.59 trillion Federal Reserve Notes in circulation…

In fact, we can’t be sure how much of that is actually here in the U.S. There’s no way to really know, but some sources estimate that about 65% of our money has gone overseas… I personally think it could be much higher… somewhere around 75% wouldn’t surprise me…

Because if our credit system fails… that is, when foreigners and debt holders wake up to the fact that the money isn’t there… it will cause a panic.

And that panic could wipe out more wealth than any other crisis in history.

To put that in context, $10.2 trillion vanished during the financial meltdown of 2008.

Our credit system threatens six times that amount. I’m not talking about a few credit cards getting denied. I’m talking about the whole system shutting down

In modern America, long, complex chains of production and distribution put food on your table and gas in your car.

Eight out of ten people live in cities or suburbs. Almost no one, not even farmers, can survive off of food they grow themselves. Instead, they all depend on credit.

First, the farmer gets a loan from the bank to buy his land.

Then he uses credit to buy supplies—fuels, fertilizer, seed—everything.

After the crops are sown, the wholesaler, who got a loan to build his warehouse and processing center, uses credit to buy the raw food from the farmer so he can process it and package it.

Then a trucker, who got an auto loan to buy his truck, uses credit to buy fuel so he can haul the food to a retailer.

The retailer needs credit to keep the lights on, and the shelves stocked and the stores open.

Each part of this chain can afford to take on that debt because they know that eventually, the consumer will buy that food… using a credit card.

That’s why the credit card industry has been allowed to get away with charging people rates that, at least according to the Bible, should be criminal. The powers that be need to keep America hooked on credit.

Because if just one crucial piece of that chain stops working…

Businesses can’t run. Paychecks don’t go out.

Maybe that sounds extreme. It’s exactly what happened the last time a credit collapse hit the U.S.…

Remember when the state of IL issued IOUs to citizens when they ran out of cash and couldn’t pay tax refunds? 

It only takes 3 unpaid creditors to legally force a single U.S. company into bankruptcy…

How much more does it take to initiate a crisis on a national scale?

Greenspan publicly admitted that this country’s debt is going to cause major problems to come…

 

 

TO FIX THE PROBLEM

 It appears that our government and Wall Street are preparing a radical and nearly unprecedented “fix” to get themselves out of this problem they created…

No, the government is not going to “cancel” all that debt… that’s actually not possible.

The government can default on its own $20 trillion debt. But it can’t wave a magic wand and cancel every auto loan, student loan, credit card debt, and mortgage in the country. 

And it can’t just print up enough money to make up that shortfall either…

That’s because we cannot create new dollars without creating more debt.The more money our government prints, the more debt is added to the system.It’s like being trapped in quicksand.

And if they don’t act fast, the U.S.—our government included—could find itself in a serious crisis…

Because if we can’t pay our bills… if we leave our foreign allies holding billions in worthless treasury… if our government can’t find funding… if our banks can no longer process credit card payments… if ATMs run out of cash…

And right now, our leaders are running out of time.

·         Corporate debt is back at the record highs seen right before the 2008 crisis!

·         4,700 U.S. banks have admitted that credit card delinquencies are now higher than during the financial crisis!

·         Student borrowers from public colleges are already defaulting at a higher rate than subprime mortgage holders at the height of the housing crisis in 2008!

·         The European central banks —no doubt tipped off to what’s happening—are already starting to replace their dollar reserves with Chinese yuan!

·         China and Japan—our two biggest debt buyers—are now starting to refuse to buy more of our debt!

Now, a radical “fix” for our economy is already receiving endorsement from some of the most powerful figures and institutions in this country…

The exact way to implement this fix remains hotly debated… but one precise plan is gaining momentum…

·         It will give the government a backdoor way to wipe clean every debt in this nation (this is not the same as canceling all debt though… it will be far worse)

·         It will give the government unlimited money to spend on entitlements such as the Universal Basic Income or socialized healthcare that many are calling for

·         It will give our government a way to directly redistribute income using new tools like the “transaction tax” recently proposed by the Real World Economics Review

Here’s what’s going to happen:

·         For the third time in U.S. history… I believe the evidence clearly shows that our government is preparing to “nationalize” America’s currency.

·         The Federal Reserve system will be incorporated into a Federal department. Federal Reserve Notes—otherwise known as U.S. dollars—will be discontinued in favor of a new fiat currency directly issued by the U.S. Treasury.

·         Maybe that sounds extreme… But in the most exclusive enclaves of New York and Washington, they’re already talking about doing just that.

·         And this kind of idea is getting attention everywhere from the International Monetary Fund…

·         “[the new system] would lead to an instantaneous and large reduction in the levels of both government and private debt. It would accomplish the latter by making government-issued money, which represent equity in the commonwealth rather than debt.”

·         – International Monetary Fund

Congress itself...

1.     The authority to create money within the United States shall hereafter reside exclusively with the Federal government; and

2.     The money so created shall be known as United States Money and denominated and expressed as provided in section 5101 of Title 31, United States Code

3.     It will start small. Maybe you’ll notice a friend start posting about “debt-free money” or “socially responsible currency.”

4.     Before long, everywhere you go, they’ll be talking about how we must reset America’s currency… to keep things fair… to build a stronger country… to “wipe the slate clean.”

5.     But think about it: where will all this new money come from?Who decides how many new dollars you get for your old dollars?What happens to the stocks—priced in dollars—that you were betting your retirement on?

6.     What happens to that annuity… that life insurance contract… that 401(k)… those bonds… also priced in dollars?

7.     It can be hard to wrap your head around something on a scale like this… But consider that this has happened before…

8.     In fact, countries throughout history have used currency changes like this to get out of paying their bills… or steal money outright from their citizens and savers…

9.     The list includes just about every major country in the world… including the U.S.…

10.                        Remember, “fairness” and “equality” aren’t what’s really behind this reform… just greed, stupidity, and mismanagement… 

 

 I want Americans who are serious about understanding what’s going on in this country to be able to access it for free. You certainly aren’t getting an accurate picture from mainstream media-they’re no longer watchdogs, they’re lapdogs for the Democratic Party.

In the next several issues I plan to include even more highly useful resources and information on how to protect yourself from the coming financial fiasco I believe is coming…Your support is appreciated and I hope you share the content of PoorManSurvival with family and friends AND support our efforts through purchases from our storefront-that’s how we keep these posts active and useful.

Thank you for your support!

Bruce “the Poor Man”

P.S. No, I doubt anyone’s about to start kicking down doors to take your money.

Understand: they won’t have to. When the currency you hold is no longer legal tender… you won’t have much choice frankly…

Ask enough people and you find that many families in America have quietly passed down stories of this terrible crisis from generation to generation. As one man described it:

“my 96-year-old grandmother still calls [it] ‘the real Great Depression.’ She pinched pennies in the 1930s, but she says that times were not nearly so bad as the depression her grandparents went through.”

Additional News of Note…

 

The Great Depression is remembered for the devastation it brought to the average American.

Widespread joblessness, homelessness, and debt spread throughout the country like a virus.

It was a time of mass confusion, despair, and chaos.

And, unfortunately, because of this, there are a lot of misconceptions about what really went down…

The untold story of the Great Depression is how human ingenuity, private, alternative currencies, and drastic cuts on federal spending -- NOT, as is commonly bandied about, war, the Federal Reserve, or the New Deal-- helped pull Americans through and out of the Great Depression.

Julie Borowski does a great job debunking the most prevalent misconceptions of the Great Depression right here.

Here’s a quick rundown:1. Free Market Capitalism Caused the Great Depression. (Wrong!)

TL;DR: It was the Fed.2. Herbert Hoover Was a “Laissez-Faire President” -- and that’s what caused the Great Depression. (Pfft!)

He was one of the most interventionist presidents in history.

He only made it worse.3. The Federal Reserve’s Tight Monetary Policy Caused the Great Depression. (HA!)

Bernanke admitted the Fed was to blame.

BUT, he said it was because the Fed didn’t print ENOUGH money -- ignoring that the Fed inflated the economy beyond all reason in the 20’s.(Hence, the “Roaring 20s”)

The truth?

Had they kept the funny munny party rolling, the Great Depression would’ve been even more catastrophic once the bubble popped.

4. FDR’s New Deal Ended the Great Depression. (OMG, no.)Unpopular (but true):

The depression wouldn’t have lasted as long had the New Deal never been implemented.

(The unseen, as Bastiat pointed out, is harder to see than the seen: Without the New Deal, in other words, we might all be riding in flying cars right now.)

5. World War II Ended the Great Depression. (Sociopath logic!)

As Ludwig von Mises once wrote, “war prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings.

Weapons factories don’t make the economy -- and the people in it -- better off.

Whatever you think of WWII, to say it was a boon for the economy is to borrow logic from the likes of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

Instead, the war shifted productive production towards… you guessed it... the war.

In the process, the government forbade the production of new cars, houses, and big appliances. And due to war-time government rationing, it was hard to find common staples like meat, gas, sugar, and tires. (TIRES!)

What did most to end the Great Depression was the exact opposite: massive government spending cuts.

From 1944 to 1948, the U.S. government cut spending by $72 billion -- a 75% cut.

And… gasp… the economy improved.

The Biggest Lie

The absolute biggest misconception, however, is the least talked about and most assumed:

The idea that people sat down with their corn brooms in their hands and waited for the government to save them.

Wrong again.

The truth:

In the midst of the chaos, half of all American banks either closed or merged with others, and the surviving banks cut their deposits and loans to a trickle.

With Americans hoarding what was left, the dollar was nowhere to be found.

With very little cash in circulation, Americans didn’t just twiddle their thumbs and wait for Uncle Sammy to swoop in with a fix.

The economy just decentralized away from the single point of failure -- the dollar.All over the United States, people created local currencies, called scrip, to carry out day to day commerce.

Scrip was issued not only by local governments, but by businesses and individuals.

And it was issued on whatever folks could find -- everything from paper bills, wooden tokens, animal skin, fish skin, parchment, and seashells.

Those communities who had scrip at their disposal suffered far less than the stranded ones without.

Dear, Dollar: Die

In his Denationalisation of Money, Hayek argued that state monopoly of money must be dismantled to stop the widespread and devastatingly disorienting booms and busts.

Instead of one vampiric monoculture run by the state, there should be free market competition, and it should be the consumer who decides.

Fortunately, this idea is on the rise.

Dublin, Ohio, a hop and a skip away from my farm, is one of the first communities bringing (if only a little) Hayek’s dream to fruition.

The small suburb outside of Columbus has teamed up with a company called Software Verde to create its own local token.

The token, still unnamed, will be used as an incentive for people to exchange the currency locally and get involved in the community.

Joshua Green, CEO of Software Verde, explains the concept:“community service volunteers may receive Dublin points from the city as an extra token of appreciation for their good deeds. For instance, these points may be redeemed for discounted entrance tickets to city-sponsored festivals (e.g. the Dublin Irish Festival), redeemed for city-branded swag, or used for priority entrance into sporting events at Nationwide Arena (Let’s go Blue Jackets!). Dublin’s token of value may also be used to digitize existing physical tokens used by the city.

But this isn’t the only purpose.

Last year, Dublin announced its plan to implement a secure, private system for identity.

This way, Dublinians can take control of their own personal information -- akin to the principles behind George Gilder’s “Internet 2.0”.

Furthermore, the token and protocol will allow for transparent polling -- so community leaders can have their fingers on the pulse of those they represent, without being able to fiddle with the numbers.

This level of transparency and openness also allows for the local government to work with the private sector, rather than setting itself up as its adversary (as all-too-often happens).

Says Green:

“We’ve talked with about 10+ private enterprises about Dublin’s project. Every enterprise was very positive about the idea of integrating in one way or another, and many of the companies are huge players that everyone has heard about, so we’re personally pretty excited. Dublin’s project is multi-faceted though, so some entities liked the identity aspect, others [like] the polling, and others the token.

“It’s not every day you see government working with businesses. And they’ve been genuine about integrating for the right reasons too. The concept of putting people in charge of their data has taken root, and it’s a philosophy I personally agree with.”

This is, of course, only a small part of the “cryptocosm” -- but it’s certainly a sign of the times.

And for a limited time, we’re looking for 10 individuals from each state in the U.S. to take part in an “experiment” of our own.

This “experiment” has to do with a 2-cent cryptocurrency that could soon rock the markets and skyrocket in price.

Interested in taking part?

Click here for all the information.

Chris Campbell
Managing editor, Laissez Faire Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This n That:

What are some items that you think you should start hoarding for a major, cataclysmic disaster? Water? Absolutely. Food? Also absolutely. Ammo? For sure. First aid equipment? Definitely. Gasoline? Yep.

 The list goes on. All of those things are incredibly valuable items to hoard for survival, and you can probably think of about ten or twenty other types of survival supplies as well.

 That being said, there are countless ordinary items--things people use every day--that are relatively cheap and can be used for survival. The wisest among us are already stockpiling them...

 18 Things Everyone Should Start Hoarding

 

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh made the following observation during the Kaepernick kneeling controversy: "What people don't understand about the left, the left don't understand live and let live. There's no such thing. Anything that exists outside of what they think should exist is going to be attacked, and they're going to try to damage it or destroy it." 

If the grid goes down and you're trying to stick out the disaster at home, one of the most immediate problems you'll have to deal with is what to do with human waste. If the water stops running, you won't be able to flush your toilets, and you don't want to just keep using them without flushing. Not only is that unsanitary, your whole house will smell bad, and eventually your toilet will overflow.

 If you have a source of water nearby such as a stream or lake, you could haul buckets of water back to your house and use it to flush your toilets. But if you don't have such a source, you'll want to save every drop of water you have for drinking, which means you'll need an alternative to your toilet. That's where the urban survival toilet comes in.

 In this video, Corporals Corner explains how to make this portable toilet. Here's what you'll need...

 The Urban Survival Toilet

A Final Note…

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