We’ve seen this coming for a while now, so we can’t say that it’s a surprise. The demise of the US Dollar is all but sealed, hope you’re prepared.
BBC NEWS | Business | Russia and China eye $5.5bn deals
Russia and China eye $5.5bn deals
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It’s a misconception that assumes that the terms survival and preparedness are interchangeable. They are not.
Once you’ve bought into the notion that you should be better prepared for those times when life throws you a monkey wrench, you begin to research everything you can get your hands on to learn more. As Greg points out in another post below, back in the day (70s, 80s) all we had for resources were some magazine subscriptions and the local library. Both of which provided a large assortment of great material, but with the Internet, it’s so much easier to find information.
Likewise, it’s all too easy to find the wrong information and, unfortunately, very difficult to know the difference. There are many amateurs in every field, but I believe it’s harder to know who they are when looking for survival and preparedness information. Without having done the practical research yourself, it’s too easy for someone to fool you into thinking that they know what they’re talking about.
One site to look at is the AlphaRubicon website. The members of this website embrace a “Facts over words” attitude, which we would all do well to emulate. What this “Facts over words” means is that they don’t deal with rumors or hearsay. If you can’t prove it or have done it yourself, then you don’t know if it works. There are many urban legends and survival myths out there, and believing in them can really ruin your day. Everything from ruining your gear, wasting your supplies, to even bodily injury and death – they all can occur from listening to someone that doesn’t know what they are talking about.
One of the reasons that we constantly harp the mantra of, “DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH,” is because the responsibility is up to you to know what the heck you’re talking about, to know what you’re doing. Getting prepared is all about surviving a disaster or other event that threatens your life and well being. Unless you know for sure that the methods you’re using to store your food, treat your water, or any number of other critical functions truly work, you’re taking your life, and the life of your family, into your hands with possibly bad information.
Survival is what you do in response to a threat; it’s the actions you take *after* the fact. You are forced to make decisions and take action, regardless of whether you know what to do or not. Once an event happens, every action you make will affect your outcome and whether you make it through safe or alive.
In contrast, Preparedness is what you do *before* an event; it’s the proactive steps you take in order to make your survival easier to achieve. If you have prepared enough, your chances of surviving increase. Learn what to do before you need to do it. Learn how to store your food properly, know which methods really make water safe to drink, know which gear to buy and which wastes your money.
This is why we say, “Surviving is the Art of Being Prepared.”
Rob Hanus
As with everyone else out there these days, I had the opportunity to run my bank account down to a rather small amount. What can I say, bills have to be paid, and it can happen to the best of us. Unfortunately, I found myself needing to get gas and doing so would have brought my account down my comfort level. I was feeling a little stressed, and my wife, well, she stresses about everything. I told my wife I was going out to put gas in the truck and she lays into me about money and no gas, etc. I got her to calm down and asked her to follow me outside.
A tip filled with a little humor 
One of the biggest issues we all deal with, especially those of us that are just starting to prepare: “I’ve got to get all of this done NOW”
Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you’re capable of doing it that way (nope, I don’t know anyone that has that sort of capability). The reality is that many of the more advanced folks – the ones that seem to have all the knowledge, all the gear, and all the plans – have been doing survivalism/prepping for a very long time. It’s easy to overlook that amount of time, and overspend to “catch up”. The reality also is that “playing catch up” is a danger to everyone – even advanced preppers. No one, no matter how advanced, knows everything. There’s always that new subject to learn about, new tools coming out and new techniques being developed. Often there’s that classic sense of impending doom that drives you to find and buy anything that might help fend off whatever we’re presently concerned about.
So. Nothing new, right?
Actually, there is something new with this. Some of you will remember the “Survivalist” movement back in the 1970’s and ’80’s – compared to now, marketing was very primitive. Your sources were print sources like “American Survival Guide”, “Mother Earth News”, Kurt Saxon, Joel Skousen, Mel and Nancy Tappan, etc. Local resources were limited too – grocery stores, surplus stores, etc. If you wanted to buy something really specialized – usually you were down to making a phone call, writing an actual letter(!), or doing a road trip.
Compare that situation to now (and back then, for those of us prepping, believe me when I say that things were just as worrisome as they are now). Now we have an amazing amount of knowledge at our fingertips via the Internet, print media, podcasts, etc. Most of those venues are fantastic marketing tools, and the marketing people are taking full advantage of that fact. The urge to buy is becoming more and more of an issue, which is just the way marketing wants it. Survivalism and Preparedness have become common words, and the whole concept is much more mainstream. The pressure to buy…buy….buy is much greater.
-Greg Trent
It’s going around the circuits now, so make sure you understand its implications.
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.
Hit the link for more.
The demise of the dollar -
Business News, Business – The Independent
