Gulf of Mexico DEAD ZONE caused by agricultural runoff from U.S. farms

Every year, a hypoxic zone appears along the Gulf of Mexico. Otherwise known as a “dead zone,” it is an area of water that contains little to no oxygen. The significantly reduced levels essentially makes the body of water a biological desert. Hypoxic zones usually occur around summertime. But while these areas are considered to be a natural phenomenon, scientists fear that increased human activity may be contributing to the number of dead zones being observed worldwide. More disturbingly, human factors may also be causing the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico to grow. Scientists predict that for this year, the hypoxic zone in the area will cover 10,089 square miles. This is about the size of Vermont. Biologists declare that bold and new approaches need to be made now to prevent a biological crisis. They have expressed a desired target reduction of 59 percent in the amount of nitrogen runoffs in the area. This would shrink the hypoxic zone to the size of Delaware.

Approaches to achieve this end are identified in a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from the University of Michigan believe that this goal is achievable, though it would require the adjustment of large scale agricultural practices. The magnitude of the problem prompted an intergovernmental panel to extend the reduction program to 2035. This should give enough time, official spokespeople of the panel say, to achieve the goal of a hypoxic zone with a size of only 1,950 square miles.

What truly causes a hypoxic zone is yet to be fully determined, but scientists believe that the one in the Gulf of Mexico may be due to excessive farmland runoff containing fertilizer and livestock waste. These sources release significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous which further contribute to the reduction of oxygen in the water. Thankfully, this is a factor that can be easily addressed with proper management techniques.

Aquatic ecologist Dan Scavia, who was the lead author of the paper, says on Science Daily, “the bottom line is that we will never reach the action plan’s goal of 1,950 square miles until more serious actions are taken to reduce the loss of Midwest fertilizers into the Mississippi River system.”

Scavia noted that for the last 20 years, the average nitrate load dumped into the Gulf of Mexico has not changed, despite the numerous conservation projects made along the Mississippi Basin states. Supposedly, more than $28 billion has been spent in trying to reduce the amount of nitrogen levels. (Related: Ocean Dead Zones Now Top 400.)

“Clearly something more or something different is needed,” Scavia noted. “It matters little if the load-reduction target is 30 percent, 45 percent or 59 percent if insufficient resources are in place to make even modest reductions.”

Some of the proposed solutions are to alter fertilizer application rates, planting cover crops (fast-growing plants which would prevent soil erosion), using alternatives to biofuels, and improving overall nutrient management. What is important, according to the team, is that these solutions be applied methodically and in conjunction with one another. This would introduce an amplified effect, in which both nitrogen and phosphorous levels would be reduced together. This “dual-nutrient strategy” is crucial in achieving a significant nutrient-load reduction.

You can read more stories like this on Enviro.news.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

OceanService.NOAA.gov

GCOOS.Tamu.edu

NPR.org

Beware of the “dark side” of humanity during any collapse

While there have been countless books, movies and television shows about life after some type of apocalyptic event, chances are none of us will ever actually be forced to experience what its like trying to rebuild society from the ground up. More than likely, the majority of us will never be so hungry that we’re forced to get food from somewhere other than the local supermarket, craft our own tools and weapons just to make it through the day, or make decisions that are a matter of life or death. All that being said, there is still a burning question that millions of Americans across the country find themselves asking every now and then: what if?

What if society really did crumble like a house of cards? What if we really were forced to rebuild from the ground up? What would that look like? Would mankind be able to set aside our differences for the greater good, or would the ensuing chaos and fear bring out the worse in us?

All of these can be answered by addressing one more overarching question: are human beings good or evil by nature? It would appear that when reduced to their natural state as a species, humans possess the will and desire to work together with one another; if the opposite were true, then society would never have had the opportunity to be built in the first place. (Related: These are the top ten cities that would be rebuilt first after a societal collapse.) However, it would be inaccurate to say that human beings are entirely good in nature because, as demonstrated through people like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, our species clearly has a dark side.

It is important to note that although its true that humans aren’t entirely good in nature, not everyone intends to perform unspeakable acts of evil like Hitler or the terrorists behind 9/11 either; in fact, the vast majority of people do not. There are varying degrees of darkness inside each of us, and while most of us live our entire lives apart from it, others are more eager to embrace it.

So how would human beings act in a post-societal world? Would we remain mostly good in nature, or would our dark side start to come out in response to all of the chaos and stress of trying to survive?

In 1961, sociologist Charles Fritz argued that just because human beings would experience a significant amount of stress after society collapses, it doesn’t necessarily mean people would lose themselves. Fritz came to this conclusion while stationed in Britain during the Blitz, where he reported seeing “a nation of gloriously happy people, enjoying life to the fullest, exhibiting a sense of gaiety and love of life that was truly remarkable.” He also noticed that the people continued to share supplies and speak with people they had never spoken to before.

A counterargument to Mr. Fritz would be to say that even though the Blitz lasted for roughly 8 months with the people of Britain being bombarded by German forces day in and day out, it still wasn’t an example of true societal collapse. In a situation where you don’t have any food, clean water is extremely difficult to obtain, and the law no longer exists, there’s no question that some people, even those who have lived their entire lives up until that point as good, decent individuals, will begin to do things they never thought they would do. Again, these types of people would still be in the minority, but even a minority can do a significant amount of damage and destruction when they choose to embrace the darkness that is inside of them.

Sources include:

SHFTplan.com

History.com

Charles Hugh Smith explains the “supernova model of financial collapse” that’s now imminent across our debt-infested world

Once upon a time governments actually had to be fiscally responsible, spending no more than they took in. Expenditures had to match revenues, in other words; when the money ran out, that was all there was.

But somewhere along the line — some say it all changed at the Bretton Woods summit that occurred towards the end of World War II, when two global financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank, were created by the rich nations — the accumulation of massive debt became no big deal.

In fact, many say that debt is now just a fact of life, and why wouldn’t they, considering that a number of rich nations — including the United States — are so far in debt there is no way to ever get out of it.

However, debt is not something to be taken lightly; debt has crushed governments since there were governments to crush, and debt still crushes today. Countries like Japan (252 percent debt-to-GDP ratio), Greece (which has teetered on national bankruptcy for years) and others are flat broke, and their situations are only getting worse. Debt will crush them eventually since today’s currencies are based not on hard assets but rather on the strength (or weakness) of global promises.

None of this is lost on Charles Hugh Smith, who has studied and written about fiscal relationships of debt-asset ratios and other economic factors. In a recent blog post, he noted that expanding debt bubbles are far expanding above real wealth and real earnings, making their collapse “inevitable.”

Smith calls this the “Supernova Model of Financial Collapse,” which he bases on the analogy of a supernova. According to one definition, he quotes: “A supernova is an astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar evolutionary stages of a massive star’s life, whose dramatic and catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion.”

That, he says, is what many governments with massive (and building) debt now face.

“The financial analogy is easy to see: When rapidly expanding debt consumes a critical threshold of earnings (fuel), the equivalent of gravity (default, inability to service the enormous debt) triggers the collapse of the entire debt/leverage dependent financial system,” he writes.

That’s a great point. Consider just the debt situation of the United States, which ranks about in the middle of the top 20 most indebted nations: One of the reasons why the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates so low is because raising them would have a dramatic impact on U.S. debt payments.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, in a December paper, the Fed’s recent small increases in the federal funds interest rate signals that it believes the U.S. economy is strengthening. But raising rates could have a deleterious effect on the nation’s economic health: Rising rates mean consumer loans (for cars, houses, appliances, etc.) are more expensive. But so are government costs:

Interest rates on government securities will also rise — meaning that the federal government will have increased borrowing costs, which will have significant consequences for our national debt.

Specifically, according to current Congressional Budget Office projections, net interest costs are expected to more than double over the next decade, climbing from $270 billion to an eye-popping $712 billion by 2026; over the period, interest alone will cost the government (and taxpayers) an astounding $4.8 trillion. (RELATED: Study: Yeah, Americans are OK with lower taxes AND less govt. spending)

As substantial as that is, it gets worse: If the government continues to run budget deficits, which it is expected to do because Congress refuses to adopt reform measures that would allow them to substantially cut federal spending, that also means interest payments will continue to climb. The higher the debt, the more money that is borrowed, and the higher the debt payments. Imagine what the country could do with an extra $700 billion in the federal budget that didn’t go to interest payments.

As you can see, and as Smith goes on to point out, this is a cycle with only one logical conclusion: Fiscal supernova.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

BusinessInsider.com

CharlesHughSmith.ca

PGPF.org

NewsTarget.com

Several states set to collapse under crushing weight of bankrupt pensions: Will Illinois become the first?

For years Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has been warning Americans that many of the nation’s public sector pensions are underfunded by hundreds of billions of dollars and are on a course to collapse.

In 2013, Adams warned police officers, firefighters, teachers and others who work for government entities that unless funding mechanisms and payout schedules changed, their pensions would be gone in a few years. Referencing the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy, Adams wrote of the larger problem in municipalities all over America:

Across the country, city governments have all spent the pension funds instead of saving them. Almost no large city has the funds necessary to pay its obligations to retirees. Pension financial planning strategies are tragic nightmares of broken promises, dishonest politicians and delusional workers (who still somehow believe they’re going to get paid).

A year-and-a-half later, in December 2014, Adams noted that underfunded pensions were set to take a new economic hit, as Congress considered legislation that would allow local governments to arbitrarily cut the benefits of retirees, many of whom were on fixed incomes. Citing a Washington Post story detailing the plan, Adams wrote:

This is precisely what I’ve long warned Natural News readers was coming. And this is merely the very beginning of the true destruction of the financial collapse headed our way. When the next market crash arrives, billions of dollars in retirement funds will be destroyed virtually overnight, and pension funds nationwide will be wiped out.

He followed up that warning with a prediction two years later that came true: The city of Dallas would have to freeze pension benefits lest the fund go completely broke, suspending withdrawals from the fire and police pension systems to prevent insolvency.

Now, it seems, even entire states are about to be consumed by broke pension funds: Illinois could be the first. (RELATED: Leftist-run cities on the brink of financial collapse thanks to massive debt)

The Land of Lincoln has been wrestling with underfunded pensions and over-promised benefits now for years, but in recent months the situation has gotten so bad that Illinois could be the first U.S. state to declare bankruptcy.

Political stalemate — the Legislature is dominated by Democrats and the governor, Bruce Rauner, is a Republican who won office, in large part, on a promise of reforming benefits and stopping the bleeding — is not helping. There is no agreement from either branch on how best to move forward, and neither side appears willing to give in.

“We’re like a banana republic. We can’t manage our money,” said Rauner, as reported by CBS News, after the legislature failed to pass a full 2017 budget earlier this month.

Moody’s Investor Service, a ratings agency, downgraded Illinois’ general obligation bonds earlier this month to the lowest rating, referencing the state’s growing pile of unpaid bills and skyrocketing pension debt. The state has the lowest credit rating in the entire country; low credit ratings make borrowing money even more expensive because riskier bets mean higher interest rates.

“Legislative gridlock has sidetracked efforts not only to address pension needs but also achieve fiscal balance, allowing a backlog of bills to approach $15 billion, or about 40 percent of the state’s operating budget,” Moody’s noted in an analysis.

The state’s poor fiscal health has prompted some to compare it with cash-strapped Puerto Rico, which is facing a historic restructuring of its massive $70 billion in debt.

Both are also alike in that they suffer from pension crises. CBS News reported further:

So how did the state’s pensions balloon into such a crisis? First, the pension problem has been a long time in the making. The state has more than 660 government pension funds, which are sometimes called defined benefit plans because they promise workers will receive a specific pension when they retire.

But critics say some of those pensions carried overly optimistic assumptions, especially given periods of market turmoil like the global financial crisis, which ate into investment returns.

Worse, the legislature did not require itself to fully fund pensions, meaning tax revenue was redirected to other line items, such as infrastructure and schools.

This fiscal tsunami is being repeated all over the country. Illinois, should it go bust, won’t be the last state to do so. Many cities will follow, as Adams has foretold.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

CBSNews.com

Top 10 cities that will be rebuilt FIRST after a collapse

Have you ever wondered how exactly the government would deal with a major national catastrophe like a nuclear war or EMP attack? What would the nation’s priorities be? Who would receive assistance first? How would chaos be averted? Are you likely to be on the receiving end of help from federal agencies, or would you have to tough it out on your own?

While a scenario like this typically paints a picture of absolute mayhem and confusion, in truth, government agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would immediately spring into action with a coordinated plan of action to assist. Of course, there is no guarantee that FEMA would be as organized and effective as one would hope. Their response in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina fell woefully short of what it should have been, and it is believed that many of the more than 1,200 people who died, did so because of a lack of adequate assistance from FEMA.

Nonetheless, in theory at least, FEMA has worked hard at improving its response efficacy, and is now ready for anything man or nature may throw the country’s way. In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, FEMA would set up temporary shelters for those left homeless, help with evacuation, coordinate search and rescue efforts, and so on. They would immediately be granted access to an immense amount of federal resources to provide food, clean water, shelter, emergency medical care and whatever else might be necessary.

But where would they direct those resources first? It is physically impossible for the agency to help everybody, everywhere, all at the same time, and they will likely prioritize their efforts in a very specific way to maximize results.

Fergus Mason of Ask a Prepper suggests that federal resources would first be directed towards big cities, particularly those on the coasts and any which produce necessary resources like food. Next in line to receive help will be smaller cities with important industries, since this will help get people back to work as soon as possible. Smaller towns will follow, and finally, rural areas will receive government aid.

The reason for this order of things is quite simple and practical, Mason claims: It just makes the most sense. Cities are far more vulnerable in a chaotic situation than small towns and rural areas. For one thing, cities by their very nature mean that millions of people are competing for very limited supplies – a recipe for chaos and anarchy when disaster strikes. For another, it is imperative to get cities up and running first so that governmental control can be re-established and the economy can start to right itself as quickly as possible.

Mason predicts that cities will be given aid in the following order:

1. Washington D.C.: Necessary to maintain control and re-establish government.
2. New York City: This city will be in great need of assistance because of its massive population.
3. Los Angeles: L.A. is second only to New York in terms of population.
4. Chicago: The Windy City not only has a large population, but is also a major center for finance and manufacturing.
5. Houston: This southern city is important because of its large population and oil industry.
6. Dallas: Important for the same reasons as Houston.
7. Philadelphia: This city has a large population and is important for its manufacturing sector and oil refining industry.
8. San Diego: Assistance would need to be given to America’s Finest City because of its population density and military importance.
9. Phoenix: This city has a large population, and would be of strategic importance because of its food processing interests.
10. San Francisco: The government would need to focus resources here in the interests of rebuilding the economy and maintaining stability because of the city’s tech industries.

So, if you live in one of these cities you can expect government aid pretty much immediately in the wake of a national disaster. If not, you’d better make sure you’re ready to take care of yourself for a while. [Related: For survival tips and more visit Preparedness.news.]

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

AskAPrepper.com

FEMA.gov

Raoul Pal warns Bitcoin is a speculative bubble, “scarcity” may be a myth and it isn’t a “store of value”

A bitcoin investor who purchased the popular cryptocurrency several years back when it was only about $200 – it’s now valued at almost $3,000 U.S. – recently sold everything he had and moved his money elsewhere. And his advice is that you should do the same if you don’t want to suffer the consequences of what he says is shaping up to be an impending bubble pop.

Since March, the price of Bitcoin in terms of the U.S. dollar has risen by a whopping 210 percent. This rapid increase has drawn many a first-time investor to view Bitcoin as a tool for getting rich quickly. But Raoul Pal, author and publisher of The Global Macro Investor, says that all this speculation is making Bitcoin even more risky.

“The explosion [in the price of Bitcoin] is mania,” he’s quoted as saying by Zero Hedge. “It’s people looking for a rate of return. It’s in the bubble phase. [Bitcoin] goes through this periodically … it rises several hundred percent, and then collapses.”

Pal hopes that people will be smart and remember that a similar situation occurred back in December 2013 when Bitcoin leaped in price to over $900. Amateurs who knew nothing about Bitcoin flocked to the cryptocurrency, only to watch it suddenly and quickly plummet over 360 percent to below $250. It took three years for the price of Bitcoin to return to its pre-collapse value, and a similar situation appears to be brewing right now as Bitcoin has reached what appears to be another plateau.

Bitcoin viability on the rocks as other platforms show better functionality, speed

Besides all the wild speculation taking place, there’s also the changing nature of Bitcoin, including rumblings about it no longer having a fixed amount of coins. This built-in scarcity feature is what drew so many people to Bitcoin in the first place, but with talk of it going away many are wondering if Bitcoin is still even a viable store of value.

Pal doesn’t think so, and that’s why he’s already dumped his small share of the 21 million Bitcoins that were originally said to be in existence. Bitcoin’s senior developers and miners have been contemplating the creation of what they’re referring to as a “hard fork,” which would split Bitcoin into two and allow for the creation of more Bitcoins beyond what was originally promised.

“Bitcoin was supposed to be a store of value, you couldn’t mess with the formula,” Pal says. “And now they’re talking about a ‘hard fork’ changing it? Even if they don’t change the formula, the fact that they could? That’s enough to say it’s not a long-term store of value.”

It’s also important to consider that other technologies are already outpacing Bitcoin in terms of their long-term viability and functionality. In India, for instance, there’s a new “frictionless” payment system known as “India Stack” that reportedly allows users to open bank and mobile phone accounts, as well as share medical records at any hospital or clinic using just fingerprints or a retinal scan.

Bitcoin developers have been trying for quite a while to implement a similar system of seamless integration, but so far they’ve been unsuccessful. Not only that, but India Stack functions about 50 times faster than Bitcoin, and it’s currently serving some 1.1 billion people – which is far more than have ever even attempted to use Bitcoin.

“This revolutionary digital infrastructure will soon be able to process billions more transactions than Bitcoin ever has,” says Pal. “It may well be a Bitcoin killer or at best, provide the framework for how blockchain technology could be applied in the real world.”

Sources:

ZeroHedge.com

MauldinEconomics.com

Billionaires now preparing for the day when stuff hits the fan by purchasing large tracts of property in the American heartland

About a year ago, Bugout.news reported that the ultra-wealthy were becoming more and more “nervous” about geopolitical and domestic unrest, and as such had embarked on spending sprees to construct “luxury” bunkers, in case stuff goes to heck in a hand basket.

The site noted:

Whether it’s due to terrorism and a massive influx of anti-West migrants in Europe or race relations, rising debt and decreasing economic opportunity in the United States, these global elite sense massive unrest is coming and they plan to sequester themselves from the worst of it.

One company, Bugout.news reported, called Vivos was doing a great business selling underground structures for the “protection of high net worth individuals” in case some apocalyptic or catastrophic event occurred in which “millions will perish or worse yet, struggle to survive as victims.”

In other words, events that cause complete mass societal devolution: Great power war; financial/economic collapse; debt balloon bursting; mass solar or man-caused EMP event; pandemic; and so on.

In addition to Vivos and companies like it selling emergency bunkers to the elite, other firms were refurbishing old American ICBM missile silos and transforming them into underground communities, complete with food and water, recreation, living quarters and other necessities to survive a possible calamity.

It appears that not much has changed since then. While tens of millions of Americans saw the election of Donald J. Trump as a calming, positive influence on the United States, millions of others saw it as the catalyst that will eventually trigger civil unrest and perhaps even war amongst various political groups and regions of the country. (RELATED: Prepper 101: How to find the perfect stash spot on your property)

As such, the uber-wealthy have not slowed in their purchases of super-security, very high-end, bug out shelters and locations, as reported by Business Insider:

A rising number of American billionaires are channeling their inner Bear Grylls — some in preparation for an apocalyptic event, be it a viral epidemic, nuclear war, or cataclysmic pole shift.

As the news site reported, the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, an investor in his own right, told The New Yorker magazine earlier this year that he believes more than half of Silicon Valley’s billionaires had already acquired some form of “apocalypse insurance” in the form of an underground bunker or other accommodations.

Some facilities — like the converted missile silos — are also under heavy guard by very well trained security personnel.

In addition, Business Insider pointed out that mega-rich Americans are scooping up land in the nation’s midsection, where the climate is relatively mild and it is much easier to live like a survivalist, growing your own food and otherwise surviving off the land. These include states like North Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Texas and Colorado, among others. Such states are “home to several fortified shelters and vacation homes where wealthy billionaires could happily live out their post-doomsday (or retirement) days,” Business Insider reported.

Many of these super-rich have private planes that are fully fueled, stocked and ready to leave on a moment’s notice. And many have lots of survival gear like weapons, generators, motorcycles and other amenities.

Here are some examples of uber-rich landholders:

— Media mogul and CNN creator Ted Turner is the second-largest landowner in the U.S., holding 2 million acres spread out over Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico and South Dakota.

— The No. 1 landowner, John Malone, a cable and communications magnate, holds 2.2 million acres, including major land holdings in Maine and New Hampshire (he says the land is an investment).

— Amazon founder Jeff Bezos holds 400,000 acres in Texas.

— Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams and other major sports franchises, recently bought 225,000 acres in Montana.

Clearly the super wealthy are hedging their bets that the world as we know it is destined for some major upheaval, and sooner rather than later.

Which begs the question: What have you done lately to become better prepared?

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

Bugout.news

BusinessInsider.com

Collapse.newsFacebook

The huge financial mistake nearly everyone is making right now: Seeking investment gains instead of protecting current assets

When it comes to finances, investments and assets, nearly everyone is making a huge mistake right now. They’re stuck in the mindset of seeking returns on investment rather than working to “quit while they’re ahead” and protect the gains they’ve already made. The “winners” over the next few years will be those who avoid suffering huge losses and manage to hold on to what they’ve already earned.

Obviously, anyone offering you financial advice that consists of buying shares of mutual funds, options, stocks or similar vehicles is still not getting it. The risks now present in the global financial Ponzi scheme include the risk of systemic transactional failure across banking institutions. “Bank holidays” and “bail ins” mean that banking institutions freeze your accounts, confiscate your money and / or lock you out of your ability to access your accounts.

This is crucial to understand when you are attempting to achieve a “store of value” that’s largely insulated from the global debt collapse fiasco that now seems inevitable. Remember: Stock valuations aren’t “real” until you sell them. Only after you exit the market have you realized the actual gains that previously existed only on paper.

If you can’t physically touch it, you don’t really own it

After a thorough analysis of all available strategies for protecting assets from global collapse, I’m brought back to the fundamentals of asset ownership that the world’s wealthiest families have known for centuries: If you can’t touch it and control it, you don’t really “own” it.

Do you think you have “savings” in a bank account? It’s not real until you withdraw it. Whatever you keep in the bank can be seized in a “bail in” confiscatory maneuver that has now been legalized in America.

Do you think the valuables in your safe deposit box are under your control? Think again: Governments routinely order safe deposit boxes seized, opened and searched for valuables such as gold — a precious metal that governments always seem to outlaw when they want to stop wealth from fleeing the country.

Do you own stock in, for example, a Vietnam mining company? That company can be seized by the government at any time, making your stock shares worthless. In fact, any shares you own in any company aren’t “real” until you sell them.

Similarly, if you’re invested in mutual funds, stock options or any other financial vehicle that depends on the banking system to function, you are risking 100% of your investment and betting that the global transaction system remains functional, even during an unprecedented, catastrophic collapse. That’s an unwise bet because the risk of a catastrophic global banking collapse is now higher than ever.

Stop trying to MAKE money and focus instead on avoiding LOSING your ass(ets)

The mistake most people are making right now is focusing on the wrong goal. They are trying to make money in a highly unstable global market when they should really be focused on not losing their current assets in the coming global debt market collapse. Stop focusing on returns and start focusing on preserving what you’ve gained over the last decade or so.

Storing wealth in safe vehicles means giving up most gains. But that’s the point: You need to lock in your assets in real things that don’t disappear when the global Ponzi scheme unravels.

Why do you think Gerald Celente has been buying historical buildings in New York City? He knows that real estate doesn’t disappear in a crash. While prices may fluctuate, the physical buildings don’t simply vanish, and that means owning them is a store of real wealth. Gerald Celente knows that the stock market is wildly over-valued. He knows that bonds are in a bubble and that real estate is in a bubble, too, in many cities. Selling over-valued stocks and using that money to purchase real assets is a protective, defensive move that can preserve the assets you’ve gained before the bottom falls out of all the various bubbles across our destabilized world.

Here’s an article worth reading on all this, from The Economic Collapse Blog: Legendary Investor Jim Rogers Warns That The Worst Stock Market Crash In Your Lifetime Is Coming ‘This Year Or Next’.

List of things that aren’t REAL and are subject to vanishing

• Savings and checking accounts in banks
• Shares of mutual funds
• Bitcoin and crypto-currencies
• Stock options
• Shares of corporations
• Pensions and social security
• Contracts on things that you can’t physically control

List of assets that are real, because they are PHYSICAL things that don’t vanish in a banking crisis

• Commercial buildings and residential property
• Land, especially farm land
• Water sources (springs, wells, streams, ponds, lakes)
• Solar installations on your roof (which defer future costs by displacing electricity consumption)
• Precious metals (gold, silver, platinum)
• Valuable industrial metals such as copper, iridium, etc.
• Museum-quality fine art
• Ammunition and firearms
• Fuel storage (diesel, propane, natural gas)
• Livestock
• Renewable natural resources such as forests that can produce wood, or fields that produce hay
• Factories and manufacturing equipment (ammo reloading equipment, for example, or CNC machining equipment)

You should also strongly consider the fact that I personally earn nothing when you go out and buy land, commercial buildings or precious metals. Yet people who are trying to get you to buy stocks, mutual funds or Bitcoin are usually financially involved in those assets, and they depend on finding new buyers to prop up their asset values. Always be wary of the financial advice of those who profit from your agreement to buy their financial vehicles. Conflicts of interest are widespread and often not disclosed.

Remember: If you can’t touch it and control it, you don’t really own it because in a catastrophic “reset” of transactional systems, virtual ownership can be taken away from you in an instant and there’s nothing you can do about it.

TIP: Think about what things would still exist if all electricity stopped functioning

As a thought experiment, imagine what would happen if all electricity magically stopped working. Many things would collapse, including the internet, banking systems, stock markets and so on. But many things would be unaffected, such as land, gold, livestock and so on. These are the things that are REAL stores of wealth. (I’m not saying that electricity will magically stop working, by the way. This is simply a thought experiment to help you sort out “real” from “virtual” assets.)

In the category of “real” things, there’s also your knowledge and skills. If you are an emergency room doctor, you have skills that don’t vanish in a global banking collapse. If you are a gunsmith or a bicycle repair expert, those skills are obviously yours for life. This is why investing in the development of you skills and knowledge is one of the best investments you can make. (Skills are also, by definition, portable.)

The bottom line? If you’re still looking for the best investments to “make money” in the current economy, you’ve got the wrong mindset. You need to be focusing on how to protect the gains you already earned by exiting the volatile markets and converting virtual assets into REAL assets that you can physically touch.

Remember: Your investment portfolio isn’t real until you sell it. Digits on paper (or digits in your online account) aren’t real, and they can all vanish in an instant under the right circumstances. This is also why I’m not a fan of buying into Bitcoin right now: It’s not a real asset until you sell it. Read more coverage of financial risk at our related website RISK.news.

Silly Americans mock Venezuela’s 99.5% currency collapse, thinking it can’t happen here

Yet another real-life attempt at creating a successful Marxist government is going down in flames — this time in Venezuela — harming millions of people in the process even as the far-Left government of President Nicolas Maduro doubles, triples and quadruples down on the same failed fiscal policies.

To say that the country is an economic basket case is a gross understatement. Inflation can only be described as runaway; the country’s currency isn’t even worth the paper it is printed on; few can afford even basic foodstuffs and supplies and the government is broke. Store shelves are empty; there is fighting in the streets; the murder rate is soaring, and the army has to guard shipments of goods.

As reported by Zero Hedge, the anger has gotten so bad over conditions in what used to be South America’s economic behemoth, demonstrators are resorting to throwing “bombs” full of feces at government forces, as the currency (the bolivar) collapses again by 99.5 percent — 5,100 bolivars to every $1.

The monetary depreciation and inflation are so extreme that most peoples’ savings have been obliterated. It’s all but impossible to buy imported goods — and domestic production of goods has also fallen dramatically.

Like all good socialists, Maduro — who is essentially a dictator — has arbitrarily raised the minimum wage something like 20 times during his tenure (much like Democrats in the U.S. want to do and have done). But because artificially raising wages without taking into consideration whether businesses can even afford to pay them is a recipe for fiscal disaster, they have done no good and still only amount to about $40 a month. In fact, raising the wages by dictate rather than allowing the free market to determine wages has only made things worse.

Hence the feces bombs, which, as El Pais reports, some have dubbed “Puputov cocktails” on social media. Fast becoming the ‘weapon’ of choice to hurl at government forces, demonstrators launch them with giant slingshots called a “crapapult.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

And yet, they are part of the political reality in Venezuela today: Socialism taken to the extreme is directly responsible for the destruction of this once proud, once prosperous country.

“These kids live in a dictatorship, they have no other option but to protest however they see fit,” Maria Montilla, 49, staged behind the lines of a group of protestors, told El Pais.

“There’s nothing explosive here. It’s out way of saying, ‘Get lost Maduro, you’re useless!’” one protestor, who requested anonymity, added.

Miguel Torres, the one-time spy chief for Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, has broken with the current government. He sees major trouble ahead — even civil war — if nothing changes and the already massive protests spread even further to the poorer, generally pro-Chavez countryside.

“What is happening may be the starting point for a huge armed confrontation between Venezuelans,” he told Reuters. “Nobody wants that.”

Unfortunately, far too many Americans living in deep blue states and who were enamored with the presidential candidacy of socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would favor exactly the kind of government that is destroying Venezuela and has left other countries like Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and others in desperate poverty.

If that form of government ever takes hold, it would not only be an economic disaster for the world, since the U.S. dollar is the globe’s reserve currency, it would doom generations of Americans to the same hopelessness and endless cycles of poverty and desperation being seen now in Venezuela and other socialist governments.

Anyone who seriously believes that America’s currency would not undergo a catastrophic, deadly collapse under socialist government is no serious student of history. The evidence proving otherwise abounds.

Stay informed at Collapse.news and Rioting.news.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

Reuters.com

Prophecy.news

Get out in the field and learn survival now – because you can’t do it “on the job”

For most people, it takes quite a bit of time to get set up as a prepper. Between learning about and obtaining the right gear, growing food and figuring out what to put in a bug out bag, nothing happens overnight.

But far too many preppers just go through the motions of prepping – they don’t ever really take the time to get out into the field and actually test their gear as well as their knowledge. And like any other skill, if you don’t use it, you lose it.

As an Army vet, I can tell you that backpacks and rucksacks look comfy and accommodating, but many of them aren’t very comfortable to carry around for several hours. Everyone is different – in terms of fitness, physique, stature – so one rucksack or backpack does not fit all. You have to test your packs and adjust them to your body so that you’ll be able to carry them for hours at a time if you have to. That requires actually getting out in the field and using that piece of equipment. Or it could be as simple as strapping it to your back and hitting a local hiking trail that goes for a few miles, just to get a feel for it so you can adjust it to fit you.

The same is true with any gear. You may have two or three ways to start a fire stowed in your bug out bag, but if you’ve never used flint and steel to start a fire, it doesn’t do much good to have it. (RELATED: How To Make Your Own Bug Out Bag (BOB) For Emergency Preparation)

Here are some things preppers need to do in order to get familiar with their equipment, learn its applications and understand its limitations before you need it to survive:

— Get up to speed: Strapping on a 35-40lb pack once in a while is not a big deal for most people. But strut around with it on your back for a few hours – up and down hills, across rivers, through fields, over fences – and it’ll get real heavy, real quick. Get up to speed: Take your pack and hike with it at least once a week, no matter what the weather.

And for the record, don’t buy a pair of heavy-duty leather hiking or military boots and then let them sit in your closet “until needed.” If you don’t break them in well in advance, you’re going to regret it a few miles into your bug out when your feet become so sore and blistered you can’t go on.

— Speaking of weather: You should be practicing your prepping skills in all kinds of weather – not just picture-perfect weather. No one knows when the stuff is going to hit the fan; it could happen on a sunny day or in the dead of winter – or in the middle of a rainstorm. Don’t put your life at risk, but get out with your gear and use it under all conditions. Only then will you know whether or not it can perform as expected or if it will fall short of its potential.

— Does it work? That new-fangled gizmo or the solar panel you bought to power your devices and radio… they may or may not work as advertised under certain conditions. You won’t know that if you don’t take them out and try them out. You may find they will fail even under ideal conditions. Don’t get angry about your purchase; learn from it, buy a better brand and be happy the failure didn’t occur when you were on the run and needed that piece of equipment to save your life.

— Get a green thumb: Food will become one of your most important necessities, so if you’ve never planted a garden, plant a garden. And get some terrace, window or deck boxes where you can grow herbs and other small veggies. You will need to learn this skill if you want to survive long-term.

— Water, water: The most important commodity in terms of living longer is water. The thing is, in a collapse situation, most drinkable water sources will disappear very quickly, either because they will be consumed or taken over by a large group. So it will become very necessary very early on in an SHTF scenario to be able to secure potable water; most people cannot last more than three days without it. (RELATED: Camping: A Great Way To Practice How To Live After SHTF)

You will need a layered water purification system – to include filters, purification methods and sanitation – in order to secure enough water to sustain you and your family. Even if you manage to get lucky enough to find a pond, you’re going to have to filter and/or boil that water before you can drink it and use it to prepare foods and personal hygiene. So, having at least three different methods of preparing water for consumption will be required – and you need to practice how to use them.

— Wrap your mind around it: Living in an SHTF nightmare will take a heavy psychological toll on you. That burden can at least be lessened if you are familiar enough with your gear to be able to use it effectively. You might hate that the world as you know it has ended, but if you can secure food, stay warm, build a shelter, purify water and defend yourself, that is a lot to take off your mind.

(H/T Survivalist Prepper)

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

SurvialistPrepper.net

Bugout.news