By the author of Street Survivalism: A Practical Training Guide To Life In The City and The Ultimate Survival Gear Handbook
We’re only two months into 2023, and so much water has already passed under the bridge. All I can say is, what a year this is shaping up to be. Is it just me, or does anyone else feels the same?
To anyone still involved with the Chinese balloon drama, let me remind you that the U.S. (and the entire world, in fact) was invaded by China long ago. Products and dopamine-inducing apps, farmland acquisition, shady investments, and government collusion in some places and continents, and so on are all evidence of this.
And that’s only what we know of.
What about the unknown unknowns? I don’t think anyone would be surprised to finds out that there’s more, much more, would they? I wouldn’t, just like I wouldn’t be if it was revealed that more of these sneaky airships have been flying in the stratosphere everywhere since God-knows-when. Very likely.
The episode may generate consequences, if only because it’s a powder keg out there. How much should we be concerned? The government and the Chinese can say anything they want, and it won’t impact anyone’s life unless it crashes over their house.
A diversion?
It’s crazy how a device, at the same time old-fashioned and modern, innocent and threatening, can stir up people’s imagination in the era of 5th-generation fighter jets, landing rockets, A.I., and autonomous vehicles. But whatever, it’s already been shot down, so everyone can move to the “next thing.”
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, there are other events taking place around the globe that deserve more attention. Not only might these have short and mid-term implications, including in our daily routines, but also because they encapsulate important lessons that might help us directly.
Lebanon’s currency shock.
The Lebanese central bank announced a 90% exchange rate devaluation, effective February 1st. The pound’s rate is much lower than that in the black market, where 99,9% of the country’s economy and population are now. But it’s still a big blow and shows the country’s currency’s failure.
My Lebanese friend (who shared a few civil war stories with us last year) has relatives living in Lebanon, and they have told him the current situation is even worse than during that period. While I’m not entirely sure that’s a valid point of view (due to historic distancing and all), it reveals the state of things in the country.
However, the crisis in Lebanon is rather old, so the people have been learning and preparing to defend themselves from these things long ago. They’ve put their money in hard assets and foreign currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the Euro.
Now, I am often asked by American colleagues how to defend from something like that if you have your bills denominated in USD. First, the USD is the world reserve currency and won’t lose that status overnight. Certainly not before most other currencies crash to zero or Fed Coins, aka CBDCs, get implemented. So there’s no need to rush and dump your greenbacks.
Still, it’s possible that the USD keeps its value against other currencies while losing its purchase power internally. So, the basic strategy is essentially the same: diversification—different currencies, different asset classes, and maybe even investing in other countries. This is not financial advice, meaning you have to do your own research on these and other options or get specific counseling from a professional.
Other countries are at different points of the same cycle.
The Bank Of England has been warning about the worst year of growth since the Great Depression. That doesn’t mean the U.K. or nations like Japan or China will end up like Lebanon or Argentina. But given the context, something can break in these markets – it’s not without warning, but it can happen at any time.
Following Lebanon’s footsteps, Argentina has just unveiled the 2000 pesos note to keep up with their accelerated currency devaluation and 95% YTD inflation. That’s twice the value of the highest note currently in circulation and the equivalent of US$ 5 (maybe less by the time you read this). The peso keeps plummeting, and the black market is full-steam in the country right now.
Those things matter because whatever happens in the Japanese bond market, the Chinese real estate sector (a 50+ trillion dollar market responsible for a quarter of Chinese GDP), or the U.K. job market will impact everywhere else – and it won’t be small or pretty. Social unrest is another lousy development, and the situation is ripe for protests, strikes, and others across Europe.
Again, the best form to defend is by investing in hard assets and more stable currencies. Keeping some cash in reserve can help in the case of bank runs, which are already happening in some places and can happen anywhere (don’t think otherwise unless you want to become the low-hanging fruit in these situations).
(Want to learn more about preparing for disaster by putting away food? Then check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to building a three-layer food storage system.)
Europe’s lucky break.
Not all is bad news. Analysts and experts were predicting a grim winter in Europe, thanks to all the issues going on with ESG policies, supply breakdown, dwindling reserves, the Russia-Ukraine war, and everything else.
However, thanks to an unusually mild winter, things are manageable in the Old Continent as the north moves towards spring in a couple of months. There’s still the risk of a cold outbreak, and experts warn that blackouts and closures cannot be ruled out completely. The message is clear: the grace from the weather should be no reason to stop preparing.
(Want uninterrupted access to The Organic Prepper? Check out our paid-subscription newsletter.)
Taking advantage of favorable conditions is one thing, butb counting on luck hitting twice is not really a strategy.
The structural conditions for the energy crisis are still present, particularly in Europe. There are no signs of the war ending, nor the attacks on the energy sector changing course. If anything, these and other factors should get worse and increase the stress on the system (and the population). Energy prices keep rising across Europe and everywhere else too.
I honestly don’t see a change in course by governments when it comes to ESG scores. Maybe if, come summer, “off the chart temperatures” and “unprecedented heatwaves” submit the northwestern countries to an even more challenging scenario (thanks to a possibly severe El Niño in 2023), the stupid and damaging policies could be reverted?
We’ll have to wait and see, but the way things are being conducted, I wouldn’t count on that.
Conclusion.
When the grid is unstable, some events take a different proportion. It feels like the end of times, however if we look objectively, the system is still up and providing support to the issues going on everywhere, be that blazing fires ravaging forests in Chile, earthquakes causing death and destruction in central Turkey, or ransomware server attacks and the internet going down in Italy.
Europe has dodged a bullet thanks to mother nature, which shows how unforeseen events can impact things for worse but also for better. Nature, for instance, can cause unexpected SHTFs (see the horrific situation of Turkey and Syria or Chile), but it can avert seemingly unavoidable ones as well, as this case shows.
However, fortune is a fickle thing. The bottom line, though, is the events presented here aren’t going to get fixed. On the contrary, they will escalate and contaminate the situation beyond their current borders. Issues created by human intervention in human-created systems (economy, politics, production and supply chain, energy sector, and so on) are more complex, and the interconnectedness of subsets is vast.
What do you think about all this, though? Are we being flooded with distractions to take away from economic accountability? Outside of the air invasions, are there other happenings you think our readers need to know about? Let us know in the comment section below.
About Fabian
Fabian Ommar is a 50-year-old middle-class worker living in São Paulo, Brazil. Far from being the super-tactical or highly trained military survivor type, he is the average joe who since his youth has been involved with self-reliance and outdoor activities and the practical side of balancing life between a big city and rural/wilderness settings. Since the 2008 world economic crisis, he has been training and helping others in his area to become better prepared for the “constant, slow-burning SHTF” of living in a 3rd world country.
Fabian’s ebook, Street Survivalism: A Practical Training Guide To Life In The City , is a practical training method for common city dwellers based on the lifestyle of the homeless (real-life survivors) to be more psychologically, mentally, and physically prepared to deal with the harsh reality of the streets during normal or difficult times. He’s also the author of The Ultimate Survival Gear Handbook.
You can follow Fabian on Instagram @stoicsurvivor
I would not be at all surprised if our government(US) is putting stuff up then shooting it down as a distraction. The only reason they finally shot down the balloon is because of the outrage. Like magicians the deep state is constantly pulling the “ look over here” crap to distract from what is actually going on.
China now knows that the US will shoot down any balloon they send over. What’s to prevent China from attaching a nuclear or dirty bomb to one of these balloons? When we shoot that down, that bomb will fall straight down with virtually no warning!
I agreed with the decision not to shoot the “first” (first publicized) one down. We’re not the only ones who booby-trap certain equipment. I would expect the Chinese, or anyone else, to put explosives, nuclear material, biological material in something which would be shot down or otherwise captured. That’s basic. And, I wouldn’t put is past “our own” to do it to whip up sentiment.
We’re fucked. Guns and ammo will be the best currency shortly.
Complete distraction from the Sy Hersch Nordstream expose. Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, and Nuland hatched the plot (with Norway’s help) to sink Germany and MSM was told to keep mum. Instant UFO’s. Could it be any more obvious?
I completely agree. Total distraction to take our attention away from everything else. If the Chinese have satellites that can take a picture of a license plate from space, does anybody really believe that what they can get from a balloon is any better. They have satellites in near earth orbit that can be armed with nuclear weapons that they could use to create a country-wide EMP. Do you really think they need a balloon?
Sy Hersch may be anti-American to some people, but when you look at the stories he’s broke over the years, he’s generally been right on the money, and when was the last time we heard anything about more classified documents since balloon-gate took center stage…Total distraction.
Scott Ritter made some interesting comments on the Redacted Podcast – the state sponsored terror on the citizens of Europe ie destroying the Nordstream Gas pipeline has hurt the live of those in Europe who need it and the mainstream press said – nothing. The open bragging of Ukrainian militants using drones to drop hydrogen cyanide, chemical weapons, on Russian troops has also been ignored by the west and the press. Where is the outrage that our past leaders expressed against Syria and Iraq about the use of chemical weapons and the demands for investigations to verify if the reports are true. The only sound is “crickets”, absolutely nothing.
As Ritter says, if we say nothing then we are just as guilty. The Bible calls that sins of omission. If we omit doing the right thing to allow the wrong thing to happen, we are guilty.
“We” is the operative term. You and I have no say, we (the true “we”) are prisoners in an open air gulag owned and managed by a counterfeit “we”, that criminal Cabal of globalist oligarchs and their lackeys who control the levers of power independent of the wishes of the world’s citizens. The time is not yet ripe for taking out these lunatics, but – “all in good time, my pretty, all in good time”.
Tin on,
1) Look! After the China balloon fiasco, we are now shooting down all kinds of things! We are just not saying what, yet. For all you know, we are shooting down balloons we put up there to make it look like we are doing something!
2) Look! Balloons! Pay attention to them and not the Hersch Nordstream report!
3) Look! Balloons! Pay attention to them and not the inflation pain you feel at the grocery checkout or the gas pump!
4) We are actually shooting down UFOs of the ET kind, and are about to start a interstellar war that we are going to lose, because, well, we are really dumb.
5) That chunk of the sun that broke off . . . Look! Balloons!
Tin off.
I hear the 80s song, 99 Red Balloons is trending!
I thought we had satellites that could read license plates from space. Why can’t we identify a UFO or send a fighter squadron to identify?
Not that any of the goings o are good, but thank you for your comments. They always make me think and smile.
Chris,
Glad ya liked it!
Sometimes, ya gotta post something of the amusing kind or ya just might go crazy.
I think this article is spot on. I’ve been telling everyone who asks about the balloons, don’t let them distract you from what is really going on. Pay attention to the news and watch what’s happening around the world. Seems like the world is our stage now.
BRICS has established an alternative currency backed by gold. The I and C are India and China, with 3 billion people. Another dozen nations have joined them, so more than half the world’s people are shifting to this new reserve currency.
Most of those nations still use the dollar as well, but after the US STOLE all Russia’s dollars last year, the collapse accelerated. We will see more than 8% inflation this year.
This month, we still need to keep some portion of our assets in bank accounts, to pay bills and so on. But our survival reserves are food, ammo, gold, silver, home or homestead, supplies, etc.
It is no longer wise to keep large reserves in bank accounts.
I agree with your assessment LadyLife, however I believe the demise of the USD as the world reserve currency (or GRC as some call) will take a long time to happen.
About 60% or more of the debt and settlements – nations, corporations, businesses, families and individuals – are still in USD, and that won’t change quickly or without severe consequences.
Each and every currency should crash to zero, or near zero, long before the USD gets to that point. Doesn’t take much creativity to imagine what that would entail to finance, economy and trading.
That doesn’t mean the USD won’t keep losing value, from part of those eurodollars returning to the US (China & others dumping USTs and all), and the petrodollar being abandoned by the Saudis, etc.
This spells trouble for those with their assets, incomes and bills denominated in USD, but can be a lifeline to everyone else as their currencies crash relative to the dollar.
Either way, you’re right to be safe and take precautions. It’s wise.
Generally agree with you Fabian, but I will add one caveat. The USD could take time to get to basically zero, and the other currencies should get there first. OR! The USD suffers a major collapse, pretty much overnight, and leads/drags the rest of the world’s currencies to zero. All it would take is for one or more of the major banks to fail, creating a bank run. Or if China decides to dump all the U.S. debt that they presently hold, creating the possibility of hyper-inflation.
Great points Lone Canadian.
The only way I see a quick demise of the USD is if the US govt. defaults on its debt, which I doubt will happen. I mean, they might, after all the US already defaulted twice, last time in 1971. But it will be covertly i.e. through controlled inflation and soft landing not overtly or declared.
The US will go to war to defend its interests and the USD long before that. Or throw a few nations against each other to achieve the same results (Iran X Israel?). Which is already happening in some ways, tbh. They might also bail-in banks & co. too, that I see as probable.
But yes, a quick, sudden crash in the USD would spark a major, major collapse on global level. Everything would stop and it would be chaos. ICE9 or something. Precisely because 3/5 of the contracts/titles/papers/debt etc. are tied to the USD.
Maybe the Fed and the UST will allow a systemic meltdown of banks and the market, to push CBDCs or some jubilee? Maybe, who knows. But they have the printing press and I´m of the opinion they will print to oblivion, or it until something breaks. And something will break, there´s no other way.
As for China & Co. dumping USTs, they´re doing it to get dollars to pay over 60% of their obligations, not to get away from the USD. It´s a global liquidity crisis, or will be soon, and liquidity in this case = USD not other currencies. Russia is already off the SWIFT system and doesn´t trust the US or EU, so there´s that. As for Japan… poor Japan, their economy has been a zombie for the last 35 years, now chickens have come home to roost. But look the Yen rising, the same will hapen to USD.
Anyway, it´s complex and we don´t know half of it. I´m only speculating. I know what this mess will make at the street level though, that´s why I keep some USDs (to defend from my country´s currency dev.), some cash in various denominations (to defend from bank runs), some PM and BTC (to defend from systemic collapse), and some lead (to defend from anarchy and chaos).
And pray everything else falls into place quickly.
Amen… like minded…
Lets sow some more division in America. I can see this leading to more anti-Asian hate, boycotts, ect
Anti-ET! When those blokes get back from Alpha Centauri our goose is cooked!
In my 62+ years on this mutually, I’ve come to one conclusion about “Breaking News.” Breaking News 9 times out of 10 is usually a distraction from other far worse things going on.
The aliens are coming!!!! The aliens are coming!!!!!!! The B movie has degraded to a D. Oooh aahhhh I’m so skeered!!!!!! Save me Turdopey!!!! Save me Turdopey!!!!!!
it’s not aliens
i wish it were aliens
but it’s not aliens
it’s just the ol’ engineered panic, an attractive nuisance ensuring natsec reporters get assigned to investigate balloon bullshit rather than budgets or bombings (à la nordstream)
until next time
— Edward Snowden
I think he just may be right, distraction from the Seymour Hersh story of the US bombing the Nordstream pipeline.
Exit the matrix as best as you can. Try to start to live your life without the government in your life… at all.. If you don’t know basic survival 101, learn it.. Where would you get your water if tap water was undrinkable? How would you stay warm? Can you make a fire? Swing an axe? Use a hammer? Forage for food? Use a bow? Fire a weapon? Live without electricity for awhile? Change a tire? Cut wood? Have cash on hand OUT of the banks as much as possible? Can you survive old school? And I mean “pre tech?” Something you might need to learn.. who really knows?? Read the book, “One Second After.” It was written right before 9/11. (About life in the USA after EMP). You will realize just how much you don’t know how to do, or what to do, if we ever end up in a post Apoc world. Changed the way I live my life. Eyes WIDE open.