Posted by fadestyle on 07/20/09
Last updated 07/29/09

Campaign for liberty orientation. New? Not sure what to do? heres an orientaion video to help.

Thanks to the creator of this video.

C4L blogging...

Campaign For Liberty Friends Invitation Instructions

Posted 07/22/09 thegavino Fleetwood, PA

Nice. Sometimes the site can be a bit overwhelming.

Posted 07/22/09 Son Of Liberty Erie, PA

great videos! Every new member should be sent these! I've got two intro vids on my profile.

Posted by fadestyle on 11/20/09

The Day the Dollar Died, Part II

23:23 by Administrator. Filed under: The Day The Dollar Died Series

by John Galt

November 19, 2009

The following posting in ITALICS to represent the fictional perspective I see possible during a week long currency crisis created by the United States government and how it might well be viewed from the eyes of a blogger, a truck driver and a warehouse section manager. The premise might seem like a crisis that could not happen here, but does it really take much of a reach to come to these conclusions? Each individual might react differently, each aspect of the story questionable to some degree but the question has been asked of yours truly as to why and how the series of events could occur in such rapidity and without warning. For those that have been reading my pages and works since late 2005 when some friends in the real estate and financial industry made me aware and gave me the red pill so I could understand the depths of the financial fraud being perpetuated on our nation and much of the Western world married to our foolishness.

To provide an alternative to just the story telling aspects as how I envision such a time line let me start with another opening salvo and commentary on today's markets to give you a perspective. The regular readers of these pages understand that I have been preaching the 1-3-6 Rule for some time and as such a quick rehash for my new guests is in order. During the peak of the financial and credit crisis in 2008 and 2009, the 1, 3 and 6 month United State Treasuries had their yields crater to 0.00% or into negative territory in some cases and just above that during other periods.  Let us start this brief trip in time with a story from Reuters on April 20, 2009 titled:

US Treasury bill rates fall on bank concerns

Today those rates per CNBC are:

1 Month: 0.01%

3 Month: 0.01%

6 Month: 0.11%

Those are absurd yields by any stretch but when measured against the last "official" inflation report you are actually paying the government ten cents on the dollar to hold your money.  To get a better perspective, here is the report from Bondsonline at 1626 ET on November 19, 2009:

Thus you do not have to take my word on it. We have billions of dollars pouring into short term Treasury Bills to essentially pay the government to "store" or hold their money for the next 30 days to 91 days and it begs the question as to why. The answers I propose are simple and have been stated many times before, that our financial system is no much more repaired or functional than an airplane is airworthy after it flies into the side of a mountain at 500 knots.  Credit is limited if not totally frozen at many levels and the government's role as banker of last resort is being tested by foreign powers sick and tired of funding America's house party. And the timing of the sudden move in short term Treasury yields which began in August of this year and has been accelerating ties in nicely with the timing of the fictional death of our dollar I have been outlining.  I shall continue to add to the story and highlight the news stories and related articles in a later thread with the appropriate links to give my readers some idea as to how these theoretical conclusions were reached.

The party is about to end. Let's take another look to see what the hangover from the party might just look like........

"Ah, Lincoln Avenue exit, Thank You Lord for getting me home!" an exhausted driver named Mike exhaled as he saw the ramp approach.  Had had just over a half tank of fuel and could keep the rig running during the icy nights in Minnesota but was more aggravated after today's events that no one in his office would answer the phone or the Qualcomm communications he had sent.  Mike spent seven hours to get fuel in Fargo as the tanks were empty and the last tanker truck the Petro would send did not arrive until three hours ago. As a result, Mike sent a nasty message to his dispatcher about ice, cold and where it needed to be located up his dispatcher's torso in Atlanta.  Here it was six o'clock in the morning on I-94 and the roads were packed with truckers as usual but the CB radio screeching with chattering rumors about bank failures and economic collapse. "Good thing I have The Highway channel on my Sirius" he thought to himself as he cruised home to some classic Johnny Cash.

As he started down shifting on to the ramp he noticed that at just after 6 a.m. one of his neighbors, Deputy Monckton was at the bottom of the ramp with his lights flashing and flares across the bottom of the ramp. Mike rolled to a stop and cranked the window down and asked "Hi Jack! What the heck has you out here freezing your tail off this early in the morning?" The Deputy unsnapped the cover from his parka over his face, took a sip of coffee and then spit out some chew to reply, "Mike, you are not going to believe this, I've been ordered to close this exit. Locals are the only ones allowed in for the next ten days per the Sheriff and Mayor Hilldegest. We're supposed to turn everyone away here and off  the old Highway 52 and 210 exits. I hope you're going home, there's some wild stories circulating out there!" Mike grabbed a huge gulp of coffee and wiped the over flow off his now frozen beard in the negative 21 degree temps to tell the Deputy "I'm going home and locking and loading. I've got a about a third of a load of pork from IBP to deliver tomorrow in Duluth, but now, we might just need it here. Call me if you need my help on the patrols, I'm locking this sucker up." The deputy said "thanks" gave a half-hearted salute and moved his car to let Mike through. Little did Mike know that the little town of Fergus Falls would get very, very busy before the week was over.

Meanwhile, back in Hampton, Georgia....

February 22, 2010 0315 A.M. ET

Tom finally had the joy of handing a clerk $72.00 to pay for 30 bucks worth of toilet paper and a bunch of canned goods. Amazingly when Tom arrived home a half hour later his wife greeted him at the door. "Well, was it worth it getting all that toilet paper?" Sandy asked. As Tom looked uncomfortably at his lovely wife of twenty years, he started to speak when she interrupted and said "uh, I don't see any of this magic toilet paper? Where is it sparky?" Tom looked down as he set the first load of bags of canned food down and a full two cases of Saltine crackers and started the story, "Well, uh, honey, you see there was this guy in the parking lot and uh, well, you see, he uh, well, gave me $10 a package for toilet paper I paid $5.99 per package for! He's such an idiot!!!!" Sandy was not impressed. She said in a stern and disgusted voice "And if we run out because the stores are closed, will you let me use all that money you just earned to wipe my butt?"

"Uh" was all Tom said as he looked down and meandered back to the car for another bag full of canned veggies and Ravioli in the middle of the night.

February 23, 2010 1:41 A.M.

Crap, I forgot to turn off the computer. Look at all the emails and nasty messages. Maybe it is just a bad dream or the bourbon but I swear that even at this time of night the "Day After" as the media was calling it seemed like it was prime time as thousands of people were on my favorite message boards, many pleading for help about their investments or what to do to survive. After finishing up my business in the bathroom, I figured I might as well turn on the idiot box and see if the mainstream had figured out just how severe this historical event was or if our morons who helped make this mess had the nerve to utter any statements from Geneva yet.

As I flipped through I wondered if slugs like Cramer and Kudlow would ever show their face on television again.  I had managed to convince the wife that I needed at least three televisions but that didn't fly so two would have to do along with a split screen on my monitor as I used when I formerly day traded. She was wonderfully tolerant but knew that I had a clue this might be happening so understood and enjoyed a bottle of wine with me as we talked on the patio before retiring for the evening. Unfortunately my office beckoned and when I saw the insanity on my screen my head almost exploded.

There it was, live at eight minutes until 2 a.m. a repeat of a special "Fast Money" segment on Bubblevision proclaiming and pushing the "Best Stocks to Buy" when the market re-opened next week. The best stocks to buy? These morons are acting as if this was just eating some bad undercooked chicken from a local Chinese choke and puke and once you purge it, you can chow down some more, just add more soy sauce! At 2 a.m. the mood returned to my more somber dark outlook as the Bloomberg network began live coverage from Switzerland and their attitude was 180 degrees from the propagandists on other channels.

The interview they had with the Swiss Finance Minister Merz was pretty much to the point. He looked into the camera and sternly proclaimed "We will not sacrifice Europe nor our economy to save America and their illogical banking structure. We will issue a statement tonight after President Obama speaks at 6 o'clock Geneva time."  I figured that might give me time to squeeze in eighteen holes and enhance my hangover if I could get back to sleep but that would mean convincing my boss to tee off at 7:30 a.m. instead of 9:30.

05:09 A.M. ET

The snooze button felt good but sleep was not an option. I left my wife's warmth and comfort to sleep on the guest bed and kept the television volume on low just in case the EAS decided to activate because the ChiComs got sick and tired of the excuses from Obama and Bernanke in Geneva. Of course my paranoid self got the best of me and made me get up, shave, shower and listen intently to the local station which broadcasts the Bloomberg Radio Network exclusively in the early morning.  What was unusual about this mornings program, as I smelled the coffee cranking up from my automatic Mr. Coffee (Dunkin Donuts, fresh ground if you're curious) was the appearance of the morning team of Tom and Ken a full two hours plus before they normally come on the air. Bloomberg "Surveillance" was on at 5 a.m. and that meant either big news was breaking or there was some serious concern on the behalf of the big money crowd. The first interview they had was with a New York City Councilman who worriedly professed that the longer the markets were closed and the more dangerous the projected actions, the worse the city would be hit. I found that interesting because locally, nothing much of anything beyond the international fiasco was really going on. The bank closings and gas stations running out of gas was just taken in stride by the masses and that's why I was hurriedly shaving and then putting toilet paper on the fresh cut when Tom Keene said that the projected Dow opening if it were to open today was down thirty percent if it were allowed to trade according to some experts.

06:00 A.M. ET

As I finished my shower the sounds of Bloomberg Radio faded as I turned it down to turn up Bloomberg television and hear the big announcement from the new President of the EU Van Rumpoy state the following:

"The United States Dollar in its current form is no longer an acceptable medium for a reserve currency or international trade with members of the European Union. We have expressed our policy on this matter to the other world leaders and President Obama at the morning meeting. The resolution of the matter will be completed soon and the announcement of our final policy decision will be enunciated at 6 o'clock European Central Time."

Stunned, I reached for the half full glass of now somewhat warm wine and chugged it. While the sheeple as I affectionately nicknamed them might have slept through this announcement, it was Armageddon for our country. Screw it. I'm going to play golf one more time before it hits the fan. This is absurd.

06:25 A.M. ET

The 'DING' on my toaster oven went off faithfully with my last 'Everything' bagel and the cream cheese tasted extra rich this morning. It was almost if enjoying life without work was better but instead of retirement it was more of a resigned "now what" attitude. As I walked back into my home office with my bagel on my plate, the beautiful wife was awake and asking what my plan was. I reminded her that there was no work today so go back to bed but she insisted on going into her office, I guessed to answer phones that were not going to ring and hoping someone would help her figure out what was next for her state contracts. I told her that I'm playing golf with my boss so I have my excuse for playing hookie from reality. Just as she was going to reply in a rather rude outburst I asked her to be quiet as Prime Minister Brown from the UK began to speak:

"Fellow citizens of the world, America and the United Kingdom have long enjoyed a special relationship. The matters being discussed within the halls of this meeting in Geneva will not benefit the citizens of the crown nor the free world. The United Kingdom has elected to depart this meeting and recognize the United States Dollar as the primary reserve currency for trading purposes and we fully expect and accept that the Americans will make good on all debts past and present that are owed to our nation as we too shall be strong and persevere in the face of this unwarranted attack on our sovereignty.  The crown and eagle shall stand together, alone if we must. We will not abandon the ally which helped us survive World War Two and the Cold War. Thus the meetings here in Geneva,  from the perspective of the United Kingdom and our financial agencies, are now concluded. Effective at midnight tonight, the United Kingdom shall withdraw from our participation in and investments of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Good day and God Save the Queen."

06:37 A.M. ET

I walked into my bathroom and got quite ill to my stomach.

07:oo A.M. ET

As I tossed my golf bag into the back of my pick up truck the cell phone rang and of course it was my boss. He said that he had lined us up at the country club but only for 9 holes because he wanted to see what President Obama and the rest of the G20 said at noon today. After signing in and the usual pleasantries, we headed out to the practice green to attempt to warm up a bit. Thankfully, it was a nice Florida morning where global warming had cooled the tee off temp to a robust 49 degrees and as I tried to find my stroke  I muttered under my breath an obscenity (or four) about Al Gore's family tree and dumped a little Irish Whiskey into my coffee to warm it up.

We walked to the first tee from our golf cart and the Marshal said cheerfully "Have a good time gentlemen, it may not matter tomorrow!" With that I figured it was time to fire up a Diamond Crown #7 and enjoy the scent of a Pyramid Maduro as my golf game was not going to be so hot today. My boss said jokingly "I'll take one on the second hole if you have one, I'll be out of business soon anyways" and as he chuckled proceeded to hit a nice drive about two hundred and seventy yards down the right side of the fairway. I reached into my bag and handed him my last cigar and told him to enjoy today because tomorrow was going to really suck. He replied, "Yup. As soon as the courts open, I'm filing Chapter Seven."

That made for a nice shank about seventy yards behind his ball and in the tall grass leaving me a mountain to climb. But the best part was getting away from the Marshal who was acting as a starter today to work off tips (of course we gave him $10) as now we could talk and drink like Kamikazes on their final mission. The truth about our local situation was about to come out.

09:17 A.M. ET

The Par 5 sixth hole was a monster today with the tees set back in the dew laden grass some 547 yards from the pin. The inhalation of my cigar helped but adding a cocktail to the mix did not hurt. My boss, a normally reserved sixty three year old self-made millionaire was chugging drinks like a mad man and telling all. He told me how the local banks were all insolvent criminal enterprises, as if I did not know that already. He told me that fifty percent of the commercial real estate was already delinquent or ready to be foreclosed upon. He even told me that half of the private jets at our Sarasota airport would be repossessed  if any damned fool would buy them for 30 cents on the dollar! As he hit his second shot off the fairway, I took a swig straight up. The hangover I had this morning was nothing compared to what was coming for America.

11:00 A.M. ET

The approach to the 9th hole was one of both a glazed over look of relief and horror as we knew that once were settled down to watch President Obama's speech at noon, our lives and our nation would change forever.  My boss laughed as I birdied the hole, giving me a scorching score of 49 on the front nine and he finished up to whip me by ten strokes yet again.  Knowing full well that our relationship as employer and employee was practically over, I looked at him half serious and said "You know if you actually gave me a fair schedule for time off, I would hit the ball as well as you do."  He let out a huge belly laugh and said that he was buying the first round and not to worry, he was giving every employee one month's salary on Thursday with the cash he had on hand and more when the banks opened to insure everyone survived before he filed for bankruptcy.

"Dear God" I thought to myself. He's either fleeing the nation or ending it all. The local news was chocked full of reported and rumored suicides around our community as of yet the names were unconfirmed this morning. The blaring of sirens out to Longboat Key and helicopters flying to our local hospital disturbed the normally quiet winter evening, yet it seemed surreal to everyone who lived in our community. The bartender at the country club looked us in the eye and asked "Are you staying for the big one?" My boss, being the the guy with the attitude now of "whatever" replied, "You mean they are showing a repeat of the Bucs game today again?" The bartender laughed and replied, "No, you know, President Obama and the bankers are going to screw all of us retirees in forty-five minutes! We don't matter any more, so we figure we're toast."

My boss, saddened, looked at him and handed him a $100 bill to my astonishment and said "Old man, this may not be worth anything today, tomorrow or ever again, but take it for what it is worth now. A thank you for helping our nation make it this far."

I started to get a little misty eyed at that point.

11:55 A.M. ET

CNBC interrupted with news that a WalMart Super Center was in the midst of a riot as it was closed due to running out of stock on the north side of Lexington, KY. As footage rolled in, the scroll said "6 dead, 15 injured" and just as the reporter was getting ready to speak....

11:59 A.M. ET

Attention all broadcast, cable and satellite outlets, this special emergency broadcast from Geneva, Switzerland and the President of the United States begins in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...........

Posted 11/20/09 Josiah Keller Hillsboro, WI

I can totally imagine this happening. And it probably will.

Posted by fadestyle on 11/20/09

respecting everyone EXCEPT Americans

Posted by fadestyle on 11/19/09

The Day the Dollar Died

John Galt

November 19, 2009

The following story in italics is a potential fictional time line for the day the dollar died. I hope not to instill fear or loathing but to give everyone some perspective on a POSSIBLE outcome which does not really take much of a reach to come to any conclusion. Despite popular belief and promises from those who wish to rob you of your savings and investments, the collapse of the dollar might just be an event measured in hours, not days as their control is not what it seems.....

Mike was less than an hour from home in Minnesota after dropping his load off in Fargo but knew he needed to top his tank off this Sunday evening to insure his rig would make it home. He pulled into the Petro Truck Stop just outside of Fargo and hopped out of the cab into the bitter twenty below temperatures which he could not believe had already hit at ten o'clock at night. He slid his fuel card into the pump waiting for the next prompt when the "SEE ATTENDANT" message flashed in the screen. He blustered, figured it was another card problem and whipped out his Master Card and slid it in after the pump reset and again the "SEE ATTENDANT" message flashed up. "What the hell is going on?" he thought to himself as he wandered into the long line of drivers boisterously yelling at managers and clerks alike.

Tom finished up his shift on the docks at the Nestle warehouse in Hampton, Georgia at exactly 11 o'clock at night and decided that because of the scuttlebutt he had been reading on the message boards, it may not be a bad idea to pick up a few cans of food and some toilet paper at the local WalMart Super center. Even though it was a Sunday night, they were always stocked and it was just five minutes out of the way to his home. As he walked inside the store, his mouth dropped. It looked like the day after Thanksgiving sale with every register open and ten plus people deep at 11:30 p.m. "Oh my God!" he gasped as he walked in grabbing the last shopping cart with the wheel that was half locked up.  As he walked as fast as he could to the aisle with the paper goods, he looked at all the shelves then noticed the clerk who looked stunned himself. "How in the SAM HELL does WalMart sell out of Toilet Paper son?" he screamed at the eighteen year old kid. "Sir, I don't know what is going on. Is the world ending? I'm a little freaked out!" the clerk stammered. Tom realized that he was not to blame and as he calmed down said to the kid "Son, I don't know what is going on either. It must be an ice storm on the way. Are you folks getting another truck soon?" The clerk said in a very low voice "Sir, I think there are two coming at 2 a.m. I would wait here if I were  you." With that information Tom slinked outside to his car and called his wife at home just before midnight to tell her he would be staying to wait on the WalMart trucks.

1730 ET...February 21, 2010

It was a typical Sunday night in my household, a tremendous dinner, nice weather in Florida and of course a chance to chat with my friends online about the events of the world. The big news was that on Friday, February 19, 2010 the US Dollar Index closed at 69.07 far below any level in history and of course shattering all known technical support. As I grabbed a glass of Port and settled in front of my computer at 5 p.m. Eastern to watch the Asian fireworks and watch Bloomberg and CNBC-Asia on my computer, I noticed the Middle Eastern markets closed in horrid shape. The Israeli market closed three hours after the open and down 22% for the session. The Saudi markets closed after one hour and down 41%.  Other regional markets did not open or were shut down due to national emergency declarations. As I tuned in expecting the usual repeat on Bloomberg, it was live with a somewhat excited news babe reading information from a blog reporting "rumors" that the CEO's of Citigroup and Bank of America were in meetings since 11 a.m. with the New York Fed. At that point, it was time to put the port up and break out the hard stuff.

Gold had closed at a record high again, up some $37 to finish Friday's session up at $1289 and change so I figured it would be jumping again with all of this worldly instability on display. I searched the boards and feeds like mad, looking for anything on an Iranian attack or outbreak of war elsewhere in the world but nothing was found at all. As 6 p.m. Eastern flipped up on my watch, CNBC interrupted their programming with a live update from New York instead of Australia or Tokyo about the meeting at the NY Fed. Bloomberg also broke from their Asian coverage with a brief story but no details as to why there was a meeting today or who else was there.  As the New Zealand markets opened, the prices went nuts but shockingly to the upside. Their markets shot up 11% on the open to break over the 3900 price level but that was not the story. As the futures opened in Chicago for the evening session, no matter where you were in the world that day or night, you printed that screen at 6:04 p.m. Eastern time as the prints were staggering:

Gold UP $212.15 to $1501.15

Silver UP $39.13 to $81.06

US DOLLAR INDEX DOWN 9.5869 or just over 14% to 59.4830

US S&P FUTURES DOWN 49.13

US DOW FUTURES DOWN 472

NASDAQ FUTURES DOWN 135

Holy Smokes!  This was an absurd way to start the night and my phone started ringing along with text messages and emails out my wazoo. The sense of panic was evident on Bernie Lo's face as he came on to the air discussing what was happening in the futures market and fortunately he announced that Jim Rogers would be joining him after the next break. As the commercial started at 6:09 p.m. Eastern the scroll at the bottom of the screen was bright red with the headline:

ALL U.S. EQUITY FUTURES ARE LOCK LIMIT DOWN.....TRADING SUSPENDED UNTIL 0900 ET MONDAY FEB 22....US DOLLAR BEING SOLD ACROSS THE BOARD

By 6:15 the Euro was trading at $1.92, the Kiwi (New Zealand Dollar) at $1.26, the Aussie Dollar well beyond par at $1.39 and the Canadian Loonie rocketing past par to $1.33. The U.S. Dollar was in a full fledged collapse and the world was putting money anywhere they could to escape the carnage. As the New Zealand equity markets struggled to handle the order flow an announcement emerged at 6:27 p.m. Eastern time that they would no longer accept U.S. dollars within their nation for the next 72 hours until the United States Federal Reserve Bank introduced stability measures.  That instantly turned a huge move to the upside to down 17% in less than three minutes and soon thereafter, trading was suspended by 7 p.m. Eastern time.  Instead of waiting to see what was next, I left at 6:51 p.m. to run down the street and take $500 from the local grocery store ATM,  returning just in time for the top of the hour news.

1900 ET

The Australian markets attempted to open but due to order imbalances they were delayed twenty-seven minutes. It was a buying frenzy in Australia also as the Aussie Dollar was skyrocketing higher and gold continued to gain, now up $273.20 per ounce in less than two hours of trading. The Chicago board was going to make a statement at 8 p.m. ET and the world was holding its collective breath because something bad was happening again in the United States and everyone wanted to buy into foreign markets to escape the American disaster on the horizon. After a brief opening, the Australian government followed suit with the New Zealand announcement and suspended acceptance of the U.S. Dollar for commerce until further notice. The Japanese were very quiet in the mean time as they announced at 7 p.m. they would keep their markets closed but the huge move in the Yen caused massive concerns as noted by the central bank. The yen appreciated from a close of 79.8213 on Friday the 19th to an opening of 48.7326 in less than an hour of trading. Nobody wanted dollars and even fewer people it was discovered wanted the British Pound.  The Pound for the first time in its history was worth less than 100 yen and it was well on its way to joining the US Dollar in a death spiral.

2000 ET

The internet is crawling. Message boards were lit up with record numbers of participants. Rumors swirled about declarations of martial law, bank holidays, secret wars and other crazy things. Yet my phone messages, conversations, texts and emails told me there was something very very wrong. Two of my friends called me to tell me the consequences of the failed 30 year bond auction last Thursday came home to roost over the weekend. Citi and BoA were rumored to have a huge CDS obligation due to the interest rates being blown outside of the norm and the 6.05% yield from the auction cost the banks an estimated $400 billion each if  they were forced to settle open swap contracts and derivative issues by Monday or the end of the month. The swaps and derivatives which were to prevent the collapse may actually have finally started it but nobody could verify anything that was happening as the NY Fed looked like a war zone with hundreds of cameras around the building and reporters speculating endlessly on every cable channel.

2100 ET

I did not know who to believe but when Bloomberg played the excerpt from Jim Rogers' interview just after the top of the hour where he said "this is what a currency collapse looks like and if you were not prepared, you were wiped out" really resonated with everyone on the Bloomberg set and throughout the news worldwide. The Chicago Futures were closed by order of the CFTC and SEC and that was the big announcement but it was assumed anyways because there was no way the COMEX or anyone else could possibly have kept up with the demand for precious metals as the last print had gold over $1579 per ounce and worse, the base metals closing at obscene prices like $6.79 per lb. for copper! The Shanghai markets were ordered open for domestic participants only and no overseas selling was allowed nor trading in US Dollars thus allowing the communists to manage their banking situation without outside influence. Unfortunately a rumor was confirmed on FNC later in the hour that Chinese troops were deployed to all U.S. and British bank branches inside their nation. That only permeated the panic already felt on the internet and in the air. The news at the top of the hour was even more shocking.

2200 ET

CNN led the hour off with coverage of the "FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2010″ with breaking news about two hedge fund managers committing suicide in their offices in New York. That did not help the confidence level nor did the statement from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at 10:09 p.m. Eastern that the "government was in full control of the situation and that the panic world wide was unwarranted."  When he finished the statement assuring that the financial markets would probably open on time in the morning, the snicker from CNBC's team of Gasparino and Griffith spoke volumes about what was really occurring.

2300 ET

Somehow a picture of Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein and JP Morgan's CEO Jamie Dimon entering the New York Federal Reserve building was leaked out and broadcast on cable news and financial news outlets causing more discussions and a genuine sense of panic to grip everyone. Reports about credit cards not working for the last two hours nationwide were swamping the newsrooms but no comments from VISA, Master Charge or anyone else was forthcoming.

0000 ET February 22, 2010

It was officially a panic. Reports on local news stations about grocery store shelves being cleaned out and ATM machines running out of money hours ago and not being refilled were broadcast nationwide. Even my local station had a story about accessing the reporter's bank account online and all they got was a very scary message as they attempted to reach his bank's web page:

404-NOT FOUND

0100 ET

WWOR and WCBS started reporting that gas stations in the New York City and northern New Jersey areas were running out of gas even though credit cards did not work. The cable news stations and financial news networks just recycled earlier news with updates at the top of the hour. The world markets were closed and everyone was holding their breath to see what happened the next morning.

0200 ET

As I struggled to stay awake, NY Federal Reserve President Denis Hughes came to the microphones with Dimon, Blankfein and shockingly Ben Bernanke. Hughes immediately deferred to Bernanke who said that the President would address the nation at 7 a.m. Eastern Time and that he felt the crisis was averted for the moment and that everyone should have faith in the United State's policy of a strong currency and banking system. After that statement was concluded, Bloomberg switched to a banking analyst from Singapore who said that the U.S. was now a hulking smoking black hole in the ground and the only thing it was good for was to return those worthless dollars back to "THAT" nation so "THEY" could burn them to stay warm this winter.

0300 ET

Someone on the message board posted a story from WTOP that military police were seen setting up roadblocks throughout Washington, D.C.  There was no video or other confirmation within that hour. I had to make double strength coffee at that point in time but instead set my alarm for 0500 to try to grab a nap. I was not about to miss what was going to be a day to remember in American history.

0509 ET

So sue me! I hit my snooze button then realized I fell asleep with the computer and television on and the news was flying. In big bold red at the top of CNBC's screen was the announcement COUNTDOWN TO SPEECH and a counter moving towards 0700 Eastern. As I flipped the channels half awake, I noticed a BREAKING NEWS announcement on CNN and there was a feed from WSB in Atlanta, GA with their helicopter video of the Georgia State Patrol closing off all streets within three blocks of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta and also around the Federal Home Loan Bank. That sent a chill down my spine as I flipped back on to the computer to see over two hundred unread emails and message upon message about shortages, internet outages, credit card problems and worst of all, gas stations running out of fuel. The other shocker was the suspension of international flights in many U.S. cities as the suppliers put every airline on C.O.D. effective immediately at 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time and that suspended a ton of flights inside the United States and worldwide. The cascading effects were stunning, even to those of us who were warning about it.

0530 ET

Several European markets attempted to open in coordination with Middle Eastern markets but the declines were so severe that within ten minutes of trading the authorities shut them all down within a half hour:

Russia -35%

Saudi Arabia -43%

Israel -22%

Switzerland -17%

Germany's DAX -41%

CAC 40 - 29%

FTSE 100 - 32%

The Euro was up another 10% against the dollar and the Swiss Franc was now worth over $1.40 U.S. As the discussions about the problems with the U.S. dollar accelerated, banks were being shut down in Europe in nation after nation to prevent runs. Sadly for the Brits, the Sterling was now trading so poorly in Europe that it was worth just 1/3 of a Euro at some trading desks. By the top of the hour, video of riots in front of banks in Frankfurt and Glasgow were broadcast nationwide.  At 5:55 a.m. Eastern the news took a dark turn with this BREAKING NEWS headline:

OBAMA AND BERNANKE TO SPEAK TO THE NATION AT 6 A.M. EST

0600 ET

The speech was low key, solemn and to the point. Obama announced a one week bank holiday. All credit card transactions and all collection actions of any sort were hereby suspended for seven days.  All financial markets were closed until further notice.  All mortgage and bill payment due dates were suspended for thirty days and no past due notices nor penalties were to be allowed by Federal Law. All schools were closed for seventy-two hours be they public or private.  The city of Washington, D.C. was hereby declared to be under a state of martial law and all citizens were ordered to observe a curfew from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily. Just as that sunk in, Ben Bernanke stepped up to the microphone to announce that President Obama, Treasury Secretary Geithner and all of the Federal Reserve Presidents along with himself were going to depart for Geneva for an emergency meeting of the G-20, IMF, World Bank and United Nations Financial Stability Working Group.  Bernanke also announced that Citigroup, N.A. and Bank of America were hereby nationalized and placed under control of the United States Treasury under the auspices of the FDIC and that Sheila Bair would have an announcement at 8 a.m. Eastern. As he finished the announcement, an obviously exhausted Federal Reserve Chairman concluded by assuring the citizens of the nation that a stable currency was their only goal from this meeting of world financial leaders. I noted he did not say what currency though he was referring to.

0800 ET

By now, CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg were knee deep in wall to wall coverage but so were the broadcast and cable networks. America was on the brink was the preaching and screaming and the "bulls" were being gored by the permabears every time they uttered any statements about "how we've been through worse" etc., etc.

The announcement of the seizure by the FDIC of two of the largest banks in the world was pretty standard and short. The follow up statement by Ms. Barr though is what caused every newsroom to take pause when she stated that "further consolidations will be announced in the next seventy-two hours."

The Bubblemedia was stunned and even shocked when Canada announced that they would attempt to open their financial markets for two hours of trading and that their banks would be open for normal domestic customers and business from 10 a.m. until noon Eastern time.  Everyone on television looked at each other and just asked "How?"

0900 ET

I had forgotten to call in sick to work but then again the phone call from the company owner was pretty much a "well now what" as we laughed in a gallows humor discussion. He understood why I was home and he had already told the employees that he was closing at noon and would reopen when we could actually collect real money on what we sold and leased out. I told him I would call him at home later or meet him with a bottle on the golf course in the morning, weather permitting.

The chilling video of the Federal Reserve heads, Geithner and Obama boarding Air Force One to leave for Geneva from Washington, D.C. really had an impact on me.

1000 ET

The Canadian markets opened up 10% in ten minutes then rolled over down 31% by 10:30. The scary part was that the Canadian dollar kept on rising even though commodity trading was suspended and everyone was wondering just what gold would be priced at if the markets were allowed to trade.

As the day wore on, it was a blur of shocking story after shocking story. The President and his entourage arrived in Switzerland along with other world leaders but little was discussed or disclosed. The reports of banks being fire bombed by nuts throughout parts of the U.S. made the international news and caused all of us to feel somewhat uncomfortable as to what was next. The 8 p.m. interruption of normal prime time programming with a FEMA NEWS ALERT which lasted ten minutes and was repeated at the top of every hour with little if any information caused even more panic in the masses. Today I watched our dollar die in a matter of hours even though I knew how it was killed months if not years ago. I just wondered how bad the announcement out of Geneva was going to be as our bankers and politicians sold our souls out to save their rear ends.

I also wondered if I would ever sleep again.

Posted 11/19/09 bobjones68 Schaumburg, IL

Scary scenario .. but very very plausible -- and quite likely to happen quickly I think.

Posted 11/20/09 Buster Las Vegas, NV

I think it's very possible after this years Christmas sales reports it was all fairy tales last year nobody wanted to believe they couldn't borrow against the house forever and make payments with equity money and an ever growing mortgage. The scanario hasn't changed people just stopped paying the mortgage because they couldn't borrow more to make the payments, banks are in zombi mode loaning TARP money with little to no documentaton to start any business as businesses are failing left and right. Several large retailers folded last year I expect a few are holding on until the end of the holiday season then will close up shop many employees are going to part time after the Christmas season and Microsoft just laid off a few thousand mroe people, in the U.S. The wars and spending on wars constitures a good portion of our spending done with phantom dollars so if the wars also end we will have a DEAD econemy people will have to make their own stuff again we can't import or buy with worthless paper as we are now it's only a matter of time February 20th is a little past Christmas as the numbers settle in and chains announce they are closing people will know there is no hope that someone will be earning the money to make payments on a bigger loan and underwater home owners will be throwing in the towl ghost malls and umpty homes will abount they can try to print or loan as much as they want it will not change the real situation. The scanario above is just a munch of people realizing what's going on and coming to terms with it as one time.

Posted 11/20/09 ScottXS Hoffman Estates, IL

Things don't look good. I didn't grasp the implications of the "Carry Trade" (borrowing/shorting US dollars to invest in more profitable and risky equities and currency) until I heard an analyist give a report on Obama's trip yesterday morning on CNBC's Squawk Box. It seems we're there is a Chinese-American counterfeiting contest going on. China will not allow its currency to appreciate relative to the dollar because its sick economy needs exports. The US will not stop printing dollars and borrowing and spending because we need employment to pay for our Chinese stuff. Catch-22, mutual-exclusion. Whose going to puke 1st in the international drinking-contest? Who will give in the game of chicken? Thanks for the story. I followed the author's links to here: http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1632-Open-Letter-To-The-Chine se-Premier.html I can't say I agree with Denninger, but I think we do owe the Chinese the heads of Greenspan, Bernanke, Geitner, Paulson, Bush, Obama et. It's pretty bad when CNBC pundits tell you to "just buy gold", as they have this week. Plutonium is still the most valuable element at the end of the day, delivered by a warhead, diplomatic pouch or however.

Posted 11/20/09 fadestyle Walnut Bottom, PA

ok guys, lets just say there is only a 1% chance this will happen. in the past 100 times i got into my car and drove and i have not been in an accident. matter of fact i have only been in 2 accidents in the past 20 years so what is the percentage of that? less than 1% of the time i got into a car i was in an accident but yet i still put on a seatbelt every time. so my point is if there is a less then 1% chance of an accident every time i get into my car and I still prepare then I sure as heck am going to put on my financial seatbelt for sure!

Posted 11/20/09 RalphFucetolaJD Newton, NJ

Scary but all too likely. And very soon. But I suspect there may be a brief period of hyper-inflation first. This past summer I read a 1930 book about the hyper-inflation in Germany in 1922-3. One of the main lessons was there were always foreigners willing to buy marks (the Wiemar govt needed hard currency for war reparations and that may have been the main reason for the mass fiat printing) until the last two months of the hyper-inflation. See: http://mises.org/daily/3661 And, until the last two months there was little unemployment as the hyper-bubble built, but over a few weeks nearly half the workers lost their jobs... Then a new gold-backed mark was introduced (in mid-November 1923) and everything stabilized until the debacle of WWII. Similarly, Zimbabwe went through a horrid hyper-inflation, with a complete collapse of the fiat unit and empty stores in January. By July, though, with the printing presses stilled and people using foreign currency only, the stores were filled and the back of the old regime (its patronage system) was broken. See: http://blog.mises.org/archives/011033.asp Well, I guess we "live in interesting times..."

Posted by fadestyle on 11/18/09
Last updated 11/18/09

Residents fight for the right to hang laundry

Jon Hurdle

Reuters
November 18, 2009

Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.

Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.

Read entire article

Posted 11/18/09 dean.engelhardt Westgrove, PA

You go Carin! Your property, your rights!

Posted 11/18/09 LizLiz Brooklyn(or Cresco,PA!) , NY

All I can say is 'holy crap.' I am in shock that people are this petty - to care about someone hanging up their laundry in their OWN yard. Don't like it? Don't LOOK! How would they like it if I told them I didn't like the color of their house - it ruins the block and they should pick a different color..