It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This work is based on SEC filings, current events, interviews, corporate press releases, and what we've learned as financial journalists. It may contain errors and you shouldn't make any investment decision based solely on what you read here. It's your money and your responsibility. Stansberry & Associates Investment Research expressly forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security they recommend to our subscribers. And all Stansberry & Associates Investment Research (and affiliated companies), employees, and agents must wait 24 hours after an initial trade recommendation is published on the Internet, or 72 hours after a direct mail publication is sent, before acting on that recommendation. Stansberry & Associates Investment Research, LLC. 1217 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21202
Today, our government owes more money to more people than anyone else in the world.
And that was before the financial crisis!
In short, with all of these bad debts piling up, we've had to begin repaying our debts by printing trillions of new dollars. The impact of this is only just now beginning to be felt.
And once our creditors figure out what's happening, they're going to be very angry.
I believe they will either completely stop accepting dollars in repayment... or greatly discount the value of these new dollars. I'm sure you think that sounds crazy, but as I'll show you, it is already happening.
And that will make our consumption-led way of life impossible to afford.
Just think about the price of oil...
Access to cheap oil has been America's #1 gift of owning the world's reserve currency.
This has made gas cheaper in the U.S. than almost anywhere else in the developed world. I know you may think gas prices have skyrocketed in recent years... but look at how much less we pay than other developed nations...
United States: $2.72 a gallon on average
Oslo, Norway: $7.41........ (172% higher)
Berlin, Germany: $6.82.... ( 151% higher)
London: $6.60................(143% higher)
Rome, Italy: $6.40............(135% higher)
Paris, France: $6.04...........(122% higher)
Tokyo, Japan: $5.40..........(98% higher)
Toronto, Canada: $3.81......(40% higher)
And here's the thing...
If oil is no longer priced in dollars, the price of oil for Americans will skyrocket immediately. It will change our lives, overnight.
Airline travel will get much more expensive. The cost to ship goods by truck to grocery stores around the country will get much more expensive. Farming itself will get a lot more costly... so will commuting to work... taking a taxi... just about everything we do will suddenly get much more expensive.
And just remember: In order for prices to start skyrocketing, all that has to happen is that other countries start preferring payments in something besides U.S. dollars.
The U.S. dollar has been the world's currency for decades now... so most Americans don't have a clue about what the repercussions are of losing this status.
You might think this could never happen... but it happens all the time when countries get too far in debt or when they consume too much or produce too little.
The price of gold is up 85% since the financial crisis. Oil prices have doubled. Soy beans are way up. Copper prices are up more than 170% since 2009. Cotton prices are up 80%... in just the past few months, since July of this year!
The states can't print money... but the Federal government can (at least for now). And for the moment, this is all that is preventing a currency collapse of unprecedented proportions.
And this is the important point: What most people don't realize is that the U.S. government can only continue printing dollars... as long as the U.S. dollar remains the world's reserve currency.
In other words, this is all going to fall apart much sooner than people think. In fact, it's already happening...
43% OF AMERICAN FAMILIES ARE ESSENTIALLY BROKE
Today, however, the government calculates unemployment mainly by counting the number of people receiving unemployment benefits. So when people's benefits expire, they are no longer counted... and the unemployment rate actually falls! Ridiculous... I know.
But the reality is, the true unemployment rate is much, much higher than what the government is reporting.
Few Americans today realize that we have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. And since Japan's new prime minister just announced that he plans to reduce the country's corporate tax rate by 15%... the U.S. will soon have THE highest corporate tax rate in the world.
As The Wall Street Journal reported:
"Over the last year the stock market has followed a path eerily similar to 1937. First, a strong, rapid run to a recovery high – same pace, same magnitude. Then a correction – again, the same. Will we continue on the path that led the correction of 1937 into a collapse in 1938?
Originally posted by Pervius
You need $4 US dollars now to get 1 Saudi Riyal. Saudi Royal Family won.