With this post, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. First off, some of you may be familiar with my friend; Scott B. Williams’ work through his book: “Bug Out: The Complete Plan for Escaping a Catastrophic Disaster Before It’s Too Late”, which is an awesome resource, of not only great information about bugging out and bug out preparedness, but it also contains valuable information about the various geographical regions of the United States, so you’ll know what kind of terrain, weather, wildlife and flora to expect in different parts of the country. In my opinion, this is a “must-have” book for every prepper and survivalist that has earned a permanent place in my own personal survival library.

Recently, Scott has released his follow-up: “Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters”. Scott touched a bit on bug out vehicles in his first book, but due to space constraints, there was only so much that could be covered in a book that was already so rich in bug out information to begin with. Ever since then, everyone (including myself) has been clamoring for more on the subject, and now it’s finally here! This book is a comprehensive guide to just about every vehicle you could possibly bug out with, (including motorcycles, boats and kayaks) with valuable information on which types of vehicles are appropriate for each given situation and how to prep your ride into first class escape vehicle. 

Both “Bug Out” and “Bug Out Vehicles” are available at Amazon.com and I highly recommend adding both books to your library of survival and preparedness resources! 

And the second bird? 

On Scott’s blog: Bug Out Survival, he posted about a You Tube channel that I have not come across yet called: The Daily Prep, which features daily videos by “Dan the Urbivalist”. His channel features over 100 episodes (or “prepisodes” as Dan calls them), with quick tips on a wide range of survival and preparedness topics. Judging by the view counts of his videos, it looks like not a lot of folks have gotten hip to his channel yet. He’s got a lot of good, easily digestible information on there, such as: How to Find Survivalists in Your Area, How Krav Maga Can Save Your Bacon and How to Get ANYTHING for $5.00, as well many reviews of books and products (his review of “Bug Out Vehicles” is posted below, as well as a video of Dan’s own vehicle bug out kit). I recommend checking out his channel if you haven’t seen it already.

The vast majority of Americans have no idea what the Federal Reserve really is. Most people think that the Fed is some bureaucratic government agency that sets the interest rates and looks out for the best interests of the American people. But that is far from the truth. 

The Federal Reserve is actually a “hybrid” – as G. Edward Griffin describes it – that has some of the characteristics of a private business and some characteristics of a government agency – as the government is intrinsically linked to the Federal Reserve in a symbiotic – or, more accurately a parasitic – relationship, but has no real control over the Fed. 

The Federal Reserve actually makes no secret about its status as a privately owned bank. When Bloomberg made a request for information about the Fed’s operations under the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Reserve’s court defense was that since it was“not an agency” of the federal government it was not subject to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. 

At its foundation, however, the Federal Reserve is private banking “cartel” (owned by a collection of various international banking interests) that has been designed to manipulate and destroy the value of our currency, rob the wealth of the American public through inflation (which is actually a hidden tax) and enslave the federal government to ever-increasing debt. 

The number one concern that Americans are concerned about right now is the economy. But instead of laying the blame where it really should lie (at the feet of Ben Bernanke and the Fed) we end up in an endless cycle of finger pointing at our increasingly indistinguishable political parties. 

The Federal Reserve has more influence and control over the performance of the U.S. economy than anyone else does. It controls the money supply, the interest rates and was responsible for handing out the bailouts to the big banks and financial institutions. If the American people are ever going to learn what is really going on with our economy, then it is absolutely imperative that they get educated about the Federal Reserve. 

The following are 10 things that every American should know about the Federal Reserve, by Michael Snyder of BlacklistedNews.com: 

#1 The Federal Reserve System Is A Privately Owned Banking Cartel. The Federal Reserve is not a government agency.

The truth is that it is a privately owned central bank. It is owned by the banks that are members of the Federal Reserve system. We do not know how much of the system each bank owns, because that has never been disclosed to the American people…In fact, if you want to find out that the Federal Reserve system is owned by the member banks, all you have to do is go to the Federal Reserve website. 

“The twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, which were established by Congress as the operating arms of the nation’s central banking system, are organized much like private corporations–possibly leading to some confusion about “ownership.” For example, the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks. However, owning Reserve Bank stock is quite different from owning stock in a private company. The Reserve Banks are not operated for profit, and ownership of a certain amount of stock is, by law, a condition of membership in the System. The stock may not be sold, traded, or pledged as security for a loan; dividends are, by law, 6 percent per year.” 

Foreign governments and foreign banks do own significant ownership interests in the member banks that own the Federal Reserve system. So it would be accurate to say that the Federal Reserve is partially foreign-owned. But until the exact ownership shares of the Federal Reserve are revealed, we will never know to what extent the Fed is foreign-owned.

 

#2 The Federal Reserve System Is A Perpetual Debt Machine

As long as the Federal Reserve System exists, U.S. government debt will continue to go up and up and up. 

This runs contrary to the conventional wisdom that Democrats and Republicans would have us believe, but unfortunately it is true. 

The way our system works, whenever more money is created more debt is created as well.

For example, whenever the U.S. government wants to spend more money than it takes in (which happens constantly), it has to go ask the Federal Reserve for it. The federal government gives U.S. Treasury bonds to the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Reserve gives the U.S. government “Federal Reserve Notes” in return. Usually this is just done electronically. 

So where does the Federal Reserve get the Federal Reserve Notes? 

It just creates them out of thin air. 

Wouldn’t you like to be able to create money out of thin air? 

Instead of issuing money directly, the U.S. government lets the Federal Reserve create it out of thin air and then the U.S. government borrows it. 

Talk about stupid. 

When this new debt is created, the amount of interest that the U.S. government will eventually pay on that debt is not also created. 

So where will that money come from? 

Well, eventually the U.S. government will have to go back to the Federal Reserve to get even more money to finance the ever expanding debt that it has gotten itself trapped into.

It is a debt spiral that is designed to go on perpetually. 

You see, the reality is that the money supply is designed to constantly expand under the Federal Reserve system. That is why we have all become accustomed to thinking of inflation as “normal”.

So what does the Federal Reserve do with the U.S. Treasury bonds that it gets from the U.S. government? 

Well, it sells them off to others. There are lots of people out there that have made a ton of money by holding U.S. government debt. 

In fiscal 2011, the U.S. government paid out 454 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt.

That is 454 billion dollars that was taken out of our pockets and put into the pockets of wealthy individuals and foreign governments around the globe. 

The truth is that our current debt-based monetary system was designed by greedy bankers that wanted to make enormous profits by using the Federal Reserve as a tool to create money out of thin air and lend it to the U.S. government at interest. 

And that plan is working quite well. 

Most Americans today don’t understand how any of this works, but many prominent Americans in the past did understand it. 

For example, Thomas Edison was once quoted in the New York Times as saying the following: 

“That is to say, under the old way any time we wish to add to the national wealth we are compelled to add to the national debt. 

Now, that is what Henry Ford wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000 — that is what it amounts to, with interest. People who will not turn a shovelful of dirt nor contribute a pound of material will collect more money from the United States than will the people who supply the material and do the work. That is the terrible thing about interest. In all our great bond issues the interest is always greater than the principal. All of the great public works cost more than twice the actual cost, on that account. Under the present system of doing business we simply add 120 to 150 per cent, to the stated cost. 

But here is the point: If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good.” 

We should have listened to men like Edison and Ford. 

But we didn’t. 

And so we pay the price. 

On July 1, 1914 (a few months after the Fed was created) the U.S. national debt was 2.9 billion dollars.

Today, it is more than more than 5000 times larger. 

Yes, the perpetual debt machine is working quite well, and most Americans do not even realize what is happening.

 

#3 The Federal Reserve Has Destroyed More Than 96% Of The Value Of The U.S. Dollar

Did you know that the U.S. dollar has lost 96.2 percent of its value since 1900?  Of course almost all of that decline has happened since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913.

Because the money supply is designed to expand constantly, it is guaranteed that all of our dollars will constantly lose value. 

Inflation is a “hidden tax” that continually robs us all of our wealth.  The Federal Reserve always says that it is “committed” to controlling inflation, but that never seems to work out so well.

And current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says that it is actually a good thing to have a little bit of inflation. He plans to try to keep the inflation rate at about 2 percent in the coming years.

So what is so bad about 2 percent? That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? 

Well, just consider the following excerpt from a recent Forbes article: 

“The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years. The debauch of the dollar will be even greater if the Fed exceeds its goal of a 2 percent per year increase in the price level.”

 

#4 The Federal Reserve Can Bail Out Whoever It Wants To With No Accountability

The American people got so upset about the bailouts that Congress gave to the Wall Street banks and to the big automakers, but did you know that the biggest bailouts of all were given out by the Federal Reserve? 

Thanks to a very limited audit of the Federal Reserve that Congress approved a while back, we learned that the Fed made trillions of dollars in secret bailout loans to the big Wall Street banks during the last financial crisis. They even secretly loaned out hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign banks.

According to the results of the limited Fed audit mentioned above, a total of$16.1 trillion in secret loans were made by the Federal Reserve between December 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010. 

The following is a list of loan recipients that was taken directly from page 131of the audit report:

 

Citigroup – $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley – $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch – $1.949 trillion
Bank of America – $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC – $868 billion
Bear Sterns – $853 billion
Goldman Sachs – $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland – $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase – $391 billion
Deutsche Bank – $354 billion
UBS – $287 billion
Credit Suisse – $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland – $181 billion
BNP Paribas – $175 billion
Wells Fargo – $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia – $142 billion
Dresdner Bank – $135 billion
Societe Generale – $124 billion
“All Other Borrowers” – $2.639 trillion

 

So why haven’t we heard more about this? 

This is scandalous. 

In addition, it turns out that the Fed paid enormous sums of money to the big Wall Street banks to help “administer” these nearly interest-free loans…. 

Not only did the Federal Reserve give 16.1 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free loans to the “too big to fail” banks, the Fed also paid them over 600 million dollars to help run the emergency lending program. According to the GAO, the Federal Reserve shelled out an astounding $659.4 million in “fees” to the very financial institutions which caused the financial crisis in the first place. 

Does reading that make you angry? 

It should.

 

#5 The Federal Reserve Is Paying Banks Not To Lend Money

Did you know that the Federal Reserve is actually paying banks not to make loans?

It is true. 

Section 128 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 allows the Federal Reserve to pay interest on “excess reserves” that U.S. banks park at the Fed. 

So the banks can just send their cash to the Fed and watch the money come rolling in risk-free.

So are many banks taking advantage of this? 

You tell me.  Just check out the chart below.  The amount of “excess reserves” parked at the Fed has gone from nearly nothing to about 1.5 trillion dollars since 2008…. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But shouldn’t the banks be lending the money to us so that we can start businesses and buy homes?

You would think that is how it is supposed to work. 

Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve is not working for us. The Federal Reserve is working for the big banks. 

Sadly, most Americans have no idea what is going on. 

Another example of this is the government debt carry trade.

Here is how it works.  The Federal Reserve lends gigantic piles of nearly interest-free cash to the big Wall Street banks, and in turn those banks use the money to buy up huge amounts of government debt.  Since the return on government debt is higher, the banks are able to make large profits very easily and with very little risk. 

This scam was also explained in a recent article in the Guardian…. 

Consider this: we pretend that banks are private businesses that should be allowed to run their own affairs. But they are the biggest scroungers of public money of our time. Banks are lent vast sums of money by central banks at near-zero interest. They lend that money to us or back to the government at higher rates and rake in the difference by the billion. They don’t even have to make clever investments to make huge profits. 

That is a pretty good little scam they have got going, wouldn’t you say?

 

#6 The Federal Reserve Creates Artificial Economic Bubbles That Are Extremely Damaging

By allowing a centralized authority such as the Federal Reserve to dictate interest rates, it creates an environment where financial bubbles can be created very easily. Over the past several decades, we have seen bubble after bubble.  Most of these have been the result of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates artificially low.  If the free market had been setting interest rates all this time, things would have never gotten so far out of hand. 

For example, the housing crash would have never been so horrific if the Federal Reserve had not created such ideal conditions for a housing bubble in the first place.  But we allow the Fed to continue to make the same mistakes. 

Right now, the Federal Reserve continues to set interest rates much, much lower than they should be.  This is causing a tremendous misallocation of economic resources, and there will be massive consequences for that down the line.

 

#7 The Federal Reserve System Is Dominated By The Big Wall Street Banks

Even since it was created, the Federal Reserve system has been dominated by the big Wall Street banks.

The following is from a previous article that I did about the Fed….

The New York representative is the only permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, while other regional banks rotate in 2 and 3 year intervals.  The former head of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, is now U.S. Treasury Secretary.  The truth is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been the most important of the regional Fed banks by far, and in turn the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been dominated by Wall Street and the major New York banks.

 

#8 It Is Not An Accident That We Saw The Personal Income Tax And The Federal Reserve System Both Come Into Existence In 1913

On February 3rd, 1913 the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.  Later that year, the United States Revenue Act of 1913 imposed a personal income tax on the American people and we have had one ever since. 

Without a personal income tax, it is hard to have a central bank.  It takes a lot of money to finance all of the government debt that a central banking system creates. 

It is no accident that the 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913 and the Federal Reserve system was also created in 1913. They have a symbiotic relationship and they are designed to work together.

We could fill Congress with people that are committed to ending this oppressive system, but so far we have chosen not to do that. So our children and our grandchildren will face a lifetime of debt slavery because of us. 

I am sure they will be thankful for that.

 

#9 The Current Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, Has A Nightmarish Track Record Of Incompetence

The mainstream media portrays Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as a brilliant economist, but is that really the case? 

Let’s go to the videotape. 

The following is an extended excerpt from an article that I published previously…. 

In 2005, Bernanke said that we shouldn’t worry because housing prices had never declined on a nationwide basis before and he said that he believed that the U.S. would continue to experience close to “full employment”…. 

“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.” 

In 2005, Bernanke also said that he believed that derivatives were perfectly safe and posed no danger to financial markets….

“With respect to their safety, derivatives, for the most part, are traded among very sophisticated financial institutions and individuals who have considerable incentive to understand them and to use them properly.” 

In 2006, Bernanke said that housing prices would probably keep rising…. 

“Housing markets are cooling a bit. Our expectation is that the decline in activity or the slowing in activity will be moderate, that house prices will probably continue to rise.” 

In 2007, Bernanke insisted that there was not a problem with subprime mortgages…. 

“At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained. In particular, mortgages to prime borrowers and fixed-rate mortgages to all classes of borrowers continue to perform well, with low rates of delinquency.” 

In 2008, Bernanke said that a recession was not coming…. 

“The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.” 

A few months before Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed, Bernanke insisted that they were totally secure…. 

“The GSEs are adequately capitalized. They are in no danger of failing.” 

For many more examples that demonstrate the absolutely nightmarish track record of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, please see the following articles….

 

*”Say What? 30 Ben Bernanke Quotes That Are So Stupid That You Won’t Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry”

*”Is Ben Bernanke A Liar, A Lunatic Or Is He Just Completely And Totally Incompetent?”

But after being wrong over and over and over, Barack Obama still nominated Ben Bernanke for another term as Chairman of the Fed.

 

#10 The Federal Reserve Has Become Way Too Powerful

The Federal Reserve is the most undemocratic institution in America.

The Federal Reserve has become so powerful that it is now known as “the fourth branch of government”, but there are less checks and balances on the Fed than there are on the other three branches. 

The Federal Reserve runs the U.S. economy but it is not accountable to the American people.  We can’t vote those that run the Fed out of office if we do not like what they do. 

Yes, the president appoints those that run the Fed, but he also knows that if he does not tread lightly he won’t get the money from the big Wall Street banks that he needs for his next election.

Thankfully, there are a few members of Congress that are complaining about how much power the Fed has.  For example, Ron Paul once told MSNBC that he believes that the Federal Reserve is now actually more powerful than Congress….. 

The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress.” 

As members of Congress such as Ron Paul have started to shed some light on the activities of the Federal Reserve, that has caused many in the mainstream media to come to the defense of the Fed.

For example, a recent CNBC article entitled “If The Federal Reserve Is Abolished, What Then?” makes it sound like there is absolutely no other rational alternative to having the Federal Reserve run our economy. 

But this is not what our founders intended. 

The founders did not intend for a private banking cartel to issue our money and set our interest rates for us. 

According to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Congress has been given the responsibility to “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”. 

So why is the Federal Reserve doing it? 

But the CNBC article mentioned above makes it sound like the sky would fall if control of the currency was handed back over to the American people. 

At one point, the article asks the following question…. 

How would the U.S. economy then function? Something has to take its place, right?” 

No, the truth is that we don’t need anyone to “manage” our economy.

The U.S. Treasury could be in charge of issuing our currency and the free market could set our interest rates. 

We don’t need to have a centrally-planned economy. We aren’t China.

And it goes against everything that our founders believed to be running up so much government debt.  For example, Thomas Jefferson once declared that if he could add just one more amendment to the U.S. Constitution it would be a ban on all government borrowing….

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

Oh, how things would have been different if we had only listened to Thomas Jefferson.

Please share this article with as many people as you can.  These are things that every American should know about the Federal Reserve, and we need to educate the American people about the Fed while there is still time.

Can we all call it “official” now? Now that the World Bank has issued a report warning of a severe global economic meltdown? They’re not even trying to deny it anymore.

And it’s not just the World Bank that’s reporting that the outlook is a lot bleaker than anyone wanted to admit. Every day, more and more prominent, mainstream figures in the financial world are now telling us we’re on our way to massive economic crisis and that we need to start preparing for the worst.

From the Bloomberg article: “Apocalypse How? Dire ’12 Forecasts“. 

-John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisors: “We’ve got a cancer. That cancer is debt”

-Mark Spitznagel of Universa Investments: “Too much malinvestment has been kept alive, and history shows an inevitable wipeout, which started in 2000.”

-Michael Panzner of Financial Armageddon: “The fundamental outlook is even worse now than it was a few weeks ago, given (the lack of positive) developments in Europe and growing evidence that the economies of major countries around the world are deteriorating fast.”

Originally it was thought that the economic problems in Europe could be contained to just a few countries, so nobody was too concerned about it, but the global economy is more interconnected today than ever. Back in 2008 the financial crisis that started on Wall Street ended up devastating economies all over the planet. The same thing will happen during this next great financial crisis. Now it’s looking like this global economic crash will leave no country unscathed.

At this point, almost everyone in the financial world is anticipating a Greek default of one form or another. The fact is, they’re already in default (after 2 bailouts), as well as a full-blown depression. The austerity measures imposed by Greece’s lenders were supposed to help Greece pull itself out (at least a little bit), but they’re actually making things worse.

Manufacturers are selling their products outside of the country where they can get higher prices. Twenty percent of the country’s retail stores have gone under. The unemployment rate rose to over 18 percent (from around 16 percent last summer). For those under the age of 24, 43.5 percent are now unemployed. The Greek economy is shrinking at at annual rate of 5.5 percent, and their national debt is now at 189 percent of their annual GDP.

Everybody is waiting for March 20^th, the day when Greece will either make its 14.5 billion euro bond payment or it will default. If they do, not only will it sink Greece’s own banks, but the banks of Germany and France will be hit hard and it would leave Spain and Italy (which are struggling in depressions of their own) totally dependent on a lifeline from the European Central Bank.

Trends forecaster Gerald Celente recently explained to ABC Australia that much of Europe is already essentially experiencing an economic depression….

“If you live in Greece, you’re in a depression; if you live in Spain, you’re in a depression; if you live in Portugal or Ireland, you’re in a depression,” Celente said. “If you live in Lithuania, you’re running to the bank to get your money out of the bank as the bank runs go on. It’s a depression. Hungary, there’s a depression, and much of Eastern Europe, Romania, Bulgaria. And there are a lot of depressions going on [already].”

This time, the U.S. economy is in much worse shape than it was back in 2008. Then, the “official” national debt figures were over $10T. In less than 4 years, we’ve gone past the $15T mark (though many believe the actual figures are much higher). 

So what are we going to do here in the U.S. when large numbers of banks fail and unemployment skyrockets? Where’s the bailout money going to come from this time for all those “too big to fail” institutions? What’s going to replenish the unemployment coffers?

We’re all afraid of socialism in America, but this country is already a socialist, welfare state. As I mentioned in an earlier post; nearly half of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of financial benefits from the government already. In the coming crisis, the number of people dependent on the government is only going to go even higher.

I’m afraid a global economic meltdown will be disastrous for us on more than just a financial level. In times like these, the government will always seek to distract us by creating a common enemy, upon which to redirect the anger and animosity of the American people, and in doing so, make another BOATLOAD of money for government contractors.

That’s right…  Another war.  Can anyone say…. Iran?

You can also expect to see civil unrest and rioting as millions of people lose their jobs, savings and homes. Gee, it’s a good thing Obama signed that NDAA into law, just in time to deal with all those starving, homeless, “domestic terrorists” that are suddenly going to be appearing out of nowhere. And if they run out of room at Guantanamo Bay, they’ve got plenty of fresh new FEMA camps in which to indefinitely detain them.

Again, Gerald Celente:

“…and the build up to social unrest, calamity and possible civil war can be seen a mile away…They just passed a law in the United states, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),” he said. “It now gives the president the right to identify a person like me and call me a terrorist and that I’m against the government. And the military can come and break down my doors—the military—and arrest me, charge me with nothing, give me no trial, no rights of habeas corpus, no jury, no judge, and they can kill me if they so choose, torture me; they can send me to any country around the world.”

The ramifications of a dollar devaluation aren’t clear, but an enacted NDAA, FEMA camp readiness and scheduled TSA checkpoint expansion plans suggest the U.S. may enter a crisis on par with the lead up to the Civil War.

When even the World Bank tells us to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst, you know that it’s getting late in the game. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people out there are still asleep and will only believe what they want to believe. They don’t want to accept that a great economic crisis is coming, so when it does happen they’re going to be the ones who suffer the most.

If you’re just “waking up” to the real world, there’s no more time to wait. Start preparing now and spread the word as far as you can! To read more on how to prepare for the coming economic disaster, check out this article from the Economic Collapse Blog.

Never mind the Mayan calendar.  There are plenty of other real and demonstrable issues that are building to a “perfect storm” that threaten our infrastructure, society and general survival, that don’t require speculation or “belief” in invisible planets, lizard people, judgment day or the end of the 13th baktun.

That’s not to say I’ve ruled any of that out (well… except for the Mayan calendar. But that’s a topic for another article). Anything’s possible until unquestionably proven or disproven, but if I wasted my time and energy worrying about what may, or may not happen, I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. I may get hit by a bus the next time I go into town, or I may slip in the shower and break my crazy neck, but I’m not about to let that cripple me with fear and apprehension.

What I’m more concerned about are the trends and forces that have been building visible and quantifiable momentum over recent years (to those of us who are “awake”, that is), pushing us closer and closer to collapse on numerous fronts – or a “confluence of crises”, as some have called it.

When you consider problems such as the growing U.S. and Global economic crisis, the incremental destruction of our Constitutional rights and liberties, our unsustainable energy infrastructure, the world-wide dwindling of food production capabilities, the depletion of fresh water reserves, the increase of natural disasters (yes, climate change is happening… but it’s not all about carbon emissions) and the United States’ ever-expanding imperialist agenda of invasion and occupation – coupled with increasing socio-political unrest throughout the Middle East… You don’t need to make up more fantastic and implausible reasons to be prepared (and these are but a few examples).

In recent years, I have been somewhat reserved about being too emphatic in my warnings about the growing dangers. Mostly because I am too well aware that if you run around hollering “doom and gloom” and warning people about TEOTWAWKI, you’re typically going to be perceived as a nut-case, and whatever you say – no matter how valid – will be either ignored or taken with a grain of salt. So I tried to nudge people a little at a time… in bits and pieces… so as not to be a complete shock to their conditioned psyche.

But time is running out for those who are still waiting to see how things will “play out” before they decide to start prepping. Things are playing out right now, and have been for some time. What we are experiencing has been described as a “collapse in slow motion”, and as such, just like the proverbial frog, many aren’t even aware that we’re slowly being boiled. Don’t wait for the regretful epiphany of hindsight to make you aware of what’s going on all around you right now!

But don’t take my word for it alone. Recently, Gerald Celente’s Trends Journal has published their Top 12 Trends for 2012. Celente is one of the few economists and trends researchers out in the media who tells it like it is. He’s not beholden to the corporate owners or the powers that be, so he doesn’t deal in BS. He has an impressive track record of dozens of accurate trends predictions going all the way back to the 1987 stock market crash and is called by many the most trusted trends forecaster in the world.

1. Economic Martial Law: Given the current economic and geopolitical conditions, the central banks and world governments already have plans in place to declare Economic Martial Law … with the possibility of military martial law to follow.

2. Battlefield America: With a stroke of the Presidential pen, language was removed from an earlier version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), granting el Presidente authority to act as judge, jury and executioner. Citizens, welcome to “Battlefield America.”

3. Invasion of the Occtupy: 15 years ago, Gerald Celente predicted in his book Trends 2000 that prolonged protests would hit Wall Street in the early years of the new millennium and would spread nationwide. The “Occtupy” is now upon us, and it is like nothing history has ever witnessed.

4. Climax Time: The financial house of cards is collapsing. In 2012, many of the long-simmering socioeconomic and geopolitical trends that Gerald Celente has been accurately forecasting will come to a climax. Some will arrive with a big bang and others less dramatically … but no less consequentially. What’s next for the world? Are you prepared?

5. Technocrat Takeover: “Democracy is Dead; Long Live the Technocrat!” A pair of financial coup d’états in Greece and Italy have installed two unelected figures as head of state. No one yet in the mainstream media is calling this merger of state and corporate powers by its proper name: Fascism, nor are they calling these “technocrats” by their proper name: Bankers! Can a rudderless ship be saved because a technocrat is at the helm?

6. Repatriate! Repatriate!: It took a small, but financially and politically powerful group to sell the world on globalization, and it will take a large, committed and coordinated citizens’ movement to “un-sell” it. The “Repatriate! Repatriate!” trend will pit the creative instincts of a multitude of individuals against the repressive monopoly of the multinationals. 

CLICK HERE to read the entire list.

Every day I try to come up with some cool and interesting things to post about here at Survivalist.com, but more importantly, the information should be important to know. But while we’re occupied thinking about food storage, firearms, water filtration and all the other usual gear, there’s a lot of simple things that’s just as important to stock up on, but don’t really get talked about much.

You know, cheap stuff that’s easy to pick up, like toilet paper, socks, shoes, clothing, etc. The kind of items that will either run out or wear out in a long-term survival situation and won’t be able to go to Wal Mart to replace, or improvise a substitute for. For example; let’s say you have a year’s worth of food stashed away, but only enough toilet paper to last you a month? Toilet paper may not sound like an essential item for survival, but it’s more sanitary and a lot more comfortable than using leaves, or newspaper, or whatever’s lying around.

How about soap, shampoo and other hygiene products? Hygiene is extremely important. Unsanitary conditions breed disease, so you don’t want to overlook that in your preps. Now, some of you may be thinking: “Well, I can make my own soap!” But do you really want to be thinking about soapmaking while the world is falling apart all around you? It takes time to make soap… A commodity you won’t have much of in a SHTF scenario.

Do you have plenty of plastic bags? Containers? Aluminum foil? (no, not for making hats!). How about extra clothes, socks, underwear, boots, and gloves (both work gloves and winter gloves) to last for at least a year or more? When I first moved to Flagstaff, AZ back when I was in my 20′s, I was as poor as a poor boy could be. I had no car and worked 2 part-time jobs on opposite ends of town and I was just barely getting by (there’s a reason they call Flagstaff “poverty with a view”!) When winter came around, I only had one beat-up old pair of hiking boots with holes in them and couldn’t afford to buy another pair. So I had to tie plastic Safeway bags on my feet over 2 or 3 pairs of socks, to try to keep my them dry and warm as I trudged through the snow to and from my two jobs… The operative word here is “try”. It was pretty miserable.

Ever since then, I’ve always kept extra boots and shoes on hand (and unworn) until I needed them. Even if you have high-quality, bomb-proof boots meant to last a lifetime, the soles will eventually wear out, and unless you happen to be cobbler, and have access to the materials you need, you’ll be SOL.

I came across a couple of videos on You Tube that cover this very same topic… These are just a few examples of items that are easily overlooked in our prepping plans. After watching these videos, take some time to think about what items are overlooked in your inventory. Many of these items are cheap and easy to get now, but you’ll be kicking yourself if you run out and there’s nowhere to go to get more.

Yeah, I know it’s the middle of January and there ain’t any green wild edibles to be had up here in the north for a while, but when we’re in the deep, darkness of winter up here on the mountain, it cheers me up to let my mind drift to the spring and summer months ahead…

A lot of our readers are familiar with our good friend and wild edibles expert (and all-around swell guy); Sergei Boutenko. He wrote an article for Survivalist Magazine about wild edibles for our 3^rd issue and he was one of the featured experts at our Survival & Preparedness Conference in Dallas last May.

For those who may not be familiar with Sergei, he has an amazing story of true survival that happened when he and his family were on a hike from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. They miscalculated the amount of food they would need to be shipped ahead of them to various points along the trail and ended up running out of food. With little money and past the point of return, they put their knowledge of edible plants to good use, not only surviving but thriving by foraging wild plants all along the way!

Being of the typical carnivorous inclination, I would have never imagined that you could survive (especially in a physically rigorous situation) on wild plants alone, until I heard Sergei’s story. In fact, when people would ask me how a vegetarian could survive in the wilderness without eating meat, I would tell them that wild plants are fine as supplement, but your body needs all the oils, fats and protein – that can only come from meat – to maintain the levels of energy and strength that you need in a survival scenario.

Sergei has taught me a lot about wild edibles since then, and every now and then, I like to check out his website and his YouTube channel to see what new stuff he’s got going on. Today, I came across this 4-part series that teaches how to identify 23 different types of common, wild edible plants that are found almost anywhere. Watching the video lifted my spirits a bit and almost made it feel a little warmer up here at the mountain retreat (made me feel a little hungry too!), so I thought I’d share it with y’all.

By the time you’re done watching these videos, you’ll be able to identify a bunch of edible plants, no matter where you live.  Sergei also talks about the health benefits and other uses of the wild plants covered. And it’s not just good to be familiar with wild edibles for survival, but it can also help you save money on your grocery bill too!

One of the most important survival skills that you can learn is how to defend yourself in a hostile environment. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend years mastering martial arts, or even be particularly large, strong, or fit to defend yourself effectively.

When people think about self-defense, many immediately think of martial arts. Martial arts are all about style, form, grace, mental discipline and physical control. Self-defense in a survival context – at the street level – has little to do with any of that. If you find yourself in a confrontation, and you have no weapons with which to defend yourself, you’re literally fighting for your life. There are no rules, you don’t pick up points for style, and no one is going to care if you fight “clean”, or “fair”.

In a civilized society, most moral, emotionally stable people don’t like the idea of harming another human being, but when that society breaks down and people get desperate, there will be those who won’t think twice about hurting, or even killing you in order to take what you have. If you hesitate, or have reservations about doing what it takes to neutralize an imminent threat, you will become a statistic. You can’t use diplomacy, you won’t be able to talk your way out of it, and nobody’s going to come to your rescue.

Below are 7 basic self defense principles to keep in mind:

Simplicity & Speed

You don’t need elaborate, tricky moves to incapacitate your attacker. The simpler your moves are, the more quickly you’ll be able to execute them. The quicker you end the fight, the better your chances are of survival. The longer a fight drags out, the riskier it gets, as fatigue will set in and your attacker will have more opportunities to take you down. Most fights usually only last a few seconds, and if your opponent is not down by then, you probably will be.

Kick him in the jimmy!

I don’t think I need to explain this tactic too much. Just one pointer; when executing this move, it’s better to strike with your shin than your toe for more surface-area contact. And don’t get too hung up on whether it’s “fair” or “dirty” fighting. When you’re fighting for your life, everything’s fair. Just bear in mind that this is not always a fight-ending move. Due to adrenaline, or mental block, or fight-or-flight response (I honestly don’t know what the reason is, actually) there can be a delayed reaction to the pain from being struck “down there”. It actually happened to me once. I’ll tell you, other guy was quite surprised when I didn’t fold up like a lawn chair. But I sure felt it after everything was over!

If an Attacker Can’t See, He Can’t Fight

There are several ways to temporarily blind your opponent. You can simply poke him in the eyes with your fingers, a car key, or some other object. You can throw something in his face (sand, boiling water, alcohol, whatever you can get your hands on). You can also hit his nose, which will cause temporary blindness, and watery eyes.

Also, there are simple ways to maneuver around an attacker and quickly end up behind him. From this position, he cannot see you at all, while you have access to some very vulnerable targets on his body: the back of his neck, small of his back, back of his knee, Achilles heel, etc. You can also very easily get into the choke holdposition once you’re behind him.

If an Attacker Can’t Focus, He Can’t Fight

Obviously, if your opponent can’t think straight, he can’t fight well. The attacker usually uses the “element of surprise” to his advantage. You should turn the tables and use that strategy against him. Any technique that will temporarily throw him off, even for a second, will give you the added edge. Striking the ear in a certain way will cause his ears to ring, which will throw off his stability for a bit. Striking the nose (as mentioned earlier) will also stun him for a bit. Screaming can also work very well in distracting and/or confusing him, at least a second or two. Remember, every second counts, the moment you see him startled, deliver the lethal blow.

Any move or strike that causes quick, sharp pains can work well to distract the attacker, at least temporarily. Strikes to the eyes, nose, ears, temples, throat, upper lip will do the job.

If an Attacker Can’t Stand, He Can’t Fight

If a man loses his balance, he usually loses the fight. There are various ways to take an attacker down. Use his weight and momentum against him. Push or pull him the right way, or put his knees out of commission. The knee is an especially vulnerable area. A well placed kick will cause a great deal of pain. If you force it to bend the other way, it breaks. And, as soon as the knee gives out, the attacker goes down, no matter how big or strong he is. Break the knee and you take him down. A kick to the crotch is also very effective, for the same reason. The opponent can’t help but buckle from the pain.

Finally, if the attacker is rushing towards you, you can simply brace yourself and stop him by pushing against his jaw, neck or upper chest area. The effect is similar to a person moving forward and suddenly being stopped by a clothesline that hits his face or neck area. His body is still in forward motion while his head comes to a stop, causing him to fall fast.

If an Attacker Can’t Breathe, He Can’t Fight

This move is a fairly dangerous, and you should only use this if you run out of other options. Striking the attacker anywhere on the throat can cause temporary breathing problems, but it can also cause permanent damage, and even death. This includes striking the Adam’s apple, or the small indentation where the neck and chest meet. Striking at the solar plexus (right below the ribs, front and center) or the floating ribs (sides of ribs, below the chest) can also cause loss of breath temporarily.

If an Attacker Can’t Catch You, He Can’t Fight

Of course, the first winning move in self defense is not to get into a fight in the first place. Sometimes the fight may come to you and you may have no other choice but to defend yourself, (such as if you’re cornered, or protecting your home or family) but you should never put yourself in a situation where you will have to fight.

When venturing out of your “safe” zone, stealth and evasion are your highest objectives. If trouble should cross your path and a confrontation seems imminent, seek a path of escape first. I don’t care how big and tough you are, or what color your belt is; societal collapse in an urban environment won’t be like the dojo, or the schoolyard, or a bar fight… it will be all too real. Anyone who has a mind to attack you will be desperate for whatever you’ve got (even if it’s just the clothes on your back), and desperation can turn a human into a sociopath.

You can never tell what kind of situation you’re getting yourself into. Where there’s one assailant, there’s likely to be more lurking in the shadows. They’ll more’n likely have weapons, and I can guarantee you, they won’t hang back and fight you one at a time, like in the movies.