At least where it counts.
Aside from the fact that there will be a Trigger Event which causes suspension of all access to banking, trading accounts, and other business repositories with equity balances under a declared condition of Martial Law; in the event that such does not occur, there still will be no deflation.
What will deflate is garbage; the crap nobody needs or wants, IE junk goods.
The deflation-hyperinflation was BS'ed to death here about 3.5 years ago. The hyper-tiger showed what minimal grasp he had of economics on those threads. Maybe they remain archived? Not like it matters much.
The deal about deflation is nobody has ever really experienced it in a fiat money system. How can paper, backed with nothing, actually appreciate? It can't! Yet, the arguments continue to be made and rationalized.
In America, most consumer goods and in fact, almost everything we are able to buy is now made abroad and transported to this shore. Worldwide, there is an energy and especially fuel shortage. Not many ships are powered by coal any longer, so shipping/importing is all subject to ever increasing fuel costs. Fuels will not be getting more affordable in terms of dolllar pricing, so all imports will increase in cost, unless dumped at severe consequence by the seller and/or importer. Junk goods, (non-essentials) will likely be dumped. Essentials will not.
Many confuse a seller willing to take less for goods with deflation. These are not synonomous. There may be goods that must be sold at any price or they spoil/expire. Buyers will squeeze sellers as fully as possible, but buyers don't want expired goods anymore than sellers want to get stuck holding them. Look for items with markdowns and substantially reduced costs to no longer be as desirable to the consumer, but need can mandate the purchase anyway. Quality merchandise will not be sold at severe discount.
Just in time inventories mean that retailers have small exposure to markdown loss. A firm doing $10M in business may only have $500K of inventory if they have fantastic turnover. Retailers selling at severe markdown have no need to continue their enterprise due to increasing costs to acquire goods (imported goods are rising in expense due to transport and dollar exchange devaluation).
When have you ever seen Good Quality Merchandise sell at distressed levels?
There is ALWAYS demand for GQM for the value it represents. Staple Merchandise, products people require for living are not going to deflate, if anything they will rise due to competition from buyers for scarce products and resources.
Virtually every usable tool and device to enable self-sufficiency will rise in value and price. Papermoney may not be a viable medium of exchange for these goods.
There are bubbles which have greatly inflated some aspect of the economy. Credit is largely responsible for this. Yet, credit is collapsing as I type this. Most credit availability has been removed from the system already. Those who have made their living borrowing to buy, selling cheap goods or superfluous goods are in for a rough time.
The deflationary viewpoint has always presumed that holders of vital goods would sell their goods at severe discount to service their debt. Such is not true. Any wholesale supplier can tell you that they have no right to recourse for recovery of their merchandise from a debtor. They risk loss of merchandise unless their buyers payup; never much left for supplier-creditors in any bankruptcy proceeding, everybody else gets paid from the sale of your merchandise.
What does the term "flight to quality" mean? No, we're not talking about buying paper, not even T-Bills or Govt Bonds. Quality merchandise will be sought after, competed for by those still holding dollars. Sellers will maximize profits in an unusual market, ancillary junk will be moved to allow more quality mdse to replace it; at least as long as there is any stabilty and product to buy in-country, and delivery for the goods available.
Tract houses in ticky-tacky subdivisions will devalue. Homestead-Survivalist properties will soar in price. Value is where it is under changing conditions.
Money will decline in utility when there is no supply chain. Once mdse stocks in-country are depleted, that may be all she wrote.
Thinking that you are going to scoop up "bargains" becaus cash is king in a deflationary environment will be a FATAL ERROR. Those with essential and quality goods will be king. Those who did not see the writing on the wall and prepare long befoe are behind the 8-ball. Junk is always known to be shoddy. It is bought with the idea that, "When this wears out, I'll get another; maybe even cheaper." When persons realize they may have to wait months or years to resupply, they will pay for the best they can get.
America has been wrecked by deliberate design. Actual costs of exporting all production hidden by EZ Credit and manipulated fuel prices. All that made America a juggernaut of production is gone. None of this is buy accident, which is why a Trigger Event will occur and cause capitulation or cessation of the Nation itself. That is the plan, after looting all deposits and funds.
While you still have time, while you can still buy quality goods and preparedness items, I encourage you to take action. Food, water purification gear, defensive weapons and other self-sufficiency items will be a Godsend to you and your family; if you exercise the foresight to prepare and not believe the deflation lie. There will be no deflation on goods you will want to buy, but if you wait to supply your family you will pay premium if you can buy the goods you want at all.
Gresham's Law is applicable to any situation. When cheaper goods enter a market to fill the void of quality goods, the cheaper goods will command the same price. Compare a Peace Dollar to a Susan B. Anthony and see if that isn't so.
Before your money loses its acceptance, use it. Money is a tool. Fiat money is no store of wealth as many will soon learn.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Final Warning
Call me an old man. Call me crazy. Call me anything you want. But I get stuff from people all over the world. And these days I've been paying close attention to the US economy BECAUSE it's been so weird lately.
OK, I'm NOT saying this guy has all the answers, but some of what he's BEEN saying has been dead on the money. You would literally have to have been in suspended animation and just awoke today to not know that the mortgage market in the USA IS having problems.
Will this lead to a recession or a depression? No idea. The authors three reasons WHY the Fed can't save the economy IS an interesting look at the process though.
Have we as a country been riding a tidal wave of debt that is about to crash on to the shores of reality? Probably.
This will also effect every person in the world. The USA is the machine that 'eats' (consumes) the largest amount of goods and services in the world. If that slows down or ceases, this will be felt world wide. There are no other economies currently prepared to 'fill the void a USA in a depression would create' that I'm aware of.
So, take this with the proverbial grain of salt. I REMOVED all 'This guy trying to sell you his services' type links. I would NEVER click on any links provided by someone I didn't know. The only link left is the one to the FULL article, including all the links I deleted.
But, as the title says, you have your 'FINAL WARNING'.
Almost sounds sinister, doesn't it?
me
PS - Now if I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that this has all been set in motion to collapse the value of the dollar, so that the 'people' will demand relief, ANY RELIEF. The government would comply by rolling out the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) which basically combines Canada, USA and Mexico into the North American Union (NAU) and this would allow the roll out of the new currency they have been itching to foist upon us called the Amero. All this can be verified with simple Google searches of either the SPP, the NAU or the Amero. But hey, that's ONLY if I was a conspiracy theorist...
You don't have to share this with anyone. Hell, just round file it if you don't want to read it yourself. No harm, no foul.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Warning!
This is your final warning.
The tempest Mike Larson and I have been warning you about is here, and the time for protective action is now.
To see the storm, you no longer need the flat-screen window to the world that you get each day from CNBC or CNN. You don't even require the time telescope we've been giving you in Money and Markets.
All you have to do is get up from your chair, go to your door, and walk outside in the daylight.
That's where you'll see the U.S. housing market - the source of most of America's wealth - starting to crumble before your very eyes.
That's where you'll see large chunks of the U.S. mortgage market - the lifeblood of millions of Americans - being swept away by a flood of home foreclosures and mortgage company collapses .
In our recent no-punches-pulled web teleconference we told you about some of the recent casualties: American Home Mortgage of Long Island, bankrupt August 6th . Home Banc of Atlanta, bankrupt August 10th . and Aegis Mortgage of Houston, bankrupt August 13th.
Now, according to Merrill Lynch, there's another candidate for failure which is many times larger - Countrywide Financial.
The company has exhausted its $11.5 billion in credit lines. It has just received another $2 billion capital infusion from Bank of America. And it's still not enough.
Indeed, one top Bank of America executive privately believes that up to ninety percent of the country's Alt-A mortgages, a staple of Countrywide Financial's business, will eventually default. If so, it will easily crush all the cash and credit of many Countrywides.
Why Do I Believe Countrywide is Doomed to Failure?
Because Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo himself sees the industry and the economy going down for the count.
Just last week on CNBC, he admitted that the mortgage crisis striking America today is
"one of the greatest panics I've ever seen in 55 years in financial services."
He acknowledged that the troubles in the industry are going to continue.
He even predicted that the housing downturn is so bad it's likely to drag the economy into a recession.
My follow-up comment, also on CNBC:
"Even without a recession,
"Even with plentiful credit,
"Even with all those supposedly 'goldilocks' conditions .
"We have the worst foreclosure surges and the worst situation. So the question is:
"When you get a scarcity of credit .
"When you get a decline in the economy and a bigger pinch on the consumer,
"Then what are you going to see in the housing market? Then what are going to see in the mortgage market?"
Yesterday's New York Times hints at some of the answers:
"The Median Price of American Homes Is Expected to Fall This Year For The First Time Since Federal Housing Agencies Began Keeping Statistics in 1950.
"Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California, price declines are also occurring in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Houston, where the increases of the last decade were modest by comparison .
"On an inflation-adjusted basis, the national median price is not likely to return to its 2007 peak for more than a decade."
This home price decline is what's pulling the carpet out from under the mortgage market.
This is the key factor that's driving home owners into foreclosure and mortgage lenders into bankruptcy.
What's most amazing is that, despite abundant warning signs of trouble, virtually no one was expecting it. Yesterday's New York Times puts it this way:
"This reversal is particularly striking because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said that a nationwide decline would never happen."
Now, however, even economists with a natural inclination to deny or downplay the dangers are finally - but grudgingly - acknowledging what's long been obvious to analysts without an ax to grind.
For example .
Just go to CNBC's website, and see for yourself how many times Mike Larson has challenged Pollyanna industry experts face to face, demonstrating they were dead wrong about home prices "never falling."
Look at his interview .
? On March 27th, when he told viewers that bad mortgages were impacting a whopping 40% of home loan originations . that credit standards were tightening up fast . and that Americans must expect "slumping home prices for an extended period of time", or .
? On April 24th, when he debunked an analyst's "subprime-is-not-a-terribly-significant-event" pitch . and again warned of lower housing prices, or .
Now those warnings are coming true - and fast. The lesson to be learned:
Blind Faith in Officialdom
Could Cost You a Fortune!
This is not just an academic debate among armchair economists. Nor is it just a financial market phenomenon far removed from your daily life.
Quite to the contrary, the housing and mortgage bust could have a larger and more direct impact on your wealth, your job, your neighborhood, your city and our economy than any other single event in your lifetime.
So don't believe them when they say it's not a big deal.
Don't believe them when they say declines could "never happen."
Don't trust them when they talk about the "fundamental strength" of this or that real estate sector.
Most important,
Don't Be Lulled Into Complacency By the Myth That the "Almighty" U.S. Federal Reserve Will Magically Save The Day
The Fed will try to save the day. It will drop the Fed funds rate, pump in more money, pull a few new rabbits out of the hat, and periodically bring a loud chorus of cheers on Wall Street.
But they cannot succeed for three critical reasons:
Reason #1
The Mortgage Meltdown Is Too Big . and Too Far Gone
It has already engulfed trillions of dollars in loans.
It has already spread to 20,000 cities and towns across America.
It has already bankrupted lenders of subprime mortgages, Alt-A mortgages, jumbo mortgages, even prime, conventional mortgages.
Nearly a trillion dollars in mortgages is resetting at higher rates . or soon will be.
And trillions more may need emergency care.
Reason #2
The Nation's Mortgage Markets Are Largely Outside of the Fed's Control
When the Fed pumps money into the economy, it doesn't bail out mortgage lenders that have taken wild risks.
Nor does it go to Wall Street firms up to their ears in mortgage-backed securities.
The money goes almost entirely to commercial bankers, most of whom are running away from the mortgage markets as fast as their legs will carry them.
Result: For the Fed to persuade bankers to take the money is hard enough. To get them to dump substantial sums down the drain in the mortgage market is next to impossible.
Reason #3
U.S. Markets Have Sprung a Hundred Leaks, And U.S. Dollars Are Gushing Overseas
Many people think the Federal Reserve can just pump money into the U.S. economy, and that's where it stays.
Not true. The U.S. markets are like a bucket with a hundred leaks: The more money the Fed pours in, the more money that's likely to gush out - to Western Europe, China, and Japan.
International investors are being scared off by the dominos falling in the mortgage market. And they're scared off even more by the Fed's efforts to flood the U.S. market with increasingly worthless dollars.
Years ago, foreign money in the U.S. was a small factor. Today it's the single largest funding source for our national debt, and for the mortgage bubble itself.
When that money rushes back to its home country, the dollar's decline becomes a rout, and the rise in foreign currencies becomes an explosion.
What to Do ASAP
Step 1. Get a substantial chunk of your money to safety, including Treasury-only money funds. Favor those that have average maturities of 30-60 days.
Step 2. Consider buying some hedges.
If despite our recommendations to sell, you own investment real estate - or real estate stocks and bonds - Or if you own financial and other stocks,
Step 3. Diversify your savings globally.
OK, I'm NOT saying this guy has all the answers, but some of what he's BEEN saying has been dead on the money. You would literally have to have been in suspended animation and just awoke today to not know that the mortgage market in the USA IS having problems.
Will this lead to a recession or a depression? No idea. The authors three reasons WHY the Fed can't save the economy IS an interesting look at the process though.
Have we as a country been riding a tidal wave of debt that is about to crash on to the shores of reality? Probably.
This will also effect every person in the world. The USA is the machine that 'eats' (consumes) the largest amount of goods and services in the world. If that slows down or ceases, this will be felt world wide. There are no other economies currently prepared to 'fill the void a USA in a depression would create' that I'm aware of.
So, take this with the proverbial grain of salt. I REMOVED all 'This guy trying to sell you his services' type links. I would NEVER click on any links provided by someone I didn't know. The only link left is the one to the FULL article, including all the links I deleted.
But, as the title says, you have your 'FINAL WARNING'.
Almost sounds sinister, doesn't it?
me
PS - Now if I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that this has all been set in motion to collapse the value of the dollar, so that the 'people' will demand relief, ANY RELIEF. The government would comply by rolling out the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) which basically combines Canada, USA and Mexico into the North American Union (NAU) and this would allow the roll out of the new currency they have been itching to foist upon us called the Amero. All this can be verified with simple Google searches of either the SPP, the NAU or the Amero. But hey, that's ONLY if I was a conspiracy theorist...
You don't have to share this with anyone. Hell, just round file it if you don't want to read it yourself. No harm, no foul.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Warning!
This is your final warning.
The tempest Mike Larson and I have been warning you about is here, and the time for protective action is now.
To see the storm, you no longer need the flat-screen window to the world that you get each day from CNBC or CNN. You don't even require the time telescope we've been giving you in Money and Markets.
All you have to do is get up from your chair, go to your door, and walk outside in the daylight.
That's where you'll see the U.S. housing market - the source of most of America's wealth - starting to crumble before your very eyes.
That's where you'll see large chunks of the U.S. mortgage market - the lifeblood of millions of Americans - being swept away by a flood of home foreclosures and mortgage company collapses .
In our recent no-punches-pulled web teleconference we told you about some of the recent casualties: American Home Mortgage of Long Island, bankrupt August 6th . Home Banc of Atlanta, bankrupt August 10th . and Aegis Mortgage of Houston, bankrupt August 13th.
Now, according to Merrill Lynch, there's another candidate for failure which is many times larger - Countrywide Financial.
The company has exhausted its $11.5 billion in credit lines. It has just received another $2 billion capital infusion from Bank of America. And it's still not enough.
Indeed, one top Bank of America executive privately believes that up to ninety percent of the country's Alt-A mortgages, a staple of Countrywide Financial's business, will eventually default. If so, it will easily crush all the cash and credit of many Countrywides.
Why Do I Believe Countrywide is Doomed to Failure?
Because Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo himself sees the industry and the economy going down for the count.
Just last week on CNBC, he admitted that the mortgage crisis striking America today is
"one of the greatest panics I've ever seen in 55 years in financial services."
He acknowledged that the troubles in the industry are going to continue.
He even predicted that the housing downturn is so bad it's likely to drag the economy into a recession.
My follow-up comment, also on CNBC:
"Even without a recession,
"Even with plentiful credit,
"Even with all those supposedly 'goldilocks' conditions .
"We have the worst foreclosure surges and the worst situation. So the question is:
"When you get a scarcity of credit .
"When you get a decline in the economy and a bigger pinch on the consumer,
"Then what are you going to see in the housing market? Then what are going to see in the mortgage market?"
Yesterday's New York Times hints at some of the answers:
"The Median Price of American Homes Is Expected to Fall This Year For The First Time Since Federal Housing Agencies Began Keeping Statistics in 1950.
"Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California, price declines are also occurring in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Houston, where the increases of the last decade were modest by comparison .
"On an inflation-adjusted basis, the national median price is not likely to return to its 2007 peak for more than a decade."
This home price decline is what's pulling the carpet out from under the mortgage market.
This is the key factor that's driving home owners into foreclosure and mortgage lenders into bankruptcy.
What's most amazing is that, despite abundant warning signs of trouble, virtually no one was expecting it. Yesterday's New York Times puts it this way:
"This reversal is particularly striking because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said that a nationwide decline would never happen."
Now, however, even economists with a natural inclination to deny or downplay the dangers are finally - but grudgingly - acknowledging what's long been obvious to analysts without an ax to grind.
For example .
Just go to CNBC's website, and see for yourself how many times Mike Larson has challenged Pollyanna industry experts face to face, demonstrating they were dead wrong about home prices "never falling."
Look at his interview .
? On March 27th, when he told viewers that bad mortgages were impacting a whopping 40% of home loan originations . that credit standards were tightening up fast . and that Americans must expect "slumping home prices for an extended period of time", or .
? On April 24th, when he debunked an analyst's "subprime-is-not-a-terribly-significant-event" pitch . and again warned of lower housing prices, or .
Now those warnings are coming true - and fast. The lesson to be learned:
Blind Faith in Officialdom
Could Cost You a Fortune!
This is not just an academic debate among armchair economists. Nor is it just a financial market phenomenon far removed from your daily life.
Quite to the contrary, the housing and mortgage bust could have a larger and more direct impact on your wealth, your job, your neighborhood, your city and our economy than any other single event in your lifetime.
So don't believe them when they say it's not a big deal.
Don't believe them when they say declines could "never happen."
Don't trust them when they talk about the "fundamental strength" of this or that real estate sector.
Most important,
Don't Be Lulled Into Complacency By the Myth That the "Almighty" U.S. Federal Reserve Will Magically Save The Day
The Fed will try to save the day. It will drop the Fed funds rate, pump in more money, pull a few new rabbits out of the hat, and periodically bring a loud chorus of cheers on Wall Street.
But they cannot succeed for three critical reasons:
Reason #1
The Mortgage Meltdown Is Too Big . and Too Far Gone
It has already engulfed trillions of dollars in loans.
It has already spread to 20,000 cities and towns across America.
It has already bankrupted lenders of subprime mortgages, Alt-A mortgages, jumbo mortgages, even prime, conventional mortgages.
Nearly a trillion dollars in mortgages is resetting at higher rates . or soon will be.
And trillions more may need emergency care.
Reason #2
The Nation's Mortgage Markets Are Largely Outside of the Fed's Control
When the Fed pumps money into the economy, it doesn't bail out mortgage lenders that have taken wild risks.
Nor does it go to Wall Street firms up to their ears in mortgage-backed securities.
The money goes almost entirely to commercial bankers, most of whom are running away from the mortgage markets as fast as their legs will carry them.
Result: For the Fed to persuade bankers to take the money is hard enough. To get them to dump substantial sums down the drain in the mortgage market is next to impossible.
Reason #3
U.S. Markets Have Sprung a Hundred Leaks, And U.S. Dollars Are Gushing Overseas
Many people think the Federal Reserve can just pump money into the U.S. economy, and that's where it stays.
Not true. The U.S. markets are like a bucket with a hundred leaks: The more money the Fed pours in, the more money that's likely to gush out - to Western Europe, China, and Japan.
International investors are being scared off by the dominos falling in the mortgage market. And they're scared off even more by the Fed's efforts to flood the U.S. market with increasingly worthless dollars.
Years ago, foreign money in the U.S. was a small factor. Today it's the single largest funding source for our national debt, and for the mortgage bubble itself.
When that money rushes back to its home country, the dollar's decline becomes a rout, and the rise in foreign currencies becomes an explosion.
What to Do ASAP
Step 1. Get a substantial chunk of your money to safety, including Treasury-only money funds. Favor those that have average maturities of 30-60 days.
Step 2. Consider buying some hedges.
If despite our recommendations to sell, you own investment real estate - or real estate stocks and bonds - Or if you own financial and other stocks,
Step 3. Diversify your savings globally.
Gold rebounding from subprime contagion
Financial markets plunged around the world over the last few weeks as the subprime mortgage crisis spread beyond U.S. borders. Who would have thought that when a homeowner defaults on his adjustable rate mortgage in Iowa, a major German bank would declare a crisis, French hedge funds would refuse to accept redemptions, central banks around the world would turn money supplies on like fire hoses, and the U.S. Federal Reserve would abruptly change from vigilance against inflation to a rescue mission for worldwide financial markets?
In the wake of the subprime contagion, precious metals and oil fell in tandem with paper assets. Many of our customers have been asking, shouldn’t precious metals be rising if paper assets are falling? If only things were simple the answer would be an emphatic, yes. The primary losers in the current debacle are speculative investors who purchased asset-backed securities that use subprime mortgages as collateral. These collateralized debt obligations have now become almost impossible to trade. The resulting liquidity crisis, fueled by banks refusing to lend to other banks, caused a selling panic that affected all markets. Precious metals, unfortunately, were caught in the down-draft, as we'll discuss in detail later in this update.
The most important thing to remember is that recent declines in precious metals are likely be short-lived, just like the ones following the Shanghai Surprise of late February, when a sharp drop in the Chinese stock market rippled through worldwide markets. On the heels of that contraction and liquidity crunch, gold fell from $689 to $640 in several trading sessions, and silver fell sharply as well. Within six weeks, however, they'd recouped all losses.
Gold has shown remarkable resilience in the face of the biggest international financial crisis in years. Yes, its recent fall from $685 to as low as $642 in inter-day trading was disappointing. But astute investors, immediately realizing that gold was suddenly on sale, quickly bid the price back up to over $650.
As the two-year chart reveals, gold has traded between $645 and $685 an ounce for most of 2007 and remains within its major 2007 trading range, indicated by the green support line and red resistance line. In addition, we're now able to see a much larger triangle pattern developing, as indicated by the longer blue trend lines. We've seen this type of pattern a few times before, with a flat top and a rising bottom; in each instance a higher gold price has followed. Today’s triangle pattern has a rising bottom and a somewhat declining top. In the present economic environment, it's difficult to believe gold will break lower once this triangle pattern comes to a full point in the coming months.
Since setting its May 2006 high of $730, gold has remained in an extended consolidation phase. The recent financial crisis in paper assets reinforces our belief that this phase is coming to end, perhaps more quickly than we expected. Gold's positive fundamentals have not changed—they remain exceptionally strong—but fundamentals for paper assets have changed dramatically for the worse, putting precious metals in a much stronger position going forward. We believe gold is fairly valued between $665 and $685 an ounce today and any price under $665 looks cheap to us.
Time will tell, naturally, but gold’s ability to hold within its primary 2007 trading range, despite the forced liquidation of hedge fund positions in metals, oil, and stocks, is a testimony to its fundamental strength and resilience in the face of extreme financial turmoil. There is simply too much fear afoot in financial markets to allow safe-haven gold to drop very far. And if these fears grow, the gold price will grow with them.
In the wake of the subprime contagion, precious metals and oil fell in tandem with paper assets. Many of our customers have been asking, shouldn’t precious metals be rising if paper assets are falling? If only things were simple the answer would be an emphatic, yes. The primary losers in the current debacle are speculative investors who purchased asset-backed securities that use subprime mortgages as collateral. These collateralized debt obligations have now become almost impossible to trade. The resulting liquidity crisis, fueled by banks refusing to lend to other banks, caused a selling panic that affected all markets. Precious metals, unfortunately, were caught in the down-draft, as we'll discuss in detail later in this update.
The most important thing to remember is that recent declines in precious metals are likely be short-lived, just like the ones following the Shanghai Surprise of late February, when a sharp drop in the Chinese stock market rippled through worldwide markets. On the heels of that contraction and liquidity crunch, gold fell from $689 to $640 in several trading sessions, and silver fell sharply as well. Within six weeks, however, they'd recouped all losses.
Gold has shown remarkable resilience in the face of the biggest international financial crisis in years. Yes, its recent fall from $685 to as low as $642 in inter-day trading was disappointing. But astute investors, immediately realizing that gold was suddenly on sale, quickly bid the price back up to over $650.
As the two-year chart reveals, gold has traded between $645 and $685 an ounce for most of 2007 and remains within its major 2007 trading range, indicated by the green support line and red resistance line. In addition, we're now able to see a much larger triangle pattern developing, as indicated by the longer blue trend lines. We've seen this type of pattern a few times before, with a flat top and a rising bottom; in each instance a higher gold price has followed. Today’s triangle pattern has a rising bottom and a somewhat declining top. In the present economic environment, it's difficult to believe gold will break lower once this triangle pattern comes to a full point in the coming months.
Since setting its May 2006 high of $730, gold has remained in an extended consolidation phase. The recent financial crisis in paper assets reinforces our belief that this phase is coming to end, perhaps more quickly than we expected. Gold's positive fundamentals have not changed—they remain exceptionally strong—but fundamentals for paper assets have changed dramatically for the worse, putting precious metals in a much stronger position going forward. We believe gold is fairly valued between $665 and $685 an ounce today and any price under $665 looks cheap to us.
Time will tell, naturally, but gold’s ability to hold within its primary 2007 trading range, despite the forced liquidation of hedge fund positions in metals, oil, and stocks, is a testimony to its fundamental strength and resilience in the face of extreme financial turmoil. There is simply too much fear afoot in financial markets to allow safe-haven gold to drop very far. And if these fears grow, the gold price will grow with them.
Fiat and gold/silver
The Denarius was the Coin of Rome like the British pound stirling is of Britain and the US Dollar is iof the USA.
It was first struck in 211 BC and last struck around 270-275...They started out 95% silver and ended 0%.
And no one seems to know why coins debase.
Population of the the city of Rome area according the the Roman census.
294 B.C. 262,321
14 A.D. 4,937,000
Population of the USA according to the census in 1790 3,929,214
Population of the USA according to the census in 2000 291,421,906
The census is every 10 years...Current estimate 302,738,220
Population inflation leads to an increased demand for money...
Unfortunately...Silver mines don't seem to be able to fall in love and reproduce...
So a more plentiful replacement was needed to be found to construct coinage out of...Or just kill off newborns at some point since there would not be enough metal produce to construct coins for them...
Or chastity belts...etc.
Unfortunately when you attempt to take away humanity's ability to reproduce and live forever...That is Threat #1 and Humanity rises up to destroy the threat to it's ability to continue existing...
"No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
--William Jennings Bryan
The USA is a rich person that has a total money supply of 46 Trillion dollars and is inflating that wealth by 11 Billion dollars a day or 1 Trillion dollars every 90 days...127 Thousand dollars a second, 7.6 Million dollars a minute, 458 Million dollars an hour.
In 1792 money was silver. The Spanish milled dollar was the most widely circulating coin in the New World.
"Eagles—each to be of the value of ten dollars or units, and to contain two hundred and forty-seven grains and four eighths of a grain of pure, or two hundred and seventy grains of standard gold."
"Dollars or Units—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver."
Article I, Section 8.
"To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures."
Congress has the power according to the Constitution to arbitrarily fix or decree (Fiat) the standard of weights and measures in the USA...To coin money of the USA...To regulate the value of all coined money in the USA and of the USA.
That's what Article I, Section 8 says.
A group known as "We the people" gave them that power (Hint: The group known as "We the people" are the persons who wrote the Constitution)
The measure of the Dollar or unit was "fixed" at 371.25 Grains of pure silver.
The measure of the Eagle was "fixed" at 247.50 Grains of pure Gold that was worth 10 Dollars or units.
There are 480 Grains in 1 Troy ounce.
And according to the coinage act 247.50 Grains of pure Gold = 10 Dollars or units which is 371.25 X 10 or 3712.5 grains of pure silver.
480/247.50 = 1.94 X 3712.5 = 7202.25/371.25 = 19.40 Dollars or Units.
In 1792 1 Troy ounce of Gold was equal to around 19.40 Dollars or Units.
Or 2 Eagles = 20 Dollars or Units.
Then factor in..."Cents—each to be of the value of one hundredth part of a dollar, and to contain eleven penny-weights of copper."
So 11 pennyweights of copper = 3.7 grains of pure silver. or one hundredth of a dollar or Unit.
Ultimately a Trimetallic standard.
Silver as money of a "fixed" weight and measure with Gold and copper "fixed" in measure to Silver.
The USA only produces about 180 Thousand ounces of silver a day.
The US dollar as defined by the 1792 coinarge act of 371 grains of pure silver would produce about 232,727 dollars of coinage...
Enough to sustain the rich getting richer or the delusional lifestyles of the wannbe rich and famous you all currently take for granted for about 1.8 seconds.
In 1896 and 1900 The City of London/Bank of England/Rothchilds, sons and friends backed the Gold Republicans led by William McKinley against the Silver democrats led by William Jennings Bryan to get the below passed...
"The Gold Standard Act of the United States was passed in 1900 (ratified on March 14) and established gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money, stopping bimetallism (which had allowed silver in exchange for gold)."
That was the end of the US Dollar or Unit as defined in the 1792 coinage act right there...Checkmate.
The City of London/Bank of England/Rothchilds, sons and friends invented the Gold standard or "London Fix" to basically take over and control the world...
"Be it enacted . ., That the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value with this standard, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to maintain such parity."
The USA produces about 22 Thousand ounces a day.
Enough to produce 449,782 Dollars as defined in the 1900 Gold Standard act.
Enough to sustain the rich getting richer or the delusional lifestyles of the wannbe rich and famous you all currently take for granted for about 3.5 seconds.
Guess that's why there's the 1997 dollar
"The United States $1 Coin Act of 1997 was legislation passed by the United States Congress providing for a redesigned gold colored coin with a distinctive new rim. A major purpose of the Act was to allow for the replacement of the Susan B. Anthony dollar. The stockpiles of that coin had been depleted to the point that minting new coins would soon be required. The Sacagawea dollar was introduced as a result of the Act."
The current "decreed" U.S. Dollar is...
"The Sacagawea Dollar is the current United States dollar coin. This coin was first minted in 2000 and depicts the Native American woman Sacagawea. The obverse was designed by Glenna Goodacre and the reverse by Thomas D. Rogers."
"Obverse design: Sacagawea with her baby
Reverse design: A bald eagle in flight surrounded by 17 stars (for the number of states in the Union in 1804 at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition)."
88.5% copper
6.0% zinc
3.5% manganese
2% nickel
The U.S. Dollar or Unit was decreed (Fiat) in 1792 to be "Dollars or Units—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver."
The U.S. Dollar was decreed (Fiat) in 1900 "the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine"
The U.S. Dollar wes decreed (Fiat) in 1997 88.5%, copper 6.0%, zinc 3.5%, manganese, 2% nickel.
It was first struck in 211 BC and last struck around 270-275...They started out 95% silver and ended 0%.
And no one seems to know why coins debase.
Population of the the city of Rome area according the the Roman census.
294 B.C. 262,321
14 A.D. 4,937,000
Population of the USA according to the census in 1790 3,929,214
Population of the USA according to the census in 2000 291,421,906
The census is every 10 years...Current estimate 302,738,220
Population inflation leads to an increased demand for money...
Unfortunately...Silver mines don't seem to be able to fall in love and reproduce...
So a more plentiful replacement was needed to be found to construct coinage out of...Or just kill off newborns at some point since there would not be enough metal produce to construct coins for them...
Or chastity belts...etc.
Unfortunately when you attempt to take away humanity's ability to reproduce and live forever...That is Threat #1 and Humanity rises up to destroy the threat to it's ability to continue existing...
"No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
--William Jennings Bryan
The USA is a rich person that has a total money supply of 46 Trillion dollars and is inflating that wealth by 11 Billion dollars a day or 1 Trillion dollars every 90 days...127 Thousand dollars a second, 7.6 Million dollars a minute, 458 Million dollars an hour.
In 1792 money was silver. The Spanish milled dollar was the most widely circulating coin in the New World.
"Eagles—each to be of the value of ten dollars or units, and to contain two hundred and forty-seven grains and four eighths of a grain of pure, or two hundred and seventy grains of standard gold."
"Dollars or Units—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver."
Article I, Section 8.
"To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures."
Congress has the power according to the Constitution to arbitrarily fix or decree (Fiat) the standard of weights and measures in the USA...To coin money of the USA...To regulate the value of all coined money in the USA and of the USA.
That's what Article I, Section 8 says.
A group known as "We the people" gave them that power (Hint: The group known as "We the people" are the persons who wrote the Constitution)
The measure of the Dollar or unit was "fixed" at 371.25 Grains of pure silver.
The measure of the Eagle was "fixed" at 247.50 Grains of pure Gold that was worth 10 Dollars or units.
There are 480 Grains in 1 Troy ounce.
And according to the coinage act 247.50 Grains of pure Gold = 10 Dollars or units which is 371.25 X 10 or 3712.5 grains of pure silver.
480/247.50 = 1.94 X 3712.5 = 7202.25/371.25 = 19.40 Dollars or Units.
In 1792 1 Troy ounce of Gold was equal to around 19.40 Dollars or Units.
Or 2 Eagles = 20 Dollars or Units.
Then factor in..."Cents—each to be of the value of one hundredth part of a dollar, and to contain eleven penny-weights of copper."
So 11 pennyweights of copper = 3.7 grains of pure silver. or one hundredth of a dollar or Unit.
Ultimately a Trimetallic standard.
Silver as money of a "fixed" weight and measure with Gold and copper "fixed" in measure to Silver.
The USA only produces about 180 Thousand ounces of silver a day.
The US dollar as defined by the 1792 coinarge act of 371 grains of pure silver would produce about 232,727 dollars of coinage...
Enough to sustain the rich getting richer or the delusional lifestyles of the wannbe rich and famous you all currently take for granted for about 1.8 seconds.
In 1896 and 1900 The City of London/Bank of England/Rothchilds, sons and friends backed the Gold Republicans led by William McKinley against the Silver democrats led by William Jennings Bryan to get the below passed...
"The Gold Standard Act of the United States was passed in 1900 (ratified on March 14) and established gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money, stopping bimetallism (which had allowed silver in exchange for gold)."
That was the end of the US Dollar or Unit as defined in the 1792 coinage act right there...Checkmate.
The City of London/Bank of England/Rothchilds, sons and friends invented the Gold standard or "London Fix" to basically take over and control the world...
"Be it enacted . ., That the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value with this standard, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to maintain such parity."
The USA produces about 22 Thousand ounces a day.
Enough to produce 449,782 Dollars as defined in the 1900 Gold Standard act.
Enough to sustain the rich getting richer or the delusional lifestyles of the wannbe rich and famous you all currently take for granted for about 3.5 seconds.
Guess that's why there's the 1997 dollar
"The United States $1 Coin Act of 1997 was legislation passed by the United States Congress providing for a redesigned gold colored coin with a distinctive new rim. A major purpose of the Act was to allow for the replacement of the Susan B. Anthony dollar. The stockpiles of that coin had been depleted to the point that minting new coins would soon be required. The Sacagawea dollar was introduced as a result of the Act."
The current "decreed" U.S. Dollar is...
"The Sacagawea Dollar is the current United States dollar coin. This coin was first minted in 2000 and depicts the Native American woman Sacagawea. The obverse was designed by Glenna Goodacre and the reverse by Thomas D. Rogers."
"Obverse design: Sacagawea with her baby
Reverse design: A bald eagle in flight surrounded by 17 stars (for the number of states in the Union in 1804 at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition)."
88.5% copper
6.0% zinc
3.5% manganese
2% nickel
The U.S. Dollar or Unit was decreed (Fiat) in 1792 to be "Dollars or Units—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver."
The U.S. Dollar was decreed (Fiat) in 1900 "the dollar consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine"
The U.S. Dollar wes decreed (Fiat) in 1997 88.5%, copper 6.0%, zinc 3.5%, manganese, 2% nickel.
Monday, August 27, 2007
iphone tips and tricks guide
All of us folks who are lucky enough to already have an iPhone know how much fun they can be just to play around with. Playing with my iPhone a lot myself, I have discovered some cool tips and tricks that you may find useful.
1. If you tap once at the very top of the screen when you are on the internet, it will take you back to the top of the window rather than having to scroll all the way back up. A nice time saving feature.
2. If you set the font to the smallest size, you can read more in the internet window. An advantage of this is that when you want to click a link, you can pinch (expand) that area and the link will come up very large, making it much easier to click.
3. Rather than posting the full address of internet sites in bookmarks, you can post the equivalent RSS address instead into Apple's RSS reader and save that as your bookmark. This way you can quickly see if there's anything interesting on your favorite site rather than downloading the whole homepage.
4. If you are writing something and the iPhone flags a word as misspelled that you know is not misspelled, cancel the correction 3 times and the word will be put into the dictionary. If you write a lot, this feature is quite useful!
5. The magnifying glass is a nice iPhone tool when you are typing an email or any other text. If you tap once and hold, a magnifying glass will pop up showing you a zoomed in view of your words and cursor. You can now easily place the cursor wherever you want. This makes editing your writing very easy.
6. You can move icons around, but not on the home screen. You have to go to the ipod section. Go to iPod > More > Edit. Now you can drag your icons all around. This can also be done in the phone section.
7. To reset your iphone, hold down the right button and the "home" front button for about 6 seconds. To power it back on, push the top button. This is different than a regular shutdown, which can be done easily by holding the sleep/wake button for 6 seconds.
8. If you get a lot of spam e-mail or other unwanted e-mail, pay attention to this time saving feature. Add a link to Yahoo mail in Safari bookmarks. From there you can check 'delete all' to remove all unwanted e-mails. This is much easier than deleting hundreds of spam e-mails one at a time.
I hope you found these iphone tips helpful. If you have an iPhone and have been wondering how best to fill it up with music and movies, check out Top iPhone Downloads for the latest reviews of iPhone download sites.
1. If you tap once at the very top of the screen when you are on the internet, it will take you back to the top of the window rather than having to scroll all the way back up. A nice time saving feature.
2. If you set the font to the smallest size, you can read more in the internet window. An advantage of this is that when you want to click a link, you can pinch (expand) that area and the link will come up very large, making it much easier to click.
3. Rather than posting the full address of internet sites in bookmarks, you can post the equivalent RSS address instead into Apple's RSS reader and save that as your bookmark. This way you can quickly see if there's anything interesting on your favorite site rather than downloading the whole homepage.
4. If you are writing something and the iPhone flags a word as misspelled that you know is not misspelled, cancel the correction 3 times and the word will be put into the dictionary. If you write a lot, this feature is quite useful!
5. The magnifying glass is a nice iPhone tool when you are typing an email or any other text. If you tap once and hold, a magnifying glass will pop up showing you a zoomed in view of your words and cursor. You can now easily place the cursor wherever you want. This makes editing your writing very easy.
6. You can move icons around, but not on the home screen. You have to go to the ipod section. Go to iPod > More > Edit. Now you can drag your icons all around. This can also be done in the phone section.
7. To reset your iphone, hold down the right button and the "home" front button for about 6 seconds. To power it back on, push the top button. This is different than a regular shutdown, which can be done easily by holding the sleep/wake button for 6 seconds.
8. If you get a lot of spam e-mail or other unwanted e-mail, pay attention to this time saving feature. Add a link to Yahoo mail in Safari bookmarks. From there you can check 'delete all' to remove all unwanted e-mails. This is much easier than deleting hundreds of spam e-mails one at a time.
I hope you found these iphone tips helpful. If you have an iPhone and have been wondering how best to fill it up with music and movies, check out Top iPhone Downloads for the latest reviews of iPhone download sites.
how to handel fear
How sad it is to see people spend their lives haunted by fear. The joy of life is squeezed out of them by fear of failure, criticism, betrayal, change, rejection, loneliness, poverty, growing old, getting sick, losing one's job, and saying what is on their mind. They are afraid of death. But what is the point? The fear of death doesn't prevent them from dying; it merely prevents them from living.
Fear is like a mutating virus, always causing havoc. It transforms itself into suspicion, mistrust, anger, hostility, aggression, anxiety, worry, hopelessness, and a host of other negative emotions. In fact, most of humanity's problems stem from this primal emotion. Fear paralyzes us and builds an impenetrable wall that blocks our progress. We all will die, but how sad it is to die without having had the chance to meet the person we could have become, were it not for fear.
Our gravest problems are not losses and misfortune, for losses can be regained and ill fortune can be changed to good fortune, but our greatest problems are our fears. To a person of courage, problems and difficulties are mere obstacles that will be trampled on the march forward. On the other hand, even the smallest barrier forever blocks the way of the timid.
All our emotions are helpful tools meant to guide us. It is how we use them that make them positive or negative. For example, enthusiasm is generally helpful, but if I'm so enthusiastic that I act rashly, I may experience negative consequences. Fear is harmful when it is a product of my imagination and false beliefs and prevents me from doing what I wish. But when fear is based on rational thought, it issues a warning, which when followed, will protect me.
An example of the positive use of fear was given by Phyllis Schlafly, who was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the "Ladies' Home Journal." She wrote, "It's very healthy for a young girl to be deterred from promiscuity by fear of contracting a painful, incurable disease, or cervical cancer, or sterility, or the likelihood of giving birth to a dead, blind, or brain-damaged baby."
Yes, fear can lead us to making the right choices, but it is the debilitating effects of unjustified or irrational fear that is of concern here. How can we eliminate the fear that prevents us from reaching our potential? It starts with awareness. Although we may have no control over the events or circumstances that we fear, our anxiety is not part of those events. Our fear is merely our interpretation of the events. Our fear is composed of OUR thoughts. Once we accept this fact and take responsibility for our thoughts, we can begin to make progress.
Sometimes we cleverly hide our fears by disguising them. If we want to root them out, we need to be mindful of our thoughts and carefully analyze them. For example, when I say that I would prefer to remain in my present job because I am a cautious person, it may really mean that I am AFRAID to change jobs. Similarly, when I say that I'm not interested in computers, I may really be saying that I'm AFRAID of computers. Don't allow these or any other self-limiting beliefs hold you back
The cure for fear is action. You need to do what you fear. But you don't have to take giant steps. In fact, if you were to try to do so, you may fail and grow even less confident in your abilities. So, take small, baby steps. As you do so, each success will encourage and motivate you to continue. The rewards are well worth it. For as Henry Ford (1863 ~ 1947) said, "One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."
Another weapon in our arsenal against fear is curiosity. Get involved with life. Learn as much as you can. Develop curiosity. Men and women risk their lives by boarding space vehicles not because they are reckless or fearless, but because they are curious. They are explorers yearning to go where few have ever been. You, too, can become an explorer. Your can explore your vast universe of inner space. You can plunge into the depths of your being and discover the courage to chart a new life, a new beginning. This year, resolve to live the life of your dreams. Kick down the barriers of fear and venture into the unknown. Dare to discover your hidden powers.
Yet another tool to fight fear is acceptance of what is. To experience the fullness and richness of life I should set goals and strive for growth. However, the goals I set are preferences. I don't cling to them and demand that they be fulfilled, for I cannot predict the future. Neither can I know how changing events may make my personal goals unattainable. But by being willing to adapt and change when necessary, I will eliminate fear of not reaching my goals. Instead of having a thwarted goal end in frustration and disappointment, it blooms into a valuable lesson and another step on the road to success.
Your imagination is like a powerful magnet that draws to it whatever you are anticipating. If you are expecting a bright and sunny life, lo and behold, that's exactly what you get. But if all you expect from life are dark clouds and gloom, prepare for storms, for they will surely come. Anticipation of fear can lead to explosive tension. Or, as Alfred Hitchcock (1899 ~ 1980) said, "There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it." When we use our imagination to focus on the positive, it is empowering and liberating. Yet, when we use it to focus on the negative, it is paralyzing and crippling. Consider the words of Epictetus (50 ~ 120), "It is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship."
Become sensitive to your feelings. When you are aware of them, you can control them rather than have them control you. When you feel afraid of doing something you should be doing, stare fear in the face. Say, "I'm not afraid of you. I welcome and embrace you. But it is I, and not you, that will decide what I am afraid of. I welcome fear. I welcome being afraid of losing my potential. I have decided to be afraid of living with regrets. I'm fed up with becoming a puny person that is startled by the sound of my own footsteps. So, I have decided to act and do what I fear. I welcome you, fear, as a friend, for you always point the way I can experience more growth. From now on, whenever I feel fear, I will pause to discover whether the lesson you bring is to avoid danger or accept a new challenge. By fearing what I should, I avoid suffering, and by not fearing what I should not, I achieve success."
Discovering the joy of life can be as simple as being willing to accept discomfort. Barbara Streisand explains, "I can say, I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won't do that because it makes me uncomfortable. Or I could say get used to being uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable doing something that's risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?" Well, what do you think? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?
Fear is like a mutating virus, always causing havoc. It transforms itself into suspicion, mistrust, anger, hostility, aggression, anxiety, worry, hopelessness, and a host of other negative emotions. In fact, most of humanity's problems stem from this primal emotion. Fear paralyzes us and builds an impenetrable wall that blocks our progress. We all will die, but how sad it is to die without having had the chance to meet the person we could have become, were it not for fear.
Our gravest problems are not losses and misfortune, for losses can be regained and ill fortune can be changed to good fortune, but our greatest problems are our fears. To a person of courage, problems and difficulties are mere obstacles that will be trampled on the march forward. On the other hand, even the smallest barrier forever blocks the way of the timid.
All our emotions are helpful tools meant to guide us. It is how we use them that make them positive or negative. For example, enthusiasm is generally helpful, but if I'm so enthusiastic that I act rashly, I may experience negative consequences. Fear is harmful when it is a product of my imagination and false beliefs and prevents me from doing what I wish. But when fear is based on rational thought, it issues a warning, which when followed, will protect me.
An example of the positive use of fear was given by Phyllis Schlafly, who was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the "Ladies' Home Journal." She wrote, "It's very healthy for a young girl to be deterred from promiscuity by fear of contracting a painful, incurable disease, or cervical cancer, or sterility, or the likelihood of giving birth to a dead, blind, or brain-damaged baby."
Yes, fear can lead us to making the right choices, but it is the debilitating effects of unjustified or irrational fear that is of concern here. How can we eliminate the fear that prevents us from reaching our potential? It starts with awareness. Although we may have no control over the events or circumstances that we fear, our anxiety is not part of those events. Our fear is merely our interpretation of the events. Our fear is composed of OUR thoughts. Once we accept this fact and take responsibility for our thoughts, we can begin to make progress.
Sometimes we cleverly hide our fears by disguising them. If we want to root them out, we need to be mindful of our thoughts and carefully analyze them. For example, when I say that I would prefer to remain in my present job because I am a cautious person, it may really mean that I am AFRAID to change jobs. Similarly, when I say that I'm not interested in computers, I may really be saying that I'm AFRAID of computers. Don't allow these or any other self-limiting beliefs hold you back
The cure for fear is action. You need to do what you fear. But you don't have to take giant steps. In fact, if you were to try to do so, you may fail and grow even less confident in your abilities. So, take small, baby steps. As you do so, each success will encourage and motivate you to continue. The rewards are well worth it. For as Henry Ford (1863 ~ 1947) said, "One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."
Another weapon in our arsenal against fear is curiosity. Get involved with life. Learn as much as you can. Develop curiosity. Men and women risk their lives by boarding space vehicles not because they are reckless or fearless, but because they are curious. They are explorers yearning to go where few have ever been. You, too, can become an explorer. Your can explore your vast universe of inner space. You can plunge into the depths of your being and discover the courage to chart a new life, a new beginning. This year, resolve to live the life of your dreams. Kick down the barriers of fear and venture into the unknown. Dare to discover your hidden powers.
Yet another tool to fight fear is acceptance of what is. To experience the fullness and richness of life I should set goals and strive for growth. However, the goals I set are preferences. I don't cling to them and demand that they be fulfilled, for I cannot predict the future. Neither can I know how changing events may make my personal goals unattainable. But by being willing to adapt and change when necessary, I will eliminate fear of not reaching my goals. Instead of having a thwarted goal end in frustration and disappointment, it blooms into a valuable lesson and another step on the road to success.
Your imagination is like a powerful magnet that draws to it whatever you are anticipating. If you are expecting a bright and sunny life, lo and behold, that's exactly what you get. But if all you expect from life are dark clouds and gloom, prepare for storms, for they will surely come. Anticipation of fear can lead to explosive tension. Or, as Alfred Hitchcock (1899 ~ 1980) said, "There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it." When we use our imagination to focus on the positive, it is empowering and liberating. Yet, when we use it to focus on the negative, it is paralyzing and crippling. Consider the words of Epictetus (50 ~ 120), "It is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship."
Become sensitive to your feelings. When you are aware of them, you can control them rather than have them control you. When you feel afraid of doing something you should be doing, stare fear in the face. Say, "I'm not afraid of you. I welcome and embrace you. But it is I, and not you, that will decide what I am afraid of. I welcome fear. I welcome being afraid of losing my potential. I have decided to be afraid of living with regrets. I'm fed up with becoming a puny person that is startled by the sound of my own footsteps. So, I have decided to act and do what I fear. I welcome you, fear, as a friend, for you always point the way I can experience more growth. From now on, whenever I feel fear, I will pause to discover whether the lesson you bring is to avoid danger or accept a new challenge. By fearing what I should, I avoid suffering, and by not fearing what I should not, I achieve success."
Discovering the joy of life can be as simple as being willing to accept discomfort. Barbara Streisand explains, "I can say, I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won't do that because it makes me uncomfortable. Or I could say get used to being uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable doing something that's risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?" Well, what do you think? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?
tips to save during grocery store shopping!
No doubt about it, convenience foods save you time. But - and it's a big but - convenience foods don't save you money. If you rely on frozen dinners, helper foods, kits and take-out you are spending too much money on food. These tips will help you lower your bills and eat healthy, flavorful meals.
1. Plan meals by the week.
2. Make a grocery list, grouping foods by category. (Meat, dairy, produce, etc.)
3. Only buy what is on your list. Don't succumb to impulse buying or kids' demands for products hyped on TV.
4. Shop at stores that have the most specials.
5. Use coupons for healthy foods only. Don't buy a product just because you have a coupon.
6. Roll your cart past "helper," "partner," "bakes" and "kits." These products are over-priced, over-salted, and you can't even pronounce some of the ingredients.
7. Mix up your own rubs. They take only minutes to make and you can customize them to your tastes.
8. Buy store and less-known brands, often made by top manufacturers.
9. Buy lean hamburger. It is better for you and there is less waste.
9. Drink water instead of pricey soda pop, which is often loaded with sugar and erodes your teeth.
10. Make your own salad dressing. You'll save a bundle!
11. Make your own granola. Lots of recipes are posted on the Internet and kids will enjoy helping you.
12. Eat boxed hot cereal, not the kind in packets.
13. Buy day-old bread and coffee cake. The bread is perfect for French toast and grilled sandwiches. Stale coffee cake makes some of the best bread pudding you will ever taste.
14. Stores put pricey foods - the foods they want to push - at eye level. Bend down and look on the bottom shelves for bargains.
15. Learn how to cut up a whole chicken.
16. Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.
17. Buy staples in bulk.
18. Make your own pudding. You will get twice as much for your money.
19. Buy a refrigerated or prepared crust and make your favorite pizza.
20. Use meat for flavor, as in stir-fry, instead of making it the feature of the meal.
21. Maximize leftovers. Make cream sauce for a little left over spinach. Use leftover vegetables in soup.
22. Put leftovers in sturdy plastic zipper bags to prevent freezer burn and waste. Label and date the bags.
23. Turn old bread into new, delicious croutons. Cut the bread into cubes, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, oregano and basil. Bake in a 350 degree oven until crispy.
24. Make your own baking mix and store in a tightly covered jar. (Recipes are posted on the Internet.)
25. Involve kids and grandkids. The involved kids of today will turn into smart shoppers tomorrow.
1. Plan meals by the week.
2. Make a grocery list, grouping foods by category. (Meat, dairy, produce, etc.)
3. Only buy what is on your list. Don't succumb to impulse buying or kids' demands for products hyped on TV.
4. Shop at stores that have the most specials.
5. Use coupons for healthy foods only. Don't buy a product just because you have a coupon.
6. Roll your cart past "helper," "partner," "bakes" and "kits." These products are over-priced, over-salted, and you can't even pronounce some of the ingredients.
7. Mix up your own rubs. They take only minutes to make and you can customize them to your tastes.
8. Buy store and less-known brands, often made by top manufacturers.
9. Buy lean hamburger. It is better for you and there is less waste.
9. Drink water instead of pricey soda pop, which is often loaded with sugar and erodes your teeth.
10. Make your own salad dressing. You'll save a bundle!
11. Make your own granola. Lots of recipes are posted on the Internet and kids will enjoy helping you.
12. Eat boxed hot cereal, not the kind in packets.
13. Buy day-old bread and coffee cake. The bread is perfect for French toast and grilled sandwiches. Stale coffee cake makes some of the best bread pudding you will ever taste.
14. Stores put pricey foods - the foods they want to push - at eye level. Bend down and look on the bottom shelves for bargains.
15. Learn how to cut up a whole chicken.
16. Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.
17. Buy staples in bulk.
18. Make your own pudding. You will get twice as much for your money.
19. Buy a refrigerated or prepared crust and make your favorite pizza.
20. Use meat for flavor, as in stir-fry, instead of making it the feature of the meal.
21. Maximize leftovers. Make cream sauce for a little left over spinach. Use leftover vegetables in soup.
22. Put leftovers in sturdy plastic zipper bags to prevent freezer burn and waste. Label and date the bags.
23. Turn old bread into new, delicious croutons. Cut the bread into cubes, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, oregano and basil. Bake in a 350 degree oven until crispy.
24. Make your own baking mix and store in a tightly covered jar. (Recipes are posted on the Internet.)
25. Involve kids and grandkids. The involved kids of today will turn into smart shoppers tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)