If we become what we repeatedly do, then I will be turning into a freshly dug potato.
In other news
I went to a large high school cross-country meet today. There was a team from Holland, Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan and a team from Ypsilanti, Michigan and there were teams from many towns in between.
The two local teams were from Charlotte and Olivet, Michigan. The women from Olivet were notable because the top three fastest finishers were all from Olivet. The fastest girl was at least 100 yards ahead of the second fastest who was 100 yards ahead of the third fastest...and then a gap when they started showing up in twos and threes.
I was a passenger in the vehicle that transported our group to the venue. The van hit a rough patch and was bouncing all over the lane.
I eyeballed the rear tires after I got out and they seemed to be properly inflated. Then I bounced the back end up-and-down. As far as I could tell, there was not a drop of fluid in the shocks or perhaps they had ripped out of the rear strut-caps. Boing....boing....boing....boing...boing...
As payment for the ride, I offered to transport replacement parts from the auto parts store in town to where she lives if she paid for them. She thought that was a spiffy idea and her hubby will swap them out some time this weekend.
USD as World's Reserve Currency
I had a thought as I was digging potatoes.
One of the horror scenarios for the United States economy is the US Dollar being unseated as the default, World Reserve Currency.
The way it works now is that the US Dollar is the hydraulic fluid that moves the engines of the world economy. If you want to buy cobalt ore in rebel held territory in the eastern Congo, you pay with $100 bills and the ore gets stacked into the back of your truck. Not Chinese Renminbi. Not Euros. Not Japanese yen. US Dollars, preferably in $100 bills.
Because there is a universal demand for USD, as a nation, we do not need to redeem them by exporting goods and services in order to support their value as a currency. The dollars we use to buy Chinese goods, for instance, are used by the Chinese to buy oil or bauxite or German machine tools. Other countries redeem the value for us.
If/when the universal desire for USD collapses, they will all come rushing back to the US to buy US property or products and we will see massive inflation in prices.
The simple fact is that there are no Chinese ships keeping the Straits of Hormuz open. There are no Japanese aircraft carriers or European fighter-jets or Brazilian or Indian troops carrying the load.
The US is not charging money for the service. But I bet that behind the scenes they are making it clear that we would only guarantee the safety of oil-tankers that are destined to the US IF the malcontents dethrone the dollar as World Reserve Currency.
Yes, those dollars will all come flooding back to the US but it will be to buy the oil that they could not ship out of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. And that oil will be insanely expensive because it will be taking a much, much longer boat ride to get to Shanghai or Mumbai or Pusan.
“If we become what we repeatedly do, then I will be turning into a freshly dug potato.”
ReplyDeleteThe calories from the taters will fuel you cellular regeneration Joe!
I think it started. My shoulders are getting rounder and my neck is disappearing.
DeleteOn currency - most Western govs are insolvent, including the US. The narrative will be: “Sorry about your pension / 401k / IRA / savings / healthcare going up in smoke. Blame this darned WAR that broke out! It was not gov mismanagement. No, look over there at the WAR with Russia, China, Covid, Ebola, Pneumonic plague.
ReplyDeleteWe will be distracted by disaster theater when it’s time to bull the rug on the Western currency regime and start a new ponzi from scratch.
Your canaries in the coal mine? Watch the Japanese Yen and the Euro. When those two currencies go tits up the US dollar is next.
There will be a new global currency regime in play 2032-2034 time frame.
History rhymes, and it will all be blamed on some kind of disaster that was unforeseen, even though it will be fomented by “those you never see”.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYTTnyZJ_gg&pp=ygUaQ2hhcmxlcyBNb250YWd1ZSB0aGUgdGhpcmQ%3D&ra=m
DeleteThere are numerous countries, especially China, seeking to unseat and replace the Dollar as the benchmark. So far none of them are strong enough. But eventually the idiots in Mordor On The Potomac will inflate and degrade the Dollar till it IS replaced. That's a when...not an if.
ReplyDeleteEventually that will happen, like it did with the British Pound per WWII, and gold a little bit later.
DeleteThe problem right now is that the US is the least worst - most countries are in worse shape financially than the US is, with some countries facing problems we aren't.
For example, India and China have only been united since post WWII. They each have lots of forces trying to tear them apart. Additionally, they each have major misallocation issues as well as corruption and problems with basic services.
A country has to keep itself together long enough to get big enough to dethrone the US, and at this point no one is on a trajectory to do that.
A decade ago India, China, and the rest of BRICS was on that trajectory; they aren't anymore.
I see a global crash as more likely than the US losing reserve currency status.
Jonathan
As stated... it's a when not an if. But it's amazing how long motivated people can keep a house of cards intact. But then their major motive is looting the Treasury.
DeleteOlivet Girl's Track and Field, twice consecutive defending state champions.
ReplyDeleteWhat if? The US government had us trade in our 100 dollar bills and gave us a credit card instead, for a fee of course.Woody
ReplyDeleteThen in one month canceled all 100 dollar bills. Woody
ReplyDeleteAnd here we go:
ReplyDeletehttps://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/10/10/president-trump-says-its-time-for-zelenskyy-to-be-replaced/#more-287820
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/10/10/zelenskyy-urgently-attacks-russian-oil-fuel-export-terminal/#more-287810
Deletehttps://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/the-war-cycle-is-turning-up/
Deletehttps://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/europes-current-economy/europe-simply-needs-war/
DeleteIt can only be the bond traders who will determine the World reserve currency. The U.S. Dollar is the least likely to have hyper-inflation, so it will remain. The dollar will inflate, for certain, but it's the least worst option.
ReplyDeleteBTW, we really need to take seriously the prophecy from Revelation 6:6 that in the Last Days it will take an entire average day's pay to feed yourself for that day. Just like the company store from The Grapes of Wrath. While a percentage still bask in abundance.
Potato farming and fishing would be good skills to have, come then.
Silver is still a bargain at 59 or $60 per ounce.
ReplyDeleteThat's comparing the silver to gold ratio over the last thousand years.
Our market is distorted by people playing paper games with precious metals. I don't pretend to understand what and how and why, but I do know that when you look at the ratio of silver to gold, it's much lower now than in the past.
I was able to find a local coin dealer that is honest.
I store some of my after tax dollars in silver.
You may have an ounce of gold that's worth $4,100 today, but try and trade that for gasoline or A box of ammunition. You will wind up being upside down on the deal.
That's why I'm saving silver.
Transact in silver. Pass generational capital in gold.
DeleteIn the 80s I was an avid short wave radio listener. Many broadcasters would engage in these doomsday scenarios. Panama taking control of the Panama Canal, the Christian identity movement (believed they were direct descendants of the original tribes of Israel), Spotlight magazine, Bo Gritz, William Cooper and the hour of the time, so many more. I am getting quite old and there is just no way my wife and I could sleep in shifts or stand watch to defend our homestead for an appreciable period of time. Frankly, if my wife were to suddenly die of natural causes, that would be crushing, losing my "young reliable" to "old reliable" after 45 years of marriage. Fortunately or unfortunately, I live in California. During covid, there was a plan out here for some type of state bureaucrats to go door to door to check vaccination status. That did not happen. I wonder if the SHTF how dedicated big gov't would be to enforce, confiscate, etc.
ReplyDeleteIs there a verse in the Bible that says the human heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it? I think that is the whole problem with all of us. Bless this mess. If you want to hear shortwave online you can go to WWCR dot com. They broadcast on four channels, there are still some "unique" programs there.
Jim.