Apparently, the Chinese are becoming more vocal in their demands to see an alternative to the current “reserve currency”. Alas, the currency crisis is making it to the mainstream. Fulford linked to the Bank of China website, which states unequivocally that they want to move to the use of “special drawing rights”, or SDRs, which are monetary instruments that can be used as an alternative to the US “green frogskin”, as Lame Deer used to call US dollars. Peter Schiff’s latest article mentions a variety of factors playing into the widening ‘perfect storm’. Antal Fekete’s latest article does much the same, and places the blame squarely on Helicopter Ben. We may be entering the beginning of the end phase of ‘dollar hegemony’, where we see what Fulford calls the nuclear option of dollar divestment, and then a concomitant rush for the exits, as everyone tries to get out of the burning house before it completely collapses. For my part, I think the process will drag on for some time before we see free-fall in the dollar index or a stock market crash. The big players must be panicking, but they must have some tricks up their sleeve, not the least of which is the sale of gold reserves to keep a lid on the gold price. Anyway, this is a quote to ponder, and echoes what Fekete says in the video I posted earlier, which is to base monetary policy on positive values (which would be “more stable in the long run”):

“The desirable goal of reforming the international monetary system, therefore, is to create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies.’ Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, March 23, 2009

It’ll be both amusing and terrifying at the same time to watch this ship go down.

When I first came across Ray McGovern, I was surprised there was a man of such integrity in the CIA for all those years. If there was any good going on in there, I guess it must have been due to the likes of this man. Take a listen to his stories of the good old days. Nowadays, he is often on the Real News as a commentator on current buffooneries going on in the world. He’s also a part of a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. They formed when the saw the pack of lies that were being used to sell the destruction of the sovereign nation of Iraq in 2001 to the present. You can find him in other interviews on youtube giving insight into the roles of various intelligence professionals in allowing that fiasco to happen. He’s an essential source of information into the inner workings of global intelligence and geopolitical shenanigans (if you want to know about that stuff).

This is a taste of what Fekete has to say about Keynesian and Friedmanite economic planners who are in the driver’s seat of the current implosion of fiat currency going on in the world. I’ve been watching a number of sources, and it looks like what we’ve got going on is a power struggle between those who want to start with a new global, more egalitarian currency, and those who want to maintain their grip on the old US petro-dollar Ponzi scheme. Like Fekete says in the video, a gold standard would bring back, “money based on positive, rather than negative, values.” In other words, a world reserve currency not based on one country’s debt. You can read Fekete’s detailed articles on gold-eagle.com or go to his site listed on my blogroll. The man is a genius, and Canadian to boot. I don’t claim to know whether his theories would solve all the problems we have in our lopsided economic set-up, but he seems to make sense, and isn’t the only one who favors a gold standard.

F William Engdahl is worth checking out. He is interviewed here on The Real News, which in itself is worth checking out. He’s discussing the “economic crisis” and how it will affect the rest of the world.

The artworks is just as good as the music.

This researcher has found the garbage island, which is an area inside the Pacific ‘gyre’, which is like the vortex in the middle of a sink. All the waste from around the Pacific rim ends up in the gyre. The way he describes it and the way you witness it in the video, it’s like a soup. Take a look.

Ahh, teaching can be tough sometimes.  I need to watch this to keep a light heart once in a while.

Why are you here? What is it that is not being accomplished that must be accomplished in the short time yet before the completion of these cycles? The wheels within the wheels will not pause even for a moment for individuals to catch up. It’s a do-or-die, now-or-almost-never moment in cosmic history.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.