Seeking The Truth

"You can't handle the truth!" — Colonel Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men

Are most Americans capable of handling the truth?  If the average American were not too lazy to actually seek the truth and look outside the spoon-feeding from our mainstream media, do you think they would actually do anything about it?  The character of Colonel Jessup in the movie A Few Good Men always inspired me.  No, I will not try to justify what takes place in that movie that leads up to his dramatic outburst...but at some point, we all want to just call out the bullcrap and lies and the fraud and hypocrisy we see stacked before us...don't we?!?

I was not born a doubter, or rebel, or a cynic. For most of my life, I've been content following the herd...just trying to achieve the American Dream.

But WOW! How things have changed for me and likely for you as well!  After my awakening, or as Steve likes to call it, my “Red Pill Moment,” I began to question just about everything… I began to question authority…to question the American reality…and to question every traditional source of information that I believe has played a role in driving our great nation and civil society into the royal foul-up in which we now find ourselves!

After coming to this realization that things are not as they seem, I immediately sought out alternative news and media sources that supported my new perspective on life.  I sought and found new like-minded friends and fellow preppers who think just like I do. And spent less time with people that don’t tend to agree with me...

But when I did this, I recognized that I could easily fall into the same type of “group-think” that most Americans have succumbed to over the last many decades, only on the flip-side!  If we ever stop questioning things and stop truly seeking the truth, we are at risk of ignoring some truths that may be in conflict with some of our newfound beliefs.

Truth can sometimes be ugly and it can also be beautiful. But as we close our ears and our minds to different and contrary opinions, we may just as easily move towards that level of ignorance and complacency that we deride in those we call "Sheeple."

I’ll leave this philosophical thought there for now, so you can ponder how you may or may not have started to close your ears and minds to facts that may not support your newfound awareness.  As we may now question everything that gave us comfort in the past, let’s not fall into the trap of ignoring facts that may show that we have erred in our new line of thinking. Never stop questioning what you see or hear or read. Let us always seek the truth!

Okay, so last week my desire to seek the truth led me to attend a luncheon put together by a professional organization tied to my industry. I work alone in my business most of the time, and quite frankly have been spending enough time focusing on SurvivalWeek and prepping that I needed to get my head out of the hole I sometimes find myself hunkering down in.

I really felt I needed to do a quick head-check to make sure I haven’t gone off the deep-end—or to perform what I’ll refer to here as “an inverse reality check.”

So at the luncheon, I expected to immerse myself with shiny, happy people who live in delusion and who ignore the economic doldrums and deny any impending collapse...people who continue to trust our leaders and trust “the system” in spite of how that's working out for us…

The speaker was a well-known senior economist from a well-known bank that I just had to assume was going to show charts and graphs parrotting everything I ignore from the mainstream media types.  I just knew I was going to hear that things were just "peaches and cream" from here on out...

But I will tell you now, I was wrong to assume that is what I would get.  My "inverse reality check" ended up going way differently than I expected, and that’s what scared me the most. What I heard from the guy I assumed would deliver some Paul Krugman-esque bullcrap actually brought the house down low and confirmed just about every bad thing I was subconsciously screaming to be proven wrong about.

Now granted, it would have been too much to expect this well-employed senior bank economist to delve deeply into rampant DC/Wall Street cronyism…or to mention any New World Order schemes or discuss the fact that middle-America is being propped up for a final financial cataclysm that will make 2008 look like a hayride.  But what this gentleman did share was far from the sugar-coated rah-rah session I expected.  And without acknowledging the cronyism or the NWO dollar-destruction scheme, he confirmed several things that point to the same eventual dire outcome…

For this week’s Dispatch, I’ll skip the charts and graphs approach and employ the summary/recap in a bullet-point format. That is mostly because I hate charts and graphs and…because there’s no such thing as “fork-points" for this type of program.  Because what I distinctly heard at this luncheon is that as far as our economy goes, you can “put a fork in it!”

As a disclaimer, I am not an economist, nor am I a financial expert.  I am an avid reader who is educated in business and finance and I depend on economic momentum to feed my kids and pay the mortgage.

Here is my take-away from the economist’s presentation.  I have added some commentary to his points to add emphasis where I felt it was necessary. Here goes:

• The US economy has, in fact, rebounded from 2008 and has been growing consistently since then, albeit at a relatively anemic rate of about 2%.  And that 2% annual growth rate may continue, but likewise it may not...
• That 2% growth rate we’ve seen over past few years has been achieved primarily through exports—to China and Europe.
• China and Europe are not likely to be the source of our future economic growth.  China is feared to be facing a series of crises itself… and Europe’s charade of fiscal solutions is about to collapse.
• There has been no change in the situation in Greece, only window-dressing, and that bad news can’t be obscured much longer. And after Greece--then comes Spain, and then Portugal and eventually comes Italy—which has the 3rd highest national debt in the entire world (behind Japan and US)…

So if we can’t depend on Europe and China for growth any more, what can we expect here?

• Consumer spending will not cure our ills as it has in the past.  Consumer confidence is a joke…just another manipulated number that will not revive this dying patient…
• Our economist did not delve into inflation, or the fact that the CPI, which is used to measure inflation, is a completely manipulated calculation. But he did allow that consumer spending would make or break us, and likely not have a chance to resuscitate our economy given all the weights stacked against it.
• Improvements in the unemployment figures are exaggerated, even as they stand at well over 8%...
• Gas prices are up, which will hit everyone even harder in the pocketbook...on every item you can think of.  There is nothing on the horizon to hint this will change any time soon.
• Taxes will be going up with the expiration of the “Bush” tax cuts.  So there will be less discretionary income for the consumer.
• There is no hope for fiscal restraint in DC—our mounting deficits will start to hurt us very soon.   Bernanke has promised not to raise interest rates in the immediate term, but from 2014 and on, all bets are off. If you have ever heard of ZIRP (zero interest rate policy)…just imagine how easy it will be for rates on our US debt to double or triple from these artificial lows...and consider those higher rates against a debt level that will be close to $20 Trillion by 2014!?!
• Barring a miracle at the Supreme Court this Summer, Obamacare costs will start to hit in 2013. That means higher costs for employers, higher insurance costs for consumers, and higher taxes for those still paying taxes. This will continue to discourage hiring…
• There is a record level of commercial mortgages coming due in 2012. All those 5-year interest-only notes that were made in 2007 (right before the music stopped...) are coming to maturity and a record level of those are already in default—so banks are going to pay the price, or alternately, we will—either through more bailouts, or higher lending costs, or less access to capital.
• Total student debt in America has now passed the $1 trillion dollar mark, and about $270 billion dollars of those loans are at least 30 days delinquent.

So, when our economist friend wrapped up, the room was completely silent. No polite applause. Not one question from the audience...just….silence!

Well, I’ll try to put a caboose on this train of thought—I went to this event somehow hoping I would hear something that would encourage me to wake up from the bad-economic dream we all seem unable to awaken from.  My “inverse reality check” had failed!  I walked away from this luncheon more worried than before I walked in.

Folks, I’m afraid that the economic outlook is indeed bleak.

So what do we do?  Seek the truth and get prepared financially. To find the truth, I encourage you to seek a broad range of news sources, like we do at SurvivalWeek. Never stop questioning these sources and seeking contrary opinions, so you can arrive at your own conclusions on these matters. We need to accept that our perceptions and assumptions, however well-intended and however "enlightened," may actually be wrong. Our newfound awareness is still capable of getting clouded or mis-guided, so do not get complacent until you have made preparations for another economic downturn.

I am not happy that my own worst economic conclusions were reaffirmed by this well-known senior economist at a well-known national bank, but I am happy that I have taken some measures to prepare for what seems to be a certain catastrophic economic outcome for America.  I am also happy that there are resources available for me to learn more about other measures I can take and to share those resources with others who are recently “awakened.” There is hope for those of us who embrace the truth and do something about it.

So, as Steve frequently does, I encourage you to share this information with your friends, family and co-workers.  Read the links we post on Breaking News and Economic Collapse and other related topics. And don't be afraid to reach out and ask for more information.  We do not and will not purport that we know everything, but we can certainly direct you to information you can use to reach your own conclusions.

Only by helping wake up others do we have a chance of making a difference in the ultimate outcome. Only by helping our neighbors prepare for the storm do we have a chance of surviving ourselves.

So stay calm and keep your heads on straight.  You’ll need your preps and your wits (and each other) for what is headed our way.

Best Regards,

M.S. Wall

Co-Founder of SurvivalWeek.com and Contributing Editor of The Beacon