Where Are We?

Not much has changed so not much has been posted here in terms of where things may be headed for monetary system reform or (even more dramatic) monetary system failure requiring some kind of new "restart" monetary system. 

Everything posted here for years is pretty much still valid today. All the monetary system risks listed and explained mostly still exist and if anything are riskier than ever. All kinds of various proposals to reform the system or replace it with a new system have been offered and many documented here on this blog. For years, I got direct input from a variety of leading experts from around the world on these issues. Virtually all of them agreed with the risks that exist to the present monetary system. Many of them offered a variety of ideas on the best ways to fix the system going forward. None of these reforms have gotten any traction anywhere as far as I know. 

So, Where Are We Today and why are we where we are?

The best answer I can give is that we are still clinging to a wobbly debt based monetary system administered by central banks using national fiat currencies. Debt levels never imagined possible are now accepted as routine and business as usual. The world seems to accept that all this debt will not be paid off unless it is paid off with currencies that continue to lose significant purchasing power over time. So long as governments and central banks can continue to create money with computers and people keep accepting it for use in business and trade, business as usual does just go on and on and on.

Having followed this for years, I can attest that almost everyone accepts the above analysis as true. All kinds of official warnings have been issued related to the risks that exist to the current monetary system, so it's not that no one realizes the risks exist. 

So why does nothing change?

All I can offer here is my own opinion and speculation based on covering this in some detail for a long time. The global political stalemate between two very powerful factions appears to remain in full force. There are two basic forward looking political agendas or ideas on how the future should look. Both sides are unwilling to compromise and are determined to eventually prevail. So long as this condition continues, the most likely scenario is that every possible effort will be made to prop up and sustain the current unstable (and quite corrupt in many cases) system. I believe the reason for this is because both sides in the larger global power struggle understand that whatever happens to the monetary system impacts every person on earth in their daily lives. If the system fails and that results in major human suffering on a global scale, most of the world population is going to be very angry and looking for who to blame for this total disruption of their ability to plan and conduct their lives freely. No one on either side of this power struggle can really be sure who will get the blame. So neither side has an incentive to see it fail because of the risk their side will get the blame and will suffer complete loss of power and influence for a long time (probably for generations). So the stakes are enormous for both sides.

Thus, whatever has to be done to keep the existing massive debt based system afloat continues to be done unless one side or the other thinks they can leverage a system failure to the advantage of their side. That's my take on it.

So, when will that come to an end?

That is the Trillion dollar question that apparently no one can answer. Everyone knows it cannot go on forever. No one knows when it might fail dramatically. So, politicians and officials on both sides of the major power struggle are spending their time and effort trying to spin whatever talking points they can out to the public to try and insure the other side will get blamed when the system does fail. That's the objective now on both sides. No actual efforts at compromise or genuine solution finding are in play at all as best I can tell. 

So, what does the average person do in a world like this?

There is not much of anything the average person can do to impact what policy makers and officials decide to do in my opinion. They are going to make decisions based upon whatever they think will advance their cause (their side) and provide them with political power to shape the future agenda. Certainly people should vote and express their views as they feel led to do so. But in reality, there is no evidence I see to suggest policy makers will pay attention to any of that other than needing people's votes to be in power. Once they get their votes, they will go back to ignoring them in terms of their policy making as I view the situation. 

Here is what I would offer for the average person to do in bullet point form in this kind of world:

-stay as informed as possible about what is actually happening by looking at many various forms of media sources. Follow them over time to establish which information sources are more credible based on what actually happens, not what you prefer to happen or want to believe. There is massive misinformation and disinformation in circulation from all directions. Time usually tells what information is more credible. 

-try to be a responsible adult focused on doing the best you can to take care of yourself and your family so as to be as prepared as possible for whatever the future may bring. Try to stay informed on the big picture, but don't over stress about it.

-reduce debt as much as possible, build up an emergency savings fund if possible, add some amount of precious metals to your savings to better diversify against a potential systemic failure.

-be a person of honesty and integrity and kindness to everyone in your circle of influence. The world is badly divided and there are people who don't mind trying to capitalize on that to gain wealth or power. While people will always disagree on important issues, there is no reason they cannot make an effort to get along and work together whenever possible. A couple of major common goals should be human freedom and a decent standard of living for everyone. People of genuine good will with those key goals can usually find ways to work together despite differences.

I'll continue to monitor events. If I become aware of something new that could involve a major change in the monetary system (either a planned change or an unplanned systemic failure) I will post it here as always. For now, the global power struggle and political stalemate continues until it doesn't -- and no one knows when it will end as far as I know. It is possible we could see some closure on the political front by the 2024 US elections. The monetary system remains at risk of some level of failure at virtually any time.