US Says No to More SDR's at the IMF (For Now)

This is an ongoing story we have covered here on this blog for years now. Every now and then we see a renewed push to increase the allocation of SDR's at the IMF which most everyone understands could eventually lead to the SDR replacing the US dollar as a global currency. The pattern thus far is that a variety of advocates for the SDR around the world urge expansion of their use in the monetary system while the US mostly remains opposed to that for one reason or another (but primarily because they don't want competition for the US dollar as the global reserve currency). 

Recently, this issue surfaced again due to the new financial crisis surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. We noted it here and continue to follow this story. Below is a kind of running account of recent news on the topic followed by some added comments.

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Our recent article covering this:

IMF Director Suggests a Boost in the SDR Allocation May Be Neeeded

"According to IMF Director Georgeiva, It appears that the US was supportive of the increased lending capacity sought by the IMF allowing it to boost it up to $1 Trillion. In this interview, the Director also indicates that further substantial increases in the allocation of SDR's may well be needed in her view."


US Reaction to the Idea of an Increased SDR Allocation per Reuters (excerpt below):

"Finance officials will debate the issue during this week’s virtual IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, but multiple sources familiar with the Fund’s deliberations say the United States, the IMF’s dominant shareholder, actively opposes such a move.

The Trump administration opposes providing countries such as Iran and China with billions of dollars in new resources with no conditions, two of the sources said."


Project Syndicate article Calling on US to support an SDR Allocation Increase


"To be sure, any SDR allocation would require the support of at least 85% of the IMF’s membership, which means that the US, with its 17.45% quota, would wield veto power. But there is no good reason why the US would want to use it. The pandemic is generating an unprecedented contraction in the global economy, not to mention its immense costs in human lives. And besides, our proposed method of deploying SDRs would not require US taxpayer money, nor would it pose a challenge to the international status of the dollar."

"A stable and healthy global economy is in the US national interest. And in an election year, it is particularly in the interest of a certain incumbent leader."

Added informational note on the Project Syndicate article just above:

After he reviewed this Project Syndicate article, Dr. Warren Coats provided some additional information on how the SDR allocation process works that I felt would be a valuable note to add here for readers. Dr. Coats is the former head of the SDR Division at the IMF and without question a leading expert in the world on the SDR and how it is used at the IMF. He gave me permission to include his comments on this article which are quoted from his email just below:

"In “How to Use the SDR” Jim O’Neill and Domenico Lombardi propose to leverage an SDR allocation to increase the foreign exchange available to countries needing to finance the deficits of their financial sectors from the freezing of debt service payments resulting from the covid-19 epidemic. They “propose a simple scheme in which a country would stow its allocation as “equity” in an emergency vehicle, thereby avoiding the need to accrue higher net liabilities on its treasury’s balance sheet.” An SDR allocation would indeed supply a helpful addition to countries’ foreign exchange reserves and should be undertaken. However, O’Neill and Lombardi have misunderstood the functioning of the SDR system.

A country receiving an allocation of SDRs receives both a liability (net cumulative allocation) on which it pays interest, and an asset (SDRs) on which it earns interest at the same rate.  It can sell these SDRs to other IMF members for U.S. dollars and other freely useable currencies. It can also pay SDR denominated obligations, lend them, and swap them. They are used actively in member financial dealings with the IMF. SDRs can only be used with other IMF members, the 16 international and regional development banks, the ECB specifically prescribed to hold them, and the IMF itself. They cannot deposit them “as ‘equity’ in an emergency vehicle” though they can “pledge” them to other holders for specified purposes. Using SDRs in any of these ways does not reduce or change a country’s SDR liabilities (net cumulative allocation), which is usually on the books of its central bank, though sometimes its treasury.

A more promising use of these SDRs would be to pledge them as the asset backing of digital SDR currency issued by a central bank or private bank or fintec firm and useable in the market like other currencies. The limited use and role of SDR so far reflects the limited allocation among IMF members but also the limited use of the SDR unit of account to denominate the price of oil and other privately traded goods and services and to denominate cross border borrowing (SDR bonds).  Issuing digital SDRs for general market use that are fully backed by IMF issued SDRs pledged by official holders for that purpose could make a dramatic difference in the attractiveness and use of the SDR."   - Dr. Warren Coats

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My added comments: If you follow the path of the list of articles above, you see the pattern we mentioned above playing out once again (so far). A push for more SDR's followed by opposition from the US. It appears that the authors of the Project Syndicate article have noticed this same pattern. The conclusion of that article which we posted just above urges the US to change its position and even appeals to the Trump Administration to think of it in terms of improving his chances for re-election.

Readers here know that we have long covered this issue even as it is mostly ignored by the general public and in mainstream media. Jim Rickards has been talking about this for many years and we have long covered his view that eventually the US may agree to this major change in the monetary system (although perhaps being forced to that position by crisis events as Jim explained to me in this recent article here). 

After that article, Jim wrote this recent article where he pointed out that "Trump Says No" to more SDR's.

In discussing this a bit more by email with Jim Rickards, I think we both have the same view on where this situation stands for now. It seems unlikely that President Trump will agree to an increase in the allocation of SDR's at this time. The Administration made it clear (as noted in the Reuters article above) that the US does not want China and Iran to benefit from an increased SDR allocation. It also appears likely that President Trump will center his campaign around the idea that China failed the world by mishandling the virus and the US must demand that a price be paid by China. So it is very unlikely that the Administration would support anything that is perceived to benefit China economically at this time. (see this recent polling on this issue) - excerpt below:

"Yet a new poll shows that, outside the Beltway, the coronavirus crisis is actually bringing Americans together on the China issue. Republicans and Democrats now largely agree that the Chinese government bears responsibility for the spread of the pandemic, that it can’t be trusted on this or any other issue, and that the U.S. government should maintain a tough position on China on trade and overall, especially if Beijing again falters in its commitments."

If President Trump is re-elected, it will be interesting to see if the US position changes or softens during a second term. If former Vice President Joe Biden is elected, the prospects for an increasing role for the SDR likely go up for sure. Our view here is that we would not expect to see any dramatic changes on this issue until 2021 after the US election results are in. 

This is What Happens When More People Start Losing Confidence in the System

The coronavirus related economic crisis is now in full swing and by now most everyone realizes this not just your average garden variety recession. We are seeing events all the time now in various markets that are described as historic in nature and some described as "never seen before in history". It is now very clear that the foundations of the monetary and financial system we have known for a long time are being shaken to the core and no one really knows how this is going to end or what direction things will eventually take. In an environment like this, all kinds of ideas and predictions emerge for the future that only a short time ago would have been viewed as far fetched and extreme. 

Below I am documenting just a couple of articles to illustrate this point. I have no idea if the prediction for gold made in one of these in these articles will pan out or if the extreme proposal (universal income for all paid for by just printing money at the central bank) described in one of the articles will ever be seriously considered.  But I do know that things like this will be looked at by a lot more people now and taken more seriously be a larger portion of the public as the general public perception grows that our present system and institutions are failing.

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From Kitco, Bank of America predicts Gold Will Go to $3,000 Per Ounce

"Bank of America commodity analysts just keep getting more bullish on gold as the weeks go by.

The bank said in a report last week that gold ’s technical momentum could drive prices to an all-time high this year; in a new report published Tuesday, analysts have officially increased their bullish outlook, saying that gold prices could hit $3,000 within 18 months, a 50% increase from its previous forecast."

. . . . .

"Economists at Bank of America have warned that the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet as a percentage of GDP could rise 20% to 40% this year. According to reports last week, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet hit a record high of $6.42 trillion, up more than 50% from levels reported during the first week of March.

The analysts noted that the Federal Reserve: “Can’t print gold.”

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From World of Debt (Ellen Brown) - A Universal Basic Income is Essential and Will Work

"According to an April 6 article on CNBC.com, Spain is slated to become the first country in Europe to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) on a long-term basis. Spain’s Minister for Economic Affairs has announced plans to roll out a UBI “as soon as possible,” with the goal of providing a nationwide basic wage that supports citizens “forever.” Guy Standing, a research professor at the University of London, told CNBC that there was no prospect of a global economic revival without a universal basic income. “It’s almost a no-brainer,” he said. “We are going to have some sort of basic income system sooner or later ….”

“Where will the government find the money?” is no longer a valid objection to providing an economic safety net for the people. The government can find the money in the same place it just found more than $5 trillion for Wall Street and Corporate America: the central bank can print it."

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My added comments: I underlined the last sentences of both articles above to illustrate an interesting irony. Both of the these articles are suggesting ideas or events related to a failure of our existing system. They both perhaps indicate that what we have now is failing. 

However, as we know, the ideas on how to deal with a failure of our present system and what proposals should be adopted to "fix things" are often as if people come from different planets. These two articles do a decent job of illustrating that reality so I am posting them here for readers to compare and contrast. As far as I know, there is really no comprehensive consensus on any plan to reform or reset our present monetary system at this time that anyone thinks could actually be agreed to and implemented. Also, as most everyone knows, virtually every proposal offered in the United States is immediately politicized and everyone gears up for battle to try and obtain political advantage with no hope of any kind for compromise that leads to agreement on major reforms. Just the two articles above illustrate ideas (using gold as a solution vs. endless central bank money creation passed out to the public) that would lead to never ending partisan political fighting if anyone tried to get either passed into law. That's just the the reality of where we are these days. 

Added note: If you think this new gold price forecast from Bank of America (hardly known far and wide as big gold advocates) sounds pretty high, you will really be surprised by forecasts by some others such as Jim Rickards. In one recent interview Jim says gold will be $5,000 per ounce by next year and eventually ten times the current price over time. None of this suggests much confidence that our present system is going to make it through this time unscathed. In the next 2-3 months, it will become clearer and clearer just how badly shaken our present system really is. Anyone who has not taken any steps to prepare for a worst case scenario by now may have waited too long. However, as always, time will give us the answer. But this time we may not have to wait years for that answer. 

IMF Director Georgieva Says US Stimulus Package Helped Boost IMF Lending to $1 Trillion

Recently, we posted this article where Jim Rickards explained how the IMF might be able to get the US to agree to substantial increases in the amount of SDR's (the currency unit used by IMF members). This is a long standing prediction Jim has made that we have followed here over time since it would amount to major monetary system change if it were to eventually mean the SDR replaced the US dollar as the global reserve currency. 

Now we have this new interview last week on Bloomberg TV with IMF Director Kristalina Georgeiva where they discuss the concept of a massive increase in SDR's. Director Georgeiva notes that the recently passed US $2.2 Trillion "stimulus package" included a "component supporting the authority of the IMF to borrow that boosts our resources". 

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According to Director Georgeiva, It appears that the US was supportive of the increased lending capacity sought by the IMF allowing it to boost it up to $1 Trillion. In this interview, the Director also indicates that further substantial increases in the allocation of SDR's may well be needed in her view. 

Followup news notes 4-15-2020: US is OK with boosting IMF lending capacity, but opposes an increased allocation of SDR's at this time (Financial Times) and this from Reuters - US Opposition Seen Stalling Major IMF Liquidity Boost


These articles say the US prefers not to support an increased allocation of SDR's at the IMF and is discussing other support plans with members of the G7 and G20. The Reuters article specifically says the US does not want to see nations such as Iran and China benefit from a pro rata allocation of increased new SDR's at the IMF.

Below I am posting again the response Jim Rickards gave to my question about how the IMF might get the US to agree to events that could end up replacing the US dollar with the SDR.

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Since we do now clearly have a potential trigger event for another major financial crisis and it could very well be a much bigger crisis than the last one in 2008, Jim's long held view that the Fed won't be able to handle this comes into play as something we must consider and watch for over time. When this scenario has been proposed in the past, I get an important and reasonable question from many readers. 

They ask me:

How will the IMF be able to pull this off? Why would the US be willing to go along with a major monetary system reset that gives up the global reserve currency status for the US dollar? Readers point out to me that the US holds a 16% vote at the IMF (see footnote below) and the IMF would require an 85% approval vote to do a massive issuance of SDR's. I am asked why the US would ever give up this veto power vote and just allow the IMF to essentially replace the US dollar with the SDR?

I asked Jim if he would be willing to address this important issue and he kindly replied that he would. Below is the answer he provided to these questions by email:

"This is not something the U.S. would ever desire, but the U.S. may have no choice. If the world turns to the IMF and massive SDR issuance to reliquify capital markets (after central bank efforts fail), they will need approval from China, Russia and other nations that collectively hold 16% veto power. To overcome the veto, they will insist the SDR replace the dollar as the leading reserve currency. The U.S. will have to go along or else face a complete shut-down of the global financial system. That's checkmate."

James Rickards

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Added note related to this topic: A thank you to a reader who forwarded this link to an article by Jan Nieuwenhuijs. In his article he explains why he believes the SDR will not replace the US dollar as global reserve currency. Here is an excerpt from the article:

"It’s always best to look at what central bankers do, not what they say. Across the globe many central banks have been shifting towards gold since 2009, not SDRs."

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What we do here is follow events over time and see what actually happens which, in the end, is what matters the most in trying to make personal financial decisions.

If We Can Help - We Must

Today I was stunned to see the news story in the video below showing thousands of people lining up in San Antonio,Texas just to get food. This crisis is taking an enormous toll on just about every aspect of life, but when we are now seeing children in their cars with their parents in lines for hours just to get food, I feel like I must try to help and I hope anyone who can help will consider it. 

Below I have pasted in the link to the donation page for the National Food Bank at feedingamerica.org. Our family made a donation and I would encourage anyone who can help to think about it. Any donation size matters in times like these. Let's hope and pray this pandemic subsides sooner rather than later and that people out of work can get back to work as soon as safely possible.

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Coronavirus pandemic causing an increase in hungry families | KVUE

Link to the Donation page for the National Food Bank (Feedingamerica.org)

NY Post article on this story

Jim Rickards Explains How the IMF Could Get the US to Agree to Replace the US Dollar with the SDR

Readers here know that for years we have featured Jim Rickards thoughts on how our monetary system might change in the event our present system were to fail. Jim has explained in both his books and his interviews that he believes that eventually a crisis so large would arise that it would be too large for the Federal Reserve to handle. He says logically the next step we would expect from global monetary authorities would be to propose replacing the US dollar as the global reserve currency with the SDR used by the IMF. Jim repeats this analysis in another new interview you can watch here at Hedgeye with Keith McCullough. 

This interview contains a lot of important information and insight I believe anyone interested in these issues should to listen to. While we all hope that somehow this current new financial crisis triggered by the virus pandemic will be short lived and result in what many mainstream financial media are calling a "V shaped recovery", hope is not a plan. 

I cannot stress enough that no one knows how all this unprecedented emergency economic  policy is going to unfold or all the potential consequences. As they discuss in this interview, we are looking at economic disruption not seen since the great depression in the US in the 1930's. To simply hope that the economy will shake all this off and bounce back near normal by the end of the year is naive at best. Again, it always good to have hope and pray for the best possible outcome. However, we must be prepared to accept the potential for a scenario with a much worse case outcome. Jim and Keith discuss that very well in this interview.

Since we do now clearly have a potential trigger event for another major financial crisis and it could very well be a much bigger crisis than the last one in 2008, Jim's long held view that the Fed won't be able to handle this comes into play as something we must consider and watch for over time. When this scenario has been proposed in the past, I get an important and reasonable question from many readers. 

They ask me:

How will the IMF be able to pull this off? Why would the US be willing to go along with a major monetary system reset that gives up the global reserve currency status for the US dollar? Readers point out to me that the US holds a 16% vote at the IMF (see footnote below) and the IMF would require an 85% approval vote to do a massive issuance of SDR's. I am asked why the US would ever give up this veto power vote and just allow the IMF to essentially replace the US dollar with the SDR?

I asked Jim if he would be willing to address this important issue and he kindly replied that he would. Below is the answer he provided to these questions by email:

"This is not something the U.S. would ever desire, but the U.S. may have no choice. If the world turns to the IMF and massive SDR issuance to reliquify capital markets (after central bank efforts fail), they will need approval from China, Russia and other nations that collectively hold 16% veto power. To overcome the veto, they will insist the SDR replace the dollar as the leading reserve currency. The U.S. will have to go along or else face a complete shut-down of the global financial system. That's checkmate."

James Rickards

I will add that in this and other recent interviews, Jim makes it clear that he does not think even this drastic reset of the system will solve the problem and eventually some kind of sound money policy will have to emerge. But he suspects it will be after everything else possible has been tried. He sees the response to a crisis too big for the Fed to fix as happening in this order - 1) Fed and other central banks respond first 2) After they fail, the world turns to the IMF 3) Eventually, only some kind of sound money policy will restore public trust and confidence. This process unfolds over time.

This is extremely important information from Jim. I encourage everyone to listen to the interview linked above, read Jim's books, and learn as much as possible about these issues. 

We now face the real potential going forward that all the theories and scenarios we have talked about for years here on this blog could become very real as this situation unfolds in the months ahead. I am not sure there is anything more important we can do than monitoring events and staying informed. Knowing what is happening may well be more important than anything else we can do other than of course doing what we can to stay healthy and help contain the virus. You cannot make the best personal decisions unless you understand what is happening, so accurate information is critical.

Footnote: This comment on the US vote being a "veto" like power from the Congressional Research Service:

"The executive board or board of governors of the IMF can approve loans, policy decisions, and many other matters by a simple majority vote; however, a supermajority vote is required to approve major IMF decisions. The supermajority may require a 70% or 85% vote, depending on the issue. At 16.52% of total voting power, the United States has unique veto power over major policy decisions."

Added news note 4-6-2020: IMF to ask for increase in SDR's

"The IMF is probing other ways to increase its firepower. It has already asked Group of 20 leaders to support creating a sizable quantity of reserve assets called SDRs, or special drawing rights, as it did in the 2009 global financial crisis."

Update on Precious Metals Markets

I was going to do a Q&A type of post on how things look in the precious metals markets since many readers here do follow those markets in times like these. 

Instead, I found a very good reasoned discussion on those markets on an alternative media platform featuring Rick Rule, the CEO of Sprott Assett Management. I'll just post the video below for anyone interested in this topic since Rick Rule basically says what I would say for the most part and does so better than I would. This is one of the best discussions I have seen on the current state of precious metals and the related mining industry. Very fact based. 

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Summary of the Discussion:

"The virus pandemic is not only ravaging our personal lives, but also impacting business globally, causing many mines to cease operations. At the same time, crisis financial interventions are motivating even “Reluctant Preppers” to seek shelter for their funds in precious metals, resulting in a demand spike which is cleaning out the supply chain of physical gold & silver. Rick Rule, CEO of Sprott Asset Management, returns to Liberty and Finance / Reluctant Preppers to answer viewer's questions at this time of a "Black Swan" event colliding with the top of the credit cycle and unprecedented volatility in the major markets and precious metals."


Important Note to Readers: Tomorrow I will post an update from Jim Rickards. He explains to me how the thinks the IMF could be able to get the US to accept replacing the US dollar with the SDR.

Is This It? - Part III -- Jim Rickards Offers His Thoughts

We have raised the question as to whether this new global crisis could be the "trigger event" that eventually leads to major changes in our monetary system. This blog has covered that topic now for many years. One person who has consistently predicted that at some point a new major crisis would lead to major monetary system changes is Jim Rickards. 

Jim has now written this new article and apparently seems to believe this new crisis will be the trigger event that leads to major changes. Below are a couple of excerpts from his new article. We have covered this topic extensively and have compiled an archive of various proposals for major monetary system reform or even a complete reset of the system. You can review that information here.  (note: I added underline below for emphasis)

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"Since Federal Reserve resources were barely able to prevent complete collapse in 2008, it should be expected that an even larger collapse will overwhelm the Fed’s balance sheet.

That’s exactly the situation we’re facing right now.

The specter of a global debt crisis suggests the urgency for new liquidity sources, bigger than those that central banks can provide. The logic leads quickly to one currency for the planet.

The task of re-liquefying the world will fall to the IMF because the IMF will have the only clean balance sheet left among official institutions. The IMF will rise to the occasion with a towering issuance of special drawing rights (SDRs), and this monetary operation will effectively end the dollar’s role as the leading reserve currency."                  

 . . . . . .

"Over the next several years, we will see the issuance of SDRs to transnational organizations, such as the U.N. and World Bank, to be spent on climate change infrastructure and other elite pet projects outside the supervision of any democratically elected bodies. (I call this the New Blueprint for Worldwide Inflation.)"

Please click here to read the full article

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My added comments: I have gotten input from other high credibility sources that suggest it is possible this crisis event might eventually lead to a new monetary system. Those sources also talked about this being the start of a process that could take some time (not a rapid event in terms of changing the monetary system).  Here, we just monitor events and watch for what actually happens. But given the high credibility of the sources, I did want to alert readers that there is a belief that this crisis could start the process for major change from more than one source I view as credible. 

Added note: Jim also has this new interview just out that dives into a variety of topics from what is happening in the gold market to the virus to the longer term impact from the current crisis. You can watch that interview here or just below.

Added news note 3-29-2020: The link below goes to the virus projection curve reportedly being used by The White House task force as a guide. This site also has a projection for each state. Using this guide, you can compare actual numbers over the coming weeks to see if the real numbers are coming in above or below this projected curve:

https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections


As some added information, my brother (who was to have an elective surgery procedure in Dallas, Texas) was told by his doctors that they hope to schedule him in about 3 weeks which would fit in with this projection curve and suggests his doctors are also using it as a timeline guide.

PSA - Reader Compiles News Digest on All Things Coronavirus - Corona Times

During this unusual time when everything is turned upside down for most people, I am open to posting information on the Coronavirus in case that may be helpful to anyone who reads the blog. 

One reader here has been working on The Corona Times which is a news digest of information from many sources related to various aspects of the epidemic. With permission, I am posting the set of information below exactly as received by email from the reader for anyone who can use it.

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Corona Times 

Vol. I  No.1.1

Table of Contents 

1. SARS-CoV-2 

The Atlantic:  “Why the Coronavirus Has Been So Successful"

News Items:  “Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1” / “How long can the novel coronavirus survive on surfaces and in the air?"

2. Detection

News Items:  “Covid-19 diagnostic based on MIT technology might be tested on patient samples soon” / “Pioneers of rapid diagnostic tests for epidemic fever viruses"

News Items:  “Team Japan develops 10-minute coronavirus test”

News Items:  “Coronavirus: Chinese supercomputer uses artificial intelligence to diagnose patients from chest scans”

3. Protection

The Atlantic:  “Why the Coronavirus Has Been So Successful”

News Items:  “Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1” / “How long can the novel coronavirus survive on surfaces and in the air?"

Warren's space:  "Protecting yourself from Coronavirus"

StillmanMD:  “COVID-19 Update"

4. Treatment

The Atlantic:  “What Will You Do If You Start Coughing?"

News Items:  “Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial” / “An Open Data Clinical Trial for COVID-19 Prevention”

News Items:  “Coronavirus cure hope as 79-year-old Italian man successfully treated with experimental drug”

News Items:  “Experimental lung drug to be tested on UK coronavirus patients”

News Items:  “Doctors Have Now Mapped How Our Immune System Fights COVID-19” / “Breadth of concomitant immune responses prior to patient recovery: a case report of non-severe COVID-19"

News Items:  “Coronavirus patient shows encouraging immune system fightback”

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:  “Infectious Disease Experts Recommend Using Antibodies from COVID-19 Survivors as Stopgap Measure to Treat Patients and Protect Healthcare Workers"

5. Public Health

Stanford Medical School - Lin Lab:  “How to fight the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its disease, CoVID-19”

JPMorgan - Eye on the Market:  “Coronavirus (COVID-19) research compilation"

Virology Down Under:  “Past Time to Tell the Public: “It Will Probably Go Pandemic, and We Should All Prepare Now"

Slate Star Codex:  "Coronalinks 3/19/20"

News Items:  “Covert coronavirus infections could be seeding new outbreaks”

Stat:  “A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data"

6. Economic Health

WSJ:  “Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown”

WSJ:  “What Victory Looks Like in the Coronavirus War"

7. Financial Health

News Items:  “Analysts Slash GDP Estimates as Coronavirus Ripples Through Economy”

News Items:  “How long will the coronavirus slump last?

JPMorgan - Eye on the Market:  “John Stuart Mill and the road from ruin to recovery"

UnHerd:  “Covid-19 has exposed our financial fragility"

NYT:  “This Is the One Thing That Might Save the World From Financial Collapse"

8. Social Order - L'Ordre Social

Foreign Policy:  “The Real Pandemic Danger Is Social Collapse"

Law and Liberty:  “Jacques Rueff’s Monetary Order and Us"

Off Topic - For Those Dealing With Stress and Anxiety Due to the Coronavirus Crisis

This post is completely different than anything I have ever posted on this blog and something I never imagined I would even consider doing here. But we are now in the midst of a historic situation. Fear and anxiety over the challenges that exist for all of us now is at a very high level and with good reason. The goal of this blog has  always been to try and provide a free resource of information in an effort to be helpful to anyone that finds the information and may be able to benefit from it in any way. The subject matter has always centered around the stability of our present financial and monetary system because I felt like I have come across a lot of potentially useful information over the years and wanted to make it available to anyone who might be able to use it. I purposely avoid any kind of political or religious agenda here because I know those topics can be so divisive and could make it harder to achieve the objective here which is to try and be of service. 

With all that background, I will explain that my initial motivation to do this blog and to keep it alive over the years came about from a challenge from my church. We were encouraged to try and think of some way to serve other people and this has been my attempt to do that to the best of my ability. Now we are all facing something no one imagined just a few months ago and it is obvious that many people are facing a lot of stress and anxiety, which is only normal for a crisis like this. As a result,  I have decided to post below a video that I hope might be helpful or useful to some in these times. This is actually a podcast featuring words of encouragement from the pulpit minister from our church (Jason Reeves), our Family Life minister (Dr. Ryan Smith), and one of the elders at our congregation (Dr. Ken Ford). Some of the message content in this video is mostly directed to our church members, but it also contains some general information on the virus, as well as some thoughts on ways to help deal with the potential stress that goes with it. Ryan specializes in therapy for people dealing with all kinds of stress and anxiety. Ken provides some good information on the virus and why we need to all work together to fight it. I know without any question I can rely on the integrity of these men and what they have to say which is why I am willing to post it here.

For those who are not religious, please do not be offended. This is not intended to as some kind of sermon or attempt to force religion on you. I know these three men and I know they have nothing but servants' hearts combined with a deep desire to help others whenever they can. That is the only purpose for the information and message in this video. 

With all that said, below is the youtube video podcast for anyone interested. If you have any questions about the information presented, please feel free to email me and I will try to clarify if anything they say is confusing or hard to hear. The first three minutes are more directed towards our internal members, so feel free to skip over that if you like. Also, at about the 23 minute mark the video portion freezes up, but the audio portion still works fine. 

I hope this can be helpful to some who are understandably dealing with anxiety and stress at this time.  I am sure all of us are dealing with that on some level so you are not alone.

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Summary of the Info in the Video

- Dallas Medical Doctor Ken Ford goes over some information on the virus, the concerns of health providers, and why we do need to take it seriously and each do our part to try to help contain it

- Dr. Ryan Smith (expert on therapies for dealing with stress and anxiety) offers some practical ideas on how individuals and families can deal with having their lives turned upside down and the anxiety and stress that can come with that

-all three participants in the video encourage people of faith to stay calm and look for ways to grow from this adversity and for ways to help others if possible


Important News note (3-23-2020): Fed Announces "Asset Purchases with No Limits". This is a huge step by the Fed in an obvious attempt to support the stock market and other markets.