It's Hard to Believe This Is Happening!

I still find it almost surreal, like the Twilight Zone is playing in the next dimension over, and I keep flipping back and forth between reality and fiction. Except I'm not sure which is which.

Is it reality that the world's financial markets have totally frozen up? That the bankers of the world are so stricken by fear and lack of trust that they are no longer lending, even amongst themselves? Is there no honor amongst thieves?

Is it reality to watch this play out before you on cable tv? To watch 24/7 of nonstop coverage of first this failure and patchup, then that failure and another patchup, and then another failure and a patchup and then another and another and another and another, ad nauseum!

Or is it reality that life amongst most folks, the ones that, unlike me, haven't been paying much attention to the crisis, other than to catch the little snippet here and there. The people that only listen to this politician or that politician scream about the evil rich and how their unbridled greed caused this whole mess, then scream at the TV in agreement that the evil bast**ds need to be punished and there should be a limit on how much they can earn. All the while, not daring to miss a single episode of Dancing With The Stars, or the latest sitcom.

Or is the reality what the conspiracy kooks are saying, that this has been planned all along by the Illuminati, or the Rothchilds, or the Rockefellers, all or part of whom are in cahoots with Bush and his cronies. That this is just part of the plan, that this crisis has all been manufactured by some secret group so as to force the unaware public to accept a New World Order. With a new single currency, and world organizations running the financial institutions, which in effect, gives them rule over the world.

What's REAL???

Man, I don't know. But whether it's all part of a master plan, or just the result of a wild set of crazy circumstances, it sure looks like we're going toward some master, world-wide plan to solve the crisis. The finance ministers of G-7 just so happen to be having a meeting today and on through the weekend in Washington. They'll be joined by the G-20 members later this weekend. Together they account for 90% of the global economy. (All of this is covered in a great piece by Stratfor, a website that covers geopolitical issues and events. You can read the whole piece here.) Was this a coincidence?

There's also starting to be more rumbling that one way for this group to get their hands around the problem and come up with a solution is to call for a Bank Holiday. This was also reported in Bloomberg today, quoting the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi as saying that the world leaders are thinking about closing the world's financial markets "while they rewrite the rules of international finance".

Wow, 'rewrite the rules of international finance'. That's an ominous statement!!

I think that no matter what reality you think this is, the best thing you can do is prepare yourself. If you haven't already done it, go to the bank or ATM tomorrow and withdraw some cash. How much is up to you and which reality you subscribe to. But don't be caught by this. Monday is conveniently a bank holiday in the states. Columbus day. So that gives them one more day to position themselves to declare the Bank Holiday. I think it's coming. So be prepared. (I have some more thoughts on preparedness in a previous post)