Gentlemen, prepare to defend yourselves!

This is about self protection, but nope, no fancy secret moves, unassuming stances, joint locks or preemptive strikes... We are going to talk about finance: Money, cash, dough, investments, value, cash flows, income, etc... all things that absent can hurt you, your family, your friends, your neighbors and your future. The financial crisis is not over, you must understand it and take action to protect yourselves.

Banks are insolvent:
They were saved last year only by legalized lying allowing them to account assets at ...whatever price they wish!
So what? so that the declining value assets that caused the crisis are still there, just tagged at a different price. Problem solved? NOPE, the problem is just hidden from you for a little while; it will be back, soon, with a vengeance.

Real Estate will go down more:
Commercial RE refinancing is impossible due to shrinking collateral values.
Long term financing (20, 30y mortgages) will become more expensive and harder to get as capital seeks shorter term investment maturities. This will pull the valuation of housing down.

US, UK, Government Debt is ridiculous.
at 12 Trillions, congress will need to once again increase the US debt limit. Recently the US administration announced that by 2019, the debt will be 19 Trillions! Who will finance it? The Chinese you will say? Not a chance in hell, (see further down) so who?
The FED will print the money to buy US TBonds - it is called Quantitative Easing - Think about it: you have to work for your money, they can print it and dilute its value to oblivion.

The dollar is toast:
It may bounce up, even violently at times, but in the end, nobody really wants to hold the thing any more: as demand collapses, so does its value.
Do you still believe buffoon, tax evader Geithner's strong dollar policy?

And by extension, all paper money will suffer:
At present, every country is trying to devalue its currencies to remain competitive; they do that by increasing the money supply & diluting its value as mentioned above.

Jobs are not coming back:
Some clown said we are having a jobless recovery... yes, maybe, but it is not your concern: you should be worried by the 17.5% unemployment (U6) - some, like John Williams even claim unemployment in excess of 23%. You should be concerned about a consumer economy where 70% of GDP was consumerism.
People that lose their jobs are not spending; people that see others lose their jobs, are worried & save money, they don't go out on a spending spree.
So, exactly, what jobs will be created if there is no demand in the economy?
(BTW, if you have a job, by all means and at all costs, keep it! Make yourself indispensable)

Your retirement is dead!
What do you think your retirement fund is invested into? YES, real estate bonds, mortgages, securitized "derivative laced" fraudulent paper from investment banks (yes, they screwed the whole world, think Iceland), Dow Companies bonds (GM?), municipal & state bonds (Kalifornya anyone?), government bonds.
How much is there in the Social Security Trust Fund? Yes, louder please: ZERO! The money was spent and replaced by government bonds (see above the ridiculous levels of that debt)
What about future flows to the trust fund? With unemployment rising, and boomers retiring, future cash inflows to the fund don't look too good.
I won't be rude and ask you about the shape of your 401K or superannuity...
By all means, understand that with FED rates at zero, there are no investment income on the horizon for you and me.

China will not save us:
I agree, hope can make you feel good, warm and fuzzy, for a while... China has lost 20 millions jobs since 2008; spent the largest stimulus (relative to GDP) in the history of the world and intends to boost its exports... With the US & Europe consumers (53% of world GDP) not spending, and the dollar collapsing, who exactly are they going to export to?
For the little story, in the last 3 years, I downsized my furniture manufacturing company in China from 500 to 2 employees (yes, that is 99.6%, not a typo) - we were exporting to the USA!

But, the stock market is up!
Really? in my world, the stock market is down from a year ago... The rally since March? a counter trend rally that will take no prisoners when the bear is back.
How do you explain company valuations going up when revenues and earnings are down?
The only way you can, is by a rising tide of dollars (or pounds, RMB, Euros, etc...) that the central banks are unleashing on the markets - I call that inflation.

Darn, how do I protect myself and my family?
Wouldn't it be cool to be able to purchase insurance against the risks and calamities described above?
Can I?

Yes you can!
But first you will have to re-educate yourselves against nearly 100 years of planned disinformation by banks in collusion with government, and understand the only asset that is nobody else liability:
GOLD!

Could I be wrong?
Sure I could... But we are talking about self protection and insurance here. When you purchase car, sickness or flood insurance, you are not really expecting a disaster, are you? When you train your fav KD martial art, are you really expecting to get mugged?
Same for me here, except I am expecting to get "mugged by my bank"!

How & where can I "educate myself"?
Hummm, a good place to start is by shutting down the noise: stay away from CNBC, Bloomberg and other F(U)TVs... They are the cheerleaders for their master banksters.
Then you could pay a little visit to the "black belts of the new financial paradigm" Jim Sinclair's mineset and Jim Puplava's Financialsense online (dojos)...