China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund

In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

Analysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on China.

“This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist for HSBC.

Although Mr Zhou did not mention the US dollar, the essay gave a pointed critique of the current dollar-dominated monetary system.

“The outbreak of the [current] crisis and its spillover to the entire world reflected the inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system,” Mr Zhou wrote.

China has little choice but to hold the bulk of its $2,000bn of foreign exchange reserves in US dollars, and this is unlikely to change in the near future.

To replace the current system, Mr Zhou suggested expanding the role of special drawing rights, which were introduced by the IMF in 1969 to support the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime but became less relevant once that collapsed in the 1970s.

Today, the value of SDRs is based on a basket of four currencies – the US dollar, yen, euro and sterling – and they are used largely as a unit of account by the IMF and some other international organisations.

China’s proposal would expand the basket of currencies forming the basis of SDR valuation to all major economies and set up a settlement system between SDRs and other currencies so they could be used in international trade and financial transactions.

Countries would entrust a portion of their SDR reserves to the IMF to manage collectively on their behalf and SDRs would gradually replace existing reserve currencies.

–

(img src:- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)

Hopefully things would never come to this, but the Church of the Latter Day saints believe in storing food for emergencies. Preferably for a year, there’s several reasons why they do it both scripture based and a general teaching to be not too reliant on others in times of need.

Of course, not everyone lives next door to a family of Latter Day Saints, and it’s a bit rude to assume they’re going to share all that stockpiled food with you. So, if you’re thinking of starting to stock up a bit visiting a few LDS websites is a good place to start. Ok – lets get on with that food calculation..

Container Packaging and standeyo both have identical calculators. Stockupfood.com actually has a login system so you can track how much you need and how much you use. If you’re planning shorter requirements then simplylivingsmart.com has a good adjustable calculator. The majority of the calculators don’t include fresh fruit or veg – so don’t forget to add plenty of vitamins into those calculations too.

I put in 1 year for a single adult and this is what you get.

• Grain: 400lbs (wheat, oats, barley – cereals)
• Legumes: 60lbs (beans, split peas, lentils etc.)
• Dairy: 30lbs (powdered milk, and cheese etc.)
• Sugars: 60lbs (honey, syrup, brown/white sugar etc.)
• Leavening agents: 6lbs (powdered eggs, yeast etc.)
• Salt: 6lbs
• Fats: 30lbs (butter, vegetable oil etc.)
• Water: 14 gallons (2 week supply in storage)

If your looking for a calculator that includes fruit use this one from thefoodguys.com.

Of course as far as water is concerned you’d  need a filtration / purification system. Of course with any food storage you need to regularly rotate stock to avoid spoilage, and to keep the shelf life current. Storing by age, keeping the newest stock at the bottom of the store. Then there’s the other side of storage – for those super wealthy food storage types who can afford freeze dryed ready meals. Mountainhouse.com or AlpineSurvival and Nitro-Pak all have freeze dried food with a 25 year shelf life. They do boxed 72 hour sets of food, or can even provide a full years supply.

SurvivalDigest.com also has some further links and reading over here.

Trondheim Before The Asteroid Strike

In another prediction that is bound to be false, some users on godlikeproductions.com are predicting an asteroid hit towards the end of November that will hit near Trondheim, Norway on the 19th November. Small chunks are predicted to break off and hit the north Atlantic causing tidal waves devastating coastal areas of the UK, and the Eastern coastal areas of the US. What sets this apart from the normal rumormill is that A minister from the Netherlands – Ter Horst, is warning people today to be better prepared for disaster and to get an emergency kit. Those two stories are of course completely unrelated, but bearing in mind that a large part of Holland is below sea level there may be something in it.

Image Source: www.indefence.is

The day after both Landsbanki  – Icelands national bank and Kaupthing – icelands largest private bank was taken over by theIcelandic Financial Supervisory Authority the UK government froze all the assets of icelands largest bank in the UK.

The HM treasury also listed Landsbanki as a financial regime alongside the Taliban, Sudan, liberia and Zimbabwe. The UK government invoked 2001 terrorist legislation to freeze Landsbanki assets in the UK. One part has been taken over by ING and the other by administrators.  Assets totalling over €4 billion have now been sold off.

HM Treasury Snub Landsbanki

Icelanders shocked at hearing their bank assets were frozen using anti-terror legislation started up a campaign site to show to the world they are not terrorists. The BBC has also run a story.

click here for the campaign site