"Bond Vigilante" - Definition: "A bond vigilante is a bond market investor who protests monetary or fiscal policies they consider inflationary by selling bonds, thus increasing yields." - Wikipedia

"Dollar Vigilante" - New Term: "A dollar vigilante is a free market individual who protests the government monopoly on money and financial policies such as fractional reserve banking and un-backed fiat currencies by selling those same fiat currencies in favor of other assets, often including gold and precious metals."

Many people today don't even realize it because anyone alive today has always lived under an artificial, non-free market financial system. No one even questions the fact that every country has a "central bank" and that every country outlaws any use of currency except for the one it produces.

But, in essence, this highly manipulated, centrally planned/communist system of world finance really began with the creation of America's third central bank (the first two had previously collapsed or were outlawed) called The Federal Reserve on December 23, 1913. To this day many don't realize it but the Federal Reserve is not a part of the American government. It is a privately owned, secretive banking cartel. We should note, however, that whether it is publicly or privately owned isn't the crux of the problem. The problem is that ALL attempts to centralize banking are non-free market and will always result in a steady corruption of the system until it finally reaches collapse.

Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in the 1930s stated, "Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders."

In fact, the President of the US at the time of enactment of the Federal Reserve, Woodrow Wilson stated the following in regard to the Federal Reserve being created under his watch, "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

The scourge of a central bank was well known even in the days of the creation of the United States as Thomas Jefferson opined, "The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution. I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but coin. If the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

And, guess what Mr. Jefferson, the people of the US are now waking up to realize your prophecy has come true. For the first time in US history banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together!

However, because America used to be such a bastion of free markets and even today still is partially-free it quickly became the most powerful and wealthy country in the world DESPITE having the Federal Reserve at the heart of their financial system.

That is, until August 15, 1971, when the issuing of debt money by the Federal Reserve had effectively bankrupted the US and then President Nixon was forced to announce that even foreign governments and central banks could no longer redeem their US dollars for gold.

And that was the beginning of the end and is, in fact, the reason why we are on the verge of a complete global financial implosion. What was started in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the income tax managed to hobble along until it finally collapsed in 1971 with the end of the Bretton Woods system.

With that collapse, in 1971, every country in the world went off the gold exchange standard. This meant that all currencies were backed by nothing. Currencies that used to be directly convertible into gold at the request of the holder, at least at the central bank level, were finally just pieces of paper with pictures of famous dead people drawn on them.

Some may say that this system "worked" because it produced all of the amazing advances of the last century. However, it is much more precise to say that the system managed to work for that long precisely because the 20th century was the most amazing century in the history of human evolution and the countless technological advances enabled this fraudulent system to appear to work for a time.

But that time is nearly running out. After four decades of unbacked fiat currencies nearly every country in the world is now so indebted that it isn't possible to ever pay back their debts. These debts were all enabled by this fiat currency system which enabled governments to print more and more money, which enabled more and more debt over time. As we said above, it appeared to work, until they all reached a point where even the interest payments on the debt will soon overtake the entire budgets of some countries, even including the United States.

The US government itself, in its official 2009 Financial Report (http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2009/09frusg.pdf) states, "Absent a change in policy, the interest costs on the growing debt together with spending on major entitlement programs could absorb 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue in 2019."

You read that correctly, the US government itself has stated that by 2019 almost EVERY penny collected in taxes will go towards paying ONLY the interest on the debt and spending on the major entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare etc).

And here is the worst part, this is a prediction by the US government who is always wrong and incessantly understates how bad things will get. It is our prediction, at The Dollar Vigilante (TDV), that the US will reach this state by no later than 2015 - even as soon as 2012. Our reasoning is that the US government predicts that tax revenues will continue to stay at the same level or grow over time. However, we believe that as soon as 2011 the US will be in the midst of such a great depression that tax revenues will basically collapse.

In fact, they are already in collapse. After the first big hit to the US economy in 2008, tax receipts in 2009 plunged. On a year-over-year basis, by the summer of 2009, individual tax receipts were down 22% from 2008 and corporate income taxes imploded by 57%.

The government managed to temporarily stave off complete collapse by creating an array of four-letter bailouts and guarantees tallying up to more than $12 trillion to date! But even this gargantuan printing of money, mostly enacted in 2008 and 2009 have provided next-to-no recovery and we will soon be entering the next stage of collapse - at which point the US government will see its income tax receipts not even meet its interest and entitlement obligations.

All this would be bad enough, but here is where it gets worse. Way worse.

Nearly every other western country in the world is at similar levels of debt and are all rocketing towards outright bankruptcy.

Greece was the first big one but nearly every other country in Europe, the UK, the US and Japan are all right behind them. Just look at this table below from the OECD. It shows debt as a percentage of GDP for various OECD countries. The official debts, the ones in red, are in and of themselves massive and unpayable. Yet total debts (the grey bars) which include unfunded liabilities such as pensions and health care dwarf even the official debts.

It is already a foregone conclusion that Greece is insolvent yet the US itself is nearly in the same financial situation. As are the rest of the countries listed. And countless others, not even bothering to comment on individual states in the US like California and New York, which are also all insolvent.

So now it is just a matter of time and circumstance for each and every one of these countries to do one of the following: A) Declare bankruptcy and have their currency collapse or B) Hyperinflate their money supply so that all past debts become worth very little in today's money - also something that will destroy their currency.

Some think this may occur over a decade or two. Here, at TDV, we think this will happen over the next few years.

Which brings us to our purpose and point in writing TDV: to help protect you from the coming world financial collapse with most of your assets in tact because the great majority of people will be wiped out by what is coming.

In coming issues we will go further in depth into what we expect to occur but, at the very least, we expect many western countries to enact currency controls which will make it so you will not be able to move your money out of the country. The governments will then do everything they can to stay afloat including cutting most entitlements including pensions which will leave countless elderly people in poverty - look forward to Granny and Grandpa moving back in with you! As well, any savings in banks will likely be taken over by the governments and forced into "buying" government debt. As this happens there will be a complete collapse of the western economies and will be great social unrest, which has already begun in places such as Greece.

There will be many ways to protect yourself - and this will be the main thrust of this newsletter - but time is running out on all of them. Transferring significant portions of your wealth from cash into precious metals is a high priority. As well, diversifying your wealth outside of your home country and the hands of your ravaging government and into a few different regions is also important. It is even highly recommendable to those who live in the countries in the worst financial condition (US, most of Europe, Japan) and who have the capability to prepare to leave your home country and head for some of the countries which may be least affected by the coming strife.

As well, investing into gold mining companies and even learning how to invest in private placements in these companies - something we will discuss in depth regularly here - will create a lot of wealth for those of you who may not yet have the assets or capability to expatriate and diversify your assets.

We will have thoughts, analysis and ideas on all of these strategies on an ongoing basis at TDV.

In closing, almost invariably, when faced with this information, many people respond with either disbelief or a desire to not think about the repercussions because it hurts too much. However, we don't necessarily see the financial system collapse as being a bad thing. Not many people realize how many lives this system has destroyed and how much wealth and resources it has wasted. It was an artificial system of theft and deceit and was doomed since its inception but once it is gone we will see a time of rebirth for the world.

There will certainly be some interesting times between now and a rebuilding of the world's financial system and TDV hopes to stay with you through the collapse, chaos and then into the brave new world that will soon be forged.