CHINA'S NEW "YEAR OF SNAKE" RISKY FOR U.S. ECONOMY, WARN EXPERTS:

CHINA'S NEW ?YEAR OF SNAKE? RISKY FOR U.S. ECONOMY, WARN EXPERTS:

SNAKE YEARS HISTORICALLY HAVE BROUGHT TERRIBLE EVENTS: 9-11, PEARL HARBOR, 1929 STOCK MARKET CRASH, GREAT DEPRESSION.

On February 10, 2013, the ancient Chinese Lunar calendar, based on a 12-year cycle of different animal years, exited the Year of the Dragon and entered the new Year of the Snake.

Snake years have been unlucky for humankind, and many Chinese astrologers predict that 2013 could be a year of disasters of many ominous kinds.

?The 1929 stock market crash and plunge into the Great Depression happened in a Snake year,? says monetary expert Craig R. Smith.

?Many in Asia fear that this new Snake year is a bad omen that could lead to war or another economic disaster. Such thinking could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.?

Smith in his latest book,The Great Debasement: The 100-Year Dying of the Dollar and How to Get America's Money Back, includes many amazing facts about China ? the birthplace of paper money where events such as Chinese New Year are celebrated with gifts of gold and offerings to the deceased of ?ghost money.?

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 happened during a Snake year, and so did the devastating terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center and its terrorist murder of more than 3,000 Americans on 9-11-2001.

The 1989 Chinese Communist slaughter of pro-democracy protestors who raised their own Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square happened in a Snake year.

In 2012, China's birthrate rose by around 5 percent as women tried to give birth during the good luck Year of the Dragon, but births will fall this year because a child born in a Year of the Snake could bring bad fortune.

CHINA'S NEW LEADER BORN IN SNAKE YEAR

The new Communist leader who took power in China in 2012, Xi Jinping, was born in 1953 ? not only a Snake year, but also, like 2013, what Chinese astrologers call a Year of the Black Water Snake.

In this ancient tradition, Snake children like Xi are believed to be skilled, bright and motivated leaders, yet can also be proud, materialistic, vain, vicious, venomous, scheming and cunning. Like snakes, they can speak with a ?forked tongue.?

?We should be aware of the Year of the Snake, not because we believe in Chinese astrology, but because more than a billion Asians do,? says Smith, who is interviewed frequently by Fox's Neil Cavuto and other major business journalists.

?They fear that the Year of the Snake might bring bad luck and monsters, and this fear by itself could cause economic contraction and widespread social unrest in much of Asia,? says Smith.

?After the traditional gift-giving of this 15-day Spring Festival, China's biggest holiday, ends, don't be surprised if Asia's economy slithers downward for the rest of this year and drags us with it,? says Smith.

?Of all 12 animal years in the Chinese calendar, Snake years have brought the worst economic growth ? and are one of only two animal years that on average bring negative growth, recessionary economies,? says Smith.

?ANIMAL SPIRITS?

?Economist John Maynard Keynes wrote that prosperity depends on what he called 'Animal Spirits' of optimism and confidence,? says Smith's co-author Lowell Ponte, a former think tank futurist and investigative reporter for Reader's Digest, who has tracked down stories in 33 countries, including China, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia.

?Bad luck Snake years symbolize the opposite of what Keynes meant by positive animal spirits,? says Ponte. ?It's one more reason why wise investors will hedge against risk by diversifying in this very risky snake-bitten year for the interconnected world economy.?

?China has been hedging its bets by nearly doubling its already-rapid rate of gold purchases via Hong Kong,? says Ponte.

?We're already in global currency wars, trying to win a 'race to debase' the dollar to make our exports cheaper and more competitive in foreign markets,? says Ponte.

?We had been trying to undercut the Euro and Japanese Yen, but now it appears that China is quietly entering these wars, which could end by crashing the world's economy in a blaze of dollar-destroying inflation. If that happens, whichever country has the largest gold reserves could become economic ruler of the world.?

?Those nations and individuals with gold will ride out the economic devastation,? says Ponte. ?The Chinese, who invented both paper and paper money, understand this. They are an ancient culture. And they see us as turning the U.S. Dollar into 'ghost money,' as we explain in our book.?

?Those who have built their economy on paper fiat currency like the dollar that has no intrinsic value will sink and see their money become worthless,? says Ponte. ?People need to wake up and smell China's Year of the Snake.?

The ?bad luck? Year of the Snake will continue until January 30, 2014. The only good news is that the Year of the Snake will not slither for a full Western Year, since the cycle length of a Chinese lunar month is only about 29 days.

SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean that this week China exited the Year of the Dragon and entered its new Year of the Snake? What are these creatures?

2. Why do you say the Year of the Snake is a frightening omen, a sign that this
may be a very bad year politically and economically as past Years of the Snake have been? What terrible events have happened in Snake years?

3. You say that births increased by 5 percent in China last year during the Year of the Dragon, but that China's birthrate will be lower than average during this Year of the Snake. Why is this happening?

4. China's new ruler, Xi Jinping, was born in 1953, another Year of the Snake. What do China's astrologers say such Snake people are like?

5. You've said that we need to be aware of Chinese astrology, even if we do not believe in it. Why?

6. In the West, the influential British economist John Maynard Keynes (pronounced ?Canes?) said that prosperity depends on ?Animal Spirits.? What did he mean, and what does this have to do with China's new Year of the Snake?

7. What can people do to protect their life savings during this economically risky Year of the Snake and its negative worldwide impact?

SOURCES:

?Asian Astrologers Warn of Stormy Year of Snake,? Agence France-Presse (AFP), February 7, 2013. URL: http://www.france24.com/en/20130207-asian-astrologers-warn-stormy-year-snake

Ansuya Harjani, ?China's Shaky Start of the Year of the Snake,? CNBC, February 1, 2013. URL: Http://www.cnbc.com/id/100425853/print

Annie Huang, ?Chinese World Worries That Year of Snake May Bite,? Associated Press (AP)/San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 2013. URL: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Chinese-world-worries-that-Year-of-Snake-may-bite-4262034.php

Dhara Ranasinghe, ?Has China Quietly Joined the Currency War?? CNBC, February 7, 2013. URL: Http://www.cnbc.com/id/100444861/print

ABOUT CRAIG SMITH?
?The Face of American Small Business?

Craig R. Smith is an author, commentator and popular media guest because he instantly engages audiences with his common-sense analyses of local, national and global trends.

The Founder and Chairman of Swiss America Trading Corporation, Craig for 30 years has helped many thousands of people hedge against the problems of a weakening U.S. Dollar. A monetary expert, Craig is the author of numerous books and articles including The Inflation Deception: Six Ways Government Tricks Us...and Seven Ways to Stop It! (June 2011), and Crashing The Dollar: How to Survive a Global Currency Collapse (2010).

Craig is also author of The Uses of Inflation: Monetary Policy and Governance in the 21st Century, a White Paper (Feb. 2011).

Media clips: www.craigsmith.com

ABOUT LOWELL PONTE?

Lowell Ponte (PON-tee) is a former think tank futurist and was an editor Reader's Digest Magazine for many years during its heyday when it was one of the most widely read publications in the world. Lowell is co-author with of The Inflation Deception: 6 Ways Government Tricks Us? and 7 Ways to Stop It! (2011), and Crashing The Dollar: How to Survive a Global Currency Collapse (2010).

Ponte?s articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other publications. He is currently a columnist at Newsmax.com. Lowell has been a guest on "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "David Letterman" and other programs.

Lowell has also been an aide in the California legislature, a reporter in Washington, D.C., a foreign correspondent reporting from 33 countries, co-partner in a successful Hollywood public relations firm, and a radio talk show host.

About the Book?

THE GREAT DEBASEMENT: The 100-year Dying of the Dollar and How to Get America?s Money Back
?The greatest confiscation of wealth in human history.?

This is how business executive Craig R. Smith and futurist Lowell Ponte describe ?The Great Debasement,? a manipulation of the U.S. Dollar that they calculate has since 1913 expropriated more than $222 Trillion from the American people.

Because of this deliberate century-long policy of debasing America's money, today's dollar has only 2 pennies of the purchasing power of the 1913 dollar.

The 2012 election and 2013 ?Fiscal Cliff? of massive tax increases are ominous echoes of what happened exactly 100 years ago, warn Smith and Ponte.

The strange 1912 election turned America's government over to Progressives, who in 1913 imposed the Federal Reserve System and the income tax.

The 2012 election and 2013 Fiscal Cliff,? they say, could make Progressive rule permanent by turning a majority of voters into government dependents. America's central bank, the Fed, and income tax gave politicians almost-unlimited power to borrow, spend and expand government. The Federal Reserve was explicitly designed to turn the dollar into an ?elastic? currency. The income tax forced Americans to accept and use this new ever-more-debased fiat monopoly money to pay their taxes. The 100th Anniversary of this Debasement brings America to a tipping point.

We are becoming ?a 50-50 nation ? half of us paying the taxes, the other half receiving the benefits,? warns Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson.

Today 49.1 percent of households have at least one family member who gets a government benefit. More than 47 percent of adult Americans pay no income tax. Many dependents see government as a free goody-dispensing machine.

?When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic,? warned Benjamin Franklin at America's birth.

If Progressives win even one branch of government in the 2012 elections, their vision of ever-expanding government could become permanent by creating a voting majority of those dependent on, and addicted to, government money.

The Great Debasement created today's upside-down, Alice-in-Wonderland economy in which the stock market goes up on bad news and down on good-- because major investors want whatever causes the Federal Reserve to conjure trillions more Quantitative Easing (QE) stimulus dollars out of thin air.

Modern Monetary Theory and neo-Keynesianism behind Fed and Federal policies teach that borrowing another $58,000 every second to fund 40 percent of Federal spending is good, but that people saving their money is bad. These theories teach that the dollar losing value (inflation) is good, but that the dollar gaining value (deflation) is bad. They teach that government should tax ever-more money away from productive business people to redistribute to the unsuccessful, whose faster spending supposedly accelerates economic growth.

After 100 years of the Progressive Great Debasement, paying off America's debts would require a stack of dollar bills stretching from Earth to beyond the planet Mars, 35.8 million miles away. Such astronomical debt is unsustainable. So many Americans are now unemployed or in poverty that today's Food Stamp recipients could produce a Progressive Depression soup line at least 17,564 miles long. Government checks conceal the Great Debasement's devastation.

This book offers vivid, dramatic examples of how today's increasingly-fragile economy could be shattered by a wide range of shocks ? a new Middle East war, fuel shortages, high-tech terrorism, prolonged drought, collapse of the Euro, replacement of the weakening dollar as the world's Reserve Currency, or a continuing leftward shift in American politics that dries up investment and jobs in our formerly business-friendly nation.

The Great Debasement reveals how the dollar is already a dematerializing ?ghost currency? as America follows the excessive spending-and-debt policies that undermined past empires. It shows how both prudent individual choices and restoration of the U.S. Constitution's standard for sound money could redirect our future away from a potential new Dark Age and toward a prosperous new Golden Age.

The Great Debasement book is available for purchase at: http://www.thegreatdebasement.com

? 2013 Special Guests, Inc.
Lp/ 2/10/13

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