For the best shortbread, to go Cindy's in Penzance. Buttery, rich, flaky and honest, we have never eaten better. For tango, of course, there's no place like Buenos Aires. We've been here three days-and the nights are even longer than the days. It has been an extraordinary experience.

Within 12 hours of landing, we were having an early (for Buenos Aires) 10 pm dinner at La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar in the San Telmo district, a 12 course tasting menu which lasted 3 ½ hours. It was the food, however, not its length that was memorable.

It reminded me of a dinner 30 years earlier at L'Archestrate in Paris. The guide book cautioned that it was very, very expensive however adding, "you may never eat like this again". I never forgot those words and that meal.

I had the pleasure of dining at L'Archestrate once more that same week never to return to Paris. Alain Senderens, the young chef on his way to stardom was to head Lucas Carton with three Michelin stars; and the memory of those two meals remain with me to this day (especially his foies gras en choux)

The dinner at La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar reminded me of those meals 30 years ago. The chef has worked at the famed El Bulli in Spain and it is evident in his cooking. Art lives and it can be consumed today in Buenos Aires.

Tonight we were at the 11:15 pm tango show at the Café Tortoni. The show sealed our appreciation for this city. Tango-a potent mixture of pomade, pinstripes, sex and passion is its offspring. This city is a keeper.

There is a pain, however, evident in Buenos Aires. It has not yet fully recovered from its severe debt crisis a few years ago; and if the US comes through what lies ahead with any semblance of the grace and beauty that BA has done, we will be fortunate indeed.

We will soon see what our fortune will be. In the meantime, if you've got the time, spend some of it in this vibrant magnificent city; and, if you don't, make the time. That's what life is for.

Darryl Robert Schoon

http://www.survivethecrisis.com/

www.drschoon.com

Life is a mirror and if we can remember that, it will make our lives that much easier. The Sanskrit term maya implies life as we perceive it is an illusion. It is the eastern equivalent of Plato’s story of The Cave whose inhabitants mistook the shadows on the wall for reality.

 Nonetheless, our perceptions have all the trappings of reality, even if that reality is “not real”. Such is the domain of metaphysics; and this might be such a time to understand such things—for the times are again a’changing and rapidly so.

 In 1981, Nobel Laureate Buckminster Fuller said “Humanity is moving ever deeper into crisis—a crisis without precedent.”

 Fuller was an extraordinary man who lived his life both in the illusion, with us, and on the other side in solitary experience of The Truth. His amazing ability to both explain and predict is a result of this. We should take Fuller’s words seriously and, as a whole, we have not.

We are worried about our futures as we should and we should do what we can to prepare for what is about to happen. Gold and silver will help only in a material way and as important as that will be, it will not be enough.

 We learn by crisis. Get ready.

 Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

The biggest bubble of all, bigger than the dot.com or global property bubble, was the feeling of optimism held by investors. That bubble of optimism has popped.

Martin Armstrong called the top of the Japanese Nikkei in 1989. He also called February 2007 to the day when another turn in the markets would occur. Armstrong’s work, like the Elliott Wave Theory, is based on shifts in investor psychology, shifts between investor optimism and investor pessimism.

It is clear that until 2007 the world was caught up in a wave of blind optimism regarding financial markets. That is no longer true. But what investors still don’t realize is the depth of the current downturn, their pessimism is still too optimistic.

This is not your father’s (or mother’s) recession. Your father or mother never experienced what is about to happen—unless, of course, they lived through the Great Depression.

Dr. Phillip Tetlock from Columbia University wrote a book called Expert Political Judgment and he devised a test predicting predictive accuracy. At a meeting of the Positive Deviant Network, Marshall Thurber had the PDN take the test. I scored a zero deviation, the highest score possible for predictive accuracy.

It is my belief that we are headed into waters far deeper and far more treacherous than can even be imagined. But that’s just my prediction.

Darryl Robert Schoon
www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

Before I wrote my book on the coming crisis, an old friend stopped by. A wealthy real estate investor, he asked what I’d been up to. I told him that the economy was headed for the toilet and we may be in for another Great Depression.

Stunned at my reply and after exchanging mutually exclusive viewpoints, he asked,

“How can you get up in the morning if you think that’s going to happen?”

At the time I didn’t know how to answer. But I now know that “my getting up in the morning” is not dependent on believing the world will necessarily be better tomorrow.

I am fortunate (though I didn’t believe it at the time) that my 63 years on this planet have included extreme ups and downs and thus prepared me for a future quite unlike today.

My feeling is: What’s another down if it’s followed by another up?

Well before I became interested in matters of money, I was interested in matters of “life”. I remember one of my first classes at UC Davis, Sociology I, where the professor asked us to ask ourselves the question,

“Who am I?”

The purpose of the question was to show us that our self-descriptions were sociological, i.e. age, gender, race, etc. But that was not my response at all. I was dumfounded by the question “Who am I?”

I knew that “I” wasn’t any of those descriptive terms. I knew that the “I” in question was not answered by sociological descriptions.

Far before asking the question “what is money”, I had asked the question “who am I”; and the answer to the latter has given me the faith to deal with the former and what the coming collapse of money will bring.

Recently, Martha and I received a “thank you gift" from someone who had read my book on the coming collapse. He said “I want to show you what I did because of the influence of your work on me.”

The reader, Steve Dore, said “At about 3:09 into the video, I hold up "Time of the Vulture" book…You were directly responsible for the feel of this song/video and my change from negative to positive, because of the way you closed your message.”

“You can see the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtGgaDOjtiY ”

If you watch Mr. Dore's video (it is also posted on www.drschoon.com on the media page), you will see he truly understood the inner core of my message. It is my belief we are entering a time of unprecedented crises. I also believe the result of that exceedingly difficult transit will be a far better world.

I have no trouble getting up in the morning at all.

Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

The following piece is an article written for another site which may have some interest for readers of this blog. In it, I discuss the connection between emotions and personal crises.

The paradigm shift that humanity is transiting will have a profound effect on the way we experience our emotions as universal polarities will be affected, i.e. male/female, east/west, reason/emotion etc.

It is clear that throughout history one polarity has been favored over the other. This will not be so in the future. The current paradigm shift will rebalance that which has been in a previous state of imbalance. Here is the article:

Denied Emotions and Personal Crises
Accepted Emotions and Unconditional Love

The opposite of love is fear but that which is all-encompassing has no opposite.
The Course in Miracles

The avoidance of fear will cause fear to persist and, the acceptance of fear will cause its release. Why?

Fear is an emotion and emotions are our response to life. Life is a free-flowing process and if we interrupt the flow by avoiding and denying our emotions, our emotions do not disappear. Even unfelt, they still exist and will do whatever is necessary to overcome our avoidance and denial of their existence.

Interior denial leads to exterior crises—continued denial leads to continual crisis.

Accepting and feeling our emotions will release them but denying and avoiding emotional response will cause those emotions to persist; and persistently denying those emotions will ultimately result in a crisis powerful enough to overcome our resistance.

This is why the acceptance of our emotional response is so important. If we deny emotional response by avoidance, that avoidance will result in a continuing and escalating series of crisis that will ultimately overcome our denial.

This is not the way we want to live life and if we want to experience it differently, then we must respond differently. Buckminster Fuller maintained that life evolves by learning from mistakes, see http://www.flighttogenius.com/mm_ebook.pdf.

Love is acceptance and unconditional acceptance of our emotions will return us to the natural state of unconditional love.

It is now time to accept our emotions and the gifts that full emotional acceptance will bring us—love, abundance and joy. Allowing full emotional acceptance will uncork the cornucopia of life. Doing what we have not yet done will bring us what we do not yet have.

It is my belief that we are collectively entering a period of extreme crisis which will express itself in economic, ecological and spiritual terms. But there is a way to navigate this crisis in a way that will bring release, not suffering; but to do so, we must first learn what the crisis is trying to teach us.

This approach does not deny the power of positive thinking. Thoughts are very powerful but so is denial.

Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

In times of crisis, inner resources are needed and called upon. To tap those resources, I have found certain books to be of inestimable value. Recently, a reader suggested a book that has for years been on my bedside table, but an arm’s reach away in times of need.

The book, God Calling, is a collection of messages received by two women in the 1930s during a time of tribulation. It is said the messages are from God. Having read them, I have every reason to believe they are.

Available for less than $5.00 per copy, you could not find a better investment to help you through the times ahead. My friend Marshall Thurber told me that God Calling was found on Buckminster Fuller’s bedside after he passed away.

I found the book in the midst of extreme difficulties. It helped me immensely and immediately. It could do the same for you.

Darryl Robert Schoon
www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

It is clear the events of last week have affected Americans. The failure of IndyMac a large US bank and the government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has broken through the psyche of those still involved in collective denial about our economic problems.

One year ago, the credit contraction in August broke through the denial of investors about the safety of AAA rated debt. Today, the denial of everyday citizens has now been subjected to the truth about the severity of the coming economic collapse.

We don’t like to hear what we don’t want to know. Human nature while not impervious to change is nonetheless resistant to the process. The greater the resistance, the greater the force necessary to overcome it.

We are now on the precipice of irresistible forces that will override whatever resistance we harbor. For our own good and against our will, we will be dragged kicking and screaming into the gates of heaven.

“To every heart love will come, but as a refugee”...Leonard Cohen

Good luck,

Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

It's been obvious for some time that US mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are insolvent.  Although Government sponsored institutions, it has been assumed that the US government will not allow the two institutions to fail.

Having lost up to 90% of value in the last year, the collapse of the US housing market points to more losses at the two, not a recovery, so it is now being discussed as to what the US will actually do  in case of failure.

Obviously, the bondholders are concerned. So should we. Whether or not the US government steps in is irrelevant as the real problem is the disintegrating US economy. We are up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

It is too late to save the US housing market. It is too late to save  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Hopefully, it's not too late to save yourself.

In the meantime, Martha and I are in Penzance UK where pirates once had a real grasp of the actual dynamic existing between government and the governed. Those entrusted with the public purse have sold out the citizenry to the highest bidder. If you think otherwise, you are not thinking at all. 

Note: To those who like shortbread, the shortbread at Cindy's in Penzance is worth the trip.

Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

 Martha and I are in Hungary at Session IV of Professor Fekete's Gold Standard University Live (GSUL). If you ever have the opportunity to be in the same room with a great man you should do so.

I now understand why Professor Fekete believes only a return to the gold standard can prevent the collapse of global economies such as we are witnessing today. The gold standard would again stabilize interest rates. It would also prevent bankers from destroying our economic futures in their search for profit.

The video of Session IV will be available in the future. It will be priceless. It is now too late to prevent what is now about to occur. But if we understand why it is happening, we may be able to prevent it from ever happening again.

Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com

 I came through London last year in August shortly after global credit markets suddenly contracted. Last December I was in London again and shortly thereafter in January global markets lost $6 trillion.

 Two days ago, I was transiting London on my way to Session IV of Gold Standard University Live in Hungary and the news in the Financial Times corraborated the fact that the current economic downturn is far more dangerous than most admit.

In that day's Financial Times,  former US Treasury Lawrence Summers wrote, "..we are in an economic environment where we have more to fear than fear itself".

Summer's statement was a rare admission from an industry insider that more than the financial markets are in disarray--the insiders themselves are now scared. The paper tower of Babel is on fire.

Darryl Robert Schoon

www.survivethecrisis.com

www.drschoon.com