The only way to truely protect yourself is to learn to live off the land, get out of debt and protect your home, cos I sense that things are going to get extremely bad. How bad I'm not sure but enough pressure to make a majority of the population to get a little crazy. I'm certainly concerned about the current state of affairs and all the media outlets can do is talk about scapegoats in the ecomomy, but never talk about the real cause of all our problems (The private central bank - RBA). Actually, I'd like to draw your attention to the following and please take special note of number 5.

10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto
1.Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2.A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3.Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4.Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5.Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6.Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7.Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8.Equal liability of all to labour.
Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9.Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10.Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.

Interesting to say the least..

I think this is because we think we have a choice, but in fact do not (not without education and organisation). Australia and the US essentially have two party politics, which is a choice between two evils. I once heard someone say on TV that they would vote for Howard, because "better the devil you know". I know a lot of people that think there are virtually no differences between Australian political parties...

It is sad but true what you say about the population having to absorb the monetary mistakes(?) of the central banks. Unfortunately, it is politically safer to tax people sneakily(?) using inflation than it is to allow necessary hardship on an economy. The population cannot stop the actions of these central banks... (not without some serious rioting, surely).

So as a member of the general population, I will just have to sit back and let it happen, and hope that I can put myself in the best position to go into and come out of any hardship as best possible.

If the US was to fall I gather this would have a major impact on their economy also. But the question is why do we continue to allow central banks to have the authorisation to devalue a dollar? Their main job is to control price stability and how can they possibly do that when they create new money and inject it into the system essentially forcing the market to drive up prices. If you had a currency that was based off something tangible as previously mentioned, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.

Gold continues to prove that it increases in value when the dollar falls, proving that goods do relatively remain at stable prices, but as the dollar falls you lose your purchasing power. That's why we pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee in britain when we are bringing australian dollars the reason equals a weaker dollar value. It isn't of course all that simple but it could be alot simpler if we followed responsible monetary policies. Another concern of mine is most of the money that is floating around is based off credit. The banks due to certain laws are allowed to lend 10x as much money as they have in the vault. Then they keep you in a mortgage for the next half of your life, making you pay them for money they never had in the first place. If I was to do the same, I'd probably be labelled a con artist or a counterfeiter and that's exactly what the federal reserve does and soon the credit bubble over there will bust..

And why wouldn't they dump there US treasury bills? Who in their right mind would want to invest in paper that is backed by absolutely nothing but a promise that it is actually worth something and not something tangible like gold or silver which puts limits on how much money can be injected into the system..what a joke.