Have you stocked up on food and water yet? Because the collapse of the dollar is happening right before your eyes:

The dollar has tumbled to 15 year lows against the yen:

TOKYO (AFP) – The dollar tumbled to a fresh 15-year low at 82.22 against the yen in Tokyo trading hours on Thursday on persistent fears over the US economic outlook.

The dollar fell from 82.87 in earlier trade to well below the level at which Japan last month carried out its first currency market intervention since 2004 to weaken the yen and protect an export-led recovery.

It later strengthened back to the mid 82-yen level.

The markets increasingly expect the US Federal Reserve to pump more money into the system to boost the flagging economy, even if doing so weakens the dollar and risks fanning inflation.

“The basic trend is dollar selling on the expected credit easing… The market is now sensitive to any negative news on the US economy,” said Yasuyuki Takeuchi, dealer at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking.

The Australian dollar on Thursday surged to an all time high of around 99.00 US cents, traders said, outstripping the record of 98.49 since it was allowed to float in December 1983.

The euro was trading close the key 1.40 dollar level, at around 1.3983.

“A lot of the trading community thinks this has further to go,” Daragh Maher, a senior currencies analyst at Credit Agricole in London told Dow Jones Newswires.

Further to go means that investors are expecting a further debasement of currency, which means a massive loss purchasing power for Americans who will be buying goods that are already getting more and more expensive.

The debasement of the dollar has caused oil hits $84 a barrel:

(Reuters) – Oil slipped from a five-month high above $84 a barrel on Thursday on concerns that a rally driven by a weakening dollar had run ahead of the market’s fundamentals of supply and demand.

A falling U.S. dollar, linked to an expected inflow of fresh dollars into the economy, has spurred money flows into oil and other commodities. Oil reversed course as the dollar pared its losses and equities slipped.

“It highlights the nervousness in the market about underlying fundamentals and worry the rally may be getting ahead of them,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

U.S. crude for November fell 40 cents to $82.83 by 1431 GMT, after trading as high as $84.43, the highest intraday price for a nearby contract since May 4. ICE Brent slipped 50 cents to $84.56.

“The market is very nervous and there was some profit-taking,” said Christopher Bellew, an oil broker at Bache Commodities in London.

A French oil worker strike has is disrupting European oil supplies which is ironically supporting the wider market and may be keeping oil from spiking further.

Gold has another record and as the Fed has publicly announced a plan to increase inflation. Their reasoning is not just wrong, but evil:

In the past week, two Fed officials raised the option of explicitly pursuing above-target inflation for a time to offset periods in which inflation is below target. New York Fed President William Dudley suggested that if inflation were to undershoot the central bank’s target by half a percentage point next year, the Fed could offset the miss with an additional half-point increase later on.

And, in an interview, Chicago Fed Charles Evans said, “It seems to me if we could somehow get lower real interest rates so that the amount of excess savings that is taking place relative to investment needs is lowered, that would be one channel for stimulating the economy.”

In other words the Fed’s policy, already designed to punish savers, is to force them to stop saving as they see the value of their savings disappear.

I’ve purchased Mayday Honey Buckets and emergency food buckets as a complement to the larder I have. That larder includes Mountain House #10 Cans as well as an at years supply of regular long storing food (canned goods, rice and pasta for example) and bottles of water. The collapse of the dollar will look like a natural disaster as you quickly find you can’t get to the  grocery store, gas is out of price for you and utilities become too expensive so part of your preparations should be to prepare as if you’re expecting a hurricane. When the dollar truly hits bottom you should be prepared to use whatever worthless dollars you own to keep the roof over your head, and should have the supplies you need to live until the system re-boots.

If it does at all.

It is obvious that these whooping cough outbreaks have happened well after the anti-vaccine movement has picked up steam but it’s just as obvious that the outbreaks occur in areas with high concentrations of illegal immigrants. No matter the cause, whooping cough can kill small children so take precautions if you’re in or around a large city that is known for outbreaks:

WEST ISLIP, NY (WCBS 880) – An alert has been issued after a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip was diagnosed with whooping cough.

Hospital officials say the nurse works in the maternity ward and has completed antibiotic treatment.

The hospital notified patients, families, and employees that may have come in contact with the nurse.

The New York State Health Department’s Pete Constantakes says getting the vaccine is the best way to prevent the disease.

“Young infants, lots of times they haven’t receive the full series of vaccinations or any… if they’re newborn,” Constantakes tells WCBS 880 reporter Sophia Hall. “In this case, we’re still looking to see what happened, whether it was a big risk. And, again, we will take any sanctions we need to, to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.”

Whooping cough, also known as purtussis, causes violent and uncontrollable coughing.

Medical workers are usually vaccinated so either this nurse had her whooping cough vaccine wear off or she was an illegal who never went through the proper procedures. Either way for healthy adults antibiotics will work … for now. But with hospitals becoming the breeding grounds for superbugs like MRSA that may not always be the case.

Who could have seen this coming? Aside from people who pay attention to the news:

Increased figures for Greek national debt and deficits covering contested data from 2006 to 2009 will be published this month, the EU said on Wednesday after conducting its first invasive audit.

“The Greek deficit and debt figures will be revised upwards, the figures will be bigger,” said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, the spokesman for the bloc’s economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn.

After the EU in April slammed dodgy data provided by Greece’s previous right-wing government, the EU’s data agency Eurostat secured beefed-up powers to launch on-site inspections of countries’ books.

“Several investigations” have now taken place in Greece since these new powers entered into force on August 19, but “after the latest visit, it was evident that some areas of uncertainty remain.”

He added that Rehn was reinforcing resources on the ground in Greece so as to leave “no stone unturned” in the “urgent task” of discovering the true extent of Greek debt.

As Europe moves towards new forms of cross-border economic governance in a bid to better compete with global rivals, the lead balloon of debt is a “heavy burden” for future generations that threatens to hold back all of Europe, the spokesman also implied.

In other words it’s starting to look like all those rumors of the EU weeding out the countries who threaten the Euro are true. It’s interesting that the E.U. made this announcement the day after China announced it would bail out Greece, paving the way for the communist power to set up a client state at the gateway to Europe.

To save their economies will Europe ceded Greece, the birthplace of Democracy, to the Chi-coms? You only need to see the news of the austerity riots to know the answer to that. As American power recedes China is rushing in to fill the gaps and the Liberal/Paleocon/Libertarian dream of ending the American “empire” is coming to an end.