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Ignoring the real world of depleted soil, crumbling aqueducts, aging power lines and extremely vulnerable global supply chains of essential commodities, the State/Elite sought to limit risk by financial legerdemain alone. Thus real-world risks were mitigated by essentially intangible derivatives contracts.

Rather than invest in costly real-world redundancies like power transmission lines, alternative production facilities, etc., the Elite put capital to work in credit-default swaps, futures and other derivative contracts to offset real-world risks.

In terms of profit potential and risk-return--the metrics of free-market capitalism--these State-enabled financial instruments were immensely more profitable investments than investing in actual tangible systems.

In other words: don't grow more grain, simply leverage financial bets such that profits flow from "risk management" rather than production of tangible goods. But if grain is in severely short supply, then a handsome profit in derivatives won't feed the citizenry.

This is the end-state of the Power Elite's financial windfall exploitation: intangible wealth and tangible scarcity.

For households, distributing risk means hedging against shortages and high costs of essentials, and developing redundancies and alternative sources of income and essentials. The goal is to preserve purchasing power of current assets, which means tracking the relative value of commodities, precious metals, currencies and tangible goods.

A key tool in maintaining purchasing power and capital is relative strength or

relative performance: that is, comparing the shifting values of different assets classes to identify peaks and valleys. By buying during the valleys and selling at the peaks, we can maintain purchasing power and perhaps even grow our capital.

One way to illustrate this is to price a house in loaves of bread: how many loaves of bread does it take to buy a house? Removing the dollar (which is relentlessly depreciated by the State via inflation/devaluation) from the equation offers insight into the real value of both bread and housing.

This is why many investment professionals look at the ratio of gold to oil to identify the valleys and peaks in those two commodities. When gold buys a large number of barrels of oil then they sell gold and buy oil. When oil rises in relative value to historic extremes, then they sell oil and buy gold.

From this perspective, the dollar itself is not a universal measure of value but just another commodity to be compared to other commodities.

We might summarize our focus on minimizing or offsetting risk and seeking opportunities to bolster purchasing power with these two questions:

Where is the opportunity?

What is threatened?

6. Radical Self-Reliance. This is not so much an option as the only strategy with any probability of sustained success, as this analysis has revealed the inevitability of the devolution and collapse of the Savior State and its partnership with the rentier-financial Plutocracy.

This principle follows from the necessity of opting out of the current doomed system and opting into one with a future: distributed/networked/reciprocal self-reliance.

Put another way: radical self-reliance requires constructing a parallel economy and society which is no longer dependent on a financial/banking Plutocracy and Savior State as these intertwined systems devolve into insolvency.

Radical self-reliance requires a distributed/hedged and thus durable system for all forms of power--political, financial and the FEW resources (food, energy, water)--and an engaged, active citizenry to limit state and Elite over-reach/dominance.

Radical self-reliance means accepting the end of the Savior State and taking personal responsibility for one's health, livelihood, education, energy, food, retirement and pursuit of happiness.

Radical self-reliance depends on self-organizing networks of mutual interest, benefit and reciprocity/exchange rather than debt-serfdom or State control.

Radical self-reliance values production