Ever hear the phrase, “famous last words?” You know, “This is the safest most un-sinkable ship ever built,” as the Titanic steamed towards America, or “Firestone tires are the best in the world.” How about “The Riggs National Bank, has been a pillar of honesty and dependability for a hundred years,” (if you live in DC.) I used that one, because when I was growing up in DC, my Dad banked at Riggs, and I was always impressed with it because of him, I guess. This makes me bring up an obvious point, and that is we generally stick to what we were raised with, with few exceptions. I was raised with the Riggs National Bank, silver quarters, the marble soda fountain in my Dad’s drug store, dollars, savings accounts, “whole life” insurance, neighborhood stability, streetcars, no racism, standard shift, clean air, good public schools, etc.
At age 10, I had never seen, or even thought of graffiti, abandoned cars and houses, freeways, television, FM radio, LP records, CD’s, cassettes, space exploration, transistors, computers, the internet, faxes, power steering and brakes, or gangs. I rode the DC trolley cars for a dime, with three tokens for a quarter, and when a teen, I thought if I could make $55 a week for the rest of my life, I would be happy. I was safe in my world. We didn’t lock our doors, and there were no drugs. GM cars all had the same key blank, and once on the Staten Island Ferry in New York, a guy had locked his keys in a new Cadillac at the head end of the ferry. The sailors went around collecting other GM keys, and from a beat up ’39 Chevy, came a key that opened the Cadillac. Yes, cars could go on the Staten Island Ferry then. Not now. There were no World Trade Centers, and admission to Radio City Music Hall was 99 cents for a matinee, and this included a feature film, Rockettes, stage show, symphony orchestra, and a concert from the world’s largest Wurlitzer. Not to bore you, but the point is that EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED, and not for the good. Then, no one even considered a depreciating dollar, even though it had lost half of its purchasing power in WW II. When I was 10, WW II was still going on, and no one had time to think of something as silly as a depreciating dollar, because after all, the dollar was the dollar, and how could it “depreciate?”
We MUST change when we seen things about us changing. I hate computers, but I MUST use them. I know vacuum tube theory backwards, but we now have transistors, which I know nothing about, but MUST use them. The days of the shade tree mechanic are gone, and I can work on my ’41 Plymouths easily, but would never consider working on a new car, due to their computers, complexity, etc, but we MUST use them. We MUST use TV, CD’s, and other modern things, because 78 RPM records are long gone, as are most of the things I grew up with, for better or worse. We MUST move out of decaying neighborhoods, which are no longer safe, even though this was a fairy tale when I was a kid. Is anyone “safe” now?
We MUST abandon faith in dollars also, because faith in the dollar, is not safe, and almost the same as betting on Santa Claus coming down your chimney, the Easter Bunny leaving you goodies, or the tooth fairy placing a quarter under your pillow when you lose a baby tooth. Extreme? Not really. Calamity Howling? I think not. When we were tots, our Mommy told us all about Santa and the Easter Bunny. She quietly placed a quarter or dime under our pillow when we lost a tooth, and we actually believed. It was a fraud, fairy tale, falsehood, and sham, but we, as innocent children ate it up. We felt safe, and actually listened for Santa’s arrival. Sleep always overtook us, but next morning, sure enough, he had been there. Wonderful, huh? Safe.
Listen to me people, the dollar sham is almost over. Forget it, as you did Santa, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. The buck has lost 98% of its purchasing power already, and like all paper monies, in the entire history of the world, it will eventually become absolutely worthless. No one knows when. It is unsafe as a savings device. History DOES repeat itself, and to paraphrase a quote, ’those who will not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.’ Suffer from it, might be a better phrase. “Oh, it’ll never happen to me. I’m safe, have an annuity, and lots of dollars in the bank, ” is the most common reaction to my pointing out that the dollar will be toast in the future. Every single financial writer uses the dollar as their point of reference. Everyone, in just about every field in America, uses the dollar as their reference point. “Now, get 5% interest,” screams the advertising. Ads touting big interest rewards for investing in this or that, are scattered around the media, and are shouted at us continually. “Interest” in a failing measurement, when the interest can’t possibly keep up with the depreciation. Is this safe?
In Germany, the citizens believed in the Reichsmark, till almost the very end. Maybe till it took a handful of them to get a cup of coffee, rather than a wheelbarrow full, a few months or weeks later. $3 cup of coffee today, at Starbucks? Coffee was a nickel when I was a kid. Things do happen quickly, once the causative factors are in place, and have begun to operate. The Germans had begun to print, as America has. As always happens, the printing presses get out of hand. “Whoopee! We can create “money” out of thin air, and spend all we want,” sez government. So they do. They ALWAYS HAVE, and ALWAYS WILL. It’s the way politics works, without fail, under all civilizations from Julius Caesar onwards, and even before. The sheer impossibility of Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy being real, are as impossible as a government ceasing to print, once discovering the wonders of “free money.” Government created printing press “money” is impossible to stop. No one has ever been able to stop the clowns.
The velocity of it must be considered. When a dam overflows, it is just a little trickle at first. As more and more of it washes away, the flow becomes increasingly large, till the backbone is gone, the entire thing gives way, and there is nothing left but destruction. Dams have failed thousands of times in history, and all paper currencies have done the same. Those downstream, as in Johnstown Pennsylvania 130 years ago, or who consider a currency to be safe,, are going to get wiped out, washed away, or destroyed. When a currency, dam, or the stock market goes, there are always warning signs, which few pay attention to. The S&P 500 went from 1550 to 768 in 18 months. Long Term Capital Management, went almost overnight, and the fed plus others, inserted 3 1/2 billion paper dollars into it to “save” it.
Last month, America had a trade deficit of $54.8 billion dollars, meaning that this year, probably a trillion US dollars will leave us for foreign stuff. Cadillacs are going to be built in China, the news says. Word is that Japan is selling US dollars and government bonds with all due rapidity, but slowly enough, so as not to crash the market. The dollar is becoming a worldwide joke to some, but to most Americans, all is well. They are safe. After all, we were raised with them, have used them all our lives, and their decline has been so slow, that it was hardly noticeable. Sort of, anyway. Prices just keep “going up,” and no one ever gets the point that prices aren’t going up at all. The dollar is going down.
Marble soda fountains, safe neighborhoods, and vacuum tubes are gone, as is the security of the dollar. YOU ARE NOT SAFE IN DOLLARS, any more than walking the streets of South Central LA, or North Philly. The buck may be used as the measuring stick of our wealth, profits, and prices, but eventually the sham will be discovered by more and more of the populace. You simply cannot fool all of the people all of the time. In Germany, once the Reichsmark presses really got into overdrive, and in America three times already, more and more people got wise, and got out of those currencies. They saved themselves and their kin, by doing it. They knew they had better buy something. Anything, because the price would be higher next month, next week, tomorrow, or in a couple of hours, as the procedure followed all of known history. Some are going to the euro now, but this is just another printing press product. All currencies in the entire world, are printing press products, and have no value other than temporarily. As more and more get wise and cash in, the process increases in velocity, and the process feeds on itself, till the currency is only good for starting fires or taking to the outhouse. Avoid the rush, and get out and into something tangible. I can’t change history, and I can’t stop the politicos from debauching their own currency. They all follow recorded history, and all are doomed to not learn from it, but repeat it. Will you be a victim? Like the majority, who usually are wrong? Protect yourself.