Anerica 2050. What Will We Build? Part 5.

I am an historian, not a psychic. America in 2050 is just a nice round date. I believe that our destiny lies reliably in the past. If you want to know where we're going, we have to look at where we (and Western Europe) have been.

Nanny State: Path To Revolution

The recipe for a social and political revolution is fairly simple. Have a large percent of the population of a country in perpetual poverty, with a tiny rich minority holding the majority of all wealth. Insure the middle class is small and powerless. Mix in rising expectations with too slow progress, and a lost war or declining power and respect for social/religious/political structures (like caste systems, the Catholic Church, or the King). Finally add a spark, and voila, we have a full on 'blood in the streets' revolution.

The French Revolution in 1789 and the Russian Revolution in 1917 follow the above pattern pretty closely. The mass of society willingly participated, because they had little to lose and everything to gain by overturning an established order that largely excluded them from power and confined them to a tenuous periphery.

Today in 2012 in America we can view Middle and Near Eastern revolutions on our flatscreens nightly. The Libyan dictatorship has fallen, along with Egypt and soon to follow Syria. Iraq and Afghanistan are boiling under the surface, and are likely to erupt once the American military presence has withdrawn. Certainly these world events are cause for grave concern, but my focus is drawn to a much closer arena...America.

The civil rights struggles and riots in the late 50's and 60's were nothing less than a partially successful revolution. An oppressed underclass (African-Americans) rebelled at the second class citizenship that they had endured since the slaves were freed in 1865. "The long, hot summer," was something Americans heard a lot about that as the summer months approached in 1968, and it filled them with dread. By 1968, just the word "summer" was conjuring not just beaches and vacations and re-runs on TV, but also what were almost universally known as "race riots," events that today, with more circumspection, we call "urban rebellions." Large swaths of Los Angeles were devastated in summer 1965; much of Newark and Detroit (and Buffalo, and Milwaukee, and Minneapolis) went up in flames in summer 1967. By the mid-70's, however, they had largely petered out.

Why did the civil unrest end abruptly? Answer: They were paid off!

The Nanny State

America of 2012 is a semi-socialist country where over 48.5% of all households contain at least one person who receives some form of government aid. The social and economic safety net has reached an extent where our national deficit (including monies promised in the future), is estimated at $100 Trillion dollars, or over $300,000 per American citizen!

Many complain about the bloated government-sponsored entitlement programs, but few consider the relevance of the timing of their creation. Social Security was rolled out during the Great Depression. The Food Stamp program was introduced in 1964, as was the lesser known Job Corps (free trade school education for poor, urban youth). Welfare too was dramatically expanded in this decade, and the era of the "government cheese" stories were born.

One way to look at the expanding social and economic programs above is to say they were merely responses by a receptive government to a petitioning electorate. Another, less naive way to explain these expensive programs, was that they were simply bribes paid to the restless underclass to cease their troublesome activities! Current precedents are Arab Kingdoms like Saudi Arabia pouring oil money into the streets to keep their populations docile and obedient. The USA did much the same in the 60's, and has only accelerated the process to our 2012 America where the government is always expected to be there when a citizen is hurting...like a good Nanny! And who would ever rebel against an entity that supplies food, housing, and the other basic needs of life?

Finally, the fiat paper dollar is the last refuge of a controlling American state. If you rebelled centuries ago, the King's head might end up in a basket, but your money was still good. Anyone in any country would've been all-to-happy to take your gold or silver coin, even if it had the face of a very dead sovereign upon it. Not so with the fiat paper dollar of 2012!

The paper dollar of 2012 is reliant solely on the 'good faith and credit of the USA'. That's it, brothers and sisters. No gold or silver is available to back these 'promises'. If you rebel against the government of the USA and win, then every dollar in your pocket instantly reverts to their inherent worth...zero! If you actually succeed in throwing out the bums, you become penniless. All your hardwork over all those years was for nothing more than to build a supply of greenbacks to feed your homeless campfire!

How's that devious method for keeping your slaves loyal and peaceful?

America 2050

The social program bribes are already falling short in America 2012. Social Security is admitting to projected future shortfalls. Unemployment is high and likely to remain so. The dollar is weak, and with further QE (Quantitive Easing, or money creation out of thin air) it must continue to grow weaker based on simple supply/demand economics. Eventually between now and 2050 the US dollar will ultimately fail. When that happens the social net bribe will fall to pieces. The poor will form the majority of the populace, with the very rich occupying the tip of the new economic pyramid. The middle class will be virtually erased, and their stabilizing social and political power dramatically weakened. The America of 2050 will be a second or third rate power, eternally on the verge or in actual blood-stained revolution.

Of course, there is one possibility to forestall this revolutionary state - military run or supported dictatorship. Shooting thousands of people does make quite an impression on rebels, at least for a while. However, we need look no further than an exploding Arab world to know the end results of playing that heavy card!

Rick

America 2050: What Will We Build? Part 4.

I am an historian, not a psychic. America in 2050 is just a nice round date. I believe that our destiny lies reliably in the past. If you want to know where we're going, we have to look at where we (and Western Europe) have been.

There are many articles on 'Fiat Money' and its history. I urge you to read them. I'm seeking brevity, not comprehensiveness.

Future Economy - The Death Of The Fiat Dollar

The Founding Father's of America disagreed on many things. The extent of federal vs. state power, slavery, taxation, the form or our republic, how to give the smaller states some voice without being unfair to large ones. However, there is one thing they all agreed upon. Silver and gold constituted money - and paper fiat currency did not.

Briefly, gold and silver have been valued as money by humans for over 5000 years of recorded history. Whenever governments have tried to get around precious and scarce gold and silver as money, disasters inevitably followed.

The Roman denarius, a coin the size of a modern nickel and made of pure silver, was accepted throughout the known world two millenia ago. As the Empire shrank geographically and the size and expense of government grew, the coin was secretly diluted by substituting base metals for silver. Toward the end of the Rome, the denarius had only a thin silver wash and was universally shunned in commerce.

Why did Rome destroy the denarius? Because they wanted money to spend without increasing taxation on the already overtaxed Roman citizens. So, they tried to produce more money without the inconvenience or political repercussions of increased taxation - or the bother of mining and refining more silver. They didn't have any other choice. Paper money wasn't to be invented for over five hundred years, rendering impossible the kind of instant digital and paper money creation we take for granted today.

No, the money magic act we see today had to wait until the Chinese invented paper money in about 806 A.D. Then, the Mongol Empire in the 13th Century used their power and influence to spread it around Asia and Eastern Europe like an STD. The citizens called it 'flying money', as the slightest breeze made it fly away. At first the paper money was backed by gold and silver and the economy expanded. Eventually, however, the government decided it needed more money without the bother of taxation, and the massive printing of notes began. Within two hundred years paper money had become worthless.

Flash forward to 2012. It's been nearly a century since the first modern paper fiat currency was printed in 1913. 'Fiat money' isn't some under-powered Italian car blocking the passing lane. It means that it's money and worth something solely because the US government says it worth something. It's no longer backed by gold or any other real asset. In the last one hundred years the paper dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power! It's lost 72% just since 1972, when Nixon severed our last connection to the gold standard. The term inflation has been an unalterable part of our lexicon, and it seems axiomatic today that things are likely to cost more tommorrow than they did today.

In America 2050 our money will be very different. In 2012 we are nearing the endgame collapse of the fiat money lie. Our National Debt exceeds $100 Trillion dollars if you include all the money we owe as well as all the money promised in our ever growing "Nanny State" social net.

Prices will fall in deflation, as we have seen. History in Weimar Germany and Austria (as well as many others) tells us that inflation and hyperinflation will then follow closely behind. Paper fortunes will be wiped out overnight. The US money supply will continue to grow because like an addict's addiction, one fix followed by another and another, growing steadily larger to avoid painful withdrawal symptoms.

As prices rise and the middle class melts away like an ice cream cone in the hot sun, riots and unrest will occur. The US Government will be called upon to "do something". History tells us they will have the following options available to them:

1. Implement Price and Wage Controls -  Nixon tried this in the early 70's to combat stagflation. It was voluntary and an abject failure. History tells us when price controls are not enforced, they're ignored. When they are enforced with heavy fines or even jail and death sentences, they likewise fail because factories would rather close than sell their products for below market prices. Goods simply disappear from the shelves. Yes, the price is low and government controlled, but the products are nowhere to be found. In Austria in 1922-1923, a thriving black market cropped up selling anything you could want from sausages to work tools, at a marketedly higher price than the state-mandated one.

The "good" part about this idiotic non-market based strategy is that the government can claim they are actually doing something. It's just the speculators and the big companies who are evil - deflecting blame from them onto the companies struggling with rising raw material costs.

2. The other strategy is more effective, but much less popular. To stop runaway inflation by tightening the money supply and raising interest rates. Increased taxes on businesses and citizens, while slashing government entitlement programs follow. Paul Volcker in the 1980's used some of these methods effectively to recover from the excesses of the Carter years. However, he had a mouse-sized problem, and in 2012 America has a Godzilla-sized monster to handle!

This latter strategy will NOT be employed by any US government, at least not without a major revolution or crash - changing the very structure of our political structure and the "democratic process". At this terminal stage they have no choice but to continue with the former choice, and keep the money machine pumping.

In the America of 2050 many rich will have lost everything they had in paper stocks and dollar denominated assets. The Middle Class will be reduced to a butcher, baker, candlestick maker type form. A large poverty-level workforce and an unemployed underclass will be present, always on the edge of desperation and a never-ending source of political and social rebellion.

We will have a money supply grounded in gold, silver, and other sources of real wealth. The economy will be forced to contract as it has been artificially bloated with easy money and credit over many decades. Prices will become stable, but the standard of living could easily revert back to an 1850 level of sustainability.

America 2050. What Will We Build? Part 3.

I am an historian, not a psychic. America in 2050 is just a nice round date. I believe that our destiny lies reliably in the past. If you want to know where we're going, we have to look at where we (and Western Europe) have been.

Future Economy

The US economy is going through massive change. Manufacturing is no longer the province of the US as it was following WWII, when the US made products for a world looking to rebuild. We were owed by the world, and the US dollar's power and value was unquestioned. "Sound as a Dollar," was a common saying, and the speakers did so without the hint of a sarcastic smirk on their face.

In 2012 America unemployment is high, indeed, much higher than the US government manipulated low ball numbers of 9 or so percent. These number don't count those who've lost their unemployment benefits, who've given up after years of futile job searches, and the massive amount of underemployed. Yes, a job as a Walmart associate counts as a job at $22,000 per year. But it can't hope to replace the income that this now overqualified person earned at his previous employer. Cases of people accepting jobs at tiny fractions of their previous salaries are now commonplace. In these cases, despite the Obama Administration's claims, do not a true recovery make. Our Walmart worker has a job, but he's not buying the goods and services he once could afford. If he's lucky he's scraping by paycheck to paycheck, and not falling back on credit cards and other loans to make ends meet.

Today's America makes virtually nothing it consumes. Our economy is 4 times larger than Germany's, but Germany's share of global merchandise exports is actually higher than America's (9 percent vs. 8.5 percent) in 2009! The other key measure -- little known in popular discussions of manufacturing -- is export intensity, the ratio of a nation's exports to its total manufacturing sales. The global average export intensity is twice as high as that of the United States, which ranked 13th out of the 15 largest manufacturing countries in 2009, higher only than Russia and Brazil. Meanwhile, the leading EU countries had export intensities 2.5 times to 4 times higher than America's. Comparisons of the value of manufactured exports on a per capita basis are even more dramatic: they are higher in Spain ($3,700), Japan ($4,000), Canada ($4,600), and Germany ($11,200) than in the United States ($2,400).

China has become our merchant of choice. In fact, Walmart, the largest retailer in America, claims that 70% of all products they sell as made in China. As a result, China has now become the supplier of cheap manufactured goods to the US. In exchange we give them paper fiat dollars that are backed by nothing other than the "Good Faith and Credit of the USA". In the past they held those dollars in Chinese banks, effectively giving us their products for free. However, rumors abound now that they are quietly spending their hoard of paper dollars on natural resources, gold and silver, mines, real state - anything to divest themselves of a rapidly depreciating piece of green paper. The resulting dollars are dumped back into the US money supply, fueling inflation through basic supply/demand economics.

Of course, in this process the US surrendered it's status as the lender to the world to the largest debtor nation on Earth. We also dismantled the manufacturing base that won WWII and offered a middle class existenance to millions, in exchange for cheap coffee makers!

America 2050 - Economy

It's hard to find a precedent in the past for a nation that has risen as high and fallen as low as the USA must by 2050. I could look at the 18th and 19th English Empire and the shrunken corpse remaining after WWII, and get an weak idea of what the future may hold for America. Once the sun never set on the English Empire. They ruled the seas and were a commanding presence in any world political event. Today they are at best a third rate power excluded from the councils of the powerful. Their economy putters on, but growth of all kinds, population and economic remains static. Like Egypt, they find themselves eternally looking to the past for their source of glory. The USA will likely be in a similar, if not much worse state, in 2050. After all, the America Empire was the largest to date in power, wealth, and prestige, if not landmass. It's only reasonable to assume that her fall would break records as well.

The erosion of the middle class is likely to continue. Jobs working as a barista at Starbucks, or a retail clerk, will never pay the wages to build a middle class existence as heavy manfacturing once provided in post WWII America. Multigenerational family living will replace the nuclear family ideal, and renters will overwhelm buyers as the most economically feasible option. America of 2050 will resemble pre-WWII US infintely more closely than the post war boom version!

Already China is showing its economic, military, and political power around the globe. They're providing Europe with loan guarantees, buying mines and resources in South America and Asia, and pointedly warning American warships to behave themselves in the Taiwanese Straits. It appears we even need them for space exploration, as the Obama Administration announced that they need Chinese help to send a manned mission to Mars!

China is certainly a shoe-in for the next world Superpower. Other Asian nations such as India are sure to gain ascendance as well. America will confine itself to our shores and coastlines, and do our level best to avoid angering our Asian friends. Maintaining a bloated military policing the world is very, very expensive. By 2050, such an extravagance will seem an absurd to a struggling once-great power. Perhaps out of the profound darkness everywhere else, this anti-imperial reality will supply a renewed glimmer of hope that one day the descendants of the Founding Fathers may indeed create the 'City on a Hill' once envisioned by our Founding Fathers! A country that spreads its light by a silent, shining example, not through the miltary interventionist policies that have sought to control the world, but instead has only bankrupted our country!

Rick

America 2050. What Will We Build? Part 2.

I am an historian, not a psychic. America in 2050 is just a nice round date. I believe that our destiny lies reliably in the past. If you want to know where we're going, we have to look at where we (and Western Europe) have been.

Baby Boomers - The Big Elephant in the Room

80 million Baby Boomers are starting to retire. Born between 1945- to the mid-1960's, they are a major part of our consuming economy. They have invested in stocks, started businesses, were famous for outrageous work ethnics, and paid taxes - a lot of taxes.

The problem now is they're retiring and expecting all the dollars that America has promised them for Social Security, Medicare, and other programs. Born in 1961, I receive my Social Security statement every few years. I always read them, but they're never quite real to me. I just can't imagine ever getting back any of the money they've taken from me for this program per se.

Of course, any money I might collect in the future isn't really my money coming back to me. Social Social Security, starting taxation in 1937, has been called one enormous pyramid-scheme, taking money from many and giving it back to a few. Today, about 16 people pay SS taxes for the benefits for 1 retired person. By the time the last Baby Boomer retires, the projected ration will be 2 people paying to support 1 retired Baby Boomer! All government BS aside, that means that SS taxes will have to either to increase by many times, benefits will be reduced or put off to further advanced ages, or money will be paid to retirees that will be so inflated as to be virtually worthless. Keep in mind that retirees are promised a certain amount of dollars per month, not what those dollars will actually buy! Therein lies the government's hole card.

The most likely result will in the future will be more of the same, to an extent. Benefits will be delayed and taxes will slowly rise. However, will future generations sacrifice 80-90% of their paychecks to support Baby Boomers?  If they're voters, I think not. The short fall will come from more money printing until the dollar becomes virtually worthless. Current deficit projections that include financial commitments the US Govt. has made to Baby Boomers and others reveal an astronomical figure of $100 Trillion dollars! That works out to $300,000 owed by each of the 325 million Americans today!

A Baby Boomer will get his $2500 monthly check, and buy one or two days worth of food with it. It's the only solution. The government keeps it word, and the younger taxpayers don't throw them out of office for impoverishing them. Every pyramid scheme has it's balloon popping moment. Bernie Madoff had the Great Recession starting in 2008, and America will have the Baby Boomers to burst the bubble of lying promises that our government has made.

I believe the America of 2050 will have fewer benefits or social programs available. Clearly our debt cannot continue to climb forever. Sooner or later a default, or more likely dollar creation will push us into Hyperinflation as it famously did for Weimar Germany, Austria, Hungary, Argentina, Iceland, and numerous other countries. People will work until death or sickness overcomes them, they will move in with their children, and the standard of living will be more meager than today.

The America of 2050 will undoubtedly still have a tiny amount of very wealthy living high in their guarded castles. But the destruction of the dollar, and the other social programs propping up a middle and the lower classes, will have been severely curtailed - taking the stabilizing influence of middle class working stiffs with it.

Rick

America 2050. What Will We Build? Part 1.

I am an historian, not a psychic. America in 2050 is just a nice round date. I believe that our destiny lies reliably in the past. If you want to know where we're going, we have to look at where we (and Western Europe) have been.

Normalcy Bias

Many people reading my articles and watching my Youtube videos at rickpyle1 sometimes email me or leave comments expressing their exasperation with their friends and family. They want to know how they can't see the economic disasters looming and the dramatic changes in American lives that will most certainly be a reality in 2050. The answer is the normalcy bias held by many of our fellow citizens.

The normalcy bias is an irrational and illogical belief which states that since in the lifetime of the individual nothing catastrophic or devastating has ever occured, then nothing profoundly negative will ever occur in the remainder of their life.

The prosperity enjoyed by post WWII America has been a time of prosperity unparalleled in the history of humanity. We have had recessions, foreign wars, and some political turmoil. However, millions have not been executed without trial in purges, our money has not become abruptly worthless, wars have not devastated our homeland, millions have not been held in concentration camps or died of hunger lying in street. Many other countries including Germany, Japan, Russia, and China cannot make such claims.

America 2050 will have no "get out of jail free card" from the horrors described above. Like all investor prospectus point out, "the past performance of a stock is no guarantee of future results".

Rick

Making the Right Silver Coin Buying Choice!

The US government is now irrevocably on the path to deflation followed by inflation and eventually hyperinflation. In all cases in the last few hundred years, countries facing hyperinflation have fallen back on gold and silver coins as islands of stability in a chaotic sea of worthless paper fiat money. However, with a confusing variety of silver coins and rounds available and limited funds with which to purchase them, we need to look at the core determining factor in the American people. The Idiot Factor.

The average American is just not the brightest bulb in the world's lamps. Their limited intellects can grasp new knowledge only very slowly. Ask any marketing guy why commercials aren't more sophisticated and he'll tell you the same thing P.T. Barnum famously uttered, "No one ever lost money in the US by underestimating American intelligence".

With all this in mind, let's envision the aftermath of a US Dollar collapse. History tells us that Argentina, Yugoslavia, Weimar Germany, Iceland and many other countries quickly began to use old silver and gold coins very quickly. Immediately below please find my version of an effective sign advertising a merchants acceptance of US 90% silver coins:

US Silver Coins Accepted at this Store!

All US dimes, quarters, halves, and silver dollars dated 1964 & prior

and

US Mint Silver Eagles all years gladly accepted

Pretty easy to understand sign, wouldn't you agree? Unfortunately, other silver and gold being collected right now will only serve to confuse trading partners and possibly lead to violent misunderstandings. Let's check out my somewhat tongue-in-cheek sign below as a comparison:

Silver Coins Accepted at this store!

 

All US dimes, quarters, halves, silver dollars dated 1964 & prior

and

US Mint Silver Eagles all years gladly accepted

and and

Kennedy halves dated1965-1970 (but nothing after) unless your talking about some proof coins issued that do have some silver - but not all do.

and and and

War Nickels dated 1942-1945. But the 1942 ones have to have a large mint mark on the reverse above Monticello or forget it!

and and and and

Some older Canadian coins have silver, but we don't have a clue which ones - so who knows?

and and and and and

There are these things called silver rounds. They're minted by a large number of private companies and there are hundreds of versions with a wide variety of images on the obverse/reverse. I even saw ones once with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny on them! The guys from Pawn Stars have one for sale with the Old Man's picture on it. They all usually claim to have one pure ounce of silver, but what if they're lying? So your guess is as good as ours as to what they're worth...if anything!

and and and and and and

There are Chinese Panda silver coins too! They are minted by China and are very pretty. Unfortunately, numerous Chinese counterfeiters have made excellent copies that only an expert can readily identify...so don't bring them here! Oh, and don't get me started on Mexican coinage! How are my employees supposed to read Spanish writing when they have a hard enough time understanding English! Please, it makes my poor gringo head spin!

Now tell me honestly. Which sign do you believe will be more effective? Your answer should dictate your silver buying choices.

Rick



America Needs Ron Paul!

America needs

Ron Paul! 

Ron Paul has had
consistent policy positions from the start.
The other candidates simply say what the voters want to hear. Ron Paul warned us about the housing bubble,
the debt crisis, the collapse of the US dollar, the high unemployment 
and
recessions; basically, the entire collapse of our economy.
He is the only
candidate who can get us out of our mess.






Ron Paul is a man
who defends the constitution, civil liberties, peace and prosperity. Paul has the wisdom, foresight, honesty and
integrity to be president.






Ron Paul simply
puts
America First!





Read more: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/ron-paul-pulls-ahead-of-mitt-romney-sits-near-newt-gingrich-in-latest-iowa-poll/#ixzz1g3GNafAZ

And Obama Fiddled as USA/Rome Burned!

Well the super committee failed to come up with a lousy one trillion dollars in cuts over ten years. Keeping in mind that we already owe at least 15 trillion (and actually a lot more)!

Don't be fooled by the partisan bickering either. Neither Dems nor Repubs want a deal...and neither does Obama. They're all only interested in getting re-elected. The Republicans want to say they held the line on taxes, and the Democrats will say they kept all the health and other giveaways intact.

...And Obammy fiddles while USA/Rome burns!

The USA is not the first, but is arguably the longest true republican form of democracy in history. Did you ever ask yourself why? Because the inherent weakness of this form of government is the partisan bickering that inevitably occurs, followed by bankruptcy (give the people free stuff and they'll vote for you), and eventually chaos, civil war, economic collapse, leading to a dictatorship that rises and restores order. Of course, pesky things like individual freedoms quickly go by the wayside in the name of the restoration of law and order.

Don't say it can't happen here! Two years ago I wrote an article about how the USA could have its debt rating downgraded...and commenters said I was an alarmist nut! Well, we all know I wasn't crazy now, don't we?

Rick

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies (below):

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT!

Un-Safe Deposit Boxes!

Most of us think that one of the safest places to store our valuables is in a safe deposit box in a bank. Who can blame anyone for thinking this - banks after all, have the best 24 hour security and alarm systems. However, recent tragedies such as the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center brought to light that a safe deposit box may not be the safest place to hide your cash! In both of these terrible tragedies, hundreds of people’s safe deposit boxes and their contents were destroyed irretrievably.

To add insult to injury, the contents of a safe deposit box are seldom insured. The only thing that can indemnify your belongings is, of course, your homeowners insurance policy. But, the caveat is - you are not supposed to be hiding cash in a safe deposit box, and thus, it is not insured. Sadly, many people found this out the hard way in the two tragedies mentioned above. The FDIC (or CDIC in Canada) only insures the deposits in accounts held in banks, but not the contents of safe deposit boxes!

With the current unprecedented global economic crisis, it is becoming obvious that more and more people are desperately searching for ways to safely hide their cash and valuables. What makes this even more tense is that banks are failing daily. A recent 2008 Pennsylvania Department of Revenue survey of 687 safe deposit boxes found that 172 had “cash or coins.”

More cautions against hiding your cash, gold, and silver  in a safe deposit box are:

• In the United States, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could get a warrant to access your safe deposit box if the bank tips them off due to what they might perceive as “suspicious activity”, which could literally be anything, like too many regular visits. Other nations likely have similar legislation.
• The often abusive IRS can often freeze assets merely based on suspicion of probabilities, until the courts clear the accused.
• Creditors can seize your assets with your banks help.
• If you declare Chapter 7 Bankruptcy your deposit box assets can be confiscated.
• Various laws allow state governments to declare your safe box valuables "abandoned", permitting sale of your assets at an auction with proceeds going to the robber-state.
• Bank failures and/or "Bank Holidays" like in FDR's era can throw your safety deposit box into a gray area. Federal laws closing banks can put your wealth just beyond your reach when you need it most, during unstable economic, political, or social disasters.

Things to keep in mind when storing valuables in a safe deposit box:

• Read your homeowner’s insurance policy and if in doubt, get legal advice on any ambiguities.
• Read the safe deposit box contract thoroughly!
• Take photographs of all of your valuables and place them in waterproof plastic bags, even multiple layers to keep the elements from doing damage to them, should natural or man-made disaster strike. Bank vaults are normally designed to be fireproof, but not waterproof, so if you are in a flood prone area (like the Red River in the Dakotas) you might want to think about this.
• Do not store original copies of documents you require immediate access to, such as receipts, wills, funerary directives, etc.
• Find an alternative to hiding your valuables in a bank.

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies (below):

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT!

Prices NEVER Go Up!

It drives me crazy everytime I hear a newscaster, financial analyst, or even an average consumer  complain about how prices of food, gas, appliances, etc., are going up. Especially when they then launch into an ill-considered rage at the "fat-cat oil barrons" or the "greedy corporations" or the evil 1%". As a result, I'm going to say this one time only. Prices NEVER go up! The real prices on the everyday items your grandmother and father bought cost the same as they did back in the day. After all, how could prices increase? I mean, an orange in 1963 is an orange today, why would you pay more for it now then you did back then? So, if prices haven't gone up, then what has changed? The value of your money has GONE DOWN.

In 1964 President Johnson announced that starting in 1965 US coins (dimes, quarters, and halves) would no longer be minted from 90% silver, but would be switching to a nickel copper composition. The only exception was to be the 1965 - 1970 Kennedy half which would be lowered to 40% silver. FDR had previously taken gold money out of the hands of US citizens in 1933. Nixon terminated the last connection the US Dollar had to Gold (and sound money) when he terminated the Bretton Woods arrangement in 1971. Now the US was free to print money to its hearts content without the necessity of having something concrete backing the paper money. As the money supply began to increase inflation took off in the late 60's and never looked back. Today you would need over $7.50 to buy what $1.00 would've bought you in 1964!

But wait, doesn't my last sentence above contradict my premise about unchanging real product pricing? If you need $7.50 to buy in 2011 what $1.00 purchased in 1964, doesn't that mean prices did indeed rise? The short answer is basically, yes and no. Yes, prices increased because we use paper funny money and coin slugs today instead of real silver and gold money. However, in silver and gold money prices have remained remarkably steady since the early 1960's! See below:

1964 - One loaf of white bread could be bought for a silver 1964 dime.
2011 - You can buy a loaf of white bread today with that exact same silver dime.

1964 - One nicely tailored men's suit $50.00
2011 - If you saved your money in silver coins you'd have $1250 to buy that suit!

1964 - One gallon of gas cost $0.30
2011 - Three silver dimes would give you $7.50 towards that gallon gas! Wow, change too!

1964 - The cost of $10 worth of 90% silver quarters was...well...$10.
2011 - Go on eBay and see for yourself. Right now you'd have to pony up $250 in funny money to get ten bucks of real silvery money!

So you see, assuming you saved the last real money (90% silver coins) we had in 1964 you'd find that either your buying power would be the same, or that it actually improved!

Hmm, maybe I am wrong. Prices aren't just stable over the last 5 decades, they've gone down!

Bottom Line: Politicians and Big Banking interests are expanding our money supply recklessly to serve their own agendas and enrich themselves. Eventually, the average Joe America will lose everything as the US Dollar inflates to worthlessness. Be aware of their duplicity! Don't complain to the store clerk or the check out worker like a drone about rising prices. Instead, rebel (legally) against a tyrannical government that is debasing the once mighty and sound US dollar and ruining the savings and buying power of a Nation. BUY SILVER & GOLD NOW!

Rick

Monopoly Money vs. US Dollars

Everyone has played the game Monopoly at one time or another on a rainy day. A key feature of the game is the paper money used to buy everything from properties to railroads and pay rents and luxury taxes. In the "real world" we use the US Dollar for the very same purposes. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the two paper currencies to see just how eerily similar they are to one another.

US Dollar - A paper fiat currency unbacked by any commodity like silver or gold. Backed solely by the "good faith and credit of the United States" government.

Monopoly Money - A paper fiat currency backed by the good faith and credit of Parker Brothers.

US Dollar - accepted on some level in most of the 195 countries of the world. The world's reserve currency...for now at least.

Monopoly Money - Played with by people in 103 countries.

US Dollar - About $829 billion dollars in circulation.

Monopoly Money - About $3.8 billion dollars in 250 million games sold.

US Dollar - The Federal Reserve Notes first issued in 1913 have fallen victim to inflation in the last century and have lost 97% of their buying power.

Monopoly Money - In the Monopoly Here and Now edition all dollar values are multiplied by 10,000, so a player collects $2,000,000 for passing go instead of $200. Another way of looking at this game change is that the Monopoly Money has lost much of its value as well.

US Dollar - When the Fed wants to tinker with the economy it just prints more money and floods the market with devalued dollars sparking inflation, and perhaps someday hyperinflation.

Monopoly Money - When Parker Brothers needs more money for their games they just print more.

US Dollar - All paper fiat currencies backed by nothing have eventually lost value through inflation. Many have been hit by hyperinflation and lost all buying power, becoming worthless pieces of printed paper. The US Dollar and the current policies of the Fed seem custom-designed to hurry the US Dollar to this same ignominious fate.

Monopoly Money - The game money only has value while the game is in play. When the game is complete, the money reverts to its inherent worthless status as pieces of colored paper valued by none.

Lastly, I'm reminded of a time that my brother and sister decided to play Monopoly out of sheer boredom. To try to make the board game more interesting, we decided to start the game with 4 times as much money as the rules typically called for. In addition, we decided to mimic real life and allow for everyone playing to bid against one another for each and every property sold. Without meaning to, we simulated an inflated economy littered with too much fiat paper money. We didn't end up with any additional property of course, as there was a finite number of properties available in the game (as in the real world). Instead, we only ended up paying 4x as much for Boardwalk, Marvin Gardens, and those darned railroads as we normally would've using the standard game rules!

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies (below):

Rick

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Silver Liberty Dollar = Terrorism?!

The creator of the Liberty Dollar and NORFED (National Organization to Repeal the Federal Reserve Act), Bernard Von Nothaus, was recently convicted of counterfeiting and faces thousands of dollars in fines, $7 million dollars of copper, silver, and gold bullion confiscation, and 15 years in prison! The silver & gold Liberty Dollars along with precious metal certificates were conceived by Von Nothaus as an alternative currency backed by PM's and competing with the US fiat money. Von Nothaus had hoped to play a part in restoring the US to a sound monetary precious metal standard. Unfortunately, the Federal government with its printing presses busily flooding the country with trillions of dollars of green funny money, felt threatened by the tiny organization and its gold and silver medallions.

The Fed's case rested on the similarity of the Liberty rounds to US coins, with obverse figures "emblematic of Liberty" and a "Trust in God" inscription instead of "In God We Trust". Reverses of the Liberty Dollars featured recommended dollar values as well. Differences like a website address on the reverse of the Liberty Dollars obviously weren't sufficient to avoid his prosecution, or is the proper term "persecution"?

After the verdict the Federal prosecutor, Anne Tompkins, said, "Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism. While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country. We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption, and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government."

It is sheer nonsense and unabashed hyperbole that Von NotHaus engaged in behavior that is a “clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.” But that’s a pretty good description of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve and his actions to date.

Rick

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies (below):

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6000 Years of Gold Fever!

4600 B.C. Ancient civilizations begin to use gold as jewelry because of its beauty.

1500 B.C. The gold-bearing regions of ancient Nubia make Egypt a wealthy nation.

1323 B.C. Egyptians create Tutankhamun's funeral mask, a triumph of gold craftsmanship.

1200 B.C. Egyptians master the art of beating gold into leaf and develop the lost-wax jewelry casting technique, still used today.

1091 B.C. Squares of gold, about the size of postage stamps, become a form of money in China.

560 B.C. The first gold coins are minted in Lydia, now a region in Turkey, after a refining breakthrough ensures consistent purity.

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Funeral mask of Tutankhamun (14th century B.C.)

334 B.C. Alexander the Great and his army cross the Hellespont into the Persian Empire, sezing gold now valued at up to $980 million.334 B.C. Alexander the Great and his army cross hHellespnt into the Persian Empire, seizing gold now valued at up to $980 million. 334 B.C. Alexander the Great and his army cross the Hellespont into the Persian Empire, seizing gold now valued at up to $980 million.

334 B.C. Alexander the Great and his army cross the Hellespont into the Persian Empire, seizing gold now valued at up to $980 million.

218 B.C.–202 B.C. The Romans gain access to Spain's gold-mining region during the Second Punic War.

58 B.C. Julius Caesar conquers ancient Gaul, acquiring enough gold to repay all of Rome's debts.

50 B.C. The Romans issue a gold coin, the aureus, which circulates for almost 400 years.

309 A.D. Roman Emperor Constantine launches the gold solidus. It circulates for nearly 1,000 years in various forms..

696 An Islamic gold coin, the dinar, is minted in Damascus.

1284 Venice introduces the gold ducat, whose weight and purity remain unchanged for 500 years.

Money Museum

Aureus (Rome, 128 A.D.)

1492 Christopher Columbus discovers the new world, leading to the Spanish Conquest. By 1510, Inca gold from Colombia and Peru pours into Spain.

1663 The Guinea, named after Africa's "Gold Coast," is first minted in Britain and becomes its main circulating coin.

1694 The Bank of England, the first central bank to have gold reserves, is established.

1700 Gold is discovered in Brazil, which becomes the world's largest gold producer by 1720, tripling the world's output.

Money Museum

Solidus (Byzantine Empire, 705-711 A.D.)

1717 Sir Isaac Newton, master of the Royal Mint, fixes the price of gold at £3.17s.10d, essentially putting Britain on a gold standard until 1931.

1787 Ephraim Brasher, a goldsmith, strikes the first U.S. gold coin.

1792 The Coinage Act places the U.S. on a bimetallic silver-gold standard.

1817 Britain introduces the sovereign, a gold coin valued at one pound sterling. It becomes the dominant coin in international trade for the next 100 years.

1837 Gold weight in the U.S. dollar is lessened so that an ounce is valued at $20.67.

Money Museum

Dinar (Gupta Empire, 375-414 A.D.)

1848 John Marshall finds gold flakes while building a sawmill near Sacramento, triggering the California gold rush. The discovery transforms world gold production, which escalates tenfold during the next decade.

1852-1853 Britain and France mint substantial quantities of gold coins from California and Australia. Gold begins to take over from silver as the most widely circulating currency.

1862 The Latin Monetary Union is established, setting standards for silver and gold coins in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and, later, Greece. The countries accept each other's coins as legal tender.

Money Museum

Ducat (Venice, 13th century)

1871 Germany issues the mark, a new currency based on gold. Ten more European countries join the gold standard during the 1870s, leading to a collapse in the silver price, as nations disposed of silver coins.

1873 The U.S. adopts an unofficial gold standard after silver is eliminated.

1887 John Steward MacArthur patents the MacArthur-Forrest process for using cyanide to extract gold from ore, leading to the extraction of gold in South Africa.

1896 William Jennings Bryan urges a return to a bimetallic system in his "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic national convention.

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Gold Washing in California, an 1896 engraving

1898 Prospectors discover gold in Klondike, Alaska, prompting the century's final gold rush.

1898 Prospectors discover gold in Klondike, Alaska, prompting the century's final gold rush.

1900 The U.S. adopts the gold standard through passage of the Gold Standard Act.

1913 The Federal Reserve Act requires backing Federal Reserve Notes 40% in gold.

1931 Britain abandons the gold standard.

1933 President Roosevelt prohibits private holdings of gold coins, bullion and certificates to alleviate a banking panic.

1934 The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 gives the government permanent title to all monetary gold and halts minting of gold coins. Only Federal Reserve Banks may hold certificates, putting the U.S. on a limited gold bullion standard. President Roosevelt reduces the dollar by increasing the gold price to $35 per ounce.

Money Museum

Stater (Tribe of the Parisii, 120-100 B.C.)

1935 Construction begins on the bullion depository at Fort Knox, Ky.

1944 The Bretton Woods agreement establishes the basis of the post-war monetary system. The U.S. dollar is set to maintain a conversion rate of $35 to one ounce of gold.

1961 Central banks of the U.S., U.K., and six European countries form the London Gold Pool and agree to buy and sell at $35.09 per ounce.

1968 The London Gold Pool collapses, leaving the U.S., Britain and other European nations unable to maintain the gold price at $35. The gold price begins to float freely for the first time.

1971 President Nixon closes the "gold window," stopping all gold sales and purchases and ending conversion of foreign-held dollars into gold.

1973 U.S. devalues the dollar and raises the official selling price of gold to $42.22 ounce. Dollar selling continues, which leads to currencies being allowed to float freely.

1975 Americans are allowed to hold gold other than jewelry for first time since l933. Krugerrand sales and gold-futures trading begin in the U.S.

1976–1980 The International Monetary Fund abolishes its official gold price, freeing governments to trade gold in private markets.

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Bloomberg News

Gold futures are traded on the Comex floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

1980 Gold reaches an intraday high of $875 on Jan. 21 but falls to $591 by year-end.

1981 The U.S. forms a Gold Commission to make recommendations on government policies about the role of gold in domestic and world-wide monetary systems.

1999 The euro is introduced, backed by a new European Central Bank holding 15% of reserves in gold. The Bank of England sells half of the U.K.'s gold stocks, pushing down prices to $250 an ounce.

1999 Europe's central banks enter the Central Bank Gold Agreement, which limits their annual sales of gold into the market. This action stimulates a rise in the gold price during the next decade.

2009 Central banks return to buying gold for the first time in two decades.

2011 Gold hits an intraday high of $1,445 on March 7.

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies, APMEX Gold and Silver and Silver American Eagles.

Rick

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How Would You Invest $100,000?

How would you invest a $100,000 windfall? Well, if you're like the Chief Investment Officer of Sprott Asset Management you'd do the following:

"I would probably put 80% in precious metals, 10% in energy, and another 10% in agriculture, as well as special situations stocks. In the precious metals area, I would put at least 60% into something oriented toward silver. I think silver will appreciate on a percentage basis way more than gold over the next decade and trade back down to a gold-to-silver ratio of 16:1, where it has historically been. It’s something like 48:1 now. In the energy sector, I’d own some oil and gas and uranium stocks, while in agriculture, it would be potash and phosphate."

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies, APMEX Gold and Silver and Silver American Eagles.

Rick

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How I Survived Hyperinflation!

Earlier this evening, I received an email from a man who lived through the great Yugoslavian inflation (1993-1994).

Given the debt situation here in the U.S., hyper-inflation can certainly not be ruled out as a possibility. His comments on how he survived the hyper-inflation, and what it was like might become valuable to US citizens like you and me.

He said, of course, that once he got paid, he spent the money immediately, as in a week the value of the currency would be half. “It was a lot of paper,” he said.

He said you quickly learned to buy things with credit cards. If you bought some furniture, you put it on the credit card and by the time it came time to pay the credit card bill, what it cost you for the furniture was now what it cost to buy a pack of cigarettes, because of the quick devaluation of the currency. Since wages climb up roughly as fast as other prices, to pay off the credit debt becomes a minor cost.

He said you learn to drag out and not pay your utility bills, like the telephone and electric bills, until the last minute as the currency would have depreciated so fast that the bills become inconsequential expenses.

He said everyone lived poorly except for those who had foreign currency or gold. He said if you had access to even only ten German marks per month or gold and silver coins you could live like a king because everyone valued anything that offered price stability.

The man lives in the U.S. now and he says he never wants to live through that again. He says he now divides his savings into three parts. He puts a third into the dollar, a third into the euro and a third into gold and silver.

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies:

Rick

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Buying Silver for Dummies!

Whether you decide to buy silver for investment purposes, hyperinflation, or economic collapses your choices can be numerous and confusing. My goal for this article is to give a beginner the 10 basic facts they need to know to make the best silver purchase without getting scammed by the many sleaze merchants out there today.

1. Buy from reliable sources. APMEX.com APMEX Gold and Silver and Silver American Eagles has been in business for decades and is widely respected. Gainesville Coins or eBay are good as well. When buying on eBay make sure the seller has excellent reviews and use PayPal to secure your purchase.

2. Start buying "junk silver". Junk silver is any US dime, quarter, or half dollar dated 1964 or earlier. These coins were once circulating currency and contain 90% silver. $1.40 face value of junk silver equals one troy ounce silver (approx). Check out Coinflation.com for updated coin pricing based on silver content.

3. Avoid Goldline International like the plague. They have an "F" rating with the BBB and use high pressure sales and scare tactics to rip off the newbies.

4. Buy American Silver Eagles after you've built up a junk silver reserve. They are the single most respected and popular one pure ounce silver coin in the world and is a real US dollar.

5. Avoid silver rounds and bars which are made by private companies. Bars have to be assayed when sold (adding to costs) and rounds are unknown to most Americans.

6. Buy US coins only! Stay away from European and even Canadian coins.

7. Buy Gold only after you're satisfied with your silver stockpile or unless you feel you'll need to flee the country. Gold is easy to smuggle through customs when emigrating, but is impractical for day to day trading.

8. Keep your coins where you can get to them quickly. Safe deposit boxes are vulnerable to fire, theft (government and otherwise) and banks can be ordered closed during economic chaos. Don't pay your coin seller to hold your coins for you. Scams in this area are rampant.

9. Store your silver in non-polyurethane containers away from moisture which can cause tarnishing and/or corrosion.

10.Remember silver and gold have been valued by human society for 5000 years! Let's see how long the US Dollar lasts!
Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies (below):

Rick

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT!