Showing posts with label paper money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paper money. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Prices Haven't Risen for Over 70 years!

When you're riding in a car the houses and trees outside the vehicle appear to be whizzing past rapidly while you stand still. Of course, every adult knows that the apparent movement of the objects outside the car is only an optical illusion. The motor vehicle in which you're riding is moving. The scenery is actually rooted fast.

The driving analogy above is ideal for describing the inflation of prices in US fiat money (US Dollars). It is not the prices of food, fuel, etc., that are continually moving upwards, it's the value of the US paper Dollar that is plummeting downwards!


To prove my price inflation assertion, let's look at everyday prices on items from 1940 and 2010. All costs will be computed using US 90% silver coins (dimes, quarters, halves) that were minted for circulation up to and including 1964. Coins minted after that date for circulation were made from base metals and fall under the heading of fiat money (money that has no value outside of the government mandated value).


Average Cost Gallon Of Gas


1940 $0.11 cents


2010 $2.75


Present Value $0.11 cents silver money $2.97


Average Cost Loaf of Bread Food


1940 $0.10 cents


2010 $2.79


Present Value $0.10 cents silver money $2.70


Average Cost 1lb Hamburger Meat


1940 $0.20 cents


2010 $3.99


Present Value $0.20 cents silver money $5.40



You can see from the price information above that if you'd saved your 90% US silver coinage since 1940, you could still buy these everday items for the same amount based on their silver content value! In other words, the "real prices" of these items has really stayed relatively the same. The only reason that inflation has appeared to cause prices to rise is that the actual buying power of the US Federal Reserve Notes un-backed by precious metals has dropped precipitously.


There are exceptions, of course, to the above rule. Although housing prices have been battered by the recession, they're still hovering above their 1940 silver coin equivalent. The price of a new car is likewise further ahead than its equivalent in 1940 silver coins. However, I expect these exceptions to be liquidated in the future as silver continues to rise versus the empty shell that is the US Dollar of today.


So, the next time you fill up with gas, don't give the gas station attendant a hard time. Remember, it's the Federal government with its money printing presses flooding our economy with worthless greenbacks that you should direct your anger towards.


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

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT! Buy Gold Online Today at APMEX.com

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Paper Money Slaves













Since the US government dumped the gold standard in 1933 and the silver standard in 1964, it has consistently colluded with big banking interests to contain the prices of these two precious metals. Why?

Well, one easy answer is that high silver and gold prices in dollars makes the US dollar look anemic and highlights economic weakness. Higher interest rates usually follow as well, and when you owe the trillions the US owes that's just plain bad news.

However, I think the real reason the US has promoted fiat paper money over the better part of a century is due to a more sinister reason. The banking cartels and the super wealthy who are the puppet-masters behind our alleged democracy like the fiat money system for the power, wealth, and control it affords them. Gold and silver gives any citizenry economic and therefore ultimate political independence as these metals have been used in commerce for over 5000 years all around the world. They can't be easily created on demand merely by the command of the Powers-That-Be as paper money can and does. When a man owns gold and silver coins he isn't dependent on any government or economic regime for his life and well-being. If he doesn't like the men governing him he can throw them out or move elsewhere, knowing his fortune will be intact. Unfortunately, paper money is printed and "backed" only by the issuing governmental body. History is littered with examples of worthless paper money and impoverished inhabitants following a political collapse or revolution.

Today, 99% of all US citizens have the majority of their assets in paper dollar denominated funds. In addition, they have come to depend upon the promise of governmental programs like Social Security and Medicare for their old age retirement. New health legislation has introduced the specter of a future in which no government health card would mean no healthcare. Of course, welfare and food stamp programs continue to grow without pause.

I believe that our fiat money system, together with the bewilderingly wide variety of government sponsored entitlement programs, have carefully created an entire slave caste in our country that's growing steadily. These slaves are now so hooked into the "Matrix" that even the mere thought of rebellion is terrifying to them. Any future US government will be able to treat it's "dependents" in any way it sees fit with no fear of retaliation. After all, why would any sane person rebel if it meant starvation, utter impoverishment, sickness, and death for himself and his loved ones?

So how can a freedom-minded patriot help to insure his liberty now and in the foreseeable future? Buy gold and silver. These precious metals have always existed outside the total control of any political regime, including the US government, and will insure the USA will always own one less slave!

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

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT!
Buy Gold Online Today at APMEX.com

Friday, December 10, 2010

Weimar Hyperinflation vs. US Dollar


German Children Playing with Worthless Paper Reichsmarks

During the Weimar Germany hyperinflationary period (1922-1923) the Reichsmark lost value rapidly against the US Dollar. Review the information below for conversion rates as the hyperinflation progressed:

Timeline of Weimar Republic Hyper-Inflation (Reichsmarks per USD)

June 24, 1922: 272 Reichsmark (RM) to $1.00 US
July 1922: 670 RM
August 1922: 2,000 RM
October 1922: 45,000 RM
November 1922: 10,000 RM
December 30, 1922: 500,000 RM
February 1923: Reichsbank buys back RM (or reichsmark); stabilizes RM at 20,000 to 1 US dollar
May 4, 1923: RM 40,000
June 1, 1923: RM 70,000
June 30, 1923: RM 150,000
August 1-August 7, 1923: RM 3,500,000
August 15, 1923: RM 4,000,000
September 1, 1923: RM 10,000,000

Around September 10 to September 25, 1923: Prices reportedly rise hourly in several German cities.

September 30, 1923: RM 60,000,000 = 1 US Dollar

November 15, 1923: Rentenmark issued; pegged to the Gold Standard; Rentenmark 4.2 = 1 US dollar; at this time: Old Reichsmark 4,200,000,000 = 1 US dollar.
1 New Rentenmark = 1 Billion Old Reichsmark!

Only the issuance of the Retenmark, backed by bonds indexed to market prices (in paper Marks) of gold, brought the out of control hyperinflation to heel.

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

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT!

Buy Gold Online Today at APMEX.com


Sunday, December 5, 2010

CEF vs. GLD & SLV

"Paper" gold and silver is widely traded today in three investment vehicles, the close-ended fund CEF (Central Fund of Canada), and the twin ETF's GLD - SPDR Gold Trust, and SLV iShares Silver Trust. Whole oceans of ink have been spilled detailing the good and not-so-good points of these funds. My goal here is to distill the salient points down to the fewest words possible to help make your due diligence task somewhat less...well...tasking.

To Audit or Not to Audit - CEF's bullion reserves are audited by an independent firm, Ernst & Young LLP., twice per year. GLD and SLV on the other hand do not permit any such transparency. Echoing the former sentiments of disgraced trader Bernie Madoff, investors are just supposed to trust the "word" of the funds that the bullion is there.

Insurance - CEF's gold and silver is fully insured by Lloyd's of London. GLD and SLV fully acknowledge that their "reserves" are not insured against any happenstance that may prevent them from repaying their investors in gold or silver. They even reserve the right to compensate investors in US paper dollars if necessary.

Counter Party Risk - CEF reserves are fully allocated and segregated with the name of each investor attached to particular gold and silver bullion. GLD and SLV's "alleged" bullion is unallocated and unreserved. There's no telling just how many competitors you'd have to fight off to get any of your precious metals with these funds.

Conflicts of Interest - CEF has been in the close-ended fund business backed by gold and silver since 1961. Their directors are well respected in the precious metals market. The custodians of GLD and SLV are HSBC and JP Morgan respectively.

Where do I start with these two banks (above)? Well, let's just say if there was a Who's Who publication of precious metal naked shorters and market manipulators these firms would be prominently featured. How can you trust a custodian of your long interest metal fund who is accused of making fortunes by manipulating the metal prices downward? Anyone thinking of the fox guarding the chicken coop metaphor here?

Premiums Above Metal Price - We finally reach a point that is in marginal favor of GLD and SLV and to the deficit of CEF. CEF unlike it's ETF step brothers often sells at a premium to the price of gold and silver. If you're a day trader that means you can buy and sell shares of the ETF's more cheaply than you can with CEF. However, for my part, I'm in a long term holding strategy so a small premium is the least of my concerns. Frankly, I see the premium as just an outward manifestation of the inherent preference by sensible investors for a fund that has actual, real gold and silver backing it up rather than glittering ethereal promises of metals.

As you might suspect, I own CEF and wouldn't touch GLD and SLV with your...well...hand!

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

CLICK ADS BELOW FOR FREE DISCOUNT!

Buy Gold Online Today at APMEX.com


Sunday, November 21, 2010

Gold & Silver and Hyperinflation


The definition of hyperinflation is 50% or more inflation per month! Hyperinflation has been the inevitable fate of all paper or fiat money unbacked by gold or silver since the Chinese first invented the idea a thousand years ago.

Hyperinflation robs the middle classes, the poor, and the retired on fixed incomes who don't own real assets like gold, silver, oil, food etc. In the picture on the left you see a German woman in 1923 using near worthless German banknotes as fuel for her cooking fire!

The only Germans who avoided starvation and impoverishment were those with the foresight to purchase and hold real money like gold and silver coins. Review the chart below and see how the prices of gold and silver climbed as the German paper mark lost value:

Weimar Germany hyperinflation prices of gold and silver in Marks from 1919 - 1923 by month. Charts are also presented to visually depict the speed and magnitude of the change. Remember these are months not years. Consider the human story behind the numbers. How did people survive?
Weimar Germany Gold & Silver Prices - Per troy ounce.
DATE
SILVER
GOLD
Jan 1919
12
170
May 1919
17
267
Sept 1919
31
499
Jan 1920
84
1,340
May 1920
60
966
Sept 1921
80
2,175
Jan 1922
249
3,976
May 1922
375
6,012
Sept 1922
1,899
30,381
Jan 1923
23,277
372,447
May 1923
44,397
710,355
June 5, 1923
80,953
1,295,256
July 3, 1923
207,239
3,315,831
Aug 7, 1923
4,273,874
68,382,000
Sept 4, 1923
16,839,937
269,429,000
Oct 2, 1923
414,484,000
6,631,749,000
Oct 9, 1923
1,554,309,000
24,868,950,000
Oct 16, 1923
5,319,567,000
84,969,072,000
Oct 23, 1923
7,253,460,000
1,160,552,662,000
Oct 30, 1923
8,419,200,000
1,347,070,000,000
Nov 5, 1923
54,375,000,000
8,700,000,000,000
Nov 13, 1923
108,750,000,000
17,400,000,000,000
Nov 30, 1923
543,750,000,000
87,000,000,000,000

So if you had 1 oz of Silver and sold it Nov 30, 1923 you would have been a Billionaire. If you had 1 oz of gold and sold it Nov 30, 1923 you would have been a trillionaire. How much that bought you is not told. But I am sure those people that had gold and silver survived better then those who didn't.

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

Buy Gold Online Today at APMEX.com

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Fiat Money: The Monopoly Game of Life

Playing Monopoly was a favorite activity on rainy days with my brother Mike and sister Nancy. It was a sublimely magical game, especially for me, because it allowed a middle class kid to become instantly transformed into a real estate tycoon. One minute I'm foraging around for a quarter to buy some candy or a comic, and the next minute I'm buying up properties in Atlantic City like I was Donald Trump on a bender! What made possible my sudden climb from small city kid to rich landed gentry? Paper or fiat money. The game was jam packed with it...and it was all-to-easily acquired. I never thought for a moment about who printed up the money and just why it could be used to purchase real estate, a way out of jail, utilities, railroads, pay taxes etc. I don't recall questioning if it was "backed" by any real items of value, but everyone else playing the game accepted it's worth, so who was I to make waves? Besides, it was just the one of the rules of the game, right? Now that I'm an adult, I know that our Federal government is the "man behind the screen" that plays the part of the mysterious money printer. The definition of fiat money is according to InvestorWords.com:
Money which has no intrinsic value and cannot be redeemed for specie or any commodity, but is made legal tender through government decree. All modern paper currencies are fiat money, as are most modern coins. The value of fiat money depends on the strength of the issuing country's economy. Inflation results when a government issues too much fiat money. Well, that definition about sums up the US paper money situation nicely, don't you think? It's funny money with no actual value of its own, other than the strength of the faltering US economy. Even the currently circulating "silver" pocket change falls under the same category since it's made from base, not precious metals any longer. The definition goes on ominously with a final warning about the risk of inflation if the issuing government prints too much fiat money. Inflation, of course, being the silent robber in the night who steals your hard earned money only to replace it with an identical, yet debased copy, that buys less goods and services than the original note.

To further illustrate the inherent inflation mechanism of fiat money, let's return to my Monopoly game. Once to spice the game up my siblings and I started the game with 3x as much starter money as the rules indicated. The result? We bought the same properties, but the bidding wars launched the real estate prices into the stratosphere. Even low rent properties like Baltic went for multiple times its stated value. Without realizing it, of course, we imitated the irresistable force of monetary inflation inherent in and unavoidably linked with the fiat money pantheon. At my family's last Thanksgiving I wanted to test the awareness level of the above basic economic truths (yes, I'm available for parties). A short conversation with my usually very intelligent brother-in-law, Bill, confirmed the consensus in the room. He thought the dollar was backed by gold in Fort Knox (nope), and that today's coins still contained silver (nope again, they haven't since 1964). I believe a countrywide survey would show the vast majority of Americans have similar misconceptions about the real value of their negotiable currency. The current American debt is now a whopping $13 Trillion dollars, and will likely reach 19 Trillion in 2015. The money supply in the US has also been growing alarmingly as the government seeks to stimulate the economy. By fiat money definition, inflation, and even hyperinflation, are axiomatic. The US Dollar is holding strong for the moment, because the world presently lacks another easy replacement to pay for their oil, etc. However, inevitable signs of serious inflation will undoubtedly undermine the confidence of Americans and foreigners alike in the US Dollar. Once that happens...game over man. Speaking of game over, guess how my siblings and I treated the Monopoly money once the game was finished, and we awoke to the fact that it was all just paper and therefore inherently worthless? We threw it in the box (no tidy denomination segregation) and chucked the whole kit and kaboodle into the closet. BUY PHYSICAL GOLD AND SILVER COINS OR ROUNDS NOW! Gold and silver have had value in human society for 5000 years! Let's see if the US Dollar will maintain it's value for a fraction as long. 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 Buy Gold Online Today at APMEX.com