Chapter fourteen. Inflation or deflation?

 Our medium of exchange is . . .

Today we use currency to pay for "stuff". Here in the USA we use dollar$. Usually they are a small slip of paper which proclaims it is a "note and legal tender" for some printed amount of dollars. WTH does that even really mean? IT ISN'T REALLY MONEY! It has zero store of value. It is only worth the amount printed on it because a government fiat tells you that.


People argue with me about this topic. They laugh and tell me that they can still go buy a TV with a few of those pieces of paper. They chide me about, "If I think it is worthless then trade me a few of those with 100 on them for some with a 1 on them." My favorite is, "You can't eat silver!"

As for not being able to eat silver. You can't eat paper either!


The difference is that today people readily exchange products for our fiat currency, but today they wont accept silver in payment. Today, the accepted medium of exchange remains fiat paper currencies. So silver, which you indeed "cannot eat", would first need to be exchanged for that fiat currency, then used to buy whatever product you wanted. The only difference therefore is that to "eat" silver would require two steps to acquire what you needed instead of just the one. But, that is just for TODAY.

As in many things in life, sometimes "facts" today become "lies" historically. Take the Zimbabwe dollar as an example. It replaced the Rhodesian dollar in 1980 and started off on a par with it. After a while they actually printed $100 trillion banknotes. No joke.

So, do I believe we will have inflation like they had? No! Ours will be far worse! In its effect at least. The Zimbabwe problem had little effect on people beyond their borders. In fact - most of you had no idea about what happened there. But let me assure you of this:


WHEN THE US DOLLAR CRASHES IT WILL BE FELT WORLD-WIDE!

When dollars are recognized as just paper - what will be used then to buy a TV? Food? Maybe I'm wrong, buy I suspect a person would then accept a one-ounce silver coin as a "medium of exchange". We will see how this shakes out. Since nothing even close to this has ever happened - all ideas are at best speculation.

It is quite possible there will be a strong deflation prior to the hyper inflation. Some believe it will go that way and it will entice people to dump stored value (precious metals and land). Many will, of course, sell off because they need to do so, or just through ignorance. It happens regularly when a stock drops. People try to cut their losses by getting out while they can, while those stocks still have some value. I believe that would be a big mistake for precious metals.
Hang in there!