MONEY: Rich people buy new cars. Poor people do not

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

http://dailyreckoning.com/the-corruption-of-america

The Corruption of America
By Porter Stansberryleadimage
12/21/11

 

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All we’ve done is convert the government’s nominal GDP stats into a fixed currency value that’s based on real-world purchasing power. The fact is, our data are far more accurate than the government’s because they represent the real-world experience. That’s why our data are far more closely correlated to other real-world studies of wealth in America.

Consider, for example, annual sales of automobiles. Auto sales peaked in 1985 (11 million) and have been declining at a fairly steady rate since 1999. In 2009, Americans bought just 5.4 million passenger cars. As a result, the median age of a registered vehicle in the U.S. is almost 10 years.

Our data shows that real per-capita wealth peaked in the late 1960s. Guess when we find the absolutely lowest median age of the U.S. fleet? In 1969. At the end of the 1960s, the median age of all the cars on the road in the U.S. was only 5.1 years. Even as recently as 1990, the median age was only 6.5 years.

Rich people buy new cars. Poor people do not.

 

*** end quote ***

 

Once again we have the “underground” confirming what we know in our gut, the country is getting poorer day by day.

 

“Penny candy”! Remember that? Like the recent Ron Paul point about 1964 dimes and gas, “penny candy” is a similar point.

 

One tenth of one single silver dime in the Sixties would get you one or more pieces of loose candy at the cash register. (Amazing in light of today’s focus on germs and health hazards that anyone survived.) Fast forward to today. That silver dime is worth about two of today’s dollars. So a tenth is about 20 cents. “Penny candy” is sold in quarter “gum ball” dispensers. So all that’s changed is the value of the money with respect to the  goods available.

 

Who wins in this inflation? No surprise there. The politicians and bureaucrats!

 

Argh!

 

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MONEY: Just take two zeroes of FRBies?

Sunday, July 17, 2011

http://bigpeace.com/nmachiavelli/2011/07/15/irans-economic-spiral-country-to-cut-4-zeros-off-of-national-currency/

Iran’s Economic Spiral: Country To Cut ‘4 Zeros’ Off Of National Currency

Posted by Niccolo Machiavelli Jul 15th 2011

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TEHRAN — Removing four zeroes off the national currency will not have any inflationary impact on the economy, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Hossein Qazavi, said here on Wednesday.

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Is this the vision of how it could happen here?

Old dollars to new “improved” Federal Reserve Bank Notes. They could have contest to who would appear on the bills. Big winners those who have change.

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MONEY: The US$ is worth less; dramatically less

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

http://seekingalpha.com/article/244020-coins-vs-bags-comparing-two-options-in-physical-silver

Coins vs. Bags: Comparing Two Options in Physical Silver – Seeking Alpha

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The 90% Silver Bags consist of coins — dimes and quarters — that were once used as money in the United States. In 1964, one could take a dime to the store and buy a loaf of bread (if you are old enough to remember). Today, that same 90% silver dime is worth $2.10, enough to buy a loaf of bread.

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Interesting? It’s not that the cost of that loaf of bread has increased. It’s that the value of the money has decreased. Even though, I KNOW that, and I think I UNDERSTAND that fact, still concrete examples like this are a punch to the solar plexus. Leaves you sucking wind. By the same formula, I bout gas for 40¢/gallon. That equates to $8.40/gallon. So, gas has gotten “cheaper”! Argh! Makes me sick to my stomach. And, it’s only getting worse.

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RANT: How can you exclude energy and food?

Monday, December 20, 2010

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704828104576021262542609064.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

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News Alert from The Wall Street Journal

U.S. consumer prices barely gained in November, rising just 0.1% from the prior month, as energy prices saw their smallest increase in five months. So-called core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices and is closely watched by the Fed, inched ahead by 0.1%, the first move after three flat months.

The annual underlying inflation rate was 0.8%, well below the Fed’s informal target of between 1.7% and 2%. The central bank’s policy-making committee Tuesday signaled that it thinks core inflation remains too low–a key factor in last month’s decision to start buying $600 billion in Treasury bonds.

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How can you exclude energy and food? Planing to stop eating any time soon? And, “energy” is in EVERYTHING that moves. Just between you and me, and the Western World, my gasoline price has gone up a dime in the last few weeks!

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MONEY: We need to return to Constitutional money — gold and silver

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

http://nicholasnigro.blogspot.com/2010/11/quantitative-easing-just-got-easier.html

Sunday, November 7, 2010
Quantitative Easing Just Got Easier
Nicholas Nigro

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This roundabout way of printing money will, apparently, guarantee only one sure thing that you can take to the bank: the further weakening of the once Almighty Dollar and a corresponding rise in critical commodity prices because of it. Translation: From the grocery store to the gas pump, those who can least afford it will pay more and more for basic necessities. But I imagine the government measuring sticks will continue to tell us that we are living in a period of very low inflation for the foreseeable future, and that we should be more concerned about the prospects of deflation.

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What “they” have fooled everyone into thinking is that a “dollar”, a “Federal Reserve Note”, that green piece of linen cotton “paper”, is actually worth something tangible. In elementary economics, we learned that humans transferred from barter to money because money had certain useful characteristics. Most notably it permitted the butcher to trade directly with the candlestick maker without trading with the baker first. From whence all the good things that the division of labor provides — specialization.

Quoting from my favorite novel (Mine!) “Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” He repeated that four times like poetry. “Six Characters in Money: Portable – Durable – Divisible – Uniformity – Limited Supply – Acceptability.” CHURCH 10●19●62 (Vol 1) 978-0-557-08387-9 page 110

“We, The People” have forgotten that. As well as the Dead Old White Guys Constitutional admonition that only gold and silver should be money. Along with a bunch of other stuff, like the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and a general dislike for oppressive Gooferment.

So, now, the politicians and bureaucrats are riding high on the hog and the taxpayers have been laid low. Like the host of a parasite weakened to near death.

Gooferment is the meme that kills people. It’s time to awaken from our economic nightmare and throw out the FED and return to “Constitutional money” — gold and silver. And watch the global economy rebound when the world isn’t paying the “inflation tax”.

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MONEY: Competing currency is an inflation hedge

Thursday, July 29, 2010

http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/news/story.aspx?id=481793

Competing currency being accepted across Mid-Michigan
by Dan Armstrong
Posted: 07.12.2010 at 8:13 PM

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Jeff Kotchounian says he’s used this Ron Paul half troy ounce of silver to get $25 worth of gas from a local station. While the government and banks don’t accept them, many others do. So why is there interest in these competing currencies?

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Pretty simple.

INFLATION!

The Federal Reserve Bank is going to enable the politicians and bureaucrats to inflate their way out of the debt.

Of course, those on fixed income, the poor, and anyone with savings in dollars will be totally screwed.

A silver round may make the difference between eating and not.

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MONEY: The Pope should lead the way to “honest money”

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-coin-now-in-circulation/

Vatican coin now in circulation

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Vatican City, Jul 23, 2010 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Coins bearing the image of Pope Benedict XVI are now in open circulation within Vatican walls. As of this month, Vatican visitors will find that 50 cent pieces are being given as change at places such as the gas station, pharmacy and post office.

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Imagine the impact on the world if the Pope led the way to “honest money”?

Hard to imagine.

Gooferments, around the world, steal the people’s wealth by inflation. They claim the “King’s right”, the “Soverign’s duty”, or the “Tyrant’s Treasure Chest” to produce “honest coins” or “money”. (Like the marketplace could not figure out what “money” was “honest” on its own. Gresham’s Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law would demonstrate whats good and what’s not, without any “inspectors”. The Gooferment steals the wealth by printing more paper money, called “fiat currency”. Fiat because it has value because the Gooferment says it has value. No conflict of interest there.

Now here’s why the Pope should care. Inflation, the printing of “extra” money, impoverishes the poor, middle class, savers, and old age pensioners. That’s why he should care.

Inflation results in higher prices in the marketplace. Wages lag inflation. If they rise at all, it won’t be proportional. Investment, similarly, never “catch up”. So pensioners get hit with a triple whammy: their pensions are usually fixed and so don’t go as far as they used to, their savings are eroded, and prices go up.

So that’s why the Pope should act.

The Church has always been the traditional refuge for the serf from the abuses of the King. (I’ve seen enough Robin Hood and Zorro movies to know that.) It’s time for that to happen again.

Imagine if the Pope ordered all Vatican coinage to be in gold or silver?

First impact, that they’d be selling like hot cakes to the tourists. Then would come the folks overseas. As an example of “honest money”. The Vatican could even show a profit; much more than what they rip off coin collectors for meaningless proof sets.

And the little people would have money that could not be stolen silently by the King’s printing press.

Even the most illiterate dumber-than-a-rock parishioner could see the benefit of using the Pope’s money for savings.

It would be the ultimate control on the power of the King — the Gooferment.

IMHO one of the reasons, or possibly THE reason that Old Sadam got knocked off his horse was NOT wmd; the tyrant had the audacity to suggest that he wanted to be paid for his oil in gold. Rumor was that he was months away from starting an oil exchange denominated in gold. Remember the “Gold Dinar”? Not that he had a religious bone in his tuckus, he was pushing the religious aspect too. Hey, he realized that the FED was going to “tax” him on his dollar holdings. Silently. With no muss ‘n’ fuss, as the printing presses kept rolling out dollars.

So, Holy Father, the little people of the world would like you to end the tyranny of the King, who steals their little bit of wealth, give us honest money. If you truly believe in the workman being worth his wage, then make sure he get it in something that is worth something. Honest money is Godly money. And, slapping on a few saint’s pictures on the coins wouldn’t hurt morality either.

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GOLDBUG: a store of value

Monday, July 19, 2010

http://economist.com/node/16536800

Gold
Store of value
Low returns on other investments and fears about the world economy have caused the price of gold to soar. Don’t count on its continued rise
Jul 8th 2010 | Delhi and london

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The appetite for gold arises partly from the paltry, uncertain returns from more conventional investments. Gold’s main drawback is that it pays neither a dividend, like a share, nor a coupon, like a bond, nor a rent, like property. But monetary policy has been keeping official interest rates, and thus the opportunity cost of holding gold, low and seems set to do so for a while. The yields on the government bonds investors regard as safest, notably America’s and Germany’s, are also thin. Equity markets are weighed down by worries about economic growth. Investing in property, which lay at the root of the financial crisis, requires a boldness that many still lack.

At the same time, the looseness of monetary policy has made many investors fear the eventual resurgence of inflation. The wretched state of many governments’ finances makes some worry about states’ ability to repay their debts—or about the temptation to inflate them away. Banks’ exposure to sovereign debt and to a still-fragile world economy adds another layer of concerns. And when all governments would like their currencies to be weaker rather than stronger, whose paper money do you trust? Hussein Allidina, head of commodities research at Morgan Stanley, reckons: “Gold looks better every day with growing sovereign risks.”

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Over the past few years, the market’s net return has been zero or maybe negative depending upon the interval, so gold and siler look good.

Cheap insurance.

If inflation spikes, it’ll really pay off.

Depending upon what loon you listen to predicting the price of gold, it could be essential.

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GOLDBUG: Just because there’s an obvious bias, doesn’t mean what being said is wrong

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

http://www.kitco.com/ind/GoldReport/may32010.html

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In terms of preserving the purchasing power of your assets, the best thing I can think of is physical gold. That’s worked over the millennia. I’m not per se a gold bug. It just happens to be a circumstance in which it’s the cleanest asset around for that. You don’t need to put all your assets into gold, but hold some. Hold some silver. I’d look to get some assets out of the U.S. dollar and look to get some assets out of the U.S. When I say outside of the U.S. dollar, again, I look at the Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Swiss franc in particular. I think they will tend to do particularly well, whereas the U.S. dollar is going to become effectively worthless.

As the dollar breaks down, you’ll also likely see disruptions in supply chains, including shipments of food to grocery stores. People should consider maintaining stockpiles of basic goods needed for living, much as they would for a natural disaster. I sit on the Hayward fault in California. I have a supply of goods and basic necessities in case something terrible happens—natural or man-made—that will carry me for a couple of months. It may take that long for a barter system to evolve, which I think is what you’re going to end up with; at least until a new currency system is reorganized and you get a government that’s able to bring its fiscal house into order. No currency system in the U.S. is going to work unless the fiscal conditions that drove it into oblivion are also addressed.

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Ignoring for the moment Kitco’s inherent bias, (just because they’re biased, doesn’t mean they are wrong), it would seem that buying 1,000 ounces of silver rounds (about 19K$) is good “inflation insurance”. Remember Zimbabwe used silver, gold, and American dollars when their currency collapsed. A lesson form the Mormons about food storage; it’s be nice to keep a year’s worth. And, an urban yute discouragement device or two with a sufficient of individual reminders to go away, and you have a nice “insurance police” in case crazy as a loon Ferd is right once in his life. Remember forewarned is fore armed. Or, four armed. As I see it, fjohn

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MONEY: Sneering at Ron Paul and “End the Fed”

Friday, January 8, 2010

http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2009/12/29/visiting-ron-pauls-fed-free-utopia/?xid=rss-topstories

Visiting Ron Paul’s Fed-free utopia
Posted by Justin Fox
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 2:22 pm

*** begin quote ***

As for his welfare state argument, there’s surely something to it, but not nearly as much as Paul seems to think. In the post World War II era, Germany has followed much more of a hard-money (that is, Ron-Paulish) line than the U.S., yet it has a much bigger welfare state. So the growth of government can be a political choice, not just the result of the machinations of central bankers.

*** end quote ***

It’s hard to imagine the Germans creating their welfare state WITHOUT a fiat currency. That’s what enabled them to create the state without seizing the nation’s wealth silently. If there was a non-fiat monetary base (i.e., gold or competing currencies), then the German politicians would have had to inflict pain on the wealth holders to acquire the funds to give away. With a fiat currency, they can silently inflate away wealth without taxes.

Note that gold isn’t necessary. Repealing the legal tender laws would allow the folks to use a non-inflating alternative.

From times long past, sovereigns always debased the currency to serve their needs. I cite the French Franc from Louis 1 to 17. And rest my case.

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