In Germany during the early 20’s, because of inflation, the saying, “It took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread” was coined.
However, many people left their wealth in the system only to watch it get eroded and utterly destroyed over time. The reasons then, and now, are many: patriotism, inertia, disbelief, and denial – all fed by “hope” every time prices moderated. Then, like today, many people had, and have, a blind belief in the money system. In Germany they lost their wealth because they were unable or unwilling to allow reality to challenge their beliefs.
And that is what is happening here today. Then, as now, there were, and there are, numerous warning signs to heed – in fact, they can be seen everywhere – but most people willfully ignore them. In 1971 Nixon took us off the gold standard which produced inflation and a rise in unemployment. Then we had Carter with high interest rates and more inflation. People didn’t trust the government or want it to have control over their wealth which caused gold to rise to $850 an ounce.
Today, more people are aware that the dollar has fallen and believe that it is going to fall further. They fear inflation and their fears will grow as inflation rises over the next few years. And they are starting to realize that the government is unable to control this fiscal disaster. History repeats itself and history shows us that there is no way of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.
If the crisis comes sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later, as a final and total catastrophic collapse of the currency system, you have one choice – prepare!
Fred Carl
Missoula