If you’ve seen Tucker Carlson’s show of last night — I catch it on YouTube – I hope you paid close attention to his exposition on inflation. The Usurper Regime and their media handmaidens are doing their damnedest to persuade Americans that the cause of today’s inflation, which we experience as price increases in the things we buy, is anything but government policy. All of it is lies. Tucker’s few words on the subject are the absolute and irrefutable truth. Take it from someone who’s studied money and currency for thirty years.
We’ve been here before. The years from the end of the Ford Administration through the whole of the Carter Administration should have taught us what we need to know today. But that was forty years and more ago, wasn’t it? Who remembers much about those years? Why, you’d need to be as old as I am!
So we’re getting a refresher course. It’s already hurting. It will hurt still worse, especially if the Usurpers embroil us in a land war in Eurasia. That didn’t go well for Napoleon. It didn’t go well for Hitler. It won’t go well for us.
I’ve written about this subject more than once. I’m not going to do so again this morning. I’m weary of it. But I’ll ask you to pay attention to Tucker, Peter Schiff, and the other honest commentators on this subject. Satisfy yourself whether they make sense. Ignore the self-serving bilge emanating from the Usurpers, their media mouthpieces, and their talking heads.
Have a few suggestions for further reading:
- Ludwig von Mises: The Theory of Money and Credit
- Murray Rothbard: What Has Government Done To Our Money?
- Andrew Dickson White: Fiat Money Inflation In France
- Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman: The Case For Gold
Note that all those books are free downloads. You needn’t spend a penny for any of them – and under current conditions, let us all rejoice that the prices of some things aren’t shooting through the clouds. (Of course, if you’re feeling flush, you can also spring for some Milton Friedman, but you might prefer to save a few pence for lunch.)
For a palate cleanser, read this exposition on Gresham’s Law. Reflect on why, whenever governments start to meddle with the money supply, people start hoarding gold and silver – gold above all else. Ponder the common practice in India of paying for expensive items with one or more thin gold bracelets, a number of which affluent women will wear when they shop. And think about the Weimar Republic, the 1926 hyperinflation of the mark, and why the Nazis found it so easy to take power.
And put gold and silver on your shopping list.
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Precious metals aren’t safe either, particularly gold. One stroke of a pen and it’s illegal to own. This has already happened in the United States once.
It’s actually better to invest in the lesser-known metals. Palladium is trading today for $2882/oz, and platinum for $1189/oz. If you want something more prosaic, just buy simple copper, which in any kind of industrial world will always be valuable. Copper bars are going for about $1.85 per ounce.
Personally, I’m into silver because it’s a bit more affordable than something trading 50% higher than gold, and the government didn’t touch it last time (likely because of the proliferation of silverware).
And, of course, if all else fails certain assemblies of brass and lead have proven to be an excellent investment.
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At this point in the devolution of the Republic, anything can be outlawed with a stroke of the pen. Moreover, it happens regularly. Gold has some history in that regard, but so do several other commodities, a few of which are still either outlawed or closely regulated and monitored to this very day.
Gold, silver, and copper are the money metals for good and sufficient reasons. If things go to Hell — and the portents are not good — they will be more easily recognized and accepted than anything but the most sought-after trade goods. Yes, ammunition will be a highly valued and sought-after good…but the smart post-crash American would not pay for anything with his precious ammo, at least if he had a working firearm chambered for it.
The trade goods likely to be (pardon the choice of words) the most liquid after a crash are the hard liquors. They, too, possess some of the essential properties of a money, though if handled casually they can deteriorate and lose value. After the liquors would come coffee, perhaps some canned foods, and paper products. It would be well to have plentiful supplies of those goods on hand, so that one needn’t use them in trade until a monetary regime should reassert itself.
To your last point, I have a dozen plum trees which produce enough fruit to make about 600 gallons a year of really excellent wine. I agree about ammunition, it is more precious than barter would recognize.
The thing I worry most about is the possibility that cash will be eliminated in favor of a digital system. The “stroke of the pen” thing could simply be an order that all assets must be traded for an update to your socially-acceptable balance figure. You’re being given “fair value”, right?
How long will any of us survive after the Mad Max environment of roving gangs predating your assets and your life, anyway?
I have saved a few items over the years which follow your above recommendations; I have recently started to add some few dozen ‘mini-bar’ sized alcohol bottles. For low-value and low-volume barter without setting expectations that I have large bottles of liquor somewhere.
Try American Science and Surplus for small bottles – https://www.sciplus.com/
And, for a (relatively) easy source of rings of known gold content – old wedding rings. Surprisingly easily found. Will serve the same purpose as the bracelets.
I actually have a lot of friends from the Mideast, where that same habit is common. A lot of easily bought gold jewelry, and, as it is so common, will likely pass through customs without a charge.
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