Saturday, April 23, 2011

Inflation Defined: Government Printing Of Currency, In Lieu Of Taxation

Here are a few pictures of hyper inflation in Germany from the 1920's. We are not talking gold and silver here, just paper money.




We are not quite here yet. Toilet paper rolls are one inch shorter as are boxes of Kleenex. $3.99 for 10 ozs of potato chips rubs me the wrong way!


Let the Treasury print two trillion for next year and we will be here.


From there it is all downhill. Kiss your retirement savings good-by. Of course this can't possibly happen to us. This only happens in third world countries!


The picture below shows you what real money looks like. The government can coin it, but it can't create silver coins with a printing press.


The Silver dollar currently is worth about 40 dollars. The 50 cent piece is a twenty dollar bill. The silver quarter will buy lunch for two, and the minuscule dime will buy a gallon of gas. But hasn't gas gone up in price???

Ask yourself one question, if silver coins have held their value so well over time, why aren't we still using them? To quote Shakespeare's Hamlet; "Therin lies the rub."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember in the 70's of a novelty gag roll of toilet paper made of one hundred dollar bills. I remember how I laughed when I first saw it. Looking back, I'm not laughing any more...

Anonymous said...

Jim --

I don't know whether you have seen this, but if not it is well worth reading. THe authors (not cranks by any stretch) argue that there will be a resetting of the dollar:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/04/apropos-of-everything-parts-ii-iii/

SurvivalAndProsperity.com said...

"If silver coins have held their value so well over time, why aren't we still using them?"

Doesn't benefit those controlling the issuance of "money"...

"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." -Mayer Amschel Rothschild, international banker

Anonymous said...

Most everyone denies and ridicules conspiracy theories about international bankers and the moneyed power elite (Mayer Amschel Rothschild's progeny and protoges).

Most everyone won't be denying and ridiculing for very much longer.

Things that are incredible happen right under your very nose, right out in the open because they are too incredible to believe.

Example: the Jewish reaction to the Nazi regime. "This can't really be happening. Someone will stop this brief period of atrocity that we are experiencing."

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Anon 4:20

Thank you for the link. Its a good read but long.

Anonymous said...

There are about the same number of people as last year in the US, and we are still producing food as a nation. Where is all the good food going if the chip bags, cereal boxes, etc are smaller, and the quality is less? Is the US shipping our quality food overseas?

rambling side note:
I'm noticing this at restaurants as well: lower quality food, less portions. Last year our family used to take to-go boxs at the end of most meals. The last few months, we either had nothing left, or the food was not good enough to take home. We have written off many places lately, and are seriously considering just cooking at home.

Franco Bollo said...

For the longest time I believed that Congress were a bunch of idiots to allow all this outrageous money printing. I kept asking myself how stupid could they be to let their personal fortunes be eaten away by this type of reckless debasement of the currency.
And then I realized I was the idiot not them.
I have come to believe that our "fearless leaders" in DC know full well what's going on and have been promised some kind of insider deal that will allow them to keep their wealth, while the rest of us lose ours.
It's the only explanation ;-)
francobollo

Anonymous said...

If Thomas Jefferson were alive he'd be disgusted by how effete and apathetic we've become. He'd order everyone to grab their rifles and march on Washington D.C. and put an end to this tyranny. He'd have us abolish the Fed Reserve and kick big business out of the government. He'd ensure that all the corrupt bankers, regulators and public officials who participated in this crime of the century went to jail and never worked in a public corp or government office again. He'd have us kick all the lobbyists out of DC and he'd have us shut down the public unions. He have us get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya too.

We're a bunch of pussies. And pussies (and their children and granchildren) get steamrolled over and flattened like pancakes.

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Anon 5:50

A meeting between President Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner and President Obama would be one meeting I would like to attend.

Our country has grown over the years, there is a lot each of us doesn't agree with. I don't see any tyranny. I do see where our tax dollars have been spent foolishly, but that will end soon. It's just a repeat of the 1930's. We had a lot of pain and things got better.

Right now, we are beginning to feel the pain and most of that is financial. 10 years from now, we may laugh at all of this.

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Anon 11:45

The boxes have gotten smaller and they kept the price the same. It's inflation. Ammonia use to come in 1 gallon containers now they are a half gallon. Toilet paper rolls have one inch shaved off. Bacon is no longer sold by the pound, its 12 ozs now.

When I go to the supermarket, I notice some people shop, others just fill the cart. If you are young, you have no real concept of price---yet.

I too have noticed after 40 years of practice, my cooking is a lot better than most restaurants. And you are right portion sizes seem to be smaller.

Jim in San Marcos said...

Hi Franko Bollo

Welcome back

If we envision Congress stacking hay on a camels back, each straw adds more weight and nothing has happened---yet. It's kind of like the punch line for the old joke about going blind if you play with yourself, "Lets keep doing it until we need glasses."

Evidently Congress doesn't need glasses yet, and we have even more straw to put on the camel's back. I'm just glad they aren't paramedics.

Anonymous said...

Europe is going to implode shortly. Major banking crisis due to all the debt ridden peripheral EU members. The euro will dive. There will be a flight to safety to US treasuries and the dollar will climb and strengthen. Oil will come down in price drastically, and then go back up and then back down. When the US and global economy drops down further into low production and growth, commodities and energy costs will be low again.

Not many people seem to realize the structural damage that has occurred and how severely in trouble we are. Once all the propping up and stimulus tricks and false accounting come to and end we'll all be sitting in the biggest depression in this civilization's history.

debt_serf said...

You should be more precise in the description of how money is printed.

The US Treasury issues bonds and the Federal Reserve prints money to pay for these bonds. Specifically, the Feds subcontract the printing work to the Bureau of Printing for real dollars. With electronic dollars, the Feds simply changes the number in the Treasury account.