Dishonest money is destroying our standard of living.
What do I mean by “dishonest” money?
I mean government fiat money that it can create out of thin air. This is inflation and it constantly eats away our purchasing power.
Fifty-one years ago this week, President Richard Nixon slammed shut the “gold window” and eliminated the last vestige of the gold standard.
Nixon ordered Treasury Secretary John Connally to uncouple gold from its fixed $35 price and suspended the ability of foreign banks to directly exchange dollars for gold. During a national television address, on Aug. 15, 1971, Nixon promised the action would be temporary in order to “defend the dollar against the speculators,” but this turned out to be a lie. The president’s move permanently and completely severed the dollar from gold and turned it into a pure fiat currency.
We’ve written extensively about the “war on cash.” In a nutshell, governments would love to do away with cash in order to better track and control their citizens. There have been numerous moves closer to a cashless society in recent years, from capping ATM withdrawals to doing away with large-denomination bills. Last year, China launched a digital yuan pilot program and the US has floated moving toward a digital dollar.
We’ve written extensively about the government intentionally devaluing our money. As one economist put it, the intentionally inflationary policies of central banks and governments are “daylight robbery.” But what’s the solution to this problem?
Economist Thorsten Polleit argues we need a free market in money. But is this possible? Wouldn’t this create monetary chaos?
Peter Schiff appeared on RT Boom Bust on Tuesday (Sept. 17) to talk about interest rates, gold and the dollar. Peter said the fiat currency system may not survive the next recession.
The conversation started focusing on the repo operations conducted by the Federal Reserve early in the week, Peter said the financial media and Wall Street are being much too complacent about what’s going on.
Paul Krugman said gold is dead. In fact, “Bitcoin has more utility than gold,” according to the popular lefty economist.
Krugman made the comments at ChainXChange, a blockchain artificial intelligence and innovation conference in Las Vegas.
Humans are by nature somewhat myopic. We tend to focus primarily on what is right in front of us and filter out things further removed. As a result, we can sometimes overlook important factors.
As Americans, we generally devote most of our attention on American policy. We follow political maneuverings in Washington D.C., study the Fed’s most recent pronouncements and track the US stock markets. But we also need to remember there is a whole wide world out there that can have a major impact on the larger economy and our investment portfolio.
One factor that could potentially rock the world economy that a lot of American may not be aware of is the mess in the European banking system.
This article was written by Joel Bauman, SchiffGold Senior Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
The current debt-based fiat monetary system creates an illusion of wealth expansion.
For example look at this 100-year price chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
