America appears to be sleepwalking towards disaster

I just heard a guy on CNBC say that a pre 64 silver dime will buy a gallon of gas.

SS109 wrote: For those who believe the S&P is devaluing US debt for political reasons, consider this, with 40% of the current budget funded by debt and new tax hikes being rejected by Republicans/TEA Party and any significant cuts to entitlements or discretionary spending rejected by the Left, it does looks like the US will continue on the same course.

Some pundits think we won't have significant talks on budget reform before the 2012 election because no one wants to go on record as slashing programs or raising taxes. SSDD.

So expect the GOP to verbally protest but quietly pass a raising of the debt ceiling.

I think this comment is more important than you may first realize.

THe GOP and the Dems are very familiar with the concept of tax and spend. Both parties are clearly aware of the effects of their spending sprees and none seem to show a significant will to do otherwise.

neptunechimney wrote: I just heard a guy on CNBC say that a pre 64 silver dime will buy a gallon of gas.

Well then maybe gas is cheaper in "real terms" than we think? I don't think a dime bought you a gallon of gas in 1964, it was more like 30 cents. Of course, they hadn't invented Hummers and Exurbia back then yet either.

AspenValley wrote:

neptunechimney wrote: I just heard a guy on CNBC say that a pre 64 silver dime will buy a gallon of gas.

Well then maybe gas is cheaper in "real terms" than we think? I don't think a dime bought you a gallon of gas in 1964, it was more like 30 cents. Of course, they hadn't invented Hummers and Exurbia back then yet either.

I could look it up but I would rather tell a story. My first car in about 1970 was a VW with a 10 or a 10.9 gal tank. There was a station in the neighborhood that gave a free car wash with a fill up of 3$ or more. I almost had to run out and push my car to the pump to get a free fill up.

Silver? I read an article today that says to compare real prices, use the price of silver. If you use silver, many commodity prices are soaring right now, even in the wake of record silver prices.

SS109 wrote: Silver? I read an article today that says to compare real prices, use the price of silver. If you use silver, many commodity prices are soaring right now, even in the wake of record silver prices.

Yes, and that's a very good indicator that our troubles with inflation aren't just from what's going on with the dollar.

Rising prices can result from three main causes.

One, too much currency being printed, resulting in too many dollars chasing too few "real" goods.

Two, rising demand and/or shortages of real goods.

Three, loss of confidence in a currency, causing an increase in the velocity of money. Think of those old photgraphs of people pushing wheelbarrows of Weimar currency trying to unload them for anything they could get.


In my opinion, at this point in time, it's the second issue that's mostly causing the rising commodities prices.. We are facing real shortages of food, metals, and rising demand for all commodities, including oil, on a global scale. The first is only a contributing factor. And the third...well, you don't want to go there....