Source: Zerohedge – Things That Make You Go Hmmm… Like “Anti-Gold Idiots”
This next paragraph contains what Grant Williams believes is the fundamental principle of investing in gold and silver, which so few people genuinely understand — despite the multitudes of commentators expending countless thousands of words.
Source: BullionStar – Economic records set for the wrong reasons
We are living in unprecedented times. The number of new records set for the wrong reasons in the global economy are increasing more and more each day. In this article we review some of them to illustrate just how wrong things have become and the dangers the current environment pose to the man on the street.
“Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.”
– Ben Bernanke, 2002
Source: Forbes – Given Its Highly Risky Balance Sheet, It’s Time To ‘Stress Test’ The Fed
Notable excerpts:
The Federal Reserve has been actively applying “stress tests” to the nation’s banks. Surprisingly no one has suggested a stress test for the Fed. Yet, in today’s economic environment the Fed’s balance sheet is far riskier than private banks’.
“I believe that we should maintain the principles of Social Security, but I think the existing structure is not working. Until we construct a system that creates the savings that are required to build the REAL assets, so that the retirees have REAL goods and services. We don’t have a system that is working. We have one that basically moves cash around and we can guarantee cash benefits as far out and whatever size you like, but we cannot guarantee their purchasing power.”
– Alan Greenspan (2005)
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