WITH THE UNVEILING OF THE NEW FRANKLIN $100 BILL this week, I want to share a little vignette that happened to me on the Metro here in D.C. last week.I love riding the Metro and do as often as possible. When I went to buy a $5 fare card with a $10 bill, I entered it into the fare machines as instructed. In a second or two my card came out along with $5 in change. But it was the sound of the change that caught me off-guard and totally shocked me.
Five $1 coins dropped out of a little bin and into a cup. I had expected one dollar bills. But it was the sound and sight of these little pieces dropping that shocked me. They sounded and looked liked Monopoly money. Or play money that might have come out of a Cracker Jack box. I was caught off guard as I picked up these tinny-looking things. Was I supposed to believe this was real money? Had I been defrauded? I really wondered about all this as I got on the Metro. I turned this play-looking money over in my hands during the ride as the truth of this small moment sunk in---up close and personal:
Our money is being devalued at astounding rates even as it's being spent, printed and minted on a 24/7/365 basis. It's folly that by any sane standard is unsustainable, and yes, it's been going on for years and certainly in the Bush administration. Still the Obama administration is taking spending and creating money to new levels of breath-taking, death defying heights. With new money coming out of Washington these days, there's no longer any pretense of it even looking or sounding like real money of old. I vowed to spend these little pieces of tin at the first chance I got.
But it brought home again the lesson that a continues to haunt me---short of a born-again fiscal sobriety experience, by our federal government, our fiat money is heading down the tubes and one day will be totally worthless. It may not happen for a little while, and who knows when. But the sobering effects of this small experience in the Metro last week left me concerned that it may be sooner rather than later. It also left me believing everyone should have some real silver and gold in their lives. And I'm not just talking about silver and gold stocks either. I'm talking about the real, hard thing you can hold in your hands. Because when this play money gig goes down, the real thing will be more and more valuable and helpful in the crisis that's heading our way.
It's not a matter of if, but only of when. God help us all when it happens. We won't have seen anything like the coming currency crisis.
H/T for Don's Column to good friend SG in Colorado.
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