The dollar is already worth pennies, compared to what it was worth before the Fed was established in 1913.

With apologies to the B-52's:

ROCK DOLLAR! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN... (dadadadadadadada...)

The dollar has fallen below the Swiss franc. Luckily, as of next year, we're moving to CH and thus will be paid in CHF. Which means our trips to America will be cheap!

It'll suck for everyone else, though. And I might want to move my investments, pitiful as they are, to Euros or CHF.

I'll display my ignorance now and wonder why the gold standard was ever abandoned. Me and Laroche, right?

Well, I'm not an anti-Fed guy in general. If we were still on the gold standard, the money supply would be so restricted that borrowing would be next to impossible. Yes, you could buy a house for $4000 -- but you'd have to pay cash for it, out of a $1 per day salary. It wasn't the Fed's decision to add $2T to the federal debt this year.

Da sent me an email this morning:

Not long ago I read a joke. It said all the politicians running for president are promising change to the American people. We send them billions and billions of tax dollars and they send us the change.
Funny? Not really; there is too much truth in it to be funny. But that got me to thinking... They all promise change.

A restoration that would take us back in time to a place where things ran better, smoother and life was more enjoyable.

Change? That, in truth, is what they have been giving us all along.

We used to have a strong dollar...
Politicians changed that.

Marriage used to be sacred...
Politicians have changed that.

We used to be respected around the world... Politicians changed that.

We used to have a strong manufacturing economy... Politicians changed that.

We used to have lower tax structures... Politicians changed that.

We used to enjoy more freedoms... Politicians changed that.

We used to be a large exporter of American-made goods... Politicians changed that.

We used to teach patriotism in schools... Politicians changed that.

We used to educate children in schools... Politicians changed that.

We used to enforce LEGAL citizenship... Politicians changed that.

We used to have affordable food & gas prices...between inflationary hiccups and oil company shenanigans. Politicians changed that, too... and one could go on and on with this list.

What hasn't been changed, politicians are promising to change that as well, if you will elect them.

When is America going to sit back with open eyes and look at what we once were and where we have come and say "enough is enough"?

The trouble is, America's youthful voters today don't know of the great America that existed forty and fifty years ago.
They see the world as if it has always existed as it is now.

When will we wake up? Tomorrow may be too late. When will America realize... Politicians are what is wrong with America? This goes for BOTH parties... Republicans and Democrats, there is no difference anymore... they all do only what they can to be re-elected, not what is best for the citizens!

What is needed is for the Constitution to be amended to limit all Senators and Representatives to TWO terms in office like the President.
Oh, by the way, no big pension either, social security just like the rest of us. How do they rate bigger and better entitlements than the people THEY WORK FOR? WHICH IS US!!
Being a politician shouldn't be a person's life work but rather a call to public service then back to being an honest hard-working citizen, as it was originally intended.
Politicians are no more than housekeepers and janitors... unfortunately they act like they own the building.
PASS THIS ONE AROUND... FOR A CHANGE...

Perhaps I'm too cynical Flynne, but it won't work. The professional bureaucrats and staff will control things with term limits.

I believe the solution requires a national government that is strictly limited to the powers enumerated in the Constitution. It won't happen, and this will end, badly. I might not see it, but my children will.

Flynne:

As the saying goes, politicians are like diapers: they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.

Hyperinflation is obviously a very bad thing. But a strong dollar is not a uniformly good thing. A weaker dollar is good for our exports, and helps bring cash into tourism-driven economies. The many trillions added to the Fed's balance sheet lately are a bit scary, though. We all better hope Bernanke manages the contraction of our money supply carefully.

I'd be happy if they'd just stop expanding it for a while. The world is awash with dollars; shutting down the mints for a while wouldn't do much to interest rates in the short term. Of course, the problem is that as long as Congress keeps borrowing, the Fed has to keep printing. I will say one thing for the gold standard -- it prevented that sort of thing.

Actually, Flynne has a point. I'll be doing all my clothes shopping when I'm in America, assuming the dollar stays down.

I'm not disagreeing with him - fortunately I live in Australia where we've actually weathered the crisis pretty well, thanks to demand from China an less problems with bad loans - (very little to do with our clueless spin driven governement) - although I shudder to think of the impact of a major collapse in the US economy, so far we've dodged the bullet but that could be real bad both on the economic and political fronts.

But I have a more important question - when does this guy have time to breath? 10 minutes without stopping, I wish I could find a girl who could do that...

Circular breathing, I think. I don't know if anyone has invented circular sucking...