Economic crisis: Part 1

Home Archived Opinion Economic crisis: Part 1

Ben Johnson

Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2008

By now you have heard some news of our Nation’s current economic state and may feel a bit confused about all that is being said. This topic cannot be resolved by one article in this paper so I will carry over this topic through several parts.

First, let me be clear that I am by no means an expert in economics or how our government system runs, but I am an informed citizen who spends a great deal of time researching multiple sides of a subject and I have made it my business to understand what is going on. Also I want everyone to know that I am NOT predicting how everything will happen in our near future, but merely passing on what I am hearing. So for this article, I will discuss the problem. Many of you want to know “what are they talking about?” or “what does that mean?” and “what should I do?”

First off, DON’T PANIC! Panic never solved anything and won’t solve anything now. Yes we should be very concerned, but don’t panic. What is happening? Our economy is coming to a fall; bar-none. People have tried to say otherwise, but the bottom line is that we are falling and no matter what kind of “bailout plan” our government has in store, our economy is going to crash. It could be next month, it could be next year but either way, it’s going to happen.

So what is the problem? Well that’s not an easy answer. Our economy is so large and complex even the experts have trouble telling other people what the problem is. But I know couple of reasons why and that is the Dollar.

When the American dollar was made, it represented a sum of gold that was kept safe by the bank so you could just carry paper bills around instead of gold. American coins were made from silver and were worth their weight. Pennies were worth their weight in copper and nickels were worth their weight in nickel.

But since the 1960s, they have slowly been taking away the gold and taking out the silver, copper and nickel out of the coins and replaced it with cheap zinc. So what was once worth something in gold (and other precious metals) is no longer. Your dollar is worthless. An old dollar bill states you can exchange it for gold at your bank but the new dollar bills don’t have it.

So when you hear Congress say they are going to bail out the economy with a $700 billion plan, you should wonder where this money is coming from. Well… the Federal Reserve is going to print it. Congressman Ron Paul is against this because he says “The Constitution does not give Congress authority to print this money.” But the Federal Reserve created an act several years back that gives them the right to do so (but is still un-constitutional).

So what can I do? Well, the stock market is going to crash, so having money in there is a waste. What you should do is invest into things that have value. If you look in the phone book, there are local brokers who will sell you real gold, silver and other metals while your dollar is still thought to have value.

Bottom line- your dollar is worthless. Buy stuff now that is really worth something (something that will go up in value ahead of inflation).