Gold bugs and 40 years in the Wilderness

40 is a magic number.

The Bible is filled with references to 40 from Abraham to Moses.

It took Moses 40 years (apparently walking really slowly) to find his way from one sandy place to a dusty and sandy place and he dropped dead and never got to see it. Those Jewish guys had a firm grasp of numbers and cycles which we are just starting to recognize.

40 years it’s been since Silver and Gold started wandering the wilderness.

They brought a lot of the Gold and Silver bugs along for the ride. Some of them railed at the controlling powers at the injustice of it all. Some were broken and sold by necessity.  Most never lived to see the promised land of a Gold standard.

It’s been 40 years since we broke from a gold standard.  It’s been 40 years of a new Dollar backed by wishful thinking, faith based, hopium, unbacked pure paper currency.

Guess what the average lifespan of paper money is?

If you guessed 40 years then you guessed right.  What happens when the paper hopium fails is well known. It is up to the current 40 year olds to change the never ending cycle of new money fractionalized for the benefit of the few. Until we ALL understand where money comes from we will continue on this never ending cycle of stupidity.  We will issue new currency every 40 years or so. If the people accept this new money as better than the old in some odd way we get up and running again. If not some excuse will be trotted out explaining to the people “you were right about the red dollars because some outside force …. However, wait until you see the blue dollars they are much better because …..”

I was too young to be playing in the markets when the Hunt Bros came on the scene or to understand the significance of what Nixon did. I remember talking with my Dad at the time though about it as he was buying Silver coins. He was a guy who collected things but not beer cans or matchboxes. He collected things based on their intrinsic value. He collected numismatics because he recognized that they would all go away one day and be replaced with cheaper knock offs. He collected abused antiques and restored them for the same reason. I was fortunate enough to inherit some of these things and will never sell them regardless of price. I didn’t inherit his love of numismatics but I understand why some are more prized than others. I remember as a kid raiding some of his coin collection and spending them in the store. Sorry Dad, but it’s what kids will do if given the opportunity. I was too young and easily brainwashed to understand there was a difference between Silver money and other shiny stuff so some of those junk silver coins contributed to my cavities.

I thought money was money and assumed it was all the same.  It’s up to each of us to reach out and explain to our friends and neighbors there is a difference.

Until we all understand that there is a sweet spot of maybe 20 years in between every currency issue and every currency failure then we are simply setting up future generations to failure.  Consider that the best times in America were based on a gold and silver standard and then consider why Nixon felt he had to come off it. 

One reason, besides the temptation of being able to produce money out of nothing, was that other countries dumped their gold standard before us.  Their citizens and banks could buy Gold and Silver from us using their hopium. So in essence you might say he was protecting the assets of this country and it’s citizens. Now whether subsequent Presidents or he himself sold us out by selling or leasing out that Gold and Silver is another question for another time.  Once off the Gold standard he was trapped and had to protect the new Dollar at all costs. If that meant dumping Gold and Silver cheaply on the world market so be it.  If that meant every subsequent administration had to do the same so be it.  Now you know why the Fed, the treasury and Fort Knox will not be audited 

We need to go back to what has worked throughout history; an agreed upon world standard of exchange. It doesn’t matter a damn if it’s Jade, Gold or monkey teeth. As long as it is hard to forge, fake and is beyond the means of mortal man to manufacture it then that will work. I guess that leaves Gold and Silver unless some monster deposit is found in Iran then there is no rational reason not to move to a Gold standard before the system implodes. It’s time to end the cycle of abuse by our banking masters upon us. They have had 40 years of economic experimentation and they failed.

So thank you Dad. It took me nearly 40 years before I actually started buying Gold and Silver myself.  It took a while but I get it.