I think currency debasement is much like the frog getting slowly cooked in the kettle, you just don’t seem to notice the effects.

My thanks to Ed Steer over at Casey’s Daily Resource Plus for the following two pictures of a 1929 postcard.

Look what a few dollars would buy in car parts and labor in 1929:

Now look at your latest auto repair bill.

Back when I was wrenching on our own vehicles 30 years ago, (50 years after this postcard), $25 wouldn’t buy one head gasket and it took about $300 to overhaul a transmission that wasn’t seriously broken.

Now, $25 won’t hardly buy you an oil change.

Look at the cost of sending a postcard:

Today it costs 28 times that!

Currency devaluation kills a retirement nest egg or any other savings, such as a child’s college fund. I have never seen any figures showing investment returns coming even close to the annual increases in college tuition costs.

The current government approach to “fixing” the financial crisis, I feel, is going to end badly. The price we avoid paying today will pale in comparison to the price paid by us and our children, grandchildren, etc in future.

The Federal Reserve is supposed to protect our money. They, with the help of Uncle Sam, are destroying it. The only alternative is to invest in real money.