Wanna Make Some Money?!

So Do I. If you are a expert counterfeiter, maybe we should get together. We could have a 10-10 relationship: 10 months of free and easy living - we could travel the world! - followed by a 10 year vacation at that prestigious destination, Ft. Leavenworth.

Ben Bernanke is in an enviable position. He can cause the U.S. Treasury to print all the funny money he wants and never see the inside of a jail cell. But he isn't making real money at all. The dollar, strictly speaking, is not money. It is simply a universally accepted medium of exchange. Everyone says it is money, so for everyone from the banker to the Salvation Army bell ringer, to the bank robber, it is money! But, that's the definition of money, right? -Money is whatever we say it is...right? Well, No, people who think that dollars are money are missing the mark; they are not even close.

The Federal Reserve was originally set up to regulate the money supply in the U.S. economy, but the Fed does not create money. This prestigious board of wise regulators (to use the word wise loosely) only recognizes the natural creation of money in the economy and adds paper bills, or Federal Reserve Notes, when that money has been created. In a sagging economy the Fed should withdraw dollars from the money supply when more money than is needed is changing hands. So in theory, the value of the dollar should generally stay the same. The evidence of real, genuine money occurs when Mr. Bernanke, spurred on by a money-crazed Administration, adds more dollars to the economy than is sustainable. Then people look around, see the influx of billions and billions of extra dollars, more than is needed to run the economy, and the value of each dollar decreases, with the terrible risk that a slide in the dollar's value becomes a slippery slope that gains momentum, until we have a condition called runaway inflation. Then prices become exorbitant, lending rates go through the roof, and savings and retirement accounts are suddenly worthless.

So if Federal Reserve Notes are not money, what is money, really, and how is it created or fabricated or conjured up?

Years ago my father and I had a small remodeling business. It consisted of the foreman, the man who had all the knowledge, and the gopher who kept the foreman supplied with materials and did all the mundane brainless work. That was me. We bought our materials from the lumber company, my father turned them into beautiful cabinets, with the help of Moi, and we both installed them for homeowners. The difference between the selling price of the job and cost of labor and materials was our profit. That profit margin was real money, it was intangible, but it was represented by an increase in dollars. The profit that we generated by our work never existed before! It was our creation. When a thriving national economy generates enough increased profits through good old fashioned work, more money is needed in the market place, so the Fed, through a complicated system of discount rates, which creates easy lending to Federal Reserve Banks, causes the Treasury to print more dollars.

Money is profit, or more accurately, money is stored up work. It represents the enterprising efforts of people, people who get up early, work all morning, eat a quick lunch, then work late to create security for the ones they love. Without work and profit there is no genuine money. When more money is pumped into the marketplace than is needed, inflation is always the result. And we are already there. Last year I bought some little chemical hand warmers at the check-out stand for about $1.50. There were six hand warmers in the pack. Last week I bought the same product for the same price. My confidence in the good old U.S.A. was bolstered, until I got home and opened the package. This time there were only four hand warmers, for the same price. That little example is being repeated silently by manufacturers all over the country. Click on http://www.lessformore.info/ and you will see a nifty, simple one-page site that gives some eye-opening examples.

Precious metals have traditionally been the choice of people wishing to create a hedge against inflation. Silver is a relatively rare metal when compared to, say, aluminum which is the most abundant metal on the planet. That is why silver has intrinsic value. As prices go up, silver prices rise ahead of the pack. As prices go down, silver prices decrease. But the buying power generally stays the same. If a one ounce silver coin buys three loaves of bread today, it will most likely buy three loaves of bread ten or twenty years from now, all other factors being equal, no matter what the price is. Buy as much silver as you can comfortably afford. Make your own money by working hard, and then protect the greatest investment you possess: your ability to produce!
www.qualitysilverbullion.com

-by QSB Staff Writer