DOLLAR DAZE$

There is something going on in our United States that it seems that has slipped the attention of all but the most astute observers. In so many words, it might be said the value of the U.S. Dollar is going to Hell in a Handbasket. Here is a chart:

On the other hand, Gold has been correspondingly rising in price since 2001, and is in fact near an all time high. It has gone from about $250/ounce to over $700/ounce. This of course is no co-incidence. There are at least two ways of looking at this. As confidence in the dollar deteriorates people, and governments, tend to store their wealth in something of more lasting value. Also, Gold has been the stable commodity and store of value for 1000’s of years. One might consider that Gold hasn’t really changed in value but it is just the Dollar losing value relative to it. Here is a Gold Chart:

What is insidious about this is that the devaluation of the dollar cuts the spending power of U.S. citizens and decreases the value of their savings. The Federal Reserve and the Government have a coalition to spend money they don’t have and run up debt. Paper money is spun off the printing press to cover it, out of thin air as it were. Interest is made on the money. Putting more dollars into circulation chasing the same goods devalues the worth of the dollar.
An interesting way to look at the stock market is to consider that Gold has the same value as it did 5 years ago and see what would happen if we valued it in gold instead of dollars. For example, what if the S&P 500 Index of stocks were valued in gold instead of dollars. Here is what the chart would look like:

Notice that in these terms the so-called partial recovery of the Stock Market is really non-existent.

Another very revealing statistic to look at is the price of oil valued in Gold. Here is a chart of the price of Gold relative to the price of Oil:

What this shows is that the price of oil really hasn’t gone up particularly. The oil producers would be getting robbed if they didn’t demand more dollars since progressively the dollars they were getting had less value.

What this all points to is an impending economic crisis of drastic proportions. It is not hard to extrapolate how the real value of homes has been doing over the last 5 years, for example, in terms of Gold. The real effects of this devaluation are just beginning to be felt in many segments of society.

While we many not be able to get rid of the Federal Reserve right away, we can send a message to our Congressmen that we don’t want the government spending money they don’t have and worsening the situation. If the government would run a balanced budget and starting reducing the debt this would be a good first step. Then perhaps some day we could grapple with pulling the culprit out by the roots.

References
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst051506.htm
http://mises.org:88/Fed
I owe suggestion of many concepts about calculating gold ratios to Jim Dines and The Dines Letter, http://www.dinesletter.com/

The Seeger Sessions

The Seeger Sessions

My first love for music sprang from the Folk Era of the early 60’s. My folk hero was Pete Seeger. He had a simple style, playing only a banjo, he sang from the heart and told real stories in the music about real people and real times. Well, some was not totally real but whimsical, and that was just fun. And maybe the truth was stretched a bit as stories became legends, but most of it was down to earth and comfortable. I actually got interested enough in the music to get a guitar and learn how to play it so I could sing these songs accompanying myself as well as in groups, then called hootenannies.

By the way, some people have the mistaken notion that the Peace Movement, and Civil Rights protests started with the Hippie Era. This is not true. The Peace Movement and Civil Rights protests were part of the Folk Era many years previous, and the Hippies just adopted it along with some healthy doses of psychedelics. Remember that Bob Dylan (Masters of War), for example, was a folk artist before he moved to mainstream. Even more mainstream folk artists, such as Peter, Paul and Mary had much to say on social issues. Early on, I was also impressed that a lot of folk music had something to say other than the likes of pop music and ‘My girlfriend left me and I am all alone’.

At any rate, Bruce Springsteen has done a remarkable thing. He broke from his traditional genre of rock and did a whole album of folk songs commonly sung by Pete Seeger. It is called We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. I first saw the promotion on this and thought Wow! You have got to be kidding. I listened to a promotion track, John Henry, and was instantly sold. I immediately bought the album as a pre-release.

The album was made as a 3-day hootenanny in a New Jersey farmhouse with 13 musicians playing various acoustical instruments. Bruce stylized the music to a sort of New Orleans Jazz/Cajun/Zydeco type folk music but surprising put a lot of heart and soul into the music. You can tell Bruce is really feeling his roots as he produces his unique earthy vocals and directs the band. If you don’t like any of the genres of music aforementioned then you might want to stay away from the album.

The production is packages as a DualDisc, which was a new concept to me. One side of the disc is a CD and the other side is a DVD. The DVD side has about 30 minutes of video session tapings and commentary by Bruce. It also has all the audio tracks in DVD sound (superior quality) as well as a couple of bonus tracks. And I was surprised this was all for $12.98 at Amazon.

If you have any appreciation at all for folk and would like to see The Boss in an inspired performance I highly recommend this DualDisc