TILT2, I don't understand this massive objection to the USD losing 96% of its value. I say, "so what!" Since 1900, the size of the economy and the population has increased enormously. It is only reasonable that the effective value of one dollar now is a tiny fraction of what it was in 1900. The system isn't nearly as broken as people argue. This is just one example.
Searching for most recent statistics, but you will see that in 2008 dollars the US GDP in 1900 was about 545 billion. Divide 545 billion by the current GDP, and you will see that the effective value of the USD is pretty close to where it should be. http://www-958.ibm.com/software/analytics/manyeyes/datasets/us-gdp-1900-2008/versions/1
He wants everyone to live an "Amish" lifestyle from the year 1900....which is what the Amish still do today.
It's very easy to get people riled up about the Fed. Show some scary looking charts, play some sinister music and put on youtube. That way you can profit from your "economic apocalypse" book sales or allow you to push gold/silver onto people.
Another creature from Jekyll Island sort of thing. You can say virtually anything about a government entity such as the Fed and get away with it, and this is why these idiots get away with this nonsense. I imagine that Bernanke and his buddies on the Board of Governors joke about this stuff when they get together for a beer, or cocktails in their case.
Other than a pitiful rebuttal to the value of the dollar (and it was pitiful), none of you refuted anything in the article.
Well, if your productivity output is finite, and I can pay you in something that is constantly devaluing while my member banks and the gov't can use that something before it is devalued by the ripple-effect...what's wrong with that??
Ignorance breeds fear. Why would you believe the dollar should buy as much today as it did 113 years ago?