Current Economics From a Layman's Point of View

September 25, 2007

While the majority of people are debating the merits of the Republicans versus the Democrats, our country's economy is crumbling before our very eyes. The problem is, most people do not know what they are looking at.

If you have no idea that crude oil jumped to over $84.00 a barrel a few days ago, then you had better start watching some financial news. The fact that the Canadian dollar is now equal in value to the U.S. dollar should fill you with trepidation and dread. This has not happened since 1976. The U.S. dollar is falling against other major currencies, especially the Euro dollar and that does not bode well for you and me as regular people just trying to live our lives. I am not going to even mention the lending crisis we are having right now, because it has been raked over with a fine toothed comb by people much more brilliant than I.

The only reason you haven not seen the price of crude reflected at the gas pumps is because of current oil reserves. What I foresee is not a gradual rise of gasoline prices, but huge jumps, to match the crude prices as reserves dwindle and are replaced with this much more expensive oil.

The difference between now and 1976 is that we actually had a manufacturing base and blue collar factory jobs in the United States, which provided a pretty good living for a lot of people. You could go to the store and buy food grown and raised here, your cat and dog food didn't come from China and you could buy a good pair of shoes that lasted more than a month. Durable goods were designed to be just that and a refrigerator and a stove would last a good thirty years or longer if well taken care of.

What I see as one of many inherent dangers of the current financial situation of our country is that we have been depending upon cheap imports to sustain our lifestyles. Look around the store and try to find something made in the U.S.A. I am sure you already know it's nearly impossible. With the dollar falling against other currencies, we are going to have to pay more for everything that is imported. This is inflation of a sort we've never been faced with before, not to this degree. I do not claim to be an economist by any stretch of the imagination, but even so, I can see what is coming if we continue the way we are. And we are so far down the pike of foreign goods dependency, I don't see any way we are going to get out of this. Not without a lot of pain and hardship. Play now, pay later... no one told me I was playing and I don't remember anyone giving me a choice, either.

I watch the talking heads on television talk about low inflation rates. Do these people not buy gasoline? Do they not eat? Maybe they all take mass transit and are anorexic and food is not a priority to them. That is the only way they could not know what the people of this country have been up against with rising prices, the good jobs all leaving and the wages being suppressed.

Alan Greenspan has been parading all over the television and other media outlets pushing his book. If he were merely advertising a book, I wouldn't have any objection to that, but he's also destroying any confidence anyone might have left in the economic viability of the United States of America.

If you don't know who Alan Greenspan is, then I suggest you stop reading this article and go do some research. He's been the single most important person controlling our economy through the Federal Reserve, until Ben Bernake took his place recently. Greenspan reminds me of the man behind the curtain on the Wizard of Oz. He was a shadowy figure who hardly came into the light of the public eye except to tell us how much our adjustable mortgages and revolving credit card debt was going to cost us average Joes. Of course, he sent ripples through Wall Street and other markets worldwide, but I have never been a player in them, so I was concerned with my own backyard... literally. I remember holding my breath each time my mortgage was about to adjust and they announced Greenspan was coming out of his hidey hole to tell me how much my interest was going to go up or down on the note. Now, I see him everywhere I look and the man just can't seem to stop spouting information that is debasing our dollar and speeding up the runaway freight train of a coming recession. Freedom of speech comes with responsibility and Greenspan's words are very powerful indeed. Look back over the past couple of weeks at some of the statements he has been making and you will know exactly what I am talking about, if you do not already.

I can't help but wonder, since I am so woefully versed in economics in comparison to a powerhouse of knowledge like Greenspan, why it is that I can understand what effect his words are having on our financial status with the rest of the world and inside our own country yet he appears oblivious to what he is doing. My only conclusion based on common sense is that he is doing this on purpose. There are forces at work who are out to destroy this country and they are going to do it by hitting us with an economic wrecking ball powered by their dissemination of information that shapes their intended outcome.

There is no way I can explain all this to you in the space relegated for this article, chances are many of you already know most of what I am telling you by virtue of the fact that you are reading in this venue. So I'm going to skip all that and tell you to do your own research. But what I will tell you is this, get ready for a bumpy ride. Store some food that will last you through the winter. Buy items that can be easily bartered and would be in demand in the event the economy takes a severe downturn. You'd be surprised at how much a pack of razor blades or some soap can be worth if we get to a point of an economic depression and there aren't any available. Use your own imagination and prepare accordingly. Learn some survival skills, it surely can't hurt you.

I truly hope that what I am saying in this article turns out to be total bunk. And I do not have a crystal ball, all I have is my research that leads me to these conclusions. Do some research yourself and if you think I am wrong, then do what you will. If you prepare and we are both wrong, then, no harm no foul. I'd rather end up with too much food and other necessary items in my cupboards than too little.

God Bless America!