I Just Became a Trillionaire!

About a week ago, I increased my net worth by 160 trillion dollars.

Yes…TRILLION. I’m not kidding. I am now worth 160 TRILLION Dollars.

Here’s the back story.

I was writing an article about monetary policy, the Federal Reserve, hyperinflation and the collapse of the dollar. All of a sudden, I had a flash of a thought arc across my bourbon-sotted mind:

I wonder if I can purchase Zimbabwean paper money?

Quickly, I clicked over to Ebay where joy of joys, I found LOTS of Zimbabwean paper money for sale.

So, I bought three 10 Trillion Dollar notes, three 50 Trillion Dollar Notes, and three 100 Trillion Dollar Notes. That’s 480 Trillion dollars in total. I’m giving away 320 Trillion dollars, and keeping 160 Trillion for myself.

These are not knockoffs that I can detect. They are sequentially numbered bills with security strips manufactured into the bills. They are issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and signed by Dr. Gideon Gono, Governor of the RBZ.

That transaction cost me $6.00 US. That’s right…Six bucks.

I’ve framed the bills and they now hang on the wall of my office as a testament to governmental criminal behavior. Counterfeiting is theft, after all. And ALL CENTRAL BANKS worldwide are counterfeiters.

One of the funniest things to come from this is that I Googled Dr. Gono and found his website at www.gideongono.com. His motto at the top of the home page is “Failure Is Not An Option!” His most recent news update is dated March 6, 2009, so it’s not like I’m reading news from an earlier time. Maybe failure is not an option for the good doctor, but the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe certainly availed itself of that option.

You may wonder why I would be interested in the currency of the African nation of Zimbabwe. Simple answer, really. Zimbabwe is the best and most current example of what happens to a nation when it inflates its currency and runs its printing presses non-stop to monetize its spending.

Prior to the complete collapse of their monetary system, the RBZ finally added TWELVE ZEROES to every denomination of their currency. That gave the greatest benefit to the government of Zimbabwe since it could pay off its national debts with “legal tender”, even though the bills were essentially worthless. The population got the greatest penalties, as the money became less and less acceptable in commercial transactions. It literally took baskets and sacks of currency bills to make the simplest purchases…and the value of the money changed hourly at times.

Dr. Gono stated that “while the whole world was now moving towards bailing out of troubled companies (and nations) through central banks, Zimbabwe has decided to take a different direction and was now leaving everything to market forces.” I am somewhat skeptical of Dr. Gono’s statement because I think that it was the other nations and corporations of the world that made the decision for Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has now adopted a multi-currency system in which they use a basket of currencies as legal tender…including gold and silver coinage. And, now that Zimbabweans can get their hands on money that actually has some value, reports are that the shelves at stores and shops are full once again.

The Executive and Legislative Branches of the United States Federal Government are doing the EXACT SAME THING to the US Dollar. Through the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank, and the printing presses at the US Department of Treasury, they have flooded the world with nearly worthless paper script. The dollar of 2009 will only buy what a NICKEL bought in 1950. More value is slipping away every day.

And the world is starting to fight back. Nations of the world are slowly disconnecting from the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The global economic system is on a hair-triggered tripwire. Even though the nations are trying desperately to prevent a world economic collapse as they disconnect from the dollar, they know that it will only take one misstep to bring the entire system crashing down. Every nation on the planet stands to get hurt by the crash.

But no place will suffer the deprivations more than the American people. When the dollar suffers its final collapse, it will be just like the Zimbabwean currency I have on my wall. The population of the USA will retreat into barter and other currencies like the Euro. Could even be the Indian rupee and the Chinese yuan.

And the most popular and widely accepted money will be gold and silver money.

Dear readers, if you have not begun to move your cash holdings into gold and silver coins, you are whistling past the graveyard. I’m not offering investment advice here, since you should not look at the purchase of gold and silver coins as any kind of investment. You should look at gold and silver as a store of value against monetary collapse. Just like you might have a pantry with stored food in it, you should have a “money pantry” with stored gold and silver in it. Make it a goal to have one year’s income in gold and silver. And buy a safe and keep your money at home.

Here is a link to another article I wrote in September 2009 on the Gold Standard. Secession and the Gold Standard Don’t miss the link inside the article that takes you to a scholarly paper written by Murray Rothbard about the Gold Standard. It’s likely the most important paper you’ll read in your lifetime.

DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.

© Copyright 2009, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.