Have You Been Grocery Shopping Recently?
By Rense Johnson, Chairman, Citizens for Term Limits
Of course you have, unless someone else is doing it for you. And none of us is insulated from rising costs, which are the classic symptom of inflation.
Question:
And why are we faced with inflation now?
Answer:
It started decades ago, with a succession of irresponsible Congresses—led by a succession of irresponsible careerist congressional leaders—which spent more of taxpayers’ money than they were taking in. This is called deficit spending.
The family budget can stand this only so long as there is money in the bank to withstand deficit spending.
Governments are different. They can cheat. And do. They can and do debase their own currency. That means our currency, yours and mine, thus making American citizens the victims of government shenanigans. (What else is new!)
If you had your choice between an ounce of gold and a twenty dollar bill, which would you choose? The gold, of course. But there was a time when an ounce of gold was actually worth $20.00. That is why, in the past, that so many gold coins were made to contain one or more ounces of the metal.
But no more.
What has happened?
What has happened is that our government has flooded our economy with paper fiat money. Fiat — meaning that the different paper denominations have value only because our government says they have.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke boasts that he has the power to spread our paper dollars around almost as if he were dropping them from helicopters, increasing fiat dollars in circulation. Not to be too hard on Mr. Bernanke, he is only playing out the hand he has been dealt. Most of the damage had been done long before he took office.
What is an ounce of gold worth now? There is very strong evidence, supported by meticulous research, that the value of gold has tended to be constant through the centuries. It is only the value of the measuring currency (in this instance, our dollar) that has changed. (See what many consider the leading empirical study of gold: Roy W. Jastram’s The Golden Constant, which knowledgeable experts believe demonstrates conclusively that gold holds its purchasing power remarkably well over time. What we refer to as the “price” of gold actually reflects the worth of the currency by which it is measured—inversely.) The cheaper our dollar, the higher the “price” of an ounce of gold.
This is great theory—and valid—but theory is no help to us. It is the fiat dollar that we are left with to buy groceries, to buy clothing and pay the rent with, while our politicians try to put together winning campaigns as each tries to blame an opponent for a situation that had its congressional beginnings many years ago.
The solution? A constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms to six years in each chamber won’t be immediately achievable, nor will it immediately solve all our inflation problems when it is achieved.
But it will indeed change the course of our ship of state by 180 degrees toward more stable waters. A beginning, to undo decades of damage.
We owe no less to our children and their unborn descendants.
Constitutional amendment: No more than six years in each chamber of Congress!
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