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As our regular readers know I have discussed this topic on a number of occasions. For Bernanke to say this is very disingenuous and is a clear indication of his motives because it is highly unlikely that he does not understand this concept…which means he is lying.

This is not rocket science. You do not need a PHD in economics to understand this. A 6 year old child with a calculator can divide the number of US Dollars in circulation¹ of roughly $1.8 Trillion USD by the number of ounces the US claims to own, which is 261,498,899.316 according to the US Treasury².

The number we arrive at is $6880 per ounce and some change. The problem is not that there isnt enough gold, its that having gold at $6880 per ounce would send a clear signal to the world that the Fed is actually totally incapable of managing the US economy, has a broken monetary policy, and that there is something seriously wrong with the US Dollar (assuming the government didn’t come right out and set us on a gold standard).

This is the typical argument presented by any Keynesian economist yet it is the weakest argument they have and takes very little logic to discredit it. For Bernanke to resort to this argument shows just how desperate and under pressure he may be.

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the central bank’s effect on the dollar Tuesday, pushing back at the idea that policy makers should consider alternative proposals like the gold standard.

Bernanke, appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, was pressed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) on the viability of a return to a gold-backed economy or the idea of the Treasury Department issuing bonds payable in gold. Bernanke, who has studied the issue, said a return to the gold standard wouldn’t work.

“It did deliver price stability over very long periods of time, but over shorter periods of time it caused wide swings in prices related to changes in demand or supply of gold. So I don’t think it’s a panacea,” Bernanke told DeMint.

Additionally, Bernanke said there were a number of practical issues that would prevent the return of gold as the world standard. Namely, there’s not enough gold in the world to effectively support the U.S. money supply.

“I don’t think that a full-fledged gold standard would be practical at this point,” Bernanke said, declining to opine on the gold-backed bond issue because he was not familiar with the idea.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) also engaged Bernanke on the currency issue, questioning whether the Fed’s $600 billion bond-purchase program is in effect monetizing the U.S. debt. Bernanke noted that the U.S couldn’t have currency outstanding if there were no Treasury securities to back it up, and that even the most steady economic times the Fed engages in the buying and selling of U.S.-backed securities.

Kirk, however, noted that the U.S. did have currency not backed by federal debt at one time in its history: under the administration of President Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president.

Bernanke, appearing amused, was quick to respond.

“So this was before the Civil War, this was during the period where individual banks issued currency. We didn’t have a national currency,” Bernanke said.

Not to be outdone, Kirk asked whether it was possible for a country to have a currency without a trillion dollar debt. Bernanke said that was the case.

Article Source

¹Monetary Base

²US Gold Reserves

Ut-oh…this cant be good. (Unless you own something that does well when to dollar goes down)

Russia ready to abandon dollar in oil, gas trade with China

Putin in Talks with China

BEIJING, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

The premier, currently on a visit to Beijing, said a final decision on the issue can only be made after a thorough expert analysis.

“Yesterday, energy companies, in particular Gazprom, raised the question of using the national currency. We are ready to examine the possibility of selling energy resources for rubles, but our Chinese partners need rubles for that. We are also ready to sell for yuans,” Putin said.

He stressed that “there should be a balance here.”

On Tuesday, Russia and China agreed terms for Russian gas deliveries at a level of up to 70 billion cubic meters a year. China also imports oil from Russia.

The Russian prime minister said the issue would be addressed among others at a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) finance ministers, who are to convene before the end of the year in Kazakhstan.

Britain’s Independent newspaper reported last Tuesday that Russian officials had held “secret meetings” with Arab states, China and France on ending the use of the U.S. dollar in international oil trade.

The countries are reportedly seeking to switch from the dollar to a basket of currencies including the euro, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, gold, and a new unified currency of leading Arab oil producing countries.

The Independent said the meetings have been confirmed by Chinese and Arab banking sources.

Original Article

I just posted the most recent RT Insiders Update.

In this report I cover the current push for a new currency to settle global trade in.

An excerpt:

The worlds governments are scared, confused, and are reluctant to give up their control of your wealth

It is a normal human reaction, when faced with the decline in purchasing power of a fiat currency, to seek a way to stop that buying power from dis-appearing.

There is nothing wrong with this, and it is a completely reasonable reaction. The challenge occurs when someone who is in a decision making role either doesn’t truly understand why the currency is devaluing in the first place, or if they have a motive to continue to devalue it.

Russia and China have proposed to create a global currency linked to a basket of currencies, or the Special Drawing Rights of the IMF.

Hugo Chavez has just floated a proposal to create an international reserve currency linked to the price of oil.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried Tuesday to court Arab support for another swipe at America as its economy stumbles: a proposal for a new, oil-backed currency to challenge the global prominence of the dollar.
– Associated Press – Tue Mar 31, 2:59 pm ET

World leaders are floundering around in desperate attempts to salvage a global trade system based on fiat currency, and so far they are all terribly wrong.

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

The US Dollar, as the reserve currency of the world, is facing massive devaluation. This isn’t a guess, it’s not a theory, it’s a mathematical equation that any 10 year old can calculate.

This is available exclusively to Rapid Trends Members.

You can register to receive these updates at no charge here: http://www.rapidtrends.com/

All the best for your health, wealth, and future prosperity,
Alex

People are running around trying to figure out why in the heck the price of everything from gas to food to electricity is going nuts.

Many, including some not so well educated financial analysts call this inflation.

The truth is, inflation is not the price of things increasing. When prices rise, this is merely the symptom of what true inflation is: adding more currency to the money supply.

This is not rocket science. When you have more of something, it is worth less. Therefore, if you add more dollars to the available supply of dollars, obviously each dollar is worth less. Preposterous you say? Well let me put it another way, if dollars were as common as rocks lying on the ground, how valuable would they be? Obviously they would not be worth much. Therefore one of the key requirements of any form of currency is that it remains somewhat scarce. So, when the Fed pumps billions of dollars into the economy to rescue our financial system, people cheer because the system goes on for another day.

What many do not realize, is that every time they do, it raises the costs of everything from bread to gasoline.

This of course causes devaluation of the dollar, and inflation, which are essentially the same thing. Devaluation means the dollar is worth less, and inflation means (to most people) that things cost more. It is not that the things we buy are actually worth more, its just that our dollars are worth less, so it takes more dollars to buy the same thing that less dollar bought in the past.

My dear reader I know you are a smart cookie, and you arent so dumb that you will actually fall for the governments reported statistics on inflation. Especially since they have chosen to change the way inflation is measured, by leaving out little things like the cost of food and energy.

The chart below shows the rate at which the Fed is continuing to add dollars to the available pool of currency. As you can see, it is approaching 20%, yet the government reports “core inflation” (a term that is applicable only to the aliens living on planet Washington, because they obviously dont shop for groceries where you and I do) at less than 4%.

Now we come back to my ‘forever rant’. Gold and silver are some of the only ways you can protect the value of your wealth given todays financial landscape. If you are storing it in dollars, I feel sorry for you because it is being devalued at a horrendous rate. If you are storing it in the stock market, again, I feel sorry for you, because it is only a matter of time before the baby boomers who put all their retirement money into the stock market, causing it to rise, start taking their money out to finance retirement, which will obviously cause it to fall. The question is, will you be the first, or the last to get your money out?

Gold on the other hand has retained its purchasing power for thousands of years. Did you know, that an ounce of gold would clothe a man in the finest clothing available thousands of years ago? Guess what, today, an ounce of gold will still, clothe a man in the finest clothing available. 75 years ago $20 would likewise buy you an entire wardrobe, yet what can you buy today with that same $20?

Got gold yet?

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