The Stealth Attack on Your Money

September 16, 2011 at 5:41 pm

One of primary reasons for the American Revolution was “taxation without representation”.  This is exactly what it sounds like.  The colonists did not want to be taxed unless they had a say in it, via a representative who could convey their interests to the Crown.  Today, we are in a similar situation.  Our modern taxation without representation comes in the form of inflation. Must people have likely heard the term before, but few seem to understand it, or recognize the damage it causes.  Inflation is basically the creation of new money.  At first, this does not sound like such a terrible thing.  I mean, who wouldn’t like more money?  But we have to take into account that the US dollar is (like all other major currencies) fiat.  A fiat currency is one which derives its value entirely from the authority of the government.  In other words, the US dollar in its present form only has value and buying power because the US government says it does.  Essentially, the dollar in physical form is nothing more than paper, and coins made of common metals such as copper and nickel.  None of these physical materials have any particular sustaining or widely recognized […]