May 16, 2011 – These days every Tom, Dick, and Harry seems to have his own theory about the future of gold bullion investments, and all have mountains of statistics and enough charts to paper the walls of Congress to back up their opinions. Although the bottom line for most Americans is that we are in a drastic financial backslide, investment in gold bullion remains disproportionately light. Something is out of whack, and I think I know what it is.

Yesterday I dusted off my bicycle and went on a tour of Anytown, USA. Everywhere I went I saw mammoth SUVs, guzzling four-dollar gas just to transport one or two people around town. At the supermarket supersized folks were loading trunks with bags of stuffed full with Twinkies, soda pop, and all other sorts of nutrient-free junk.

The yards in middle class neighborhoods sported a vast array of jet skis, speedboats, motorcycles, and four-wheelers – every conceivable means to strap a motor to ones butt to get from here to here. RVs, from camping trailers to the Taj Mahal on wheels were everywhere. And people were mowing their quarter acre yards with massive John Deere riding mowers.

Normally such mindless consumption puts me off, but this time I saw something different. The sheer mass of the aggregate equity I was seeing boggled my mind. When I extrapolated that of my microcosm to the entirety of the USA I finally saw the source of America’s denial.

How could a country go broke amidst so much material wealth? Well, ask anybody who has ever held a yard sale. The global economy requires new production and consumption – nothing is gained by reselling so almost all used consumer goods have zero net value. All of the “wealth” I was seeing was but a testament to the way things were.

Americans face the very real threat of hyperinflation, very possibly within the next few years. It would be a catastrophe unlike anything we have ever experienced before. Money will become worthless, as will all of the relics of consumerism. Social order will likely dissolve as food and other necessities become scarce; power will belong to those who control the supply.

Eventually a substitute means of exchange will evolve and order will return. But getting through the dark times will take reserves of gold, the one timeless and borderless currency. Wherever the price heads today is immaterial; the return on gold bullion investments might very well be nothing less than survival.

Daily Updates Archive

Jonathan Monroe

Senior Staff Writer - Gold-Bullion.org