Money is a drug. An addictive drug. When you receive it, you feel wonderful. When you lose it, you're in pain - withdrawal pain.
Inflation increases the money supply. People find it pleasant, euphorious - until the withdrawal, when it costs more to buy what one used to buy at before-addiction prices.Congressmen - the drug pushers - know people want to feel good. So they pass laws to give you a fix, "largess out of the public coffers." They know there is no money in the Treasury to pay for it, but so what? We can borrow it.
The Federal Reserve Bankers put money into the Treasury by entering a money entry in their books (they don't need to have the money, they create it by the entry) and use it to buy government bonds. The bonds are entered as an asset to balance the money entry, so they are happy. Their books balance and they receive interest on money created by a bookkeeping entry. (That is a slight simplification, but basically correct.)
Continued use of drugs causes distress, disease and death to a person. Continued use of inflation money causes distress, disease and death to a society. Deflation - withdrawal - is painful. Who will stand for it?
Inflationary drug addiction has not caused as much distress as it would have otherwise because of the vast outflow of money to foreign countries. We give money to foreign governments. We buy foreign goods. Many come here to work and send their wages to Mexico. Productivity per person is higher than in any other country but not high enough to offset the inflation addiction.
Saving would ease the inflation, but saving is withdrawal and it hurts. Americans do not save much. We have to have new toys immediately. We cannot wait for an investment to pay off - another drug-addiction symptom. An immediate fix - money to spend - is preferable to withdrawal.
What's the prognosis? The confirmed drug addict seldom quits without outside help, whatever the substance of choice happens to be. Disaster always awaits the addict.
Where is the money addict to find the needed outside help? As with any other addiction - from God. Friends might help, but what friend does the United States have that is not also addicted?
Close the doors; batten down the hatches; prepare for the big blow, for a day of reckoning is inevitable. What in the very best item for storage? Ordinary cooking oil. It keeps indefinitely, it will make unpalatable food palatable, and it is the best bargain item you could have because people on a starvation diet will pay well for oil.
When will you need it? When the stress in society becomes unbearable.
Robert W. English
Salt Lake City