In the January 8, 2011 issue of The International Forecaster, Bob Chapman explains when the current financial problems really started. BK
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US MARKETS
If you look back into the mid-1960s you will see the beginnings of today’s financial and economic problems. Inflation was beginning to raise its ugly head as clad coins came into being. We were collecting all the pre-1964 90% dimes, quarters and halves we could find. As we moved into 1968 few were to be found in circulation. War in Vietnam was draining the country and the buffoon Lyndon Johnson, another socialist, was leading America into the Great Society. What he was really doing was taking the US into socialism and debt. It got so bad that countries were demanding gold for dollars, particularly, aggressive was President Charles DeGaulle of France. Then the beginning of the end came. On August 15, 1971 the dollar was moved off the gold standard and the dollar became just another fiat currency. Here we are almost 40 years later and the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power and two breadwinners are needed in every family, as apposed to one in 1971. That is when social engineering began, as we know it today. We’ve seen many losers walk across the stage over the years – all with either their hands in the till or exuding incompetence. Most of the bright still excelled but 55% of Americans slipped into stupidity. What is sadder is they think they know it all, but they do not. From 1976 to 1981 gold and silver warned us of what was coming. We have had cycles of inflation, buildup of debt and a general degeneration of society.
We had a purging of the system in the early 1980s but it certainly did not last long. Real estate collapsed starting in 1988 and the affects carried over into the early 1990s. During that period those in control had a great opportunity to again purge the system, but they refused to use that option and went right back to doing what they had done in the past. Gold and silver fell out of favor and we were subjected to the dotcom boom, which ended in tears for so many. Inflation was about but worse a great deal of wealth had been lost. We were fortunate enough to call the top of the market in the first week of April 2000, just two weeks after the actual top. Only 2% of economists, analysts and newsletter writers called the top. Being mostly outnumbered by the losers has its benefits. Presently 95% believe gold and silver are headed lower. Considering their track records we’ll stay long as we have been since the second quarter of 2000 when gold was $262.00 and silver was $3.50. http://www.intforecaster.com/