A Long Dry Spell

You may be wondering why I haven't posted anything is about a year and a half. Well, would you believe I have just figured out how to reset my password to be able to access the site?

Don't laugh, it may happen to you, when you get as old as I am.

One of the reasons I started this blog was to finally have a media where I can express my views and maybe bring some reason back to the world as I know it. After the Presidential elections, I was really wondering if there were any reasonable people left. For some reason, the idea of putting someone in the highest office we have in America that had zero leadership experience was so completely foreign to me, I was in shock, and I continue to be in shock, as I see my once great nation being dismantled.

I don't know that I can see a redistribution of wealth taking place, as Joe the Plumber was told would happen, but I do know the value of the dollar has dropped drastically in the past 10 years. From 2001, when gold was less than $300/ounce, it took until 2006 for the price to double. From 2006 to the present it has doubled again. From January of 2009 to right now, the price has risen from $800/ounce to over $1200/ounce. That's over 50% in a year and a half! Here's a 10 year chart on gold prices.



As the government continues to spend what they don't have, there are many who are trying to hedge on a devalued dollar by buying gold. But that's not all! Silver has increased by about the same percentage! That's going from about $4.25/ounce to $17.25/ounce in the same period. Here's the chart for silver prices.



This all means, if the precious metal prices are any real indication of buying power, you can only buy 1/4 now of what you could buy in 2000 with the same amount of money.

I looked at my electric bill this month and saw $450 with $103 going to power factors for the production costs. Every time I go into the grocery store, I see higher prices than the week before and this is the change everyone was hoping for? Here's the 10 year prices for natural gas, which doesn't vindicate the gross increase in power cost adjustment.



We have a serious financial problem and no one seems to care what happens to the average person and their abilities to afford what we consider the basics in life.

The charts can be viewed in their full size by right clicking on the image and selecting "Open in a new window", or something like that. That's not the same as what I posted in the comments, but I didn't remember I could edit that into the original post.