In a human life, 47 years isn’t all that long. So this is a man’s personal data point of how the Fed has managed, or rather mismanaged, or rather utterly and willfully destroyed, the dollar since his mom sold their trailer in 1966 – and what that would mean in gold today.
By johnnygeneric, California Swan Song:
We finally sold our trailer in 1966. My mom was a very proud woman. She took immaculate care of this little trailer we hauled around from South Carolina to Virginia and Georgia.
There were five in our family, and I was so glad that we were going to move into a real house, and I’d have my own bed! I was 10 years old. I tell you, sharing a bed with my older brother really sucked bad. The guy ground his teeth, and he had really bad breath.
Dad wasn’t home when the men came to check out our trailer. But they complimented my Korean mother on taking good care of the inside. They settled on a sum of money and gave mom a brand new crisp $100 bill as a deposit.
I will never forget that day. My dad was in the army making the salary of a buck sergeant. My mom was a seamstress in what today everyone calls a sweatshop. Back then it was a great way to supplement a poor military man’s wages.
The men left, and my mom looked at us three kids and said “hold this, each of you. It’s a one hundred dollar bill. You have never held that much money in your hands ever. It’s a lot of money.” I was amazed. Ol’ Franklin looked back at me and sort of winked. Or so it seemed.
Fast forward to 2013. My wife and I just got finished tallying all the gold and silver we had in the house. We’re delivering it to a bank’s safety deposit box in just a few minutes. So, I thought I would impress my daughter who is now 12.
“Hold out your hands. Hold this.” I said and she begrudgingly complied.
“You’re holding $2400 dollars’ worth of gold and silver.” Boy, was she impressed.
But…then I thought… was it really all that impressive?
Back in 1966 we were still on the gold standard. A one hundred dollar bill was equivalent to almost 3 ounces of gold (at $35 per ounce). At today’s going rate ($1300 per ounce), that one hundred dollar bill is equivalent to over THIRTY SEVEN one hundred dollar bills today.
And think about it: Our trailer was about 6 – 7 years old. It was quite small at eight feet wide. And she wrangled $3700 out of those guys as a DEPOSIT. I think they sold the whole thing for about $500 or what would be over $18,500 in today’s money when converted to gold. How is that possible?
Well, hmpf. My mom trumped me yet again. By johnnygeneric, California Swan Song.
The US has abused its phenomenal privileges – including the control of the only world currency – to put global financial stability at risk, “like a truck full of dynamite heading right toward us,” said the chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Universal Credit Rating Group. But a “new financial order” is forming. And there’s a timeframe. Read…. Next Step In Dismantling The Dollar And US Credit Hegemony
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