Wasn't Reagan a real master of that "taxation via devaluation" approach? IIRC he said he wouldn't raise taxes, then kept the treasury slaves up till the wee hours printing reams of bills.

Yes, without sticking to a standard, the mint is fairly loose, and it seems, as you say, the trend is only gaining in popularity.

I thought I'd acknowledged earlier that the techno stuff is the exception. If not, then let me say now I concur with your observation there. However, for groceries, I am certain that prices have only gone up on pretty much everything since the 80s. Gallons of milk are double or more of what they were then, same with eggs, meat, bread, but most especially produce. I know when my kid was born in 89 I was buying good ground beef at about 80 cents a pound on average in three different locations in the US. I haven't seen it below $1.30 for even the cheap stuff on sale for at least 3 years now. Maybe I have been in the wrong markets. It just seems like the prices never come down, just up and up and up...

I'm not sure about inflation clauses, excellent question, but my guess is that it's doubtful. There's inherent risk in trading currency, and the dollar has enjoyed a tremendous run as the worlds backup currency for decades. I think that run may be at an end and the local and global consequences will show up soon.

Just look at Zimbabwe's alarming inflation and the utter economic devestation it has caused. I might also add, that if history is any indicator (and it is) - every fiat currency EVER created has failed in precisely the same way. It sounds good up front, you can drive expansion and growth, up until leaders with no restraint take it to the next level. A return to a gold and/or silver standard would be the only way to hold politicians in check from creating money from thin air, devaluing your buying power (the hidden tax I spoke of earlier) by causing rampant inflation.

Actually, the sad thing is that Congress is the ONLY entity granted the power to mint money under the constitution and has no authority to re-grant that authority to some other entity. It has done so in naming the Federal Reserve (neither Federal, nor a "reserve"). So, in reality, the politicians don't really inflate it anymore, the central bankers at the Fed do. Oh, and the Fed no longer reports the M3 to tell the politicians overseeing it how much money they have printed. So when you lose 13 Billion in printed bills in Iraq and nothing comes of it, I wonder just how little a drop in the bucket that was. If that wasn't enough to scare the crap out of anyone who lives in the US or uses US currency, 10 out of the 12 banks that comprise the Fed are owned by non-US entities.

I'd say buy Canadian, but buying any real hard and trade-able goods (gold, silver, bullets, etc.) is the only hedge. And *some* things have gone down in price due to cheaper overseas manufacture, but I do a lot of the shopping for my family and I can assure you that in the last 7 years or so, most things have increased in price quite a bit. I used to be able to take my family of 3 out for a meal for $15. Now I'm lucky to get out for under $25 or $30. The $15 was as recent as 3 years ago.

I'm pretty sure it started with Nixon, but yeah, Reagan cranked up the cash machine.

One of my favorite quotes on the subject:
"Although the gold standard could hardly be portrayed as having produced a period of price tranquility, it was the case that the price level in 1929 was not much different, on net, from what it had been in 1800." – Alan Greenspan, December 19, 2002

You're right, Nixon abolished the gold standard. From what I understand, every president from Lincoln on abandoned the gold standard during times of war to print more money. Anyway, here's a clip from an interesting article.



http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/wallach4.html

From the Austrian school of economics;
http://www.mises.org/story/2780
pretty much covers inflation which is really running around 10 percent by the way.
One of the funny things is the Government inflation numbers EXCLUDE;Fuel,Food and medical as these are too volatile.

We will all be reading more on this as the Financial outlook gets more gloomy.

Stock up on the wood and supplies.