[TheRealThing]

Most people I knew including my parents lost theirs during the bush era.

Sorry to hear that. I can only imagine how hard that would be to face. However unbelievable it may seem, we may well face that problem again soon. Stock market analysts say the main reason the Dow has remained strong is because of the use of our newly adopted Monetarist/Keynesian economic model. And, foreign investors are still choosing to park their money over here because the world economy is so anemic. The government is stimulating the market by various means including flooding the economy with borrowed stimulus. money, investments in companies in the green energy field, manipulated low interest rates, yet another government exacerbated housing bubble and printing money. The fear is at some point, the availability of borrowed money may shrink substantially and force another stock market correction, similar to the one we saw in 2008.

I am guessing your parents lost their money in the stock market crash of 2008? It could certainly happen again and I'll tell you why. Even Keynes didn't advocate government spending in good times, only during recession. If after all the stimulus spending and the predicted government spurred economic growth fails to materialize, there will be no where else to turn. The idea is that government can sort of prime the pump again through deficit spending and the money will flow again like syphoning gas out of a tank. Will it work? Most doubt it sincerely because true economic growth is brought about by demand. Not by lowering interest rates, borrowing past one's ability to pay back, and spending money we don't have. At any rate, it's been over four years and way too many critical economic indicators are lagging at a truly troubling pace.

When companies fail, pensions fail along with them and the dominos keep falling till they stop on their own. Working all one's life only to watch their wealth wiped out in a few short days of stock free fall is too terrible for most folks to ponder. But, it happened more than once and could well do it again, I sincerely hope not. It's like I've been saying. What is money really? We left the gold standard behind years ago. These days it's more of an idea than something tangible, based on the perceived wealth of our land. Put another way, one day some guy might have a stamp with an airplane misprinted upside down on it that is valued at over a half a million dollars. It has perceived value. But, it's really just a little piece of colored paper. When money inflates or gets tight, that piece of paper is deemed of little or no value, you might be lucky to get a 5 dollar bill for it.

Over 177 countries are presently in crisis status. Looking down the gun barrel at bankruptcy. I'm not saying I know when and where it could happen. I'm just saying if a large number of these countries go bankrupt they will take us all with them. The perceived wealth of our land, or GDP, will be substantially less at that point. How much would a guy give for an upside down airplane on an old postage stamp when he's desperate to get enough food to feed his children? The whole world idea of money and worth will change forever at that time.