You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 25: 13-15; New King James
Is it just me, or are Americans getting stronger? As a child, I remember my mother and I requiring three trips each from the car to haul in $20 worth of groceries. Today, the average six year old can do the same task in one trip…with one hand!
God warned us about cheating on weights and measures. Today, we can not only cheat by making a pound of beef weigh only 15 ounces, or a gallon of oil equal to 3.9 quarts, but we can have a dollar worth less and less, by printing more and more of them without having anything of value backing it up.
Governments have seriously cheated on their weights and measures, by weakening the dollar (or their respective currencies) since the beginning of time. The ancient Greeks and Romans would cut off and remove edges of coins, or remake coins with less and less gold and silver until none of the precious metals would remain in them. The Weimar Republic in Germany during the 1910s and 1920s using the printing press saw a trillion fold decline in the Deutschemark, and it was this inflation that opened the door for a tyrant named Adolf Hitler to take control.
This further dilution and weakening of the dollar has been accelerated over the past year, as the money supply has grown by an unprecedented 15% in just the past year alone.(http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H6/HIST/h6hist4.pdf ) This is 2½ times faster than the growth rate of the money supply of the late 1970s, resulting in the greatest simultaneous inflation and unemployment rates in our country’s history. Imagine having a printing press that can produce all the money you need, and you could not be arrested for counterfeiting. This is what the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States has been doing, with the blessings of presidents Bush and Obama, not to mention every president since its creation in 1914 under Woodrow Wilson.
Your solutions? Keep your savings in Gold or Silver. Gold and silver is God’s money. While gold is a bit overpriced at $1150 per ounce in November, 2009, when you look at gold being valued at $2100 per ounce in 2-3 years, and as much as $5000 - $8,000 in 5 - 10 years, this will keep your savings from being diluted. Silver prices should increase by 3-10 times its current price in the same time frames. These metals are highly liquid, and in hyperinflationary periods, businesses may prefer payment in gold or silver.
Invest in Real Estate, but not overly leveraged. Invest in real estate investment trusts (REIT), which are traded like stocks (my favorite is Equity Residential, NASDAQ symbol EQR), or if you own the real estate, make sure it provides positive cash flow if it’s income property, or that you own it outright if it is raw land. Warning: As inflation sets in, interest rates will rise, causing property values to fall. Cash flow is critical if you invest in real estate, and it will be very difficult to sell, unless it is publicly traded like a REIT
Invest in stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) based on commodities, such as oil, metals and mining. Stay away from financial related stocks, such as banks. These have huge amounts of debt, and have the greatest risk of collapsing.
Finally, talk to God. Keep yourselves in constant prayer. Pray for your deliverance (and all of Christianity) from the troubled times we face. Pray for His hand in all your savings, investing and preparation you do for these times, and that he makes your paths straight. After all, regardless of what happens, God is in control, and it’s His will that will be done, not ours.
©2009 David Etenburn
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