« Growing Homelessness in AmericaIntroducing the heritage of Khayyam »

The Greek Tragedy Is Just a Sneak Preview of What's Coming to Washington

May 21st, 2010

by Ron Holland

"The current European debt crisis likely will not end until the euro collapses as a currency and takes the entire European Union with it." ~ Dennis Gartman, hedge fund manager and writer of The Gartman Letter

I was just in Greece, where the stupidity and venality of the political class are in full view.

The coming repudiation of Greek debt and the credit contagion that will spread among the weaker members of the European Union, including the UK, will ultimately slop over onto the U.S. But while we wait, the process will bring us the answer to a long-simmering question. Will the European Union be a supra-state ruling the formerly independent nations of Europe or will it be a confederation of quasi-independent sovereign nations?

The Eurocrat elites want a union of European nations with one central bank, one currency and just one flag that really matters, all molded to fit the American model. I believe Europe would be far better off as a confederation of sovereign states that allows competition among individual national currencies. Some countries might even revert to backing their national currency with gold. It's amazing how responsible institutions become when they're forced to compete.

Even with national currencies, there still would be room for the euro, which the European Central Bank might make convertible into gold. Remember, Germany knows more about the catastrophe of runaway sovereign debt and currency collapse than any other nation in the West, and today they lead Europe and the European Union.

Although the euro has lost 16% of its value in the last 120 days, I expect it to survive the sovereign debt crisis. But the euro zone may shrink as Greece and the other fiscally weak governments replace the euro with national currencies that they can inflate whenever convenient. That would leave the euro as the currency of choice for a few strong, wealthy and fiscally conservative nations like Germany – the countries most likely to welcome a gold-backed currency.

We are now living through the violent end of the age of fiat paper money and thoughtless government debt. In the future, the desire for a secure store of value and medium of exchange is going to force currency competition. Even the U.S. dollar, following hyperinflation and a run on our American national debt, could be reborn as a gold-backed currency.

But the transition will be full of hazards that could touch you in a very painful way. Where will bankrupt Washington get the gold to provide a credible cushion for a new currency following a hyperinflationary collapse? The special hazard for American citizens is that the government will get the gold it needs by taking it from them.

But between now and then, prepare for some tough times, and expect periods of dollar strength vs. the euro and even the Swiss franc. There is no official link between the franc and the euro, but the euro tugs on the decisions of the Swiss National Bank, since Switzerland trades predominately with the EU countries. The Swiss franc won't move as violently down and up as the euro's big swings, but it will track the general direction.

Americans should use their recently stronger dollars to add to holdings of Swiss francs, of securely stored offshore gold and of mining shares, along with some Asian investments. With trillions in unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare, Washington's debt load is far greater than the burden that is now crushing the governments of Greece and the other PIIGS countries. The dollar's current strength will prove transient.

Eventually the sovereign debt crisis will also come to the U.K. and then to the U.S., with disastrous results. The tragedy in Greece today is just a glimpse of what will happen to the sovereign debt of the United States. It will come to America, and it will come on its own schedule, so be prepared.

-###-

This article originally appeared in "Swiss Confidential."

Previously by Ron Holland: The 10 Step Final Countdown to Retirement Plan Nationalization

Ron Holland [send him mail] is a contributing editor to the Swiss Mountain Vision Newsletter and Swiss Confidential published by Appenzeller Business Press.

Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. http://www.lewrockwell.com/holland/holland17.1.html Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • by Kaitlin Harper "The sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea, The hot stars down from heaven are whirled." -- Völuspá (The Prophecy of the Seeress - Norse- A prophetic vision of Ragnarök) Israel and America have never been more isolated…
  • poem by: Clever Iconoclast Cast I this spell from here to Holy Hell to ghosts who rumble roads where witches bode their toads. [Witches’ Familiars in 17th Century Europe (February 2011 update) – Benjamin Breen] To henchmen on the lurk In dungeons…
  • Dr. Althea Mentes I. The Pressure Valve: How Rage Became a Renewable Resource All empires master the skill of domination, but America industrialized it. Our rulers discovered that rebellion, like oil or lithium, could be extracted, processed, and sold…
  • Fred Gransville Gaza was and is now a laboratory in which the shoulders of business, law, and amorality collide in ways that defy euphemism. To call what occurs “peace” is to embrace an Orwellian fiction; to call it “conflict” is to sanitize…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War The Nobel Committee has frequently given the peace prize to major war makers, and frequently to do-gooders whose work in a variety of fields has been unrelated to abolishing war. It has also often given the prize to…
  • Cathy Smith The mainstream press shows its Zionist complicity plainly. Headlines like Israel awaits hostages and peace deal may be imminent ignore 77 years of Zionist bloodletting. The "press" writes about the genocidal deaths of ~67,000 Gazans as if…
  • Fred Gransville Map of families registered in Texas reporting one or more members with Morgellons Disease. Morgellons disease is one of the most perplexing and controversially shrouded conditions in modern medicine. Characterized by fibers emerging from…
  • It’s Football Season The Summer has gone and the winds have come The leaves are falling and fall is in the air But the sun shines bright and and the fields are buzzing  The bees are preparing for the long winter’s night Propaganda fills the mail  As the…
  • Robert David The Bush Controlled Demolition of Democracy The George W. Bush years (2001–2009) were less a presidency and more a controlled demolition of freedom, liberty, trust, wealth, and global credibility. Bush shattered the economic backbone of the…
  • By Mark Aurelius Part 1 was published at this link directly below (you are advised to read it as ** worthy): https://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2025/09/21/radioactive-how-the-real-radicals#more60423 Likely you agree that these times that we…
Censorship is not safety. It is authoritarianism in disguise. Bing is not just a search engine—it is an information gatekeeper. Click the red button to email MSN and Bing.com executives. This message challenges their censorship of ThePeoplesVoice.org and demands transparency, algorithmic fairness, and an end to suppression of free expression.
October 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  

  XML Feeds

Run your own website!
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi