Starving Steve

Originally Posted by Starving Steve

I used to work summers inside a dark and HUGE warehouse in San Jose, Calif. on Race Street, before all the computer geeks moved to the Santa Clara Valley and before all of the canaries were closed and demolished. The warehouse that I worked inside stored cans of fruit and vegetables grown throughout central Calif. I worked during the nights stacking cans onto shelves--- gigantic shelves. The loading-truck would run through the warehouse and deliver pallets of cans to me every hour or two, all night long.

If you would, imagine Ft. Knox and all of the 8,600 tonnes of gold inside its warehouse. Imagine stacking gold bars onto metal shelves, from the floor to the ceiling. Aisle upon aisle in the dark warehouse, 400 troy ounce gold bars, from the floor up to the ceiling. Some gold bars would be stacked upon the floor. Some gold bars would be on metal pallets, and there might be an all-night stacker, like Starving Steve and his cans of fruit and vegetables, but stacking bars of gold by serial number and maker.

And then, if the gold depository at Ft. Knox would be depleted, the U.S. has its real estate: not so much anymore flea-bag tiny shacks occupied by hillbillies and simpletons from the South, but real estate beyond what anyone might imagine. There are entire towns in America of middle-class people or even lower middle-class people living in, and owning 5,000 and 6,000 square foot new homes--- homes so large that one might need a road map to navigate inside.... The point is that these homes are NOT expensive in U.S. dollars. These new homes sell for $150,000 to $300,000 to-day. Yes, new homes on acreages near or in small towns and not far from major cities like Kansas City or Atlanta or Dallas or Richmond or Denver. New homes, vaulted ceilings, granite counters, triple-car garages, tile roofs. Everything..... This is what American real estate is worth, and we haven't even begun to count real estate in major centres such as San Francisco or New York City.

And then, we have the oil and gas just discovered in North Dakota, not to mention Mont, SD, Colo, Tex, Ohio, New York, Pa, W.Va, Wyo, Calif, Louisiana, Alabama, Kansas, Okla, Tn, Idaho, on and on and on.... And then we have the un-tapped sweet and light oil still leaking out through oil seeps, and just waiting to be tapped offshore of Los Angeles. And then we have Alaska, barely even explored. The waters off of the east coast of America including Florida are totally unexplored.... The fact of the matter is that America may be exporting oil again, and soon.

BP has discovered the biggest oil find in history, and it's offshore of the Louisiana Delta. That is very promising for America's future.

On top of all this, the U.S. has gigantic coal reserves. Coal right now, whether clean or not, is providing cheap and affordable electricity for much of the nation. In future, coal might be converted to synthetic oil and natural gas..... Coal has a great future.

And then we have the productive capacity of America, especially in electronics and micro-computers. Then, there is sick old Detroit, but it still produces top-quality cars for the entire world. The Rust Belt still produces steel and machinery, all of it exportable and much of it is exported now.

And then there is the military capacity and exportable military hardware of America.

And then there is the agriculture output of America, much of it producing exports to the entire world.

And then there is the technological know-how of America. Some of the best universities and talent in the world is in America. Most of the inventions and patents in the world have come from America, and they will still come from America in the future.

And then there is the infrastructure of America: atomic-power plants, hydro-electric dams, the Interstate Highway system of high-speed freeways, the pipelines, the canals, the railroads, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Tennessee Valley Authority..... Held publicly or privately, certainly these assets have some value too.

And then there is the system of jurisprudence in America. There is also the system of federal deposit insurance. The United States has NEVER defaulted on its debts, and the U.S. has never de-monetized or officially de-valued its currency..... Every U.S. coin or piece of paper money is worth what it says it is worth..... There are no games and no surprises; everything issued by the U.S. government is legal tender, and even retired and obsolete money is still legal tender..... Compare that record in America to what has taken place through the years in other countries, especially in Latin America and in Africa.

And then there is NAFTA which helps America, Canada, and Mexico. This free-trade is really part of the infrastructure of all three nations.

Now, being an official moron--- with papers and test scores to prove it--- I want to know how the U.S. dollar is going to collapse? Decline slowly, that's possible. Even any decline is open to some debate, because the policy of the Federal Reserve at this moment appears to be to stop inflation totally, possibly begin a slow and controlled de-flation, and to strengthen the dollar slowly.... So is the dollar going to collapse? No. Are there going to be shocks and surprises ahead for dollar holders? Probably not. Might the dollar rise in foreign exchange value? Possibly.

All of this makes for a nice home for dollars. It makes for a nice home for any I.O.U.s the United States has issued throughout the years.

Does the U.S. have serious problems, and is its government corrupt and incompetent? Yes..... But is the U.S. going to sink like the Titantic? No.... Is the U.S. going to erode away and sink into the dust-bin of history? Probably not.