If laid end to end in US$1 dollar bills this amount of money would reach what planet from the Sun?

Click here for the answer

Global Money Supply

Daily Metal Prices

See more metal prices...

Bullion Dealers

Protect your wealth today
Visit our bullion dealers page to purchase gold and other precious metal products.

20 Latest Posts

	Ratio of U.S. Gold Reserves to Various Money Supply Metrics
	LME Base Metal Charts (Jan '06 - Present)
	Central Banks Increasing Gold Reserves
	What Has Government Done to the Dollar?
	Confiscation Through Inflation
	Vietnam Lifts Gold Import Ban
	What's Wrong With Declining Prices?
	Expansion of Global Currencies
	Tungsten as a Gold Substitute
	India-IMF Deal: Tipping Point for Gold
	Investment Check-List For Precious Metals Miners, Part 2
	Why Changes in Gold Production Don't Matter
	Review: Charles Goyette's "The Dollar Meltdown"
	If You Thought the Housing Meltdown Was Bad...
	Gold and Cadillacs
	The Significance of the IMF-RBI Gold Sales
	Reserve Bank of India's Gold Purchase From the IMF
	A Path To Runaway US Inflation
	Who Cares About the Dollar?
	The Feds Have No Faith in Recovery

See more posts (679)...

Topic Categories

	Current Events (104)
	Monetary Commentary (341)
	Economic Theory (43)
	Metals & Mining (21)
	Oil (8)
	China (22)
	Guest Commentary (563)
	Housing Bust (39)
	Taxes (10)
	Government Policy (98)
	History (54)
	Gold (83)
	Sub-Prime Implosion (41)
	Banking Crisis (76)
	Predictions (10)
	Hyperinflation (10)
	The History of Money (2)

Recommended Books

We entrusted the experts with our financial security and now we're reeling from the economic crisis. How do we get back on our feet...and invest wisely?

In The Wealth Code: How the Rich Stay Rich in Good Times and Bad, financial planner and investment strategist Jason Vanclef delivers straight answers...and solutions.

Visit the book website at www.thewealthcode.com.
Empire of Debt
Bonner and Wiggin enumerate a long list of chronic ailments that imperil the American financial system--a massive trade deficit, soaring personal and government debt, a housing bubble, runaway military expenditures.
The Intelligent Investor
The classic bestseller by Benjamin Graham, perhaps the greatest investment advisor of the 20th century, The Intelligent Investor has taught and inspired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
Methods of a Wall Street Master
This book covers all the important aspects of making money and integrates them into a unifying philosophy that includes economics, Federal Reserve policy, trading methods, risk, psychology, and more.
What Has Government Done to Our Money
If you ever wondered about why prices keep going up, if you ever wondered why cars don't cost $2,000 anymore, if you asked questions like this and never thought you were getting a full answer, this is the book you need to read.
Economics for Real People
Economics for Real People is a clearly-written overview of "Austrian" economics, a libertarian school of economic thought founded by thinkers from Central Europe in the early 20th century.
Economics in One Lesson
"Economics in One Lesson", Henry Hazlet's, book makes a powerful and persuasive argument in favor of a free market economy.
The Road to Serfdom
This classic by one of the 20th century's leading libertarian thinkers has established itself beside the works of Orwell and others as a timeless meditation on the relationship between human freedom and government authority.
Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse
For those accustomed to America's economic dominance, Crash Proof is a frighteningly forthright wake-up call.

Ben's Helicopters are Here!

By Mike Hewitt (0 comments)

The US Federal Reserve is increasing the monetary base at an unprecedented rate in response to the present deflationary asset crunch, following the longest running inflationary boom in the country's history.

Newly printed dollars are being used to replace the capital losses of America's corporations. If it were possible to replace wealth simply by printing money, humanity would have eliminated poverty shortly after discovering the printing press. Instead, it always results in the same fate - destruction of the currency through the process of hyperinflation.

The following chart using data from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis visually reveals just how extreme the latest measures from the US Federal Reserve have impacted the monetary base.

Expansion of the U.S. Monetary Base since 1960

The last three months have seen an increase of $636.7 billion which is equivalent to the increase of the previous eighteen years!

On November 21, 2002, Governor Ben Bernanke made the infamous remark which earned him the nickname "Helicopter Ben" when he responded why deflation need never be an issue for the US economy (link here).

"U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost." (Ben Bernanke before the National Economists Club in Washington, D.C. - November 21, 2002)

It would appear that Helicopter Ben is making good on his word...

Cartoon courtesy of BlueWire Studio.

Published on http://DollarDaze.org - Dec 1, 2008.

_____

© 2008 DollarDaze

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hewitt is the editor of DollarDaze.org, a website pertaining to commentary on the instability of the global fiat monetary system and investment strategies on mining companies. His website also provides a no-cost market data feed service with up-to-date quotes on currency exchange rates, commodity prices and major indices. Mike can be emailed at mikehewitt@hotmail.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are not intended to be taken as investment advice. It is to be taken as opinion only and I encourage you to complete your own due diligence when making an investment decision.

add to technorati |

reddit |

add to del.icio.us |

add to furl |

stumble it!

This article has been favorited 4 times on DollarDaze.org | Make this your favorite article

Posted in Monetary Commentary, Mike Hewitt

Prev/Next Posts (General, 464 of 679)

« The Return of the Skyscraper Index | Index | Gold and Economic Freedom »

1036507

Search DollarDaze

Your Purchasing Power

Web Media

Mainstream Economics

	Crisis was made in China
	Depression Lurks Unless There's More Stimulus
	Observations on Negative Interest Rates
	It May Be Time for the Fed to Go Negative
	Monetary Policy in the Financial Crisis
	Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here
	Economists clash on shifting sands

Ben's Helicopters are Here!

Leave a Comment on this ArticleBen's Helicopters are Here! by Mike Hewitt

Leave a Comment on this Article
Ben's Helicopters are Here! by Mike Hewitt