MAKING THINGS WORSE

"All government programs accomplish the opposite of what they are designed to achieve."

John Pugsley

It’s laughable when a political candidate argues that he or she can make government more efficient and effective. As the late author, Harry Browne, used to say, "Government doesn’t work. You work, I work, Federal Express works, Microsoft works, the Salvation Army works, Alcoholics Anonymous works, but government doesn’t."

Columnist Linda Chavez had this to say about a major government boondoggle, subsidized ethanol. "The government has not only artificially increased the cost of corn, but has driven up the cost of other grains as well." "The days of cheap milk, bread, beef and poultry may well be over…." "Corn-based ethanol is inefficient as a fuel for automobiles, reducing vehicle gas mileage by 20-30 percent." "What is most galling about the impact of government-mandated ethanol production is that it does little or nothing to solve our energy problems."

About the housing crisis, writer Jeff Jacoby explained, "The crisis has its roots in the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, [which pressured] banks to make home loans in ‘low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.’ Banks were forced to make increasingly risky loans to borrowers who wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage under normal standards of creditworthiness." "Banks nationwide thus ended up making more and more ‘subprime’ loans and agreeing to dangerously lax underwriting standards – no down payment, no verification of income, interest-only payment plans, weak credit history." "Trapped in a no-win situation entirely of the government’s making, lenders could only hope that home prices would continue to rise, staving off the inevitable collapse. But once the housing bubble burst, there was no escape."

Far worse than either of these is the government’s escalating destruction of the U.S. dollar. We see its value erode almost every day in world currency markets. We witness its demise as the goods and services we need become more costly. We have watched it lose 95% of its value in the time it takes to reach retirement age. We are beginning to see it crush the middle class, rip off the retirees and reward the politically connected. Welfare and warfare, subsidies and stimulus, debts and deficits, tax, spend and inflate; that’s all the government knows.

Newsletter editor, Bill Buckler sums it up. "The U.S. dollar is fundamentally unsound. It is losing its purchasing power at an ever increasing speed and is therefore losing its facility as a vehicle for savings at equal speed." At a minimum, these days you should have 10% of your net worth in silver. It’s an asset that can offset the ravages of government-induced inflation or contraction.