It is usually a mistake to try and oversimplify such trends to make a big impact of a good point. However, 1971 is pivotal with the advent of total fiat money. The consequences intended or unintended just ripple from there.

One can follow the undermining of sound money for well over a hundred years. Initially taking silver out of the precious metal backed currency. Ripples of wobbling economies begin in the 1870's, 1890's, and 1907. Then we end up with the Federal Reserve as a forced solution to a government created problem of abandoning a constitutional principle. And a sorry history of decline from there.

My first visceral experience with this was with the removal of silver in our coinage in 1964. I was 9 years old and knew something was wrong. But I had spent hours with my grandfather pouring over his coin collection with all those decades and decades of silver coinage. So, I proceeded to go to the bank, buy a roll of dimes or quarters, take it home, replace the few remaining silver coins with the new devalued trash, and then go back and trade it for another. I still have all that "junk" silver. And then Silver Certificates were discontinued. Gold has had an analogous trajectory. I had other motives for calling him Tricky Dick.

All formative in its way. I guess that it is all influential in how I ended up as a gold mining geologist my whole career.

I agree that its best to be somewhat diversified in these strange times.

That was the last year of real horsepower too...until technology caught up with regulation.

I agree. You can hold your own goldbacks. You can buy them online and have them mailed to you, or they're sold in some local coin shops. They have a vault where they'll hold them, too, but only if that''s what you choose. https://goldback.com/how-to-get-goldb...

I have thought for a long time that this is going on. I am hesitant to invest everything in gold just because, like stocks and bonds, the banking cartel manipulates as much as it can.

Absolutley. We lost our way when Gorbachev put it in US Schools as a religion, around this same time. Politticians began to mingle pollution with environment as reasons for climate change. That is when science got lost. When science was corrupted, so too was reason lost.

Here's the latest on banking cartel manipulation of gold and silver prices
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/how...

Not the same thing at all.
But given that the bank would certainly require that they hold any gold purchased as security if they did make a loan for buying gold, the loan for gold wouldn't be of interest to me anyway. I trust that a bank will do whatever they can to loot from me (and everyone else.)
Letting financial entities control the price of gold (via indices that don't hold gold) has been a bad idea, too. Of course, it was done to "make it easier for small investors to invest in gold." Ha!
(Congrats on your house ;^)

Typical government beaurocracy:
Create issues that don't exist in order to solve the problems that the government just created out of thin air.

Ronald Reagan said:
The nine most frightening words in the English language are:
"I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Once the problems are under control the beaurocracy should exist minimally only to educate and maintain...if even that.

In a round-about way you can. Get a mortgage on your home and then put your cash in gold. We just bought a home and got a 2.375% mortgage. ;-)

Can't get a mortgage to buy gold at 2% interest. I suspect the price of gold would be much higher if you could.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I've always kept at least 5% of my portfolio in GLD as insurance against hyper inflation. This year I increased that three-fold. It's interesting to to me, though, that gold pricing really hasn't been a good indicator of inflation. Real estate has done a much better job of that.

It's an hour, but worth the time. Just more evidence that we are on an unsustainable trajectory.

As I remember it, I had completed a 5 yr enlistment in the Army. I had several pairs of "earth shoes". And, I had a vascetomy.

it has been changing for the worst for a long time....

Obviously someone had an issue with my statement, please feel free to comment rather than simply down-vote it -- or in addition to the down-vote, I don't really care. The point is to have a dialog.

Diablo shuts down in a few years but what's 2.2Gw amongst friends? Just toss up some windmills and solar panels to make up for the lost 24/7/365 baseline power. What could possibly go wrong? Fuhrer Nuisance declares no more new IC cars after 2035. Hmm...wonder how all that electricity to charge cars will be produced. Back to smoky air in Silly Valley today.

Environmentalism as science is a real thing. Environmentalism as a religious sect tends to advocate things that are not environmentally sound -- such as not managing our forests here in California, closing the nuclear power plants and filling the countryside with windmills.

No, our neighbor worked for Chrysler and I loved learning how they made Glass for the windshields.
I remember learning that there is a piece of Vinyl between 2 pieces of glass, but it's totally invisible to the eye, but it's kinda cloudy when they put it on.

And FREE HOT DOGS! The good kind! LOL

I grew up about 30 miles north of Detroit in Faser/Mt. Clemens

I don't trust anyone to hold my assets for me, if I have a real choice.

If you want something physical, goldbacks are another non-fiat currency to consider: https://goldback.com/

Great link. Thanks! 👍

Ah a fellow Detroiter! Did you ever take the Ford tour of the RR plant?

Agreed, driving by the Rouge River in Detroit you were forced to roll your windows up or risk vomiting in your car, it was horrible. You would never know today. (They increased the speeds on the roads, LOL. Just kidding... They cleaned it up)

Ayn Rand spotted it happening in 1969 https://courses.aynrand.org/works/apo... .