The US Dollar slowly eroding in value

Everyone is always talking about inflation versus deflation. We may be having a partial bout of deflation just now in some parts of life (houses, cell phones and computers, Walmart plastic crap) by there are strong price rises as well (health care, food, fuel, education, entertainment).  So, we should probably just call it stagflation - same as in the late 1970s.

However, somewhat lost in the shuffle, is that the US dollar has been in a steady decline for over a hundred years.  After Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971, the decline really steepened for awhile.  But, it has not turned up except for very brief periods.  That is why the cup of java that you used to get for a dime or quarter, now costs $3 or $4 bucks.  Things really haven't gotten more expensive - the dollar has just lost value.

Some even place the blame on the activities of the Federal Reserve promoting low interest rates and printing lots of money for the recent steep decline.

When we consider the true historical currency - gold - and compare it against the major paper currencies, even in the past decade we see a sharp decline.

The early effects of the flooding of money into the economy during the past decade made many people feel more wealthy for a short time as house prices went up.  But, most of us have borrowed to the hilt and have become loaded with debt as our wealth has plummeted.

So, what to do in this time of declining value of holding cash or even low paying bonds?

One answer is buying a bag of gold or silver bullion coins (Eagles, Krugerrand, Maple Leaf).  This used to be considered a "disaster preparedness" insurance policy.  Now it makes just good common sense.

As you look at the increase in the price of gold just in 10 years, it has risen over 400% since 2001.  That means if you had $12,500 in gold coins (about 50 ounce coins) at that time, it is now worth $50,000. 

And when we compare it to the huge gold rise during the highly inflationary 1970s in the chart below (the gold line), we see that compared to that huge historical bubble,  currently gold (blue line) is just on a steady rise as the dollar declines. 

That is the thing about gold.  It is the ultimate money.  It does not change in value - only the paper monies issued by government slowly decline.  All paper currencies issued during thousands of years became worthless.  Gold maintains value and is almost indestructible.

Everyone should hold some in their savings. Just buy some small coins each month. 

Travelers' Century Club

I'm someone who travels quite a bit, both for business and pleasure.  It was interesting for me to stumble upon the Facebook Tripadvisor Cities I've Visited function.  As noted in macro detail below, it displays over 1000 cities in 64 countries I have hit in my travels in 5 decades.  

What is also quite evident visually is the many places I still need to visit in the south (Africa and South America) as well as north Asia.  If you travel a bit and use Facebook, this is a fun application to play with on a rainy afternoon. What is your total?

The Facebook definition of a country is quite conservative and very different from that of The Travelers' Century Club, which has an official list of 320 separate entities since March of this year.  Using this country list, available on their website, I am now in the high 90s and looking to top 100 in the next few years.  

My partner and spouse is more traveled than I and very close to the Century at this point with places I have not yet visited such as Moldova, Belarus, Madagascar, Montenegro, Serbia, Micronesia and a couple other Pacific islands.  My only unique advantage at this point is Iceland.

For the Club's purposes, with rules established in 1970, a country includes:

Although some are not actually countries in their own right, they have been included because they are removed from parent, either geographically, politically or ethnologically (see the Country Status page for detailed criteria). After consideration as to how long one must have stayed in a country or island group to qualify, it was decided that even the shortest visit would suffice — even if only a port-of-call, or a plane fuel stop. This greatly widens the field and will give the traveler a better chance to qualify for one of the most unusual clubs in the world. Anyone who has visited 100 or more of the places listed below is eligible to join

1. Government/Administration: Any geographic area with a sovereign government or separately administered as a colony, protectorate, trusteeship territory, territory or mandate shall be considered as a separate country.

2. Enclaves/Continental Separation: Continental land areas having a common government or administration but which are geographically discontinuous either by reason of being separated by foreign land not under their control, by being located on separate continents, or by being separated by a natural body of water shall be considered as separate countries provided their population exceeds 100,000. Multiple fragments separated by the same foreign country shall only count for one country.


3. Federations: A geographic entity which is a federation of separate geographically definable entitles, each of which is a separate republic/emirate/kingdom in its own right shall be counted as separate countries.


4. Islands/island Groups:

a. In island/island group not separately defined under section I shall be considered a separate country if.

1. It is situated at least 200 miles from the closest continental portion of its administrating country; or
2. Being located within 200 miles, it has a population exceeding 100,000 and is administered as distinctively separate state(s), province(s), or department(s).

b. Island groups that are parts of an island country within the definition of section I shall be considered separate countries if.,

1. They are situated at least 200 miles from the closest portion of the same island country; or
2. Being located within 200 miles, they have a population exceeding 100,000 and are administered as distinctively separate states, provinces, or departments.

5. Disputed Status: Geographically defined areas which have historically had an independent identity and whose current political status is the subject of dispute shall be counted as separate countries.


6. Unpopulated/Unadministered Areas: Any area which is unadministered or has no resident population will not be considered as a separate country, except for the political divisions of the Antartica.


7. Grandfather Clause. An area which is recognized as a country in the past may be retained as a country even if it does not fit any of the above criteria and any country that is deleted from the list will still count for the purposes of having reached the minimum number of countries required for membership or for the 150 or 200 country levels.

Changes in college degree emphasis

I ran across some graphs of Department of Education data today published by Casey Research.  It provides some visual comparison of interest in "softer" degrees in the liberal arts versus more technical degrees in the sciences.   These numbers represent graduates, so in most cases the student likely selected their majors 4 years prior to the completion of the baccalaureate.

Clearly the Woodstock generation of the late '60s swung the curve up, almost doubling graduates (especially English). This had a severe dip in the '70/80s  and then a brief bump (for reasons unknown to me) in the early '90s.

Interestingly, the hard sciences start rather low and then decline!

Math shows similar tendencies with a loss of 2/3 over 35 years!

Engineering showed a big bump in the later '80s, but has since declined to a more "normal" 6% graduate rate.

And as may be expected, business degrees became very popular in the early '70 - matching the equal decline in the liberal arts - and still accounts for over 20% of graduates.

 Of course, most degrees in business are like a "starters permit" and qualify one for everything from a night manager at McDonalds to the start of a career track on Wall Street.   And my experience is that many successful business professionals gained their education in the liberal arts (such as me - political science).

However, the slope of the graphs from the upper left to the lower right in many areas do not indicate a good forecast, especially in the science categories.  Of course, a number of majors are missing from these displays - but they are food for thought.

My close colleague, LyndiCoop wrote to tell me that much of the increase is in health and medical fields.  Students are fighting to get qualified for pre-med even before college.

Thinking about Identity in the modern world

In 2005, Dick Hardt, founder & CEO of Sxip Identity, delivered a compelling and dynamic introduction on Identity 2.0 and how the concept of digital identity is evolving. At 15 minutes long, it is a stimulating and provoking analysis... there is a little bit of tech stuff, but consider how we are evolving as humans in this internetworked world.

The Last Lecture - Achieving Childhood Dreams

This is one of my favorite presentations. Seemingly about time management, it explores many facets of life and living.

On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that claimed his life a few months later. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.

Using the power of the mind with affirmations

This is a chart I pulled out of the file cabinet this weekend. It illustrates some of the knowledge that I learned some 35 years ago while studying the Silva method of personal mind control.  There is evidence that there is higher "electrical energy" available at lower frequencies of brain rhythm (cycles per second).  This energy can be directed during active meditation to strengthen affirmative conditioning statements. 

Basically, frequencies run a range from very slow (< 4 cycles per second) while in deep sleep to the higher 30s or more during active aware consciousness.  The goal of all meditation techniques (also hypnotism) is to relax the consciousness from the active Beta level to the Alpha level near to 7 cycles a second. Many times we reach this state unthinkingly when we are daydreaming, or just before dropping off to sleep.  

The purpose of using relaxation count-downs in repetitive rounds (as in the Integrated Awareness conditioning) is to gradually allow the mind to slow down cycles toward the Alpha level.  Of course, if you get too relaxed, you quickly drop into Theta or Delta deeper sleep.  While it takes some practice, I've found that just listening to a guided relaxation for 10-15 minutes brings the desired results.  Once at Alpha, that is when the affirmation statements are their most powerful to embed into the unconscious and begin influencing conscious reality creation and experience. Alpha is the place where you want to work... and easily able to waken in case of any urgent need.

That is why it is very important to always preview these types of materials to insure you have full agreement with the conditioning suggestions.