Intentional Inflation Has Caused Sharp Poverty Increase in America

SOURCE:  “Tonight, millions of precious American children will go to bed without any dinner.  Tonight, millions of American children will shiver as they try to go to sleep because their families cannot afford any heat.  How bad does child poverty have to get before we all finally admit that our economic system is completely failing many of the most vulnerable members of our society?”

The following are 16 shocking statistics about child poverty in America that will break your heart….

#1 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#2 According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, 1.6 million American children “were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year”.

#3 The percentage of children living in poverty in the United States increased from 16.9 percent in 2006 to nearly 22 percent in 2010.  In the UK and in France the child poverty rate is well under 10 percent.

#4 A higher percentage of American children is living in poverty today than was living in poverty back in 1975.

#5 The number of children living in poverty in the U.S. has risen for four years in a row.

#6 There are 10 different U.S. states where at least one out of every four babies is born to a family living in poverty.

#7 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#8 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#9 In the United States today, more than 35 percent of all African-American children are living in poverty and more than 33 percent of all Hispanic children are living in poverty.

#10 There are seven million children in the United States today that are not covered by health insurance at all.

#11 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#12 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#13 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#14 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#15 In Washington D.C., the “child food insecurity rate” is 32.3%.

#16 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

So why are so many children suffering so badly?

Well, one reason is that millions of parents are unemployed.  The government tells us that the official unemployment rate is 8.6 percent, but when you take an honest look at the numbers the truth is that the situation is much worse than that.

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Ludwig von Mises on Money and Inflation [READ ENTIRE SHORT PDF BOOK]

EXCERPT:  “The first rule, or the only rule which we have to teach to everybody in explaining the problems of money is that an increase in the quantity of
money brings about for the group, for the people, for the society, for the
king, for the emperor who does it, a temporary improvement of the situation.
But if so, why do it today only and not repeat it tomorrow?  This is
the only question. And this is the problem of inflation.
The problem is not to increase the quantity of money. The problem is
to increase the quantity of those things which can be bought with money.
And if you are increasing the quantity of money, and you are not increasing
the quantity of things which can be bought with money, you are only
increasing the prices which are paid for them.  And in time, if the increase
in money continues, the whole system becomes a system without
any meaning and really without any possible method of dealing with it.
Unfortunately we are living in a period in which many governments
say, if we don’t have enough money for something and if we don’t want
to tax people because the people don’t want to pay taxes for this purpose,
then let us add a little bit, a little bit of paper money, not very much, just a
little bit, you know.  I would like to attack the problem from another point
of view and say:  “There is nothing in the world less fit to serve as money
than paper, printed paper.”  Nothing is cheaper.  And practically what we
have to say is that the governments are destroying the whole economic
system of the market economy by destroying the monetary system. One
could compare this printing of paper money, and people have, with what
has happened in the field of the use of various drugs.  Just as when you
start to use certain drugs you don’t know when to stop nor how to stop, will say that this is something very general; what reference does it have to
the problems of daily policies, monetary policies. It has a very important
reference.  The reference is that when you are operating with something
that can be a deadly poison, not always but it can be, then you must be
very careful.  You must be very careful not to go to a certain point.  This is
something which one may also say about all the medicines that influence
the nerves and minds of people.  The doctor saves the lives of some people
by giving them some chemical in a quantity which he precisely determines
and knows. And if the quantity were increased up to a certain point, then
the same chemical would be a deadly poison.
We have a similar situation with inflation. Where does inflation start?
It starts as soon as you increase the quantity of money.  And where does
the danger point begin?  That is another problem.  The question cannot be
answered precisely. People must realize that you cannot give a statesman
advice: “ This is the point up to which you may go and beyond this point
you may not go, and so on, you know.”  Life is not as simple as that.  But
what we have to realize, what we have to know when we are dealing with
money and monetary problems, is always the same. We have to realize that
the increase in the quantity of money, the increase of those things which
have the power to be used for monetary purposes, must be restricted at
every point.

The real problem is that we have a quantity of money in most countries,
including the United States, a quantity that is continually increasing.
And the effect of this increase is that prices of commodities and services are
going up and people are asking for higher wages. And the government says
this is “an inflationary pressure.”  I see this word a hundred times everyday
in the newspapers, but I don’t know what “an inflationary pressure” is.
There is no such thing as “an inflationary pressure.”  Nothing is inflationary
except an increase in the quantity of money. Either there is an increase
in the quantity of money, or there is no increase in the quantity of money.
There is a practical solution from the theoretical point of view—the
gold standard. As long as we are using as a medium of exchange the precious
metal gold, we have under present day conditions no special problems
to deal with.  But as soon as we are increasing the quantity of paper
money, as soon as we say, “A little bit more, it doesn’t matter, and so on,”
then we are entering a field in which the problems become very different.
We can have today a rather satisfactory system of monetary payments
when we accept the idea that gold can be used as a medium of exchange
without any restrictions. …”  Read Rest of Short PDF Book

_______________________

What Has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray Rothbard [READ FULL BOOK AS PDF HERE]

When this gem first appeared in 1963, it took the form of a small paperback designed for mass distribution. We’ve conjured up that spirit again with this special edition of Rothbard’s primer on money and government.  Innumerable economists, investors, commentators, and authors have learned from this book through the decades.  After fifty years, it remains the best book in print on the topic, a real manifesto of sound money.  Rothbard boils down the Austrian theory to its essentials. The book also made huge theoretical advances. Rothbard was the first to prove that the government, and only the government, can destroy money on a mass scale, and he showed exactly how they go about this dirty deed. But just as importantly, it is beautifully written. He tells a thrilling story because he loves the subject so much.

The passion that Murray feels for the topic comes through in the prose and transfers to the reader. Readers become excited about the subject, and tell others.  Students tell professors.  Some, like the great Ron Paul of Texas, have even run for political office after having read it.  Rothbard shows precisely how banks create money out of thin air and how the central bank, backed by government power, allows them to get away with it. He shows how exchange rates and interest rates would work in a true free market. When it comes to describing the end of the gold standard, he is not content to describe the big trends. He names names and ferrets out all the interest groups involved.  Since Rothbard’s death, scholars have worked to assess his legacy, and many of them agree that this little book is one of his most important. Though it has sometimes been inauspiciously packaged and is surprisingly short, its argument took huge strides toward explaining that it is impossible to understand public affairs in our time without understanding money and its destruction.

This volume’s contents include:

• Preface by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
• I. Introduction by Murray Rothbard
• II. Money in a Free Society
  • 1. The Value of Exchange
  • 2. Barter
  • 3. Indirect Exchange
  • 4. Benefits of Money
  • 5. The Monetary Unit
  • 6. The Shape of Money
  • 7. Private Coinage
  • 8. The Proper Supply of Money
  • 9. The Problem of Hoarding
  • 10. Stabilize the Price Level?
  • 11. Coexisting Moneys
  • 12. Money-Warehouses
  • 13. Summary
• III. Government Meddling With Money
  • 1. The Revenue of Government
  • 2. The Economic Effects of Inflation
  • 3. Compulsory Monopoly of the Mint
  • 4. Debasement
  • 5. Gresham’s Law and Coinage
  • 6. Summary: Government and Coinage
  • 7. Permitting Banks to Refuse Payment
  • 8. Central Banking: Removing the Checks on Inflation
  • 9. Central Banking: Directing the Inflation
  • 10. Going Off the Gold Standard
  • 11. Fiat Money and the Gold Problem
  • 12. Fiat Money and Gresham’s Law
  • 13. Government and Money
• IV. The Monetary Breakdown of the West
  • 1. Phase I: The Classical Gold Standard, 1815-1914
  • 2. Phase II: World War I and After
  • 3. Phase III: The Gold Exchange Standard (Britain and the United States) 1926-1931
  • 4. Phase IV: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, 1931-1945…
  • 5. Phase V: Bretton Woods and the New Gold Exchange Standard (the United States) 1945 1968
  • 6. Phase VI: The Unraveling of Bretton Woods, 1968-1971
  • 7. Phase VII: The End of Bretton Woods: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, August-December, 1971
  • 8. Phase VIII: The Smithsonian Agreement, December 1971-February 1973
  • 9. Phase IX: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, March 1973-?

December 2011 News Updates

Reuters
Gold steady after carnage, Europe fear grows

Financial Times
Gold tarnished in dash for dollar

Wall Street Journal
Gold Extends Fall In Asia, Near-Term Outlook Weak

COMMENTARY

Zero Hedge
Citi Predicts Gold At $3400 In “The Next Two Years”, Potential For Move As High As $6000

King World News
Von Greyerz – Currency Collapse, Hyperinflation & Social Unrest

Zero Hedge
Kyle Bass On Rehypothecation And Other Keynesian Endgame Scenarios

Bullion Bulls Canada
The Bankers’ New Gold

Peter Grandich
Grandich: A Million Reasons Why I Love Gold