How low can the dollar go?

[PlusMinus]

Quote from peilthetraveler:

Do what I did. Learn how to pan for gold. You will always have a job then. I took panning lessons which cost 80$ to learn, but I found about $40 in gold that day. On any given day, if i work 3-5 hours I can pull about a gram of gold out of the ground. Todays spot price for gold means thats almost $40 per gram. (this is with nothing more than a pan, shovel, bucket & 3 foot portable sluice box) All that equipment costs about $150-$180 total. One day I may get a panning machine as panning is the hardest part of the job and you are never sure if you accidently lost a few flakes. A panning machine would cut my work time in half, but they cost about $350.

Im lucky though that i live in CA and there is lots of gold here.

Wow, now I know we're in for a hellish era. People are panning for gold again. Wow, just wow! This anecdote takes the cake!

 

[peilthetraveler]

This summer when i was going every week to go panning, about 50% of the time I would run into other panners. One time I went looking for a river that was in the middle of nowhere and and i ran into two guys looking for gold with a metal detector.

Theres alot more people than you think out there that pan for gold. ALOT more than you think.

 

[orange_trad]

Quote from zdreg:

1946 inflation was the highest in history.
before u shoot from the hip check your facts.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Hyperinflation.html
now go get a haircut. unbelievable what people will post.

Sure, come puppy, right on your forehead...

Quote from phatlosz:

So my question is, if you can't afford a stock pile of gold or silver - or you simply want to diversify - does it make sense to try to get into a position where you can earn money in foreign currency? I guess that's what other countries do when they come here for business, right?

And also:

Quote from phatlosz:

Maybe I don't follow... The main point of my question is that if our dollar is devalued due to inflation or hyperinflation - would earning a wage from another country (via the internet, etc) be a good way to gain wealth in comparison to those who are still earning dollars?

I've heard that all of the Hungarian currency combined didn't equal 1000th of a US dollar when they finally settled their bout of hyperinflation. My thought is, if a Hungarian man could have earned one US dime per day, he'd be well off. Does that make sense? Why or why not?

Thanks.

Now, if you can just understand what others write, it would be obvious for you that phatlosz wants to get prepared for inflation/hyperinflation by earning money in a foreign currency. So the question is about present times. I answered one should be prepared and get educated about a foreign currency and understand the risks and costs involved, before investing in it. (Aka. the risks would eat away any difference of a small amount, like a salary.) So I was being helpful, a shame that a monkey starts jumping and screaming at something it doesn’t understand.

Let me rephrase so even you monkey understand it: “The claim that for a Hungarian a dime a day in 1945/46 would be a great deal is so funny, that I don't even begin where to start...” At that time (pharosz I hope you’re reading this) the Forint was not used for transactions. There were food stamps. IOUs. Credit. Barter. In other words, money itself was inflated but a loaf of bread was a loaf of bread, didn’t all of a sudden worth two loafs’ worth of eggs, for example. And right after WWII and during soviet occupation people didn’t much care for inflation. They were trying to rebuild (literally) what’s been left of the cities. That’s the context. If either one of you expects that to happen in the US in the foreseeable future, act on it. Just don’t expect to be respected for your wise presciences. That was one point.

The other point (why I wrote all that about the current state of Hungary) is that despite hyperinflation, 50 years after the forint is a much more stable currency than the dollar. (Add 45 years of Communism in there as well.) The deutschmark (and its manifestation in the euro today) is a much more stable currency than the dollar. Much, much better preservers of current wealth.

If you are only interested in a dick-measuring contest about Hungary’s hyperinflation, I can school you, because from that small snippet of a post is obvious you have no idea about neither the context nor the procession of it.

Yes, it's unbelievable what you would post. You're the one shooting from the hip, without even understanding what I posted.

Quote from phatlosz:

So I guess my question was misunderstood... Presume I were living in Hungary in 1945/1946 and there was a way for me to earn a small wage in dollars (maybe 10 cents a day). Knowing that all the currency in Hungary didn't add up to even 1 american penny at the end of '46; would my daily wage translate into an incredible amount of wealth in Hungary? Or would I still be poor?

Your question isn’t misunderstood. It’s still funny. I might not sugarcoat it, but there’s actually a lot of help in my posts. You just have to be willing to learn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity

 

[failed_trad3r]

Quote from DrPepper:

The US Dollar will continue to decline in value as long as the Fed keeps printing money. The Fed does not care how low the dollar goes despite their rhetoric. It could very easily go to zero and be replaced by a new world currency. In fact, that may be their plan.

Since our country is bankrupt, the Fed will continue to print money to pay our bills, until they are forced to stop.

The only thing that will force the Fed to stop printing money, is creditor nations, like China, dumping our dollars because they think that they will become worthless. Only then will the Fed consider raising interest rates and decreasing the money supply to raise the value of the US dollar. However, it is in China's (and other creditor countries') self interest not to trash our economy, because they want us to keep buying their products. So, they will probably continue to get rid of our dollars slowly.

The only other thing that will increase the value of the US dollar is a global crisis (can you say Dubai default?) that causes people to seek safety in the dollar. However, it will obviously need to be something worse than Dubai, as it only caused a one day dollar rally.

The massive, unpayable debt and the Feds unprecedented money printing adventure can only lead to continued weakening of the US dollar, hyperinflation and higher taxes. The only questions are whether we will have another retest of the March stock market lows, social unrest or another world war. How anyone can look at these facts and believe this is just another recession that we are coming out of is beyond me. Investing in gold or silver, becoming more self-sufficient (plant a vegetable garden, fruit and nut trees, etc.) and ensuring your personal safety by buying a gun and ammo all are becoming necessities.

then the stock markt goes to the moon