| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle
Is Stimulus Money Hog Bait? Several years ago an uncommon windstorm damaged farms and fences in a rural community. In time, everyone’s stock was recovered, except for a few hogs which ran wild in the foothills. Efforts to recapture the hogs were fruitless. As the months passed the hogs became more wily and harder to capture. One day a man requested fencing supplies and cracked corn at the mercantile store. “I am hoping to catch hogs,” the man told the storekeeper. “Good luck, most around here have given up.” Thirty-nine days later the man returned inquiring about the proprietor of the butcher shop. The storekeeper, eye brows raised, couldn’t help himself, ‘You caught the hogs? How?” The man explained: “It took 4 days to find the hogs. Then I set out cracked corn. Ten days later a few nibbled at it. I was patient. Then I placed a fence post next to the corn. Five days passed before hogs didn’t worry about the fence post and ate freely again. Then, during the next 20 days I systematically set posts for a fence. Yesterday, I shut the gate and I have several corn fed hogs ready for butchering”. Sometimes I wonder if unemployment and stimulus checks have the same effect on people, businesses, or civic agencies. Many are quick to look and depend on elected officials in government for financial support: a recipe to become lazy or indolent. Do we really believe that Governors or Legislators or Congressional leaders are paying from their private purses to do this “philanthropy”? Or, are we being a bit shortsighted by not pausing to consider that nothing enters the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen without taking from another citizen? Scott Perrin Cottonwood, Idaho Redneck Review! No. 272 - 7/13/20 Brief Corona comment! Daily News! "Corona spikes almost everywhere! New rules and delayed openings!" But checking carefully the latest official data, you find that the ratio of deaths to confirmed cases has eased down again, from last week and weeks before! Do your own research! You will find Idaho's has slipped even lower around 1%, while the ratio at the national level has been moving down, from 6% to below 5% and trending even lower! True it is that more cases have been confirmed, but the deaths related to these cases are recently moving towards 2% at the national level. Death rates declining, but new regulations increasing? Sure to cause more fireworks between those who want still more protections, and those who are more concerned about our economy and our way of life. Bottom line is, it is even more critical that we all remember Christ's second most important Commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself!" And appreciate once again our Bill of Rights, stating that "Congress (Government) shall make no law... abridging (limiting) the freedom of speech... or the right of the people PEACEABLY to assemble." In simple language, all must respect the honest opinion of others, and act accordingly, something that is sorely lacking today! To the concerns discussed last week, the possibility of an all out socialist government coming from our November election, and the dangerous status of our economy and debt situation, we add the following concern, the collapse of our dollar and money system. Older folks like myself know well the difference in purchasing power of our American dollar, still the standard used around the world. But the value of that dollar has slowly declined from its totally guaranteed status backed by gold and silver not even that many years ago. We are now trusting MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) which argues that governments and central banks can create money at will to keep economies going! And all around the world governments are doing that with no holds barred! Thus it is true that today's dollar is worth only a few cents when compared to one just a few decades ago. What are the results, and what does that mean? For starters, like during the "Roaring Twenties" leading to the ten year depression in the 30's, the stock market continues to flourish, and prices continue to climb! And debt continues to shoot up at all levels, because of the incentive of near zero interest rates. But the overall health of our economy becomes more perilous almost week by week. With no further comment, consider the following quotations taken recently from a reputable newsletter. "The need for gold - the ultimate safe-haven asset... has never been higher in this country's history."- Fred Hickey. "For decades the ultimate fate of the...U.S. dollar economy... has been a hyper inflationary collapse... too much money... tends to... inflation... Physical holdings of...metals like gold and silver are traditional stores of wealth..."- John Williams. "Inflation will be the problem soon. The virus put our...spending requirements on fast forward... this inflating...can wipe out savings, and send cost of living to unaffordable levels."-James Cook. "Early in...a bull market, people ...go mostly to the big name choice... gold. (Then) they look around and find silver...languishing at a relatively low price...suddenly silver looks extremely cheap... In a crash, silver coins are actually more useful than gold.. (a one ounce coin can) function as $20 bills rather than gold's illiquid $1000+" (The historical ratio of 35 oz silver to 1 oz gold has in recent weeks hit 120 oz silver to 1 oz gold!) "Suddenly... investors conclude that at current prices, the choice is a nobrainer. Silver is the precious metal to load up on." - John Rubino. "Silver should be priced much higher...around $75/oz. It could go much higher because of the shortage that is developing"-Ted Butler. (Continued discussion of concerns next week!) (All quotations from Investment Rarities Market Update news letter. Call 1-800-328-1860) Jake Wren |
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