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Garage Sale Picking and the Scavenging of America

Garage Sale Picking and the Scavenging of America

Garage sale picking is a national pastime for a large segment of the U.S. population.  And it is easy to see why.  You get to paw through another family’s accumulated junk to see if there is anything that strikes your fancy.  As the old saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

It may be surprising to you, but I usually don’t frequent garage sales.  I find their ephemeral nature (there one day and gone the next) to be somewhat frustrating.  But I suppose that is part of their charm as well.

Anyway, I had read in the local paper about a large garage sale that wasn’t very far from my house.  According to the advertisement, this sale would feature vintage post cards, antique tin-type photographs and old jewelry, among many other things.  So I decided to check it out on a whim.

The jewelry was the real draw for me, but I always set out for garage sale picking (or any kind of picking for that matter) with an open mind.  You simply never know what antique wonders you might discover.

There is nothing quite like that moment when you first arrive at a flea market, swap meet or garage sale.  The air is full of electricity – the tantalizing possibility of the treasures you might find.  Of course, the reality of garage sale picking is often far more mundane.

Only a minute after my arrival I was trawling up and down the rows of household debris, looking for something worth my while.  If you are a regular reader of my Antique Sage website, then you know I focus on small, precious items – jewelry, silverware, coins, watches, etc.

After just a few minutes I began to worry.  The advertised jewelry was nowhere to be found.  I soon discovered that the early birds had picked it over before I got there, leaving nothing but a few costume jewelry scraps.

Of course, anybody who does garage sale picking expects to find a high proportion of junk items hiding a handful of gems in the rough.  But this family’s sale was absolutely overrun with nonsensical trash.

My personal nomination for best of the worst kitsch was a small painted box full of Thomas Kinkade coasters.  If you are unaware, Thomas Kinkade was the self-anointed “Painter of Light” who marketed himself so effectively that even today – well after the peak of his popularity in the 1990s – his works still saturate middle-class American homes like a demented, Norman Rockwellesque plague.  In fact, Thomas Kinkade paintings and prints are so bad that they’ve gained a place of dubious honor on my list of the 7 worst collectibles for investors.

But the Thomas Kinkade trinket I found was infinitely more banal than just another overly-sentimental landscape painting.  Culturally speaking, it doesn’t get any worse than a box full of garish Thomas Kinkade coasters.  Well, I guess it gets a bit worse when you look at the price tag and realize that this typical American family wants $10 for the artistic abomination.

But my garage sale picking story doesn’t end here.  No, I persevered, systematically sorting through useless small kitchen appliances, boxes full of plastic knick-knacks and endless piles of VHS and cassette tapes.

And then I saw it.

Tucked away on a corner table in the garage were a few old-fashioned linen silverware storage rolls.  I carefully took them out into the sunlight one-by-one in order to get a better view.

98% of the time, when you come across silverware while garage sale picking, it is either stainless steel (made in Korea!) or silver-plate (1847 Rogers Bros!), either of which is equally worthless in most circumstances.

But this wasn’t one of those times.  The family had clearly labeled these silverware rolls with that magical word “sterling”.  I slowly unwrapped each roll with great anticipation and was rewarded with an amazing sight.

Inside were partial sets of two different Gorham sterling silver flatware patterns.  The first was Etruscan (patented in 1913), a simple and stately pattern with a classical sensibility.  The second was Plymouth (patented in 1911), an equally clean and uncluttered early 20th century design.

Gorham is renowned for the quality of its antique sterling silver.  In fact, it is generally considered second only to Tiffany & Company in perceived status among knowledgeable silver collectors.

The 3 silverware rolls filled with Gorham sterling pieces (and a few mismatched silver-plated spoons) had price tags totaling $135.  I had a hunch that this was below the bullion value of the silverware, but I wasn’t absolutely certain.  So when I brought them to the cash register I asked the woman if she would be willing to accept $110 for the group.

It is always a good idea to haggle down the price a bit if you can.  That way you limit your risk.

Happily, she readily agreed to my offer.  There is nothing like the sight of a wad of $20 bills to motivate a prospective seller.

We quickly concluded our business and I soon headed for home with my new treasures in tow.  Upon reaching my house, I immediately broke out the scale and began to weigh and inventory my new (to me) silver flatware.

There were 24 Gorham sterling silver pieces in total – 9 Etruscan teaspoons, 6 Etruscan tablespoons, 1 Etruscan sugar spoon, 1 Etruscan master butter knife and 7 Plymouth teaspoons.  They collectively weighed in at around 20 troy ounces of sterling silver, giving them a bullion value of about $275 at current spot prices.

A quick check on eBay revealed that antique Gorham sterling flatware in good condition often sells for around $14 to $18 a piece.  I paid $4.58 a piece for my haul.

I had done well on my garage sale picking expedition.

But I think there is a larger lesson to be learned from my experience.  The modern age has so corrupted the idea of money that average people no longer recognize valuable tangible assets when they see them.  Instead, money has evolved into this virtual, largely imaginary thing that has no basis in the physical world.  In the modern age, why should anything have value – even sterling silver?

The family that sold their Gorham silverware to me knew that it was sterling silver.  The woman even commented to me that she had “looked it up online” to verify that it was actually sterling.  She sold it knowing full well that it was solid silver; she simply didn’t believe that fact conferred much value on the set.

But what she was actually doing was selling the accumulated wealth of her ancestors.  These hard assets had undoubtedly been passed down in her middle-class family over many decades.  This hodge-podge collection of Gorham sterling silver was probably her family’s only physically inherited wealth of any note, with the possible exception of a few pieces of old jewelry or a family home.  And she sold it for $110.

Now, she may have put that $110 to very good use.  Maybe she used it to pay-down onerous credit card debt or to fund a profitable small business.  I don’t know, although I certainly do hope she made smart choices with the money.

But it is important to keep in mind that when you sell great aunt Jenny’s sterling silver, grandma Etta’s diamond wedding ring or Uncle Howard’s coin collection, it is highly probable that you will not be able to easily or cheaply replace these hard assets in the future.  So you had better be rolling the proceeds into other tangible assets (gold and silver bullion are probably the easiest choice for the neophyte) or using the extra cash for an exigent need.

The other side of this analysis is that garage sale picking is a great way to build wealth for those willing to scavenge their way across America.  After all, people are out there literally selling the family silver!  And if you don’t buy it, some eBay flipper or metal scrapper will.  So open up your wallet and back up the truck!

 

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The 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue – An Inflationary Retrospective

The 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue - An Inflationary Retrospective

With the impending bankruptcy of Sears, I felt that now would be a good time to talk about the 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue.  This 1200 page monster was the Amazon website of its day, allowing people from even the remotest corner of the country to purchase the latest goods and fashions from a trusted retailer at competitive prices.

Of course, one of the most notable aspects of the 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue is the startling difference between modern prices and the 1902 prices advertised in the catalogue.  These dramatic price changes are attributable to inflation, which has been surreptitiously doing its wicked work on the U.S. dollar for a full century now.

My introduction to the 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue came as a child when I used to visit my grandmother’s house to mow her lawn.  My grandmother had a reprint of the old book, which I always perused after finishing my lawn-mowing duties.

The thing that always fascinated me about the 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue was its inflationary implications – the staggering amount of purchasing power the U.S. dollar had lost between 1902 and the present day.

For example, a men’s solid 14K gold pocket watch with a 17-jewel, Waltham movement (which would have been state of the art at the time) cost between about $30 and $50, depending on the case options chosen (hunting cases were more expensive than open-faced cases).

A quick scan on eBay reveals that similar gold pocket watches in good condition are selling for anywhere from $400 to maybe $2,500 today (in 2018).  Of course, if pocket watches were still produced today, you can bet that retailers would sell them for higher prices than secondhand ones fetch on eBay.

Or maybe instead of a gold pocket watch, you are interested in a breech-loading, double barrel shotgun with a solid walnut stock.  The 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue had a full 11 pages of double barrel shotguns to choose from.  Yes, these hunting guns could be anonymously ordered through the mail in 1902 – no identification necessary!

And their prices were almost unbelievably low by today’s standards.  The cheapest examples cost around $8 or $9, while the very finest Remington shotgun with a Damascus steel barrel and an English walnut stock rung up at only $50.  These same shotguns today run from just a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on condition, rarity and a myriad of other factors.

Another interesting find in the 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue is the selection of concrete-filled steel fire safes for sale.  These robust safes had stepped, 5-flange doors (in order to better resist explosives), applied-gold exterior decoration and built-in interior cabinets.  Prices started at only $6.25 for a cut-down model and rose to a princely $32.25 for the largest size – a 1,150 pound behemoth with an inner steel security door.

In contrast, today it is tough to find a good burglary-fire safe for anything less than about $700.  And prices can easily rise to $5,000 or more for high-security models.  Yes, there are cheaper safes out there, but they are usually sub-par import safes straight off the container ship from China.  If security is important to you, these low-quality, imported safes should be avoided at all costs.

As you can see, regardless of the product category, inflation has decimated the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar over the past 116 years.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s CPI inflation calculator, the U.S. dollar has lost about 96% of its purchasing power between 1913 (when records were first kept) and 2018.

This means that every dollar in 1913 is equivalent to over $25 today.  However, the BLS calculations use some questionable methodologies, including hedonic adjustments and substitution effects.  Looking at actual prices paints a bleaker picture of inflation, with $1 of goods from the 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue equal to something closer to $50 or $100 of goods today – a stunning 98% to 99% loss of purchasing power.

In case you were wondering, the dollar suffered almost no inflation before 1933 because the U.S. was still on the gold standard at the time.

But we have come a long way from the days of the gold standard, and not in a good way.  The fact is that the U.S. dollar has been progressively and systematically destroyed by its supposed protector, the U.S. Federal Reserve.  This disturbing trend is even more blatantly obvious when one examines the secret history of 20th century U.S. currency.

This is why I recommend that investors position themselves in antiques, bullion, fine art and other hard assets over the coming years.  The day is coming when the dollar’s slow motion collapse will transform into a terrifying plunge.  I don’t know about you, but I want to own tangible assets that cannot be arbitrarily printed by a central bank when that time finally arrives.

 

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2018 Hard Asset Collector’s Holiday Buying Guide

2018 Hard Asset Collector's Holiday Buying Guide
Photo Credit: LOPRE

Welcome to the Antique Sage’s 2018 hard asset collector’s holiday buying guide, where I will help you choose the finest Christmas gifts for the tangible asset enthusiast, antique collector or other special person in your life.

 

Vintage British Sterling Silver Hallmark Pendants

In the 1970s rampant international inflation led to a widespread loss of confidence in fiat currencies.  As a result, gold and silver bullion investing was all the rage.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that British High Street jewelers adapted to the times by crafting sleek, ingot shaped pendants for the fashion conscious.  These lovely British sterling silver hallmark pendants have a streamlined sensibility that fits well with the modern aesthetic.

Although most were produced in the late 1970s, vintage British hallmark pendants can date anywhere from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s.

Each one of these pendants is made from high purity, .925 fine sterling silver.  This is attested to by the stately lion hallmark, which has been used to certify the purity of English sterling silver since the mid 16th century.

Collectors love the fact that the British hallmarking system is so well regulated.  It easily allows anyone to identify a piece of jewelry’s city and date of manufacture, along with its maker.

For example, a leopard’s head hallmark indicates a piece was made in London.  An anchor hallmark is the symbol for Birmingham and a crown hallmark is the emblem for Sheffield.

As an added bonus, pendants made in 1977 were given a special, one-year-only hallmark with the head of Queen Elizabeth II in commemoration of her 25th coronation anniversary jubilee.

With prices ranging from only $25 to just over $100, a vintage British sterling silver hallmark pendant from the 1970s would not only make a great gift, but also be eminently affordable.

 

Japanese-Style Woodblock Art Prints

Moku Hanga is the term for traditional Japanese woodblock printing.  And truth be told, I have fallen in love with these masterpieces – hence their positioning in the hard asset collector’s holiday buying guide.

Japanese-style woodblock printing has become so popular that Western artists have fully embraced it, turning out some really compelling original art prints.  This is partially because Moku Hanga is an art that demands to be mastered.

But it is also an art form that demands respect.  As a result, classic Japanese themes like nature, animals and landscapes often dominate, even in Moku Hanga prints produced by non-Japanese artists.

In the typical Japanese-style art print, the artist painstakingly carves a flat block of cherry, birch or shina wood with a special, razor-sharp tool.   Then an additional block using a slightly modified design must be carved for each different color in the final print.

The print itself is usually transferred onto high quality, acid-free paper that is either cotton or mulberry-bark based.  This ensures that the resulting Moku Hanga art print will last for centuries to come.

Pricing is usually quite reasonable, with many fine Japanese-style woodblock prints available for just $100 to $200.

 

Antique Fractional European Gold Coins

Everybody loves gold coins.  And nearly everyone is familiar with modern gold bullion coins like the American gold eagle, the Australian kangaroo and the Canadian maple leaf.

But did you know that during the late 19th and early 20 century, many European countries struck small gold coins for circulation?  These intriguing coins are often well over a hundred years old and hail from some of the most storied nations of the time.

For example, the French, Belgians and Swiss – as part of the ill-fated Latin Monetary Union – struck 20 franc coins that contained 0.1867 troy ounces of pure gold.  The British minted their internationally renowned gold sovereign coin (0.2354 troy ounces), which is still being issued to this day.  Germany’s workhorse denomination was the 20 mark coin, which sported 0.2304 troy ounces of fine gold.  And Czarist Russia struck both 5 rouble (0.1244 troy ounce) and 10 rouble (0.2489 troy ounce) gold coins bearing the legendary double-headed imperial eagle.

But perhaps most surprisingly, these desirable antique gold coins are rather affordable today.  In fact, common specimens in nearly uncirculated condition rarely go for much more than bullion value.

Because of this, old fractional European gold coins earn their place on the hard asset collector’s holiday buying guide.  With spot gold trading at around $1,200 a troy ounce, most of these coins are trading just under $300, although some smaller pieces can be purchased for less.

 

Handcrafted Fine Hardwood Jewelry Boxes

I’ve always believed that a fine gift should be presented in an exceptional box.  And that’s why I’ve decided to feature handcrafted hardwood jewelry boxes on the Antique Sage’s 2018 hard asset collector’s holiday buying guide.

These exquisite storage boxes use some of the finest temperate and tropical hardwoods known to man.  Magnificently-grained exotic woods like koa, mahogany, walnut and sapele, not to mention elegant wood burls, vie for your attention on these works of art.

Although I call them jewelry boxes, the fact is that almost any compact treasure can be stored in these boxes.  They could just as easily accommodate cherished family photos and keepsakes as valuable watches and jewelry.

And they are durable as well.  If properly cared for, a well-made hardwood jewelry box will easily last a lifetime.

Given the superb craftsmanship and beauty of handmade hardwood boxes, their $50 to $200 price tag seems absurdly low.

 

Artisan Hand-Poured Silver Bars

There is nothing quite like holding a hefty bar of pure silver in your hands.  It is at once covetable and gorgeous; the essence of true wealth.

One of the most intriguing trends in the silver-stacking community is the proliferation of artisan-made silver bars.  These works of art are cast from .999 fine silver that is hand-poured into graphite or iron molds before being hand-stamped with their maker, weight and fineness.  Each poured silver bar is absolutely one-of-a-kind, with unique pour lines and irregularities.

Because hand-poured bars are more labor intensive to make than struck or extruded silver bars, the large bullion fabricators do not make them anymore.  So the torch has been taken up by specialized firms that are crafting these artisan silver bars in small batches.

One of my favorite makers of hand-poured silver bars is Vulture Peak Mines, also known as VPM.  They are a poured-bar specialist company located in Bandon, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast.  Most of VPM’s employees are former miners or veterans, all of whom share a passion for poured silver bullion.

The wonderful thing about artisan hand-poured silver bars is that most of them only sell for modest premiums over the spot price of silver.  For instance, with the spot price of silver currently at $14.50, you can expect to pay a very reasonable $22 per troy ounce for VPM poured silver bars, give or take.

 

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U.S. Dollar Debasement – A Unique Historical Timeline

U.S. Dollar Debasement - A Unique Historical Timeline

Before Dollar Debasement: The Classical Gold Standard

Before the Great Depression, the United States operated under a gold standard.  This meant that most U.S. currency could be freely exchanged at banks or the U.S. Treasury for gold coins.  This was done at the rate of $20.67 for one troy ounce of gold.  In other words, a $20 gold certificate could be redeemed for a double-eagle gold coin which contained almost a full troy ounce of pure gold.

This conversion mechanism constrained growth in the money supply, meaning that there was effectively no inflation for as long as the system remained in place.  In addition, silver certificates that were directly redeemable for silver dollars also circulated in the economy, providing additional protection against U.S. dollar debasement.

The classical gold standard provided unprecedented financial stability and economic growth – not only in the United States, but also in other countries that had adopted it, including Great Britain, France, Germany and Japan.  It was only with the arrival of World War I that the international gold standard began to weaken.

 

  • Early 1900s – The U.S. economy is dominated by a variety of high quality currency instruments. Gold certificates, silver certificates, United States Notes and Federal Reserve Notes (after 1914) all circulate side-by-side, along with gold and silver coins.
  • 1913 – The Federal Reserve is founded as a “banker’s bank” with the stated purpose of preventing financial panics. The new institution’s policies will profoundly impact the trajectory of dollar debasement in the decades to come.
  • 1914 to 1918 – World War I forces most belligerent nations to abandon the gold standard. The United States is a notable exception to this trend, which cements the country’s position as an international economic power.
  • 1920s – A decade of economic expansion is driven by strong fundamentals and the newly formed Federal Reserve’s outrageous “coup de whiskey” monetary policy. This has grave consequences because it foments a massive Wall Street stock market bubble that surreptitiously undermines the economy.
  • 1929 – The Great Wall Street Crash in October signals the start of the Great Depression.
  • 1931 – The collapse of Credit-Anstalt, a major Austrian bank, ushers in the most virulent phase of the Great Depression.
  • 1931 – Great Britain is forced off the gold standard in September of this year, greatly increasing monetary pressure on all countries that still maintain gold convertibility, including the United States.
  • 1933 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt assumes the Presidency and immediately calls a banking holiday. He simultaneously suspends the gold convertibility of the U.S. dollar.  A short time later, on April 5, FDR effectively nationalizes the country’s gold, declaring that all privately-held gold coins and gold certificates must be exchanged for non-gold currency.
  • 1934 – FDR increases the price of gold from $20.67 to $35 per troy ounce. This effectively devalues the U.S. dollar by 41%.  The classical gold standard in the United States is officially dead and the modern era of dollar debasement begins.
  • 1934 – The U.S. Treasury commissions a final series of gold certificates. These are not intended for public circulation, but are instead used for bank reserves and inter-bank transfers.
  • 1935 – FDR passes a law allowing the U.S. Treasury to issue small-denomination, government-backed bonds, otherwise known as savings bonds, directly to the public. Savings bonds allow U.S. citizens to invest in a safe Treasury instrument with a competitive interest rate.

 

Dollar Debasement Begins: The Bretton Woods System

In the wake of the widespread devastation wrought by the Great Depression and World War II, a new international monetary framework was desperately needed.  As a result, in July 1944, 44 representatives of the allied nations, including Great Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union, gathered at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to hammer out a new monetary system.

It was finally decided that the U.S. dollar would be convertible into gold at the rate of $35 for each troy ounce.  But only foreign governments and central banks would be allowed to exercise this conversion feature, not individuals.  In addition, all other countries would tie the value of their currencies to the dollar.

Although silver certificates and silver coins freely circulated in America during this period, gold bullion was illegal for U.S. citizens to own.  Each $1 silver certificate was exchangeable into a silver dollar containing 0.77344 troy ounces of pure silver.  United States Notes and Federal Reserve Notes also circulated and could be exchanged for fiduciary silver coinage (90% silver dimes, quarters and half dollars) which contained 0.7234 troy ounces of silver per $1 face value.

 

  • 1944 – The Bretton Woods system is formalized. This monetary structure is quickly adopted by most nations that are not part of the Soviet Communist Bloc.
  • 1950s – A period of international prosperity exists, with the United States acting as both the world’s monetary hub and primary export destination. However, the United State’s huge silver and gold reserves are gradually drawn down to pay for this flood of foreign imports.
  • Early 1960s – The rising price of silver in the international market makes it clear that the U.S. government will soon have difficulty redeeming silver certificates at their traditional rate.
  • 1964 – The U.S. government suspends the Treasury’s obligation to redeem silver certificates for silver dollars, but still allows redemption for raw silver granules or bullion bars for a limited time.
  • 1964 – U.S. citizens are allowed to legally own gold certificates again. While they regain their legal tender status, they are no longer redeemable for gold.
  • 1966 – The U.S. Mint strikes its last 90% silver coins meant for circulation (which are dated 1964 due to a date freeze). The only circulating U.S. coins with any precious metal remaining are 40% silver Kennedy half dollars.  Most U.S. coinage is now copper-nickel slugs.
  • 1968 – The U.S. Treasury discontinues redeeming silver certificates in their entirety, although the notes still remain legal tender.
  • 1969 – The U.S. Treasury withdraws high denomination currency from circulation due to fears that it facilitates organized crime. But honest citizens who crave financial discretion and safety are most impacted.  This policy applies to the $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills.  These large denomination notes are not, however, demonetized.
  • 1970 – The 40% silver Kennedy half dollar is discontinued and replaced with a copper-nickel base metal version. There are now no coins produced by the U.S. Mint for general circulation that contain any silver.
  • 1971 – In August, President Richard Nixon stops redeeming U.S. dollars presented by foreign governments and central banks for gold. This ends the last formal link that the U.S. dollar has to precious metals, marking a new era in dollar debasement.  All currencies in the world are now fiat currencies with floating exchange rates.
  • Early 1970s – By this time, nearly all 90% U.S. silver coinage (especially dimes and quarters) have been pulled from circulation due to Gresham’s Law.
  • 1973 – An international oil crisis is precipitated when Arab nations refuse to exchange their oil for now depreciated U.S. dollars at the traditional rate.
  • 1975 – After more than 40 years of being illegal, gold ownership for U.S. citizens is re-legalized.

 

Dollar Debasement Accelerates: The Bretton Woods II System

After the monetary chaos of the 1970s, which was characterized by persistently high inflation and frequent recessions, a monetary reform was necessary.  The U.S. Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates to a dizzying 20% in 1980 in order to break the economy’s deleterious inflationary cycle.  Once confidence in the dollar had been reestablished, a reconstituted global monetary system emerged.

Unlike the original Bretton Woods System, the Bretton Woods II System was entirely informal.  While the U.S. dollar remained at the center of the global monetary system as the world’s reserve currency, it was no longer exchangeable for gold or silver at a fixed rate.  Instead, all currencies floated freely against each other.

The United States also remained the world’s primary destination for exported goods, gradually leading to a slow deindustrialization of the country.

 

  • 1980 – A bubble in precious metals – gold, silver and platinum – finally bursts after the Federal Reserve raises short-term interest rates to unbelievably high levels.
  • 1982 – The U.S. Government bans the issuance of new bearer bonds. This is a blow to financial anonymity because these corporate promissory notes are similar to cash; whoever holds them receives their interest and principal payments.  However, existing bearer bonds are allowed to mature naturally.  Because the maximum term of a bond is typically no more than 30 years, the last of these bearer bonds mature by 2012.
  • 1980s – A period of relative economic prosperity develops as the Federal Reserve’s relatively cautious interest rate policies discourage widespread speculation.
  • 1986 – The U.S. Mint begins striking American Gold and Silver Eagle bullion coins, giving small investors a good way to accumulate precious metals with confidence.
  • Late 1990s – The advent of the original technology bubble ushers in an era of destabilizing, serial boom-bust financial markets. This development is encouraged by a profligate Federal Reserve that reliably “bails-out” bubble speculators.
  • Mid 2000s – The Federal Reserve holds short-term interest rates too low for too long, giving rise to the Housing Bubble.
  • Mid 2000s – Due to the rising price of precious metals, the last remnants of pre-1970 silver coinage finally disappear from circulation. Looking through rolls of coins from your local bank in hopes finding the odd silver Kennedy half dollar or silver war nickel is now a lost cause.
  • 2008 – The Great Financial Crisis strikes when the Housing Bubble bursts. The Federal Reserve lowers interest rates to almost zero, causing significant dollar debasement.  The Fed, in effect, subjects the American people to intense financial repression in order to recapitalize the irresponsible banking system.
  • Late 2000s – The U.S. Treasury systematically lowers the interest rates it pays on savings bonds, making them far less attractive investments to small savers than they used to be.
  • 2009 – New York City’s centralized clearinghouse for stock settlements adds a $500 fee to the cost of issuing new paper stock certificates, effectively ending their creation. However, existing paper stocks certificates are allowed to remain outstanding.
  • 2012 – The U.S. Government states that it will no longer issue physical savings bonds certificates. From now on all U.S. savings bonds are digital only, with only one minor exception.  This is the death knell of the U.S. savings bond program.
  • 2013 – The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) proposes the elimination of all physical stock certificates. This would make it impossible to hold stocks anywhere except for a brokerage account or DRIP plan.
  • 2010s – The Federal Reserve again suppresses short-term interest rates, inflating a grotesque, hybrid Real Estate/Stock Market/Bond Market/Crypto-Currency Bubble. When it finally bursts, the economic fallout will be catastrophic.
  • 2016 – Several stories run in the media in favor of discontinuing the $100 bill – ostensibly because of their alleged use in criminal transactions. This is in spite of the fact that a $100 bill in 2016 only has the same purchasing power as a $10 bill in 1950.

 

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