Fear Mongers Are Always In Style – By John LaRosa

Fear Mongers Are Always In Style – By John LaRosa

Sept. 30, 2020

No matter what year you choose, there is no shortage of doomsayers that claim that the country and economy are on the verge of an apocalypse. Whether it’s a book author, an investment guru, or someone else, there’s always someone convinced that the collapse of the government is imminent, our money will soon be worthless and we’ll need a wheelbarrow of paper money to buy a loaf of bread, with runaway inflation, and the only way to survive the collapse is to buy gold and silver bullion or coins and prepare an underground bunker stocked with food, water, and guns and ammo for a year.

I can remember as far back as 1970 when one such guru ( a book author, politician and investor), named Harry Browne had a doomsday book out that was popular. Browne published his first book, How You Can Profit From The Coming Devaluation, in 1970.  Harry passed away in 2006. My father read his book and bought a bag of silver coins and some Kruggerands to hedge against the coming collapse of the U.S. dollar and economy. Nothing happened.

Well, 50 years later, America is still here. Yes, we’ve had some recessions, a banking crisis, a housing bubble, a dot com bubble, a savings and loan crisis, the Great Recession, and a few wars. But, the government still stands, with its checks and balances and an orderly transition of power every 4 or 8 years, and the dollar is still worth something. Society has not broken down. People are still employed. Talking about the impending societal collapse is good for selling books, courses and movies, but the chances of it really happening in the U.S. are slim.

Think about it. How many developed countries have you seen go completely belly up during the past 50 years? OK, maybe Venezuela is one example currently, with a dictator, runaway inflation, people leaving the country in droves, and a nation dependent for revenue on one asset, oil.

As Warren Buffet has often said, America has had some hard times, but we always pull through, recover, and survive. The capitalist system survives. America’s economy is well diversified. We have the most stable government and financial system in the world. New York is still the leading financial center. We lead in healthcare technology, in computers and high tech, in military might and technology, in healthcare technology, and in entrepreneurism and small business. We feed the world with our crops.

So relax, the sky is NOT falling, despite what the fear mongers tell you.