What if the dollar is no longer the world’s currency?

I’ve never been one to pay much attention to gloom-and-doom kooks; the guys who tell me that Federal Emergency Management Agency is really there to take control when the United Nations takes over.

There is a plan in place to convert to a new U.N. currency called “the Amero” (this one cracked me up). Generally, I imagine these people spend too much time in their parents’ basements watching “X-Files” re-runs. That said, I’ve finally had to come to terms with the notion that one of the warnings I’ve heard come down the pike in the past few months seems to have some weight behind it. And it scares me.

Not too long ago, Germany began pulling all of its gold out of foreign countries and bringing it back home. That’s kind of unusual. It means something’s up. So I started to pay attention. Along the way we heard China making calls for the world to begin trading in something else other than the U.S. dollar. Well, of course China would want that. But the scary part was that they actually had a good point (more about that later.)

Since then, we also are starting to see other countries talking about it — and not just countries that historically don’t care too much for us, like Russia, but even some of our allies, like Australia and Japan. Now it was starting to look serious. But it wasn’t until a buddy who lives overseas began to show me that in Europe it’s open news — this idea of the U.S. dollar being on the way out as the world currency — that I sat up. Because that, folks, is about as apocalyptic as reality gets, short of war. Then again, in some ways it may even be worse than a war.

I love my country, but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that we’ve been quite stupid with our money in recent years (I know, big shock, right?). Currently, the U.S. dollar is considered the “world currency.” This means that almost every country on the planet uses our money to buy from other countries. If, for example, Japan wants to buy from Kuwait, they can’t use the Yen. So they must first purchase U.S. dollars. For this reason, it is in Japan’s best interest to keep their currency as competitive with the dollar as possible. This is accomplished by keeping their consumption as on-par with their production as possible. Once you start to consume more than you produce, the value of your currency begins to falter, which weakens your country. But we in the U.S. enjoy a special privilege that the rest of the world doesn’t — we make the dollar. So when we owe another country money we can just crank up the printing press and make more. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing for a few years now.

But these dollars aren’t really based on anything (the gross national product). So, unlike other countries, we can consume more than we produce, and we have been for years! This weakens the value of the dollar, putting us further in debt, meaning we have to print more funny money, which further weakens the value of the dollar and so on. We are long past the point of no return when it was still possible to repay our debt. Now it’s not “difficult,” not “challenging,” it is impossible. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Many of our country’s most qualified, accurate and knowledgeable financial advisers agree on this.

Other countries are justifiably fed up being shoveled trillions in unsupported dollars toward debt that is only getting larger. So what happens when they finally agree that it isn’t worth it and stop trading using our money? That’s where it gets truly frightening, because in an instant, the dollar could become nearly worthless. This means the prices of commodities (think oil, for example, along with food and just about everything else) skyrockets to insane prices that nobody can afford. Wages are frozen. Banks and businesses close. Retirements are gone. Medicare, Social Security, public assistance and unemployment insurance disappear. And when the federal government tumbles, the state governments follow quickly and immediately. I’ll let you think about what happens to society when this happens.

Look up what I’m talking about. It’s out there, although strangely, our own media doesn’t seem too keen on reporting it very often. As far as speculation goes, I speak only for myself when I say that I often wonder if this has anything to do with the government’s sudden interest in buying massive amounts of ammunition.

“It’s for the war.”

Really? In calibers and types of ammunition not used by the military?

“It’s for target practice,” I hear.

But I have to wonder why they would use millions of rounds of expensive hollow points to put holes in paper when generally that’s what regular ball ammunition is for. Again, just me thinking on this one.

I’m not alone in following this. But, like me, those of us who are watching have to frequently go to foreign-country news to see any real reporting on it. And even among those of us who are watching, all too often I hear, “Well, that could never happen here.” Famous last words, and so American, too.

We always have this belief that these types of disasters can only happen to others, not us. I guess it’s just such a shocking and scary idea that it’s easier to just deny it.

Do yourselves a favor and check this out. And trust me, nothing would please me more than to be wrong on this. I really, really hope I am. But, if you’re like me, better to be safe than sorry and not be caught unprepared.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.