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Whether or not Cramer has any credibility in his field, it doesn't take an expert to "play it out". Our nation's financial future has no hope in it. When 90%+ of our citizenry carries $20k in consumer debt, spread across two credit cards, makes a house payment, two car payments, and is using credit to put one youngster in school, the outcome can NOT be good.

I asked somebody who "should have known" what the value of our paper dollar actually was. He tried to tell me that it was a complicated question to answer and that it depended on many factors. In effect, he told me that I wasn't smart enough to understand it. I pulled a silver 50 cent piece out of my pocket and reminded him that IT could be quantified in not only terms of the currency of many nations, but in terms of bartering value as well because it was "intrinsically" valuable....ditto for gold.

I think I scared the guy because he didn't want to talk about it after that. I've been saying for a long time that our money is essentially worthless, and the only thing that keeps us "going" is that ignorant people simply haven't figured it out yet.

I've been saying for a long time that our money is essentially worthless, and the only thing that keeps us "going" is that ignorant people simply haven't figured it out yet.

I tend to lean in your direction - but of course, the question is how long and how deeply to "play the game".

For example, you could use this argument to say that you're better off incurring as much debt as possible to put all of that money into hard commodities - since once dollars are completely worthless, it will be easy to pay off all your debt in those worthless dollars by selling just a few commodities for many worthless dollars. However, if you time that wrong, you'll be stuck having to service an awful lot of debt for an indeterminate amount of time.

Silver is no more intrinsically valuable than paper money. That people across the world value it as a unit of exchange does not make it different--just more accepted as a unit of exchange. Its only intrinsic value is for what it can be used for--in electronics, or as jewelry. In that, it is no different than copper, uranium, oil or platinum. But when you try to calculate its value as a unit of exchange, it is the same as paper--perhaps plus its value as a useful metal.

Corn has intrinsic value, because you can eat it. Silver has intrinsic value for jewelry, but in times of trouble, you sure can't eat it.

Our nation's financial future has no hope in it. When 90%+ of our citizenry carries $20k in consumer debt, spread across two credit cards, makes a house payment, two car payments, and is using credit to put one youngster in school, the outcome can NOT be good.

Wow! Sounds scary! Where did you get this info?

I pulled a silver 50 cent piece out of my pocket and reminded him that IT could be quantified in not only terms of the currency of many nations, but in terms of bartering value as well because it was "intrinsically" valuable

Too bad silver dropped 50% since July.