[nostrademons]

"i think the point here is that for the first time in quite a while the dollar has a legitimate _chance_ at hitting a doomsday scenario. whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but the odds are greater than they have been historically."

The odd thing is that for most of that time period, there were always folks saying that we not only had a chance of hitting the doomsday scenario, it was virtually certain. The first time I encountered people saying that the Fed was destroying the money supply and we would all be doomed to hyperinflation and a survivalist existence, it was 1991 and I was 10 years old (it probably would've been earlier, but my dad wouldn't let me read his newsletters before then). And folks were certain it would happen by the end of Clinton's first year in office...no wait, by 1997...no, at the Millenium...no, by 2005...no, by fall of 2006...no, 2007 will surely be it...YES, finally it's 2008 and the world's falling apart, except it's going to get a lot worse by 2010!

Kinda like the boy who cried wolf.

"keep in mind that during the depression we were on the gold standard, thus there was none of the inflationary/deflationary risk of a fiat currency.."

Then why did it deflate so much from 1929-1932, or inflate so much from 1932-1937?