After reading these postings for several weeks I have learned that many people put their faith in different standards of exchange. Gold, Silver, Trade goods such as bullets and fish hooks etc etc. History teaches that in times of economic trouble, there is always the hope that times will get better, or they are already better in some other part of the world. Laboring under that philosophy, it made perfect sense for WWII European Jews, for example, to own rare stamps and gems that are easily hidden and are still valuable and liquid. Even in those dark days in Europe, the US greenback was valuable. Why won't the greenback still be valuable in the Y2k? If there is no chance of recovery, only the bullets and fish hooks will have value. You cannot eat or drink something as intrinsic as gold or greenbacks. If there is the expectation of recovery, then US currency will have value, just like gold, stamps, gems etc. I know that the Govt. can print as much money as it wants to, but how much could they print without electricity or computers. How would they distribute the currency? If the Govt. could do all that, then there is still expectation of recovery and currency would still have value. Please share your thoughts.

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), April 21, 1998

Answers

I think the answer lies in the fact that during WWII the US dollar was backed by silver - it was a silver certificate. Now the US dollar is backed by nothing. It will be useless.

-- Rebecca Kutcher (kutcher@pionet.net), April 21, 1998.

Rebeccah, don't forget what you can wipe with'em!

-- grant (htcomp@fubar.com.), April 21, 1998.

Thnaks Grant. I was tempted to write something along those lines in my earlier post. I'm glad someone else did.

-- Rebecca Kutcher (kutcher@pionet.net), April 22, 1998.

I like to think alond broader lines ...

I'm not only stockpiling precious metals, I'm buying cigarettes, alcohol, toilet paper, tampons, nylon stockings and so forth as trade goods.

Basically, I'm using WWII-era black markets as a guide. A lot of guys did fairly well by trading such things.

-- "John Smith" (pobox42@hotmail.com), April 22, 1998.

I believe one of the most valuable things ( besides food and water ) after the potential y2k disaster is knowledge. Learn what you can now as part of your preparations. Buy a few good books on a number of useful subjects, like carpentry, plumbing, first aid etc.

As far as precious metals and trade goods go; I believe people should probably have some of both.

-- Frank Anderson, Jr (Zanazaz@AOL.com), April 22, 1998.