Dollar Collapsing, Inflation Spiking - Founding Fathers' Ideals Could Have Prevented This

Boulder, CO - While the Bureau of Labor Statistics and media outlets report that "core" inflation is only 2.2 percent, this ignores the effect of food and energy prices which are rising dramatically. The BLS's latest numbers show that the nationwide city average price for small users of natural gas is up 5.9% for the last 12 month period, while the average for all types of gasoline is up a whopping 22.6%. Food price rises are more shocking, with the nationwide city average for staples such as ground beef, lettuce, whole milk, bologna, white bread, and flour rising by an average of 6.8%, 22.1%. 25.3%, 12.9%, 16.1%, and 10.6% respectively, an average 12 month increase of 15.6% for these 6 basic food products.

The rise in stock market, fuel, food and other commodity prices correlates with the fall in the Dollar, which dropped dramatically in the last 7 year period. The Dollar Index dropped 35% in this same period, showing the Dollar's weakness relative to the currencies of 32 major trading partners with market-determined currency exchange rates. With respect to the currency of 27 of these partners, the Euro, the Dollar has plunged 41% in the same period. This is a situation that particularly shows the Dollar's weakness, in that the Euro is a currency without a nation, which is completely dependent on the maintenance of political relations between nations of the EU. Although this adds risk to owning the Euro, the market today judges the Dollar to be even less reliable, thereby jeopardizing the buying power and savings of most Americans.

The America First Party calls for an end to fiat currencies and a return to the coined-money standard required by the Constitution and our Founding Fathers, who had experienced disastrous inflation during colonial times. This precious-metals standard, which has the secondary benefit of limiting the expansion of government, is the clear solution to inflation. As a result of our deviation from this constitutional requirement, Americans are unfairly victimized. Many who would otherwise be able to retire at age 55, must now work for 10 or more additional years to compensate for the wealth-robbing effect of inflation.

For more information on inflation, including how the government understates it through statistical manipulations, its effect on retirement savings, and the connection between inflation and expansive government, please see the detailed discussion published on the party website at http://americafirstparty.org/archive/hill_inflation.shtml.