My One Hundred Things: Dollar Collapse Does Not Mean Financial Armageddon

I mentioned this briefly in my last post. There is a lot of talk about the dollar crisis. People are trying to get their heads around what it means if the dollar collapses. There will be widespread consequences of course. Rules are changing, and that’s really all any of us needs to know. We need to look for new alternatives. Staying on a sinking ship is not a requirement, you know?

The world keeps on spinning, people! There have been many times in history when Wall Street has not done well, and it seems we’ve come back around to one of those times. The debt we’re running up is basically immeasurable, and I can’t imagine it taking anything short of decades to straighten things out. One thing I think it’s important to keep in mind is that this dollar crisis, while there will be consequences and implications that last for years, does not spell Armageddon for us. Money does not disappear. It just moves. It changes hands. If you were doing really well and now you’re broke (a very common story these days), your money has not disappeared. Whether it’s right or wrong, whether it’s fair or not, someone else has it.

Unfortunately a lot of things the government is doing right now are just plain unconstitutional. But that is not news, and that’s kind of my point. Corruption and bad financial policy are nothing new. And they will also not be purged as we work through this process. Unfairness has been and always will be with us. We do not become successful because things are so good and everything is fair. We become successful in spite of adversity. This is how it’s always been done, and this is how it will continue to be done.

The world keeps on spinning, and there is always work to be done. Your community needs you. You need to create value for others, and the better you are at doing that, the better you will do. The thing is, this has always been the case. The financial community has created a lot of toxic instruments that it seems to feel are very smart. But the underlying principles of wealth have remained, operating unchecked throughout all of this mess. So perhaps the “new alternatives” I mentioned before are really “old” alternatives. The basic principles of money, as I’ve argued here before, still work. And I think the characteristics of this economic recession are strong evidence of that.

See, at best…the politicians are right. Obama will save us, and America is truly immune to hyperinflation and the possibility of alienating ourselves from our global neighbors. Massive inflationary spending will now somehow work wonders this time around, and we will all proceed out of this intact, perhaps even better for it. Let’s say that happens: well then everything is fine!

If not, at worst, it all implodes and what’s left are the basic financial principles of how to create wealth that have always been there. Hard work, proper management of risk and creating value for others…these remain intact and available to us all. I gotta say, either way there is nothing to lose your head over. Times of change breed a lot of fear, and I honestly see a lot of evidence for things getting pretty rough over the next several years. It’s alright. Take things in stride and just focus on creating value for your customers and living within your means. The dollar crisis is real. Make no mistake about that. A lot of really smart people believe strongly that we’re facing a dollar collapse. But no one has even hinted that money is going away. It’s only moving. We just need to reposition ourselves. It’s time to change, not freak out.

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