Sadly, that is where we are in this country. Sure, there are still good people, but as a percentage it isn†t even remotely enough to bear the burden of the massive moral degeneracy of the others. Even among those people who would never steal or loot, there is a decided lack of courage to stand up to those who do steal and loot. The MF Global confiscation proves this. People have mostly rolled over and accepted having their money stolen, shrugging their shoulders and telling themselves that there is nothing they can do † and then going back for more, continuing to patronize the very exchange that facilitated the theft and fraud. To my knowledge, only one broker has exited the field on purely moral grounds in a pre-emptive action to protect clients, and as a protest to the injustice of the system itself.

Our government is saturated with corruption, looting and outright treason and criminality, and yet most people simply cannot be bothered to care, much less to act, and are thus passively complicit. A non-trivial percentage of the population are planning and maneuvering to best †benefit† or profiteer from the criminality and fundamental dishonesty of the paradigm. Others are attempting to enter the oligarch class themselves under the guise of running for political office † and make no mistake, this encompasses both the so-called left and the so-called right on the political spectrum. The degeneracy is everywhere.

The fall of a society can happen very quickly. Our society has taken roughly 50 years to topple. If the previous example of the Russian culture is any example, we can expect it to take many multiples of 50 years to undo this damage, if and only if the pendulum has reached its maximum amplitude and now begins to swing back, which I fear has not yet happened. Morality cannot be legislated. Cultures cannot be purged of evil, selfishness and sloth overnight † even with a war. I cannot lie to you and tell you that short of Divine Intervention, this situation will resolve itself in any of our lifetimes. We had †it.† We had †it†, and we squandered †it†, and now †it† is gone, and no governmental, economic or monetary policy will get †it† back. †It† can only come from God, dwelling in the hearts of men, and God only comes to men if they specifically ask Him.

We, the people, always have been and always will be the ultimate backing commodity of our currency, because at its core, money is merely the representative device for a man†s capacity to produce and create. Dishonest men do not create or produce. They steal. Thus, the currency of a morally degenerated society is by definition degenerate itself. The currency of a degenerate society is the proxy not for a man†s ability to work and think, but rather a proxy for a man†s capacity to steal and evade work.

We used to be like gold † beautiful and warm. Now we are like pig iron † cold, brittle and good-for-nothing. And THAT is what constitutes the †full faith and credit† that backs the U.S. Dollar. So long as our culture remains degenerate, our currency can never be anything but spiraling, worthless trash.