On the Value of Gold and Silver

“Were I to ask the question, how much wheat or anything else a man must have to justify him in letting it go to waste, it would be hard to answer; figures are inadequate to give the amount. Never let anything go to waste. Be prudent, save everything, and what you get more than you can take care of yourselves, ask your neighbors to help you. There are scores and hundreds of men in this house, if the question were asked them if they considered their grain a burden and a drudge to them, when they had plenty last year and the year before, that would answer in the affirmative, and were ready to part with it for next to nothing. How do they feel now, when their granaries are empty? If they had a few thousand bushels to spare now, would they not consider it a blessing? They would. Why? Because it would bring the gold and silver. But pause for a moment, and suppose you had millions of bushels to sell, and could sell it for twenty dollars per bushel, or for a million dollars per bushel, no matter what amount, so that you sell all your wheat, and transport it out of the country, and you are left with nothing more than a pile of gold, what good would it do you? You could not eat it, drink it, wear it, or carry it off where you could have something to eat. The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat. Gold is not to be compared with it in value. Why would it be precious to you now? Simply because you could get gold for it? Gold is good for nothing, only as men value it. It is no better than a piece of iron, a piece of limestone, or a piece of sandstone, and it is not half so good as the soil from which we raise our wheat, and other necessaries of life. The children of men love it, they lust after it, are greedy for it, and are ready to destroy themselves, and those around them, over whom they have any influence, to gain it” (Pres. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 1:, p.250).

The US Federal Government under the Federal Reserve Central Bank operates under a debt-based fiat currency. Simply put, the value our our currency is based on the FED's ability to sell US Treasury Bills (TBills) on the global market. Because the US Dollar is the world reserve currency, because all commodities are priced in dollars, and because the US maintains huge trade deficits with China, many countries are interested in maintaining a strong dollar. A strong dollar means that China can use its excess dollars to import the oil its needs to develop. For poorer nations, a strong dollar means cheaper corn, wheat, rice, and beans to feed their people. It is this foreign interest in a strong dollar has allowed the US to run up huge budget deficits year after year. To maintain the value of the dollar, foreign countries have continually devalued their own currency while at the same time continued to lend money to the US to fund our wars and social programs. However, over the past 10 years, things have begun to change.

The international community is no longer happy with the US roll as "world policeman." China has made deals with Russia, Brazil and Iran to purchase oil, food and other commodities in their own currency. This means that the FED has been unsuccessful in selling US Treasury Bonds. The result is that when the US Government needs to borrow more money that we don't have, they have tried to force retirement funds to buy TBills, or coerced US banks to buy them. Pres. Obama's recent trip to India was a failed attempt to coax India into buying up our TBills. Ultimately, the FED has been buying our own TBills and printing money anyways. When the FED prints money without selling TBills first, the US dollar is devalued and gas, food and clothing prices go up. The rising cost of food is one factor which is leading to protests and riots in many countries.

In response to the recent American policy of "Quantitative Easing", the IMF is calling for the US Dollar to be replaced by another world reserve currency. This means that very soon other countries may no longer accept the US Dollar in exchange for both raw materials or finished goods. Because the US is no longer self sufficient in mining its own natural resources or manufacturing its own finished goods, the replacement of the US Dollar as the world reserve currency could mean Bankruptcy and a Severe Depression in the US much worse than the Great Depression of the 1930's.

Now, if you listen to political talk radio, I am sure you have heard the many commercials urging you to buy up gold and silver as a hedge against inflation. Having pondered this issue for several years, I came across this quote from Brigham Young with regard to the wisdom in looking to gold and silver for salvation. As we approach the years of the Great Tribulation before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, it is my personal opinion that you will do better making sure you use what money you have NOW to pay off debt, and have a year supply of food, water, fuel and clothing. It is my personal opinion that making these purchases now, while our dollar still maintains some residual purchasing power, will be better than trying to sell gold and silver later for basic necessities.

"The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah." Ezra Taft Benson, "Prepare Ye," Ensign, Jan 1974, 69.

"The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat." (President Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, p.298.)

And he also said: ‘There is more salvation and security in wheat, than in all the political schemes of the world...’ (Ezra Taft Benson, JD 2:207).

"We are living in the prophesied time, 'when peace shall be taken from the earth,' (D&C 1:35) when 'all thing shall be in commotion,' and 'men's hearts shall fail them' (D&C 88:91) These signs of the Second Coming are all around us and seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity.'" ... While we are powerless to alter the fact of the Second Coming and unable to know its exact time, we can accelerate our own preparation and try to influence the preparation of those around us. We need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events prophesied at the time of the Second Coming." ( Preparation for the Second Coming, Elder Dallin H. Oaks Conference, April 2004).

James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

1 Peter 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

Ezek 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

Ps 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. . . They that make them are like to them; so is every one that trusts in them. O Israel, trust you in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

Gold and silver will be worthless in the coming collapse. There is no safe haven where we are headed but Zion. All other things must fail. It seems many are trying to speculate on which part of Babylon will fall last. No part or piece of the Babylonian system can save us. If you absolutely need something to invest in. I would pay off immediate families debt and buy them food storage. When things get bad, their financial problems and lack of preparation become your financial problems and liability. Maybe a grain silo filled with wheat and well with manual pump.