I was reading Michael J. Panzner's book When Giants Fall, a scary-yet-scholarly look at how the hell we got into this mess, and I was impressed with how the title When Giants Fall so perfectly describes America (the heretofore ravenous, gluttonous engine of global economics based on the fraud of an expanding fiat currency) falling on its fat, stupid face.

And falling on its face, dead to the world, is what America so richly deserves, as it was built upon the idiocy of ignoring the Constitution ("Money shall be only of silver and gold"!), and then committing the folly of a fiat currency ("create as much paper money as the Federal Reserve wants!") and insane degrees of fractional reserve banking ("we can loan as much as we want without limit!") so that socialists and commie-think morons in Congress can deficit-spend us ("free lunches for everybody!") into ruination.

For those who take everything literally, be aware that there was nothing in the book about giants actually falling and hitting the ground with a big "thud" or anything, but there was plenty about why it fell, mostly reasons that fall into the categories of stupidity, ignorance, corruption and greed.

Unfortunately for me, it's taking me a long time to read it because I cannot read much of the book without suddenly leaping to my feet and shouting, "We're freaking doomed!" and running to the cozy safety of the Cozy And Safe Mogambo Bunker (CASMB), whereupon I nervously sweep the perimeter with the periscope and thank my lucky stars for gold, silver and oil, because I know that no matter how bad things get, those three things will go up in price.

And this "sell high" part of what will happen in the future is what comes after the "buy low" part, which is Right Freaking Now (RFN), and it will be RFN for a long time to come as the dollar loses more and more buying power due to the sustained over-creation of money necessary to soak up the enormous, monstrous debt that the federal government will be peddling for years and years.

I am sure that Mr. Panzner comes to the same conclusion, although if you call him up to confirm this and, after he answers, "Hello?" you ask, "Do you recommend buying gold, silver and oil because they are sure to go up in price with the roaring inflation in consumer prices that will consume us because the loathsome Federal Reserve is creating so much excess money and credit so that the despicable Congress can spend a third of GDP - and deficit-spend a seventh of GDP! - and anybody who says otherwise is some kind of mental defective or has some kind of mutant spore from outer space, or CIA thought-control waves, controlling his brain? Yes or no?" he will say, instead of just answering my simple question, "What?" which is certainly not responsive!

Naturally, your eyes narrow to suspicious slits, and you wonder why he is evading my simple question! What's he up to?

Perhaps the answer is hidden in his vision of the future, which would be important to someone like you because you are intelligent and clever enough to discover some profitable venture in it, whereas I am too stupid and dull-witted to see entrepreneurial opportunity, and can only look at gold, silver and energy as investments of choice due to the wonderful simplicity of the lesson of the last 4,500 years of history whenever a country was so stupidly ignorant, greedy and selfish as to produce an excess of money.

Since I have never seen you before, I know that you are a stranger around here, a stranger that doesn't usually hang around with lowlife bums like me, pathetic mental midgets who are incapable of putting simple picture-puzzles together, or forming coherent thoughts to reach any conclusion that is not laid out in front of me, usually with someone literally standing right there, pointing out the obvious, to make sure I don't miss it.

So, for you smart people who can see the silver lining in a dark cloud and prosper while all else is misery and suffering, he writes, in a paragraph that I consider to be as chillingly prescient as it is succinct, "Businesses will find it hard to thrive, let alone thrive, amid increasing violence and conflict, shortages and logistical interruptions, and a breakdown of markets and financial mechanisms. Individuals will be forced to rethink livelihoods, lifestyles, living arrangements, and locales. Political structures will be in flux. Around the globe, gangsters, maniacs and mobs will compete with established regimes for the reins of power. Nuclear attacks, domestic terrorism and other threats that once seemed so remote to most Americans will become an all-too-frequent reality. So, too, will breakdowns, epidemics, and other fallout stemming from economic deterioration, growing social unrest and criminality, and a forced shift toward greater self-sufficiency."

He concludes that "For many Americans, the years ahead will be nothing short of a modern Dark Ages", although he obviously does not mean you, personally, since you are so smart that you will make fortunes despite any "hard times", and he obviously does not mean me, either, because I own gold, silver and oil! Whew!

So while you make your fortune "the hard way" by poring over annual reports and prospectuses to laboriously winnow the wheat from the chaff, I will just lazily watch gold, silver and oil go up and up in price, as is seemingly guaranteed by the entire historical record of the world, although I may be the first to actually ever wax lyrical and say, "Whee! This investing stuff is easy!"

It does not explain, however, why Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR) Doug B. sees it as "Gee, this psychopathic world-domination stuff is EASY!" or why I agree with him and say, "And so it is, JMR Doug! So it is!"