Just don’t expect the government to tell you to prepare for the worst and start buying gold coins.

Don’t wait for the government to tell you to buy gold coins.

April 13, 2011 – Considering that, according to Barron’s, “2010 could be a watershed marking the beginning of the end of the dollar-based, Western-centric monetary system,” why has there not been a rush to hoard gold coins? It’s just human nature, the same thing that kept thousands in Katrina’s path from fleeing at the earliest warnings. It’s called ‘normalcy bias’ – we are programmed to believe that disaster won’t befall us simply because it hasn’t done so before.

We depend on the government to not only give us fair warning of impending disaster, but also to convince us that the threat is real. And we depend on the government to inform us so we can adequately prepare for when it strikes.

But when it comes to what Brazilian economist Ricardo C. Amaral sees as “the biggest international monetary crisis the world has ever seen,” the government has been consistently and intentionally misleading the public.

Mr. Amaral is talking about the collapse of the dollar as the world de-pegs trade from the currency. Consider what it means for the dollar to be the world’s reserve.

All international trade is conducted in dollars, so foreign countries must first acquire dollars before purchasing anything abroad. Because they do that by selling other goods and services on the global market, they must balance their consumption with their sales. But America gets to play by different rules.

We have been free for more than half a century to consume at will because we are the only country that can legally print the reserve currency. And that we did to great excess. For a long time we were also allowed to rack up enormous debt for the same reason. But the sicker the dollar gets, the less the rest of the world wants to stay hitched to our wagon.

The end of the dollar as reserve currency is well under way. It will happen, and sooner than most dare to think. The full implications of that will be discussed in the next column, but it is vital that every American take the threat very seriously.

Just don’t expect the government to tell you to prepare for the worst and start buying gold coins – they are too busy denying the horrible mess they got us in.

Kevin Johnson

Senior Staff Writer – GoldCoin.net