From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

Most people understand taxation. Governments announce new tax rates. Parliament debates them. Citizens complain about them. They are visible. Inflation is different. Almost everyone notices rising prices. Far fewer stop to ask why their money buys less than it once did. A loaf of bread costs more. Electricity becomes more expensive. Fuel prices rise. A weekly shop costs noticeably more than it did only a few years earlier. The usual explanation is simple. Prices have gone up. Yet that is only half the story. The other half is that the purchasing power of money has gone down. A pound still bears the same name. It simply buys less. The result is subtle. No new tax bill arrives through the letterbox. No parliamentary vote announces that your savings have lost value. Yet the effect is real. Every pound you have earned over many years purchases slightly less than it once did. Those who have spent years building savings discover that the value of those savings quietly diminishes. Those livin...

Twenty Dollar Gold Coin (1 troy ounce fine gold) I was looking at my $20 dollar gold coin the other day. It is amazing how little it has changed since it was minted in 1887, the greatest change being the value of it which has ranged between $1,550 and $1,900 so far this year, which since it was worth $20 until 1933, then $35 until 1971, is a sign that the good times ended a long time ago. But the truth is that if the coin has not changed, if it is the constant, then what has changed? The answer has to be the value of the dollar. Inflation is a hidden tax and, like all taxes, is disproportionately levied on the 'poor'. By 'poor' I don't really mean the poor, who on a global scale are those who earn less than $800 per year; they have nothing anyway, so they have nothing to lose. In fact everyone who lives in Jersey is rich; everyone has an income of at least $7,500 per year. That places them in the top 20% of the world...