The Collapse of ‘09 will follow the Panic of ‘08, says Gerald Celente, founder and director of The Trends Research Institute, on The Lew Rockwell Show. The 13-minute interview can be heard on podcast. (If podcasts are new to you, click on the small podcast icon. You may have to download a free program that will play the podcast.)

This is one of the direst forecasts that I have run across. Calente calls the current mess “a global meltdown, a global economic crisis.” He says the Obama administration may do some drastic things, such as close banks.

Further, he says Obama may even confiscate gold. Still, Calente says he’s buying gold, the form of money that can survive the collapse. On the Rockwell site, there’s another podcast in which Calente forecasts $2,000 gold.

Calente sees a collapse of the commercial real estate market as large retailers close stores. He and Rockwell also discuss the Treasury’s taking over the banking industry, a big increase in the police state – an increase that will continue under Obama – and the potential for domestic riots with the worst living conditions ever. Calente sees “crime going off the scale.”

If you’re concerned about the government taking action against gold, consider buying silver. If silver’s bulk and weigh present challenges, consider palladium, which is now selling its lowest level in years. Although palladium has not been used as money, it is a precious metal that has important industrial uses and will survive the destruction of the dollar. CMIGS has PAMP 1-oz .9995 palladium bars.

In a speech before the House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul, a long time student of Austrian economics, predicted not only a dollar crisis but a worsening economic crisis.  He fears that our recession will, because of Fed action, turn into a depression, a view that is most interesting.

The common perception is that the Fed will prevent a depression via its creation of still more dollars.  Ron Paul says that the Fed’s action will bring on a dollar crisis and a depression.  If Paul is right, a dollar crisis and a depression seem inevitable because the Fed has already printed trillions of new dollars and stands ready to print more.

The speech, which is less than five minutes, can be found on YouTube.

Too many casual observers dismiss Ron Paul’s views because he is a doctor.  True, Ron Paul is a doctor who has delivered more than 3,000 babies.  But, he has studied Austrian economics for thirty plus years and is qualified to comment on the economic state of affairs.  Compared to economic understanding that most members of Congress have, Ron Paul should have Ph.D. behind his name along with M.D.

Paul has written several books on economics and politics.  Here is a link to six of Paul’s books available from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.  For gold investors, I recommend Gold, Peace and Prosperity.  For those who would like to still learn more about free market economics, I recommend any of Paul’s books.

Finally, for readers would who like thoroughly grasp the role that the free market plays in increasing economic well-being, The Mises Institute is their source of books on free market economics.  Any serious discussion of economics, free markets and money always involves a discussion of gold.

Many economic/political observers ridicule the suggestion that the massive printing of Federal Reserve Notes (a.k.a. US dollars) could result in hyperinflation.  They have long viewed the hyperinflation that ravaged Germany 1919 – 1923 to have been an anomaly.  They become outraged at the suggestion that hyperinflation could happen in the United States.

Those Germans were just stupid, they reason.  We’re smarter than that, they posit. They ignore the hyperinflation that has ravaged many South American countries, again attributing it to “less sophisticated” peoples.

Hyperinflation remains a threat to financial well-being of all peoples as long as central banks exist, which is basically everywhere there are governments.  Zimbabwe is the latest example, where the central bank has just unveiled a 100 trillion dollar banknote.  The new banknote was worth about $300 US dollars when introduced; it falls daily in value.

Sophomoric analysts attribute the chaos in Zimbabwe – and the need to print a $100 trillion dollar banknote – to the political fighting between Robert Mugabe, who was elected president in one of Africa’s more famous “one man, one vote, one election” circuses in 1980 and opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai.  Mugabe, through hook and crook, has managed to be “reelected” every since, which is common in sub-Saharan Africa.  Tsvangirai claims to have unseated Mugabe in the last election.

But, the actual causes of the destruction of Zimbabwe were Mugabe’s socialistic programs, complete with confiscation of private property to placate Mugabe’s supporters.  Now, hyperinflation has a grip on Zimbabwe as its central bank issues paper money to pay for government programs.

Will the massive printing of US dollars by our central bank, the Federal Reserve System, for the ongoing bailouts result in hyperinflation?  At this point, there is no way of knowing.  But, it is certainly reasonable to invest in anticipation of at least some inflation.

Readers who have not yet investigated investing in gold should do so.  Investing in silver also makes sense.  Everyone needs to know his options.