Several months ago, economist David Hale had a private meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was trying to ward off a recession by lowering interest rates and increasing the money supply in the economy.

The problem with that method is that the value of the dollar would fall, causing crude oil prices to skyrocket because oil is pegged to the dollar. It affected food prices, gasoline and family budgets. But paychecks do not contain more of the dollars

"Ben, you are playing a very unique role in world economic history," Hale recalled telling Bernanke, an expert in the Great Depression. "You are the first central bank governor of the United States to preside over a recession with no decline in commodity prices." Bernanke responded without saying why he is not using his other club to stave off inflation: interest rates. Hale paraphrased the Fed chairman's response.

"We have lost control," said Hale, quoting Bernanke. "We cannot stabilize the dollar. We cannot control commodity prices."

Gold rocketed almost 90 dollars to $860, the biggest one-day rise in history. Many regard gold as the real money.

Sept 17, 2008 the White House defended actions taken to shore up troubled insurance company AIG, saying it prevented broader harm to the economy, and said we are worried about other companies also.

Treasury and Federal Reserve chiefs and other government economic advisors had determined "some of these companies were so big that to allow them to fail would have caused even greater harm and damage to the economy," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"We remain concerned about other companies and that's why the secretary of the Treasury continues to work with the team to see if we can stem any other losses," Perino said, saying any other determinations would be on a case-by-case basis.

Why are these companies important? Why are bankers and insurers more important than auto-makers, farmers, steel-mills, textile mills, tool-makers, retailers and all the mom-and-pop businesses that create most jobs?

After all, all these financials do is borrow, count and lend and pass around pieces of paper that they create! They call it money and credit, but anything so elastic and flimsy is bound to cause trouble sooner or later if you rely on it to be a store of value and to always be usable for exchanges.

We do need insurance and banks serve a purpose in a modern society, but not enough for the government to go into hock to save. And now the screwy mis-regulated financiers who were pushed into foolish over-lending by pointy-headed government are going to be straightened out by regulations?

Let them fail, I say. Let gold be our money!