Money Vs Currency

Currency and money are very similar and many people think that they are one of the same. However, there is one major difference that separates the two. First, let's obtain a firm grasp of how they are similar. Both currency and money have to be:

A unit of account

A medium of exchange

Portable

Divisible

Durable

Fungible

Money must be all of the above, but has to also be a "store of value" over long periods of time. Paper is never a store of value because it can be printed at will and only has the value given to it as determined by the issuing government. Gold and silver have been used as "money" for over 5000 years because it satisfies every requirement stated previously. Once upon a time, the U.S. was on a gold standard. This meant that for every dollar printed, there had to be gold to back it up. Our dollar was considered "money" because of this gold backing. Thus, the phrase "good as gold" was coined (you could redeem your dollars for gold). Gold has to be mined and that process takes time and physical effort.

Gold's value comes from its rarity and the physical effort that it takes to mine it. When you're paid in gold or dollars backed by gold, the gold you redeem represents your efforts. You may ask, "Why is it so important to have our dollars backed by gold?" The gold standard prevented our government from printing excessive amounts of money. When governments are allowed to print money at will, without the backing of either gold or silver, this action always leads to price inflation. This inflation always turns to hyperinflation and the currency collapses on itself and goes back to its true value of 0. Our forefathers understood the concept of "real money" and deemed it unconstitutional for anything but gold and silver to be used as money because every great empire that had currency without backing, collapsed. The U.S. will be no exception. Here is a direct quote from the constitution: "No state shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make anything but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

Former President Richard Nixon took the world off of the gold standard on Aug. 15, 1971 by ending the Bretton Woods Agreement. I say "the World" because the dollar holds "World Reserve Currency" status. The dollar was pegged to gold and the majority of all other major currencies were pegged to the dollar. Therefore, they were indirectly pegged to gold because the dollar was pegged to gold....I hope that makes sense...lol. The ending of the Bretton Woods Agreement caused all money worldwide to instantly become a worthless government backed instrument of debt (currency).

Currency is nothing more than an "I O U" (debt). All of the world's currencies aren't backed by anything and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (private institution) is printing currency like it's going out of style. How does this affect you? Have you seen prices lately? The expansion of the money supply always leads to price inflation because you have more paper chasing the same goods. As a rule of thumb, prices don't rise, it is just the value of the paper in your pocket losing value. The old rule of money was to "save". This rule is no longer applicable in today's economic environment. Savers are losers.

The reason savers are losers is because the longer you save your money, the less purchasing power it is going to have in the future. Governments are going to continue to print money until all faith is lost in the currency and it reverts to its real value of nothing. If you don't believe me, just look at how far that $100 bill in your pocket goes today relative to how far it went just a few years ago. The dollar is on the verge of collapse and many Americans are oblivious to this fact because either they don't care or they are listening to the mainstream media which is pumping disinformation on a daily basis (keeping people sleep (sheep). America is headed face first into an economic tsunami. This economic tsunami will be disastrous for those holding their wealth in any dollar denominated asset.

There's a simple way to profit from this economic collapse and achieve wealth beyond your greatest imagination. Did you know that more millionaires were created during the Great Depression than any other time in American History? Well, the wealth transfer that is going to take place during America's next Depression is going to TRUMP that of the Great Depression 10 fold. You have a unique opportunity right now, to be on the right side of the wealth transfer. What you "don't know" will murder you financially.

You need to make it your business to read my eBook before it's too late. The middle class is being wiped out and there will only be 2 classes of people....the rich and the poor. It is your choice. I have info that will help you see an alternative view to what the media is pumping.....take the time to review that info.....u never know...it could change your life. All I'm offering is the truth.....red or blue pill....the choice is yours.

[http://www.YourPreservationOfWealth.com]

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Failed Fiat Currencies In American History

During the early days of the Revolutionary War the American colonists were having serious trouble financing the revolution. Efforts to acquire additional money from England were slow at best. Furthermore the Continental Congress was forbidden to directly tax the colonists for war funding efforts. A solution for this immediate problem was finally created. The answer was to issue paper currency or bills of credit. This new money was called "Continental Currency" or Continentals which became America's first attempt at the use of fiat currency in the new America. At the time there were many congressmen who realized that over issuing paper currency was just a hidden form of taxation. However at the time this was the only option they had to levy such funds.

In June 1775 $ 2 million bills of credit were issued by order of the Continental Congress. At the time of issuance it was announced that this would be the only time these bills of credit would be issued. Four years later in 1779 the Continental Congress authorized an additional $200 Million continental's be printed. Knowingly, inflating the money supply and disregarding its own promise to only print $2 million four years earlier for one time only. The colonies were expected to pay back these funds. Depreciation, which had already started in 1776, was now accelerating. After many attempts on the collection of these funds the colonies still never paid it back. By 1780 the continental currency had devalued so much that a famous expression for that time was born. "Not worth a Continental" because its value then, was only worth 1/80th of a one dollar silver coin. The continental currency was finally replaced by the US dollar in 1785 becoming the unit of national currency by the Continental Congress.

76 years later fiat currency was again tested in America. At the American juncture of the American Civil War just a couple months after the United States Confederacy was created, a new fiat currency called the Confederate States of America dollar had begun to go into circulation. This money was created and used to pay for the South's war expenses. Printed in many designs, and denominations ranging from a $ 1/10th confederate dollar note to a $1000 dollar confederate note and all hand signed. They were printed between 1861 and 1865 with a total value of $ 1.7 billion in circulation.

These notes were very popular at the beginning of the confederacy within the Confederate States of America. The first notes printed were redeemable and payable upon demand and used for goods and services. However, as time went along the notes started becoming payable not upon demand, but rather into the future. At increased rates when these confederate dollars were printed, they would have an inscription upon them in varying forms. Such as "Six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States The Confederate States of America will pay to the bearer on demand".

As the Confederate War continued on, more and more of these confederate dollars were printed and the dates in which they could become redeemable kept moving further and further into the future. Inflation at the time was skyrocketing. The actual value of the confederate dollar was quickly becoming worthless. With the war ending to a victory for the North, the South's gold bullion was confiscated and the confederate dollar was now completely destroyed.

50 years later, at the beginning of WWI in 1915 again the United States regressed to the use of floating large sums of fiat money during the course of the next ten years. This was done to finance the enormous costs for the war. The money for the war effort was loaned to America by the newly created Federal Reserve Bank. The American people had to pay this money back plus interest which made the owners of the new Federal Reserve Bank very rich.

The Bretton Woods agreement was in place from 1944 through 1971 where the US enjoyed a fairly stable 27 year period without fiat money. In 1971 President Richard M. Nixon was forced to close the gold window by taking the United States and the world out of the Bretton Woods Agreement. This removed the last peg attaching the US dollar to gold. After this event occurred the United States again inherited its fiat currency. A fiat currency backed by nothing other than the faith and promises of the US Government to pay the bearer and its acceptance from the American people. From this point on America has allowed the Federal Reserve's money press to run freely and drastically over inflated its money supply. From 1971 through today the US dollar has lost greater than 93 percent of its original purchasing power through inflation caused by excessive money creation.

It is a sad deal for America that the United States itself, could not even learn from its own past mistakes. Numerous times throughout history many nations have fallen by the use of fiat currency. Sadly America is close at hand to join them. Protect yourself and your family, by investing in physical gold and silver. As throughout history they have always been true stores of value. Physical gold and silver Act as insurance policies for asset protection, by hedging against inflation, deflation, or even the destruction of paper currency through hyperinflation.

Tom Genot -

Informational news, books, articles and videos to invest in gold and silver and where the best places are to buy it. Also find informational resources to educate you on alternate forms of investing and preparedness, for protecting you, your family and your assets from the pending economic crises and destruction of the US dollar. Author Tom Genot provides information and resources helpful to everyone. Insure you're prepared, while time is still on your side. Check us out at www.coinbullion.net

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Christmas Shopping the Easy Way - How to Save Time, Money & Your Sanity This Christmas!

Christmas is here again & soon frantic shopping starts. So often because we're all so busy these days shopping for gifts gets left to the last moment & then it becomes a headache rather than something pleasurable.

This year things are tough for a lot of people & many families will be looking for any way they can to save a bit of money on Christmas Gifts & toys for the kids.

Buying online is growing in popularity each year as the shopping experience becomes more secure, the choices increase & delivery is highly efficient.

The phenomena of online shopping has led to fierce competition amongst retailers & that's where the canny shopper can capitalise this Christmas. It's a double whammy for shoppers because not only do you get the benefit of being able to comparison price shop without even leaving the house, you also get lots of really good ideas for gifts while you're at it.

It also saves you lots of time as you don't need to spend time trying to find parking at the mall, going from shop to shop looking for inspiration & then getting your parcels back to the car & into the house.

Honestly, last year when I did some of my Christmas shopping online for the first time I could have kicked myself for not doing all of it & sooner. After having a really stressful experience at the shops as a result of parking dramas, crowds & snappy over busy staff in the week leading up to Christmas day - the very next day gifts I'd purchased online early that week arrived. A knock at the door & they were inside ready to wrap.

This year I got started early as money isn't what it was last year in our household. I was looking for the best prices & also interesting gifts for the kids & close friends & relatives. I do struggle each year to think of things to buy grownups, even my husband. Most people these days have what they need & simply buy what they want when they want it, so it's hard to think of useful gifts that won't be stuck in the drawer & forgotten.

I went from no inspiration to having too much choice. My brother is a mad golfer & last year I went to the golf shop but had no idea what most of the things were or if he needed or wanted them. This year I found a brilliant golf site & it had a Top 10 Golfing Wish List with a description of the items. Perfect. I then went to Amazon to price check, found what I wanted at a better price & added it to my list, so that all my purchases could be delivered together to take advantage of cheaper shipping prices.

For my nephews, nieces & grandchildren I found a vast range of Christmas toys at great prices this year. Bakugan is the craze right now along with Ben 10 for boys, plus PSP games for the older ones. The little girls all still love Barbie & this year I purchased 2 sets of Barbie Fashion Fever styling heads which can be made over with makeup & hairstyles. Then there were the little Fur Real friends realistic animals that the seem to be popular as well, & the nursery animals are well priced.

Maybe I sound like a scrooge, but we've had to tighten our belts this year & if I can save money then I can & do, but that's not the only reason I've loved shopping this way. I can get online at any hour of the day or night, when it suits me & that works really well for me.

I like to get up early & run, come home & shower before anybody else is out of bed. Early morning is a great time for me to get online while I drink my cup of tea. I've done all my Christmas shopping that way this year & it's been simple. Even though it's often taken awhile, that's usually because I'm enjoying myself & lose track of time.

I don't think I can ever remember actually enjoying myself Christmas shopping. When the kids were little it was something I dreaded.

I can still recall that sinking feeling of looking for a cabbage patch doll (yes, back in the olden days). Those dolls were massive that year & my girls wanted one each, but they were sold out everywhere when I went to buy them. I felt guilty because I'd left it until too close to Christmas Day to go & get them, not realising they were selling out. The girls were really disappointed on Christmas day & weren't consoled by the idea that they'd be getting one sometime in January, somehow it wasn't quite the same when they finally arrived.

So this year if you haven't already, have a think about doing a bit of Christmas Gifts searching & shopping on the internet. You'll find the prices are often as good if not better than the shops, the delivery times are quick & the shipping costs have come right down due to competition. If you like me get stuck for ideas, then take a stroll around Amazon & you'll be amazed (my husband calls it Amazazon) by the amount of choices of gifts & price ranges.

Of course there are plenty of other great Christmas Gifts Guide sites where the short listing of Top 10 Toys & Gifts has been done for you including the price shopping but I've got comfortable with Amazon so that's mostly where I do my buying in the end. The internet has changed our lives enormously in a relatively short space of time & big online stores like Amazon have worked hard to make shopping online a secure & easy experience.

This year take a look at online Christmas Shopping. You have hours of time to gain, money to save & nothing to lose.

Irene Walters is an amateur long distance runner & keen shopper. Irene is currently on a mission to be more economical & has started by doing her Christmas shopping online this year. Irene suggests the following sites for great inspirational Christmas Shopping ideas this year. Please visit Christmas Gifts [http://www.christmasgiftspresents.com/].

Or visit Christmas Toys [http://www.christmasgiftspresents.com/useful_christmas__resources.php] for children's toys ideas.

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Make Extra Money on eBay by Preparing for Christmas Sales

So are you ready yet? You should be - in fact, if you haven't already been ordering in extra stock and starting to make those extra sales on eBay then you've already missed out on a pretty active October.

But there is no need to worry. There is still plenty of time to go until the big day, and that means you can make plenty of extra money this Christmas by preparing in just the right way.

In order to stay competitive, this is the time of year when it can really pay to make sure you are offering the best possible service. So with that in mind, take a look at the following hints and tips for making extra money eBay this Christmas.

And with any luck, you will be counting the cash come Christmas Eve!

1. Are your prices competitive?

You don't need to be cheaper than your competitors, but if you charge more than they do for exactly the same item you will be bound to have fewer sales. You should always check your competition and the market conditions when you first start selling an item, but it pays to check it periodically as well.

Take the time to go through all your active listings to see whether you can improve on the prices - and then see what happens.

2. Make your buyers aware of the last Christmas posting dates

You don't need to do this, but if you do, buyers normally appreciate it. If you have a shop you may like to list the dates in there, or provide a link to Royal Mail's website.

You can also ask people to check last posting dates on your listings, but if you have already sold items from an active listing you won't be able to amend it. Having the information in your shop is often enough to help people out though.

3. Offer customers a seasonal freebie

We did this last year, and it worked a treat. We actually decided not to broadcast the fact in the end - we simply popped a little extra gift into each package we sent out. This resulted in great feedback and a lot of people came back to shop with us again.

We didn't want to boast that we were giving away a free gift - we just wanted to say a little extra thank you to those people who bought from us in the run-up to Christmas.

The ideal gift is something small which doesn't cost you much to buy or post. We sell toys so we included a small party bag toy with each order. The reaction we got was enough to decide to do the same again this year.

4. Create some seasonal packing slips

We usually have snowflakes or snowmen and Santas along the bottom of our packing slips. It's only a small touch and there really isn't any extra work in it once the template has been set up. But it does get remembered and we've had comments on it too.

We figure that it isn't just the Christmas custom we want; we're hoping that people will remember us when they need toys in the year ahead as well. That's why we try everything we can to make sure we can serve people in the best possible way.

5. Let people know about any January sales you may be planning

We do this on the back of our packing slips, so that people will remember us even when the festive season is over.

You can generate interest in one of two ways. Firstly, you can think about knocking a specific percentage off some (or all) of your items. The other idea is to run a penny auction to attract people's attention.

We have done this in past years to get rid of some old stock, particularly if we receive an item that is saleable but packaging that is slightly below par. And of course the low start tends to garner the kind of interest that leads to lots of visitors - any one of whom could take a look at what else you are selling at a regular price.

6. Liven up your listings

If you are putting on any new listings - particularly if they are for seasonal items - try creating a seasonal listings template to go with them. These add an extra touch of festivity to your listings that is very quick and easy to do once you have got the template ready to use.

You can also develop this further by adding a note underneath every item description, which tells people they can view more seasonal items in your eBay shop.

7. Consider opening up a shop

If you have got a lot more stock to list at this time of year why not open an eBay shop?

You can always close it again after the seasonal period, but if there was ever a time to dip your toe into the water and give it a go, it's now. It's much easier to direct buyers to your shop than it is to ask them to look up the rest of your listings.

There's no doubt that Christmas offers a multitude of opportunities for sellers to make a decent income from eBay. But you will get the best results when you take the time to plan your approach first.

And you will find that the longer you stick with eBay and the more Christmases you sell for, the better you will know how the market works. Of course, you should never assume that what sold well last year will be equally as good a seller this year.

For more great Christmas money making ideas, home based business reviews and blueprints go to www.whatbizopp.com

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How to make money with Halloween

If you want to make money online, then there's no better place to start than the Halloween niche. The Halloween niche is in my opinion by far the easiest niche to quickly get started making money in. There are lots of reasons why this is. Firstly, the competition in the Halloween niche is much weaker than in other common affiliate marketing niches. What this means is that you can quickly and easily get Halloween related websites ranking well in Google and other popular search engines. Good rankings mean traffic which hopefully converts into sales for you.

Another reason I like the Halloween niche is that there is a very good company with a great affiliate program. I've always used BuyCostumes.com and find it the people at BuyCostumes to be very helpful and a good business partner in general. They have dedicated affiliate managers who are there to help with whatever is required. BuyCostumes pay 10% commissions on costume sales. This might not sound like much but it really adds up when Halloween rolls around.

There are also no shortages of keywords to target or costumes to promote. BuyCostumes have literally hundreds of costume options available and each costume is searched for using thousands of keywords - this makes your job so much easier. You don't need to target competitive keyword terms such as "Halloween Costumes" - you can target more specific words such as "vampire Halloween costumes" and still get a heap of high converting traffic.

So basically what you need to do is sign up for an account at Commission Junction and then opt in to the BuyCostumes affiliate program. Do a little keyword research and choose a few keywords to target. Build a websites to target each specific keyword - it doesn't need to be a big website, a couple of pages is plenty. Once you've done all this, add in your BuyCostumes links. That's the website setup complete. Next move on to link building.

Write a few helpful articles and submit them to places such as EzineArticles with links in the resource section to your site. You can also bookmark your new website using the likes of Twitter, Digg and StumbleUpon. If you want to go the extra mile, build a Hub Page about Halloween and add a couple of links in there as well. You really don't need many links to have success with this - 2 or 3 quality links is usually fine.

Lastly, remember its a numbers game. The more websites you have the more money you stand to make. Every single websites won't be a success but if you stick to the basics above I think you'll find you do pretty well. Good luck and happy Halloween!

Aidan Booth is a full time affiliate marketer. Find out more about Halloween marketing by reading Aidan's in depth Halloween Super Affiliate review today. Make sure you also check out Aidan's Halloween Super Affiliate bonus [http://halloweensuperaffiliate.org] - here he gets much more in depth about making money with Halloween.

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