It is similar. As a culture and a society we have not been very well financially educated. At times it is important to cut through all the confusion and get down to the basics of financial knowledge and financial security to help lead us into sovereign wealth. Do you know the old saying, "a dollar just does not buy what it used to", well, keep that in mind as you read this article.
The question was posed to me, "How does the value of a dollar relate to a declining economy?" And the simple answer to that is, "what can it by you?" It's all about PURCHASING POWER. Think commodities, the simple things that make your life easier. The oil that makes the gas that drives your car. The food ingredients to the meals that fuel your body. The materials used to dress you and your family.
Now if you have ever held stocks, more definitively, a stock which has split, you get double the amount of shares, although each share only has half of its buying power. For instance, if you have 100 shares at $ 100 dollars, and it splits, well then suddenly you have 200 shares at $ 50. It's the same with the value of the dollar or any other fiat currency.
There are essentially 2 reasons why the value of a fiat currency (aka the dollar) will lose its value.
- The amount of dollars increases in circulation (ex- the federal reserve printing money out of thin area often to cover outstanding debts to other countries – think China)
- A decreasing demand for that said fiat currency (ex- the United States dollar, when steeped in so much debt, other countries or loaner's lose faith on ever being paid back, will stop buying into it – think China)
So now, say that the same example happened with the dollar as did the stock in our above example of a stock split. Either supply doubles or demand gets cut in half, and the value of our dollar is cut in half. Now when you want to go out and fuel your car, feed your family, or cloth yourself … you dollar will only buy half as much as before, so "a dollar just does not buy what it used to." This is an important basic of knowledge to keep in mind when planning for your financial security, especially when speaking of growing sovereign wealth and planning for emergency financial security.