When examining David Hackett Fishers' great work, The Great Wave, closely, I was taken by the societal conditions that occurred in the context of the great waves of inflation. Fisher focued mainly on the out of wedlock birth rate and how it increased during the great waves of growth associated with inflation.

I am reminded of something the late Kennedy Gammage once stated, that being that "one need only judge the quality of a people by the quality of its money supply."

As superficial as this might sound to some, the idea that money can define the goodness or badness of a people, that is, is a very significant assertion. Money is involved in everything we do daily. It is a measure of work and ingenuity, encapsulated in a storable, carryable medium. It is a measure of what we have done and what we are capable of doing.

One of the greatest achievements of man, the measure that separates the civilized man from the savage, is his ability to trade orderly with one another without theft. In short, money gives us a means to test and demonstrate honorable and trustworthy behavior. Abuse of money can only result in dishonor and distrustful behavior, because the only reason one would abuse or rather "debase" a currency supply is to make an attempt at gaining a dishonest advantage over another, in other words, to cheat. There is no other reason. There can be no other reason.

With money as such an important basis, it is not difficult to see how corruption of money can by necessity corrupt many aspects of human behavior and relations.

Michael Panzner in Financial Armegeddon quotes the Chinese proverb that states, "Disasters never come alone." And perhaps what I am alluding to here outlines a reason why. Another way of stating the proverb might be that bad things do not exist in a vacuum. One bad thing leads to another and then to another until seemingly unconnected things all turn bad together.

So inflation, sexual promiscuity, steroid scandals, cheating on college entrace exams all can be tied together in a seemingly mysterious way. Perhaps what we are seeing today is not just a peak in markets and money supplies, we are witnessing a peak in tolerable human behavior that the natural order will soon no longer allow to exist.

A destructive force such as inflation cannot survive and must therefore eventually sow the seeds of its own destruction so that commerce, trust and order can be rebuilt. The foundations of society, i.e. the family unit, parenting, civil discourse and trade, hard work and discipline, will by necessity need to be rebuilt as well.

This great wave is not about money only. It is about consciousness, and human consciouness is influenced by immutable laws involving correctness and necessary procedures for carrying on the society of man in a healthy fashion.

We are at the tipping point. The causes are debateable, but the outcomes are not. Disorder and disappointment and distrust lie all around us. Such a situation is not conducive to growth and the continued advancement of the human species towards greater enlightenment. It is not how we arrived here, and therefore must by stopped in order for us to advance further.

We are indeed at a turning point. Gold and goodness, morality and manners will reestablish themselves as the foundations that they must needs be for this journey of experiment to continue for man and mankind. Bull