It may also be interesting to look at the loss of personal freedom compared to escalation of violence in our society while remembering old adage “obligation breeds resentment”. How much conscious choice and how much freedom do you really have left? More importantly, how often do you exercise it?

The opportunity, “You never go sightseeing in your own town”. For those of us that see this inflationary trend as a struggle for maintaining our human dignity, we offer a suggestion as to most powerful and vulnerable (NOT weakest) place to start, yourself! With risk of becoming more monotonous than “human doings” that seem to be multiplying around us, we invite you to do an inventory of your own qualities and values to monitor inflation going on in your own backyard. For instance: • How solid are your ethics and morals? • How clean is your language? • What is value of your word? • How “close” are you to your family? What is quality of those relationships? • How is your health, weight, stress level, etc? • How many people do you really trust? How many trust you? • How much peace of mind can you muster before craving something to do?

In Swedish, word for behaviour patterns is beteende mönster, we invite you to ask yourself how many of your beteende mönster are really inflated beteende monsters? We hope message is clear enough, if you don’t maintain values, in these inflationary times, they will erode.

"So what" you ask? Our answer: How is your quality of life? How is it compared to what you expected when you dreamed of it so many years ago? If you are like most of us there is probably been a certain amount of price inflation since you first dreamed about how it would be. It also seems that price for many of us is finally beginning to show its ugly face. Sick leave is increasing drastically, stress is an epidemic and we just keep working more. If you watch news, you are probably seeing inflation’s effect on world around you. If you are trying to raise children you are probably feeling its effect close to home. Now ask yourself what is direction of trend?

Living your life in a Spreadsheet We are in danger of becoming a society of individuals living in a spreadsheet; and don’t forget that each box on a spreadsheet is called a “cell”. The more we allow our values to deteriorate more desensitized we become. For instance, what is your reaction to level of violence on TV? Has it degraded over last 20 years? What about inflation of democracy compared to power of lobbyists? Some have likened degradation in process of voting to a legal form of monetary "mob rule". What do you think?

Your "human being" use it or lose it. We think it is past time to address this inflation/degradation process of what makes us human. Regardless if you believe in a great conspiracy, plain old chaos or nothing at all; result might just turn out to be same. We may be losing our dignity as humans even faster than we collectively seem to be losing our wealth. Trust, respect and confidence are in danger of become relics of past. Has your child been assaulted in school yet?

Hope through action As grim as it may seem, solution to this personal form of inflation maybe so simple that it defies logic which may, ironically, be just point. What if leverage point to lower inflation starts with being present and expressing your true emotions? Observe what happens in your world if you: * Choose to be consciously friendly towards others * Make someone’s day by just acknowledging them * Say or do something that really “moves” someone * Just breathe more... do you know where word inspired comes from?

If these questions interest you also and if you see a connection between quality of your life and depth with which you dare to answer them, then we would like to hear from you! Inflation can be beaten, but you have to feel it first!

Non- Americans are smart and getting smarter: From a “rest of world” perspective, it is now beginning to be rather evident that through its mixed messages, American Leadership along with our collective consumer behaviour are squandering trust other fellow humans bestowed upon it in those heady days after World War II. We have created, borrowed and spent more “fiat” money since than probably existed since beginning of civilization. The Dollar, whether in paper or electronic form, is a mere shell of its former self. According to Federal Reserve itself, ironically entrusted to maintain value of it, dollar has lost over 95% of its value since Fed came into being. The mantra of a “sound Dollar” has been replaced by “no money down and 0% financing” and people in rest of world are beginning to wake up to its ramifications.

More importantly, spirit backing “greenback”, regardless from which God it came, seems to have been replaced by needs of self serving politicians, finance people and Federal Reserve itself. It is becoming blatantly obvious to at least many well educated non-Americans that politics and greed seem to have once again replaced down-home human spirit and values. There are more and more well educated and well travelled non-Americans. It is interesting to note that in Europe over last 10 years, questions about best sights to see and best places to shop have been replaced by American political and monetary inquiries. Also, at least in Europe, more of them are expressing an open disinterest in visiting United States.

"Maggie" in a new context: Remembering Maggie Thatcher, we see that despite all spin by politicians and even Sir Alan Greenspan himself, or maybe because of it, Europeans have created Euro, Arab nations are both contemplating buying oil in Euros and creating a gold Dinar and Chinese have opened a gold exchange. Now possibly even Bank of Japan itself is exploring ways to lessen their dependency on U.S. Dollar. Abroad, blind trust is giving way to a “cover your ass-etts” awakening. What happens when fewer and fewer people want more and more Dollars?

Looking at its steady price rise, one of avenues being explored by all is gold. Luckily, pure gold is still one form of money no government or bank has ever been able to manipulate. Even after more than 5000 years of use as money, gold still doesn’t need reminder of “In God We Trust” to help retain its value.

Nowhere on a piece of gold will you find words “promissory note”. Even though some might also add that it is also only form of money created by God, one thing most of us can agree upon is this; Gold and its sister Silver are only assets used as money that are not backed by a liability. It might be time to once again remind ourselves of that all-too-human slogan about “promises are made to be broken.”

So until personal integrity and earning trust become not only leadership issues but leadership requirements it would seem to be prudent to save some gold. It would also be worthwhile to compare what is being stated by our leaders to responses generated in subsequent world events. Its all about relationships!

Question Authority: The more we question authority, more we coach our leaders and ourselves to be truthful, more we retain and exercise our freedom of choice. With our help, our leaders can again become personally accountable to serving “We people” instead of just enjoying their elite status. Then rest of world may again be inspired to look up to us who are blessed to be citizens of “the land of free”.