The Berenstain Bears learn about sound economic policy

I knew it!  I just knew that I hadn't imagined this.  A cartoon from 37 years that I saw only once ago and I still remember it!

Around the mid-Eighties there was an animated series based on the beloved Berenstain Bears children's books.  The show ran on Saturday mornings on CBS.  It was pretty good as I seem to recall.  And often quite humorous.

Well, the other day one of the episodes sprang to mind as I was reading the news about the latest attempt to avoid a government shutdown.  It involved the Bear kiddies learning all about money.  How those little green pieces of paper don't have value on their own.  Instead they must be backed up by something with real tangible worth.  In the bears' world this happens to be the purest honey in existence.  Without that backing, as the kids' father puts it there would be total chaos.

In other words: fiat currency is a very terrible thing for a society to have.

This is wise economics from a nearly forty year old animated cartoon made for youngsters.  Even a child can understand the enormity of it.

If only more people had grasped the concept.  This country would not be headed toward the disaster it is hellbent on achieving.  It is indeed chaos and there is not going to be any avoiding it.

Here is the episode: "Raid On Fort Grizzly".  Well worth watching.

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One day, this will be mine (I hope!)

See this?  It's an enlargement.  The originals are about the size of modern printed currency...

 

I first saw this at a Boy Scout camporee in September of 1985.  I was a brand new full Boy Scout.  They were handing out life-size copies of this: A ten shilling note used during the Siege of Mafeking during the Boer War in South Africa.

It dates back to 1900.  Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, who later started the entire Scouting movement, had these printed up and used in place of scarce real currency.  After the siege was lifted and true money started flowing again these were redeemable for actual ten shilling coins.

My friend and grandfather figure Doc Lewis told me about all that.  The “shillings” they were handing out during the camping event were copies of an actual siege note that our local Boy Scout council had in its possession.

I’ve been fascinated by this note ever since.  So much so that I resolved to someday own a real one.  It’s still a dream of mine.

I found some really good pics of Mafeking siege notes and then printed this one out.

It’s been on the wall next to my computer desk I’m writing this from for awhile now.  It’s become a source of inspiration for me. Baden-Powell held out in Mafeking for 217 days until relief finally arrived.

If he could do that with limited supplies, maybe I can hold out a little while longer for whatever God may have for me.  I hope so.

And hey, how many currencies in world history have soldiers manning cannons and machine guns printed on them?  That alone makes this note pretty cool!

If I ever can finish and sell my book, I’m going to buy a real ten shilling note from the Mafeking siege and frame it and put it on my living room wall.

I think that would be pretty neat.

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The crisis thus far...

The head of the European Union has described President Obama's plans to spend the United States out of recession as "the road to hell".

Great Britain is running out of money.

China wants to dump the U.S. dollar as the de facto global currency.

And now the United States Postal Service is beginning to beg for a bailout.

What's that Chinese curse? "May you live in interesting times", or something.

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Microsoft and Yahoo: Anyone else thinking this?

That Microsoft withdrawing its bid to acquire Yahoo and the subsequent devaluing of Yahoo's stock was a calculated move by Microsoft (I'm terribly tempted to suspect Steve Ballmer especially) to make Yahoo more vulnerable - and far cheaper - for purchase later on?

This might go down as the most classic maneuver that Microsoft has ever made, if that turns out to be true.

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