When Cash Crashes And Burns

How to make do with an empty wallet after the economy crumbles.

- John Brewer

Money—in all its forms—is the standard medium of exchange, for good or for ill. We work for it, play with it and use it as a tool to increase our comfort. Money controls all aspects of our lives, and many will do whatever it takes to get more of it.

On the morning of October 29, 1929, most people began their day like any other—in their houses, on their farms, at their jobs with their families—completely unaware of the collapse that would tear apart these foundations and plunge most Americans into a global economic crisis.

In the ensuing years, industrial production would drop by 46 percent and foreign trade by 70 percent, and unemployment would increase 607 percent. Many didn’t have a dime to their names, no house, no farm, no land, no job, no nothing but the desire to feed their families and survive.

The frightening thing is that it could happen again. Economic collapses such as the ones seen in Greece and Venezuela in recent years could happen in the United States and could affect the entire world.

If your debit card quit working tomorrow, would you be ready for what came next?

LIFE BEFORE MONEY

It’s difficult to imagine life before money, because such a reality never actually existed. Since the dawn of man, there has always been some sort of economy, because there has always been a need for goods and services. One man’s fish could be traded for another man’s basket. For hundreds of years, the rarity of salt in certain areas made it a currency; and seashells, gems, rocks and pieces of ivory and bone have all been the backbone of economies at one time or another.