The economic woes continue with stock prices continuing to either plummet or fluctuate.  Foreclosures continue to rise although the real estate markets in some areas are doing alright.

What's funny about the real estate market is because home prices are low and interest rates are low, obviously it's a buyer's market.  But with job losses and no prospect of people finding new jobs, how are people going to purchase this low cost real estate?  Who's buying? 

Unemployment is high while the jobs losses continue.

Companies are getting bailouts from the government, yet these companies are abusing the bailout money.

Where is the money coming from?

The value of the dollar is low and still decreasing.  In fact, the McDonald's double cheeseburger was removed from the dollar menu and moved to the regular menu.  I noticed a couple of days ago the double cheeseburger is now $1.19.  At least it is at the McDonald's new my home.

To replace the double cheeseburger no longer on the dollar menu comes the McBurger.  It is similar to the double cheeseburger except it's only one slice of cheese instead of two. 

Anybody want some Government cheese?

Speaking of Government cheese and bailing out the companies, the dollar no longer has the value it once did.  Now, it is no longer worth the paper it's printed on.

At one time, the dollar was backed by gold.  Now it is only backed by someone's word.

Should I take someone's word for it?  Who should I trust?

Someday the value of the dollar is going to be so low an actual real dollar bill will be worth the same as a counterfeit bill.

Wouldn't it be great if someday I needed money all I would have to do is print some bills from my computer?

I mean what is to stop me from doing so, other than a law created by someone's word saying I can't?

That's right, a rule preventing me from doing something that was created by some knuckle head opening his or her mouth.

To add further to this, no actual cash is exchanged in transactions today.  Since most employees have direct deposit with their employers, on payday, money is electronically deposited in your checking or savings account.  Then when you go to purchase something, since most of us use debit cards, the money is electronically deducted from your account upon purchase.

Understand how it is when earning money and spending money with no cash exchanged? 

I don't even need to carry cash.

This also says that a simple computer malfunction can make it look like I have more or less money than I actually do.  What if we could get away with hacking into our bank records and adding more money to our account when we need it?  Where is this money coming from?

And where is the money for company bailouts coming from?

What if the economy gets so bad we may have to go to creating our own currency?  How much value would my currency have to yours, and vice versa?

That's all relative as this may provide a proof by contradiction that money is nothing more than a piece of paper with numbers on it, or even numbers on a financial institution's mainframe.

Who knows?  If it comes down to it, we may have to go back to bartering for goods and services.