Everyone has their own avocations and interests. Two of mine are the Kennedy assassination and Soviet espionage during the Roosevelt/Truman administrations. The espionage aspect is not the focus of this particular post but is the background for it.

Right now I am reading Spies: the rise and fall of the KGB in America. However, what I want to share with you is how the authors periodically talk about the monies spent by the KGB for various espionage activities in those days and then compare it's worth to 2008 dollars when the book was written. Here is but one example:

"In September, 1949, acting through him [courier Lee Pressman] the KGB paid Victor Perlo $250 for an analysis of the American economic situation and, more generously, simply delivered $1,000 in October to relieve his economic distress (these sums are the equivalent of approximately $11,000 in 2008 dollars."

In other words we have inflated our currency by about 11,000% in just over 60 years.

This, too, is madness and cannot be sustained. The PTB continually tell us how strong the dollar is in comparison to other currencies but that is only an indication of bad they are. "Inflation is a disease, a dangerous and sometimes fatal disease that, if not checked in time, can destroy a society." ~~Milton Friedman

Just now we are celebrating the Battle of Iwo Jima and how our brave Marines with the support of the Navy took that island. I watched some of that on TV today and marveled at who and what we were then and who and what we are now.

May God have mercy on us.