Steve Forbes Discusses New Book About The Global Economy
PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) - Does it feel like the money you earn doesn't go as far as it once did? In his new book, "Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It," Steve Forbes says that it doesn't.
The Chairman and Editor-in-Chief for Forbes Media and former presidential candidate joined KDKA's Larry Richert and John Shumway to talk about the current state of the economy.
Forbes says that the U.S. dollar is not as powerful as it used to be in the world.
"Since the early-1970s, since (the U.S.) went off the gold standard, the dollar's value has lost 80 percent," with 30 percent of that loss just since the beginning of the decade, according to Forbes.
He says the declining value of the dollar is responsible for the housing bubble, why "two incomes in a family can barely do what one income could do in previous generations," and why incomes are "stagnant."
How can the power of the dollar be regained? Forbes says it starts with "realizing what we've lost."
He adds, "This is not a complicated subject. A dollar having a fixed value is no different than a clock having 60 minutes in an hour. Imagine what life would be like if the politicians did to the clocks what they do to the dollar; it'd be chaotic."
Most of us don't know the details of how things work in Washington to maintain and build the economy, but trust that people like Fed Chair Janet Yellen are doing things to help. Forbes says, "well, that's what they tell us, what they want to do, and I'm sure that is what they want to do, but their theories are absolutely garbage."
Forbes claims that Yellen has said, "She wants two to three percent inflation, that translates to an extra thousand dollars a year for a typical American family to buy food, fuel and other necessities of life."
Forbes says that the Fed wants the public to believe if they kept their hands off the dollar there would be a collapse, but according to Forbes, "the exact opposite would result."
"Every time we've gone to having a good dollar again the economy has boomed," he added. "If we had the growth rates that we had when we were on the gold standard, our economy would be 50 percent larger."
The reason Forbes says he wrote the book is to "turn up the heat by arming people with the knowledge they need to get our representatives off their duffs and realizing that a bad dollar is bad for all of us."
Steve Forbes With Larry Richert and John Shumway
(Photo Credit: Thinkstock)
Listen to the KDKA Morning News weekdays from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. on NewsRadio 1020 KDKA.
RELATED LINKS:
More From NewsRadio 1020 KDKA
Like NewsRadio 1020 KDKA On Facebook
Follow NewsRadio 1020 KDKA On Twitter
