the dow is crashing

The following article should be required reading by every US citizen, IMHO:

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0416.html

A lot of people laugh at the "goldbugs", but you have to take this at least somewhat seriously. At the very least, you have to admit that the dollar has lost 20% of its value in the last few years vs just about any other currency in the world. The price of 1oz of gold was $450 as recently as Sept 2005. Now it is $670. That is a loss of 33%. What if it becomes 50% less? 75%? 96%? Don't think it could happen? $1 only buys you $0.04 worth of what it could in 1913, but the rate is accelerating.

Enough with all the scary numbers, what can we do about it? What did the population of Germany do after WWI when they literally had to pay for loaves of bread with wheelbarrows of currency? They bought stuff with it! Because if they waited until tomorrow, they would be able to buy even less. And then they bartered and exchanged "things". You see, "stuff" retains value (except as it depreciates or gets replaced by a newer, faster computer). A gallon of gas and a gallon of milk will cost relatively the same, no matter how many units of currency they are being sold for.

Anyway, so what will hold value? How bout property? As a long-term investment, real estate has pretty much always gone up in value. Wonder why that is? Mostly because of inflation (yes, in some places it's speculation or lack of land). But it's hard to trade pieces of your house for other stuff.

Here's the moral of the story: exchange some of your currency for gold and/or silver.