An interview recently appeared in BusinessWeek with legendary commodity investor Jim Rogers where he discussed one of the best places to be invested in the coming years. This week I delivered a speech to a group of 200 agriculture leaders and quoted his comments where he said:

"I really think agriculture is going to be the best place to be. Agriculture's been a horrible business for 30 years. For decades the money shufflers, the paper shufflers, have been the captains of the universe. That is now changing. The people who produce real things [will be on top]. You're going to see stockbrokers driving taxis. The smart ones will learn to drive tractors, because they'll be working for the farmers. It's going to be the 29-year-old farmers who have the Lamborghinis. So you should find yourself a nice farmer and hook up with him or her, because that's where the money's going to be in the next couple of decades."

Let me tell you... that quote literally brought the house down. Agriculture has taken a pounding along with the rest of the commodities the last 9 months. Those who are the real producers in our economy need to be reminded how important they are to our future success and prosperity. Like Steven Covey says in the 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, begin with the end in mind. Those in agriculture need to know how vital they are going to be to our success as we enter and move through this unfolding economic depression.

Starting with the end result in mind. Seeing yourself accomplishing a goal before it happens in real life is key critical to getting through these dark economic moments, especially for those invested in real things like agriculture, energy, base metals and precious metals.

Global gold expert Jim Sinclair recently posted an Elliott Wave Gold Update by Alf Field. The first wave up took us from $255 to $1015. The second wave down took us from $1015 to roughly $700. Now we're in the third wave up which can go from $700 to $3500 an ounce. The fourth wave down is from $3500 to $2500. And the fifth wave up is from $2500 to over $10,000.

Numbers like this are becoming more likely each day as the Fed and Treasury attempt to print their way out of the very mess they created. Remember, even though the Chairman of the Fed is appointed by the President, the Federal Reserve is still a privately owned corporation. The shareholders of the Federal Reserve are many of the big banks who Ben Bernanke continues to bail out. Isn't that just swell. Uncle Ben is taking your grandchildren's money to bail out his own shareholders. The result? You, your children and your grandchildren will all be left holding the bag. Talk about the crime of the century.

The trillions of dollars of bailouts all went somewhere. When those dollars eventually flood the system, whatever hasn't been destroyed by this temporary episode of deflation, will be destroyed in the coming hyperinflation.

There was an article in this week's New York Times called "Going from Executive Pay to Hourly Wage". It chronicled several people who have lost their professional jobs, and their struggle, and acceptance of lower paying hourly jobs that pay 1/3 to 1/4 what they were making before. One gentleman went from a $70k a year job as a security manager to a $12/hr job as a janitor. He said everyday he's fighting despair, discouragement and depression. The competition for low wage work is intensifying. UPS said holiday applicants tripled this year from 500k to 1.4 million people looking for part time work. Many people are stripping down their resumes so that they don't appear over qualified for lower paying jobs. People are doing whatever it takes to close the monthly financial hemorrhage.

Stories like this only represent the first wave of tragic dislocations that are sweeping through our economy. What happens when all the job losses announced the last four months start to permeate the economy? What happens when all the job losses that will be announced in the coming months start to permeate the economy? The competition for any available job will multiply as will the fallout for those who are unable to find work.

The United States, and dare I say, many parts of the world, are in for a dramatic realignment of their values, their character and figuring out what really matters in this lifetime. It reminds me of what a very close friend told me after he was diagnosed with cancer. He was unable to continue with his work and had to close down his office. When I was helping him pack boxes that day, I asked him how he was coping with his illness, the loss of his business and all the emotions he must be feeling.

He looked at me and said, "Robert, I have to find a way to make this the best thing that ever happened to me". And he meant it.

And that's exactly what all of us must do. If you're facing hardship, if your back is against the wall, if you've had a blow to your identity and ego, muster up whatever strength you have and challenge yourself to find a way to make this the best thing that ever happened to you.

The next two years are all about financial and emotional survival. Unspoken pain is a common denominator for most people right now. But that pain can be turned into strength when you challenge yourself to make your hardship, your setback or your personal defeat the best thing that ever happened to you.

This month on Friday the 13th, the FDIC closed 4 more banks which brought the number of bank failures for 2009 to 12 and a total of 37 since the start of the credit crisis. These bank closures hardly make even honorable mention in the news because they are so commonplace now. The cost to the FDIC insurance fund will range from 28 million to 201 million dollars for each bank. For the sake of discussion, let's round that out to 100 million dollars per bank. The latest stimulus plan is 787 billion dollars. If you divide 100 million into 787 billion, you could give 7,870 banks 100 million dollars each. Maybe that would spur some lending and help shore up the banking system.

But then you have to ask which banking system does the Fed and Treasury want to shore up? Theirs? or ours? There is an obvious double standard in the banking system. If you're one of the major banks in the country, you get bailed out time after time again with billions, and hundreds of billions of dollars with zero accountability. Small and regional sized banks get their fingers smashed in the lid of the cookie jar for mere millions of dollars. Why are there consequences for these smaller banks and far fewer consequences for the chosen few? Why are the biggest players given preferential treatment, like a teacher's pet, when the rest of the class gets extra homework, detention or even expulsion?

The first bailout was sold to us on the idea the American taxpayer would make money on the government's investment (i.e. nationalization) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We were told, and many of the ventriloquist dummies in congress parroted these ridiculous comments back to their constituents, that when property values eventually rebound, the government would be paid back. In other words, Uncle Sam was making a sound investment.

Any imaginary gains they thought they might make, have already evaporated with the continued loans, guarantees, bailouts and now stimulus plans being invented every week. Kind of like the social security trust fund, the lock box as it was called. It never existed. The money from current receipts all went to pay current recipients and what was leftover, got spent. Just another form of the ponzi scheme. Another double standard that is becoming painfully obvious is that ponzi schemes are illegal in private sector, but are business as usual in the public sector.

The US and much of the global financial system is being held together by scotch tape, silly putty and bandages. Printing more money with no corresponding increase in production leads to hyperinflation and a more severe economic collapse. The Fed and Treasury, and yes, even some in congress, already know this. It's as if they are dragging this story out until something happens, something bigger than the current economic crisis, so they can stop these economic charades and blame the ultimate collapse on someone or something other than themselves.

There was a very disturbing statistic presented in a Bloomberg article this week titled "US Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs". The opening sentence said: The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

Think about that for a moment. Payoff 90% of the nation's home mortgages. What a concept. Home equity would be fully restored. Market values of homes could be written down to their real value without adverse consequences for the homeowner. If people wanted to, they could then borrow against their newly paid off home mortgage to help get the economy moving again, or not. The power would be restored to the people and the economy.

Now before you go accusing me of abandoning free markets and capitalism, I will tell you we haven't had free markets or real capitalism in the United States for a long, long time. We have had a mixed economy. Some free markets, some socialism. It's just that now whatever remaining remnants of the free market there may have been, have been diluted beyond recognition with these massive bailouts.

The current total of $9.7 trillion will ultimately come from the taxpayers, which is you, your children and your grandchildren. Everyone will pay for this through higher taxes. The dirty little secret is that by giving the bulk of this money to the major banks in the form of loans, guarantees and bailouts, these banks will turn around and eventually loan this money back to the very same taxpayers who gave it to them in the first place, with interest. In other words, the taxpayers are going to pay for the bailout through higher taxes and they're going to pay through higher interest on their own money! This is absolutely outrageous and immoral. When people finally begin waking up to this one fact (and they are waking up to it) confusion will turn to outrage, and all politicians, regardless of party, will be on the receiving end of a no vote come the next election.

Right now, we're applying socialism to the banks and capitalism to the people. Perhaps we should turn that around so that we payoff everyone's home mortgage and apply capitalism to the banks. The big banks will fail. The community and regional banks will grow. The people will be free and we can start all over again. And maybe, just maybe, the next time we'll get it right. But, unfortunately, that is not how this story is going to end. And that's why you want to protect yourself by owning assets that will increase in value during the coming hyperinflation.