One really large bill.

Recently a friend of mine from South Africa gave me $10,000,000. For a while I carried it around in my wallet just for the novelty of it, but then I felt a little silly. After all I couldn't actually spend it.

The issue isn't that it isn't real, it absolutely is. The problem with my money is that it isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It's a Zimbabwean $10,000,000 bill.

Zimbabwe is going through what several other countries have experienced, most notably recent being Argentina earlier this decade. It's a disaster called hyper-inflation.

At one time, their dollars were actually worth something. But because the Zimbabwean and Argentinian economies use what is called fiat currency--that is, a currency that is not tied to anything intrinsically valuable like gold or silver, their governments weren't able to resist the urge to print more and more money when their countries were facing challenging economic times.

Hmmm. Guess which other country has fiat currency. Heard anything in the news lately about the United States Government's printing press? Sad but true.

Oh, but certainly we couldn't experience the same problem here...our government is much more established and savvy to succumb to that error, right? Well, one would hope so, however, with the amount of pseudo expansion we've already taken part in, it wouldn't take much for the U.S. to reach the tipping point of a rapidly devaluing of our currency.

Once all of the countries (think China) who hold of our national debt realize they might be holding potentially value-less dollars, how fast do you think they'd try and dump them? Our situation is kind of like standing at the top of the St. Louis arch and wondering how far down either direction you can go before you reach the point of no return. You won't know until you get there.

So what's a country supposed to do when recession looms? Nothing? The livelihoods of it's people are on the line. Yes that's true. And it's also true that for the long-term financial good of the people, recessions are necessary. It's the natural ebb and flow of the financial tide.

I think one of the best things a country can do for it's people is encourage financial education and responsibility. And it starts within their own house. The United States government needs to live within it's means and model for it's citizens how to properly use financial resources. Over-leveraging, out of control spending, and general lack of discipline reaps what it sows.