Add to that the phrase full faith and credit in which their is little faith and no credit. The phrase is borrowed from Article Four of the Constitution and refers to each State - notice the Capitol S - honoring the laws of the other States. First twelve now 49 for a total of fifty. It has nothing to do in it's constitutional genesis with anything of a particularly financial nature including that of the federal government. Consequently if you have no faith in the credit of the federal government - which of course has not credit having gone bankrupt on a regular basis and which same openly intends to keep doing so - .you are not wrong but what is the practical outcome?

There is no coinage. Coins were replaced around 1963 or so with tokens. One has an intrinsic value or value unto itself. The other is ''plastic." The value is assigned and changes hundreds of times an hour. Value meaning it's ability to buy certain like items at a like price. Which leads us to the gold standard. One ounce of gold is 300 or was it 350 loaves of bread since the time of Egypt and Babylonia. It is a true measure of worth. Right now and on average about $3.50 to $4.00 US. Do the math with the average cost of the average loaf and it should come out at the current real market value of gold when multiplied by the requisite number of loaves. That is the only true standard and only if gold is honestly valued. If so then tokens such as magnetic notations of the numbers zero and one are fine with me. BUT ask for the amount of gold belonging to the US Government - any almanac will do - and the answer is around one million ounces at $40 some dollars an ounce. THAT is ALL the credit the US has. Which curiously enough matches up with the true devaluation of the buying power of the US Dollar and the worth of the national debt - of interest only to those stupid enough to buy T Bills and Savings Bonds. Skip the part about percentage of GNP and ask ask what is Net National Product after debt service is added to the Cost of Living Allowances?

Difficult to understand? Of course. Óh what a web we weave when first we practice to deceive. It's meant to be that way.

Enough of that what does it mean in practical terms? Grandpa and Grandma, not ten or twenty generations down the line, but right now are finding their retirement fund is worth diddly squat. Your generation is next. In your face. Still going to support the Government Party who values their claimed gold hoardings at $40 something an ounce. How about if they claim true market value? Damn! It's only ten percent of the national debt. You call that credit? I call that a scam, a hoax, a rip off .So much for credit what about faith.

The only faith is the realization if that little kid shouts out ''The Emperor has no clothes" the whole house of cards comes tumbling down including your current retirement.

Easy answer. Keep pretending until your dead then it becomes the Generation X Plus Y = Zero''s problem. You won't be alive - but their memory of you will unless the charade parade is still continuing. In my day they called it an Ponzi Scheme. That is your answer.

Arizona is doing the right thing. As long as they are allowed to keep shouting "The Emperor has no clothes."

(T Bills have one useful purpose. They pay off no matter how many minus the devaluation percentage which is a helluva lot more than the FDIC pay off of $250,000 per customer no matter how many accounts are affected. But to follow that line means you already now the US has no full faith and credit.)