But the most decisive indicator of the coming economic storms is being registered by the collapse of basic commodity prices. The rest of the world of commodities, and their producers in the developed industrial countries, only seem unaffected by the first manifestations of an upcoming deflationary storm. And while capitalist economic commentators have done their best to avoid calling the currently unfolding crisis by its right name, the most perspicacious of them know and have begun to acknowledge the impending crisis. Nevertheless, they are ever hopeful that they can find a way out before the entire economic applecart of global capitalism tips over. While there may always be a way to postpone the inevitable, however, the longer it is postponed, the more destructive will be the system's collapse.
Commodities can express their value most reliably in other commodities.
Gold and other precious metals have mostly served as the money commodities throughout the history of commodity exchange. Gold and silver have served as the preferred money commodities because, among other things, these metals don't lose their value in use or in exchange by oxidation and are easily divided and recombined at relatively low temperatures. Thus, there is no way to know the real value of currencies and commodities since there are many artificial mechanisms to momentarily raise or lower the price of a country's currency. That explains the many unpredictable and anomalous small and large economic crises. No one, for instance, foresaw the collapse of the Asian economies because there is no objective measuring stick by which these countries' monetary, financial, and economic health could be determined.