We Beat Inflation (1986)

November 07, 1986

Today's Golden Oldie is a cartoon that I drew 25 years ago this month. It's from November 7, 1986. At the time, I was doing a special cartoon for the Jerusalem Post every Friday. It was, appropriately, called the Friday Dry Bones.

Back then we suddenly discovered that we Israelis had apperently beaten our runaway inflation into submission. We didn't, as the cartoon shows, know how we did it, but we had done it. And the Israeli Shekel has remained a strong currency to this very day.

My alter ego, Mr. Shuldig, who had been running a comic "anti-inflation" campaign at the time, appears in this cartoon in his "Spirit of the New Israel" caped superhero costume. Notice the "S" for Shuldig on his forehead.

The U.S. Dollar (1978)

Today's Golden Oldie is a Dry Bones cartoon that I did way back in July of 1978. Thirty years ago this month!

Back in 1978 the Israeli currency was called the Lira. Now it's called the Shekel. The Dollar is still called the Dollar, but as the old song goes "A Dollar Ain't a Dollar Anymore" ...and wildly changing rates of exchange always seem to mean higher prices here in the Promised Land.

* * * A major story in Israel in 2008 is the incredible drop in the value of the American currency. The Israeli economy is being shaken. Israeli charitable organizations that receive donations in U.S. Dollars are hard hit as the Shekel value of those donations continues to drop ...also hit are Israeli manufacturers who find that U.S. sales bring Dollars that are worth less in Shekels each month as the crisis deepens. At an Israeli friend's house the other day she explained that her savings were in a Dollar account. She was confident that in another year or so the Dollar would be back to where it "should be". I said "What if it never goes back up to its previous value?"

So what do you think about the falling Dollar? Will it rise again?

What do you think?

* * * Oh and if you're too young to remember the old song and want to hear a snippet of it, make sure your speakers are on and click on "A Dollar Aint a Dollar Anymore"!