No matter how hard we try to re-invent ourselves, right now the Heights' economic health is still tied to the automobile industry. Like dominoes falling,with each passing week our economic downturn continues to affect our local businesses. Familiar greater-Cleveland family names such as Spitzer, Ganley, Axelrod, Serpentini, and others are struggling to make ends meet.

Stimulus dollars, the failure of many banking institutions (including our own National City Bank), the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler and our federal government’s buy-in to the tune of trillions of dollars will lead to super inflation or hyperinflation.

Quoting from a Financial Intelligence Report: “Everything Barack Obama, the Federal Reserve, and Congress are doing was predicted in startling detail almost two decades ago by a famous Nobel Prize-winning economist. His name was Milton Friedman. Though he passed away in 2006, in his prophetic writings, Friedman showed how facing massive deficits, the U. S. government would dramatically increase the money supply, why foreign countries would stop buying our debt, how the Fed would start buying our Treasury Bills and why this would cause massive inflation. He even predicted that our officials would claim inflation was no problem at all. Amazingly, all of this is coming to pass. In just 100 days, Barack Obama has doubled the U.S. money supply, committed the government to at least $7 trillion in new spending and warned the American people to expect trillion-dollar deficits for the foreseeable future.”

Not to beat a dead horse, but quoting from a recent Kiplinger’s Report, “The bigger concern: Inflation next year, as the economy starts to pick up some steam and the ballooning federal deficit and its potential to stoke long term interest rates move to the forefront. In fact, the latest run-up in long term interest rates was driven by worried bond investors. They are not convinced by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s vow not to tolerate higher inflation in 2010.”

We need to be thinking 10 to 20 years ahead. Although many “experts” throughout the area have talked about the medical industry and the green industry as our economic saviors, we should look to our universities for the next great industrial revolution replacement.

Hyperinflation will certainly take our eye off the prize, but we still need to remember our roots and sow the seeds of change. Who knows, with our greatest resource, Lake Erie, maybe turning water into wine isn’t such a bad idea.

Ivan Gelfand is an author and speaker. Gelfand has built successful money management businesses in Northeast Ohio and produces a monthly economic newsletter: ivangelfand.com.