Protest in dowtown Louisville today
*sigh* gold standard bull shit *grumble* *grumble* *grumble*
There's a fantastic book called Making Money by Terry Pratchett. I have never found a more adequate explanation of how fiat money works than in this book. So the next time you hear someone preaching the merits of precious metal based currency. Realize that it is not the gold itself, but the idea of the gold that makes the system work.
What I herd someone argue today was this: The american currency used to be one of the most powerful currencies in the world. Now it's devalued and is worth less than most of our economic rivals.
The reason that the dollar used to be so much more powerful than our economic rivals: In World War II American cities weren't bombed into oblivion. It took every European country a long time and a lot of resources to recover from the devastation of World War II. And as such the American economy was able to take full advantage of the fact that there was a competitive advantage for the states in just about everything. This is no longer the case. Now there are many countries who enjoy a competitive advantage in the production of most durable goods so American goods aren't selling as well over seas or at home. In some cases, like the american automobile, this is a result of poor decision making by the manufacturers. In other cases there are other reasons. Bottom line. The American Dollar is never going to be head and shoulders above the rest of the world's currencies ever again. Unless there's another world war that somehow decimates Europe and Southeast Asia, but leaves the Americas untouched. Except by then Central America and africa will probably be in further stages of development. So the dollar will have more competition. But that's all trying to predict the future.
It's frustrating when people look at history and ignore the truth in favour of supporting a case that isn't true. All of you Ron Paul fans out there. I'll be honest there are a lot of things he stands for that I'm in favour of as well or at least I respect the reason for his opinion. But frankly, the FED is the only part of the government that I trust to run efficiently. The guys on the board of governors are ridiculously smarter than me. And the guys that groomed for the role of FED Chairman are smarter than that. I don't, broadly speaking, adhere to supply side economics principles. Or at least I don't feel like it works the way that it's believed to work. And I dislike Milton Friedman in general terms, although I need to be more polite about that now that he's dead. But Moneterism is totally vallid. And it works much better than alternatives and it's less costly than the alternatives. Sorry folks. The FED works. It really does.
There's a fantastic book called Making Money by Terry Pratchett. I have never found a more adequate explanation of how fiat money works than in this book. So the next time you hear someone preaching the merits of precious metal based currency. Realize that it is not the gold itself, but the idea of the gold that makes the system work.
What I herd someone argue today was this: The american currency used to be one of the most powerful currencies in the world. Now it's devalued and is worth less than most of our economic rivals.
The reason that the dollar used to be so much more powerful than our economic rivals: In World War II American cities weren't bombed into oblivion. It took every European country a long time and a lot of resources to recover from the devastation of World War II. And as such the American economy was able to take full advantage of the fact that there was a competitive advantage for the states in just about everything. This is no longer the case. Now there are many countries who enjoy a competitive advantage in the production of most durable goods so American goods aren't selling as well over seas or at home. In some cases, like the american automobile, this is a result of poor decision making by the manufacturers. In other cases there are other reasons. Bottom line. The American Dollar is never going to be head and shoulders above the rest of the world's currencies ever again. Unless there's another world war that somehow decimates Europe and Southeast Asia, but leaves the Americas untouched. Except by then Central America and africa will probably be in further stages of development. So the dollar will have more competition. But that's all trying to predict the future.
It's frustrating when people look at history and ignore the truth in favour of supporting a case that isn't true. All of you Ron Paul fans out there. I'll be honest there are a lot of things he stands for that I'm in favour of as well or at least I respect the reason for his opinion. But frankly, the FED is the only part of the government that I trust to run efficiently. The guys on the board of governors are ridiculously smarter than me. And the guys that groomed for the role of FED Chairman are smarter than that. I don't, broadly speaking, adhere to supply side economics principles. Or at least I don't feel like it works the way that it's believed to work. And I dislike Milton Friedman in general terms, although I need to be more polite about that now that he's dead. But Moneterism is totally vallid. And it works much better than alternatives and it's less costly than the alternatives. Sorry folks. The FED works. It really does.