|
nowthatsinteresting1 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
The problem with money and banks goes right back to the 1600s in the UK. Then, people deposited gold at goldsmiths for safe keeping, getting a note that showed how much they had deposited. This note was then like a very valuable bank note. The problem came when the goldsmiths realised that they could just keep on writing notes, no matter whether they had that total amount of gold in the vault or not. This is the basic fraud of banking, one that underlies every single boom and bust ever since.
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@emetts2112 It is more like an unholy alliance between bankers and politicians. The bankers operate on the authority of the Treasury. However, politicians find it easy to endlessly borrow from the profits of bankers to finance wars and handouts for votes. They are essentially each other's best friend because they both enable the other.
Besides a 6% dividend to member banks, and a couple of billion for the Rothschilds (pun), the Fed returns all of its profits to the Treasury =)
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@tjtomkins Thanks for the suggestion...i'll check him out. =)
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@tjtomkins I guess I mean barter because gold, or any real product, has intrinsic market value. It is "actually" valuable. Whereas seashells, or fiat money doesn't really carry intrinsic value, they are only a framework for things that actually count. =)
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@tjtomkins "Well, you accept that central-planing is bad with everything else.........except money :)"
I'm also a Ron Paul supporter...he is the only honest politician I can point at ;)
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@tjtomkins I agree. Returning to a gold standard would increase the demand for gold. =)
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@Sm3rti "how, then, could the dollar price of gold fluctuate"
This is the point you aren't understanding. Money is not a product/asset/service. It's a imaginary unit used to exchange products/assets/services. The quantity of money in a system represents a framework in which the value of all products/assets/services float. Gold fluctuates inside of the dollar framework because of subjective demand. This is why trading indexes for dollars is more stable than indexes for gold. =/
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@Sm3rti How is this related to quantity of money in the system? Everything you are describing happens in a Monetarist regime just like a Gold Standard regime, and none of it effects monetary policy as it is implemented today. =/
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@tjtomkins Agreed, this was the point i was trying to make to Sm3rti ;)
TheBalancedAmerican (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)
@Sm3rti "People don not have to understand investing"
So why don't people convert their dollars to gold certificates, or stocks, or bonds. It seems to me that most people are passive and complacent. If this were not the case, people would protect their saving now from the effects of inflation, but they do not. The only hedge the average Joe reaches for is a home mortgage, which has been pretty food until recently ;)
I do agree with you when it comes to more informed people though =) |
