Well this may philosophically resolve to a simple case of the king's eyes being bigger than his capacity to "enjoy" what is within his field of vision. But it does sound similar to King Midas' dilemma too. BTW - pragmatically my personal experience is that that the "chicks" are pretty much giving it away for free to everyone these days anyway. And that just takes away all the ego satisfaction and joy and is in fact suggestive of a social bubble or over supply problem that leads to reduced value. Hmmm, maybe this is indicative of a general systemic inflation problem in everything and no amount of poking around is ever going to get it to deflate and stay down too long... Ever get the impression that these recurring & similar patterns of problems and dissatisfaction that are seen at all levels (economic, social, etc) are intrinsic to human nature? It's going to be very sobering if we find out that we are all as rats living in a maze participating in a huge experiment. Do you suppose the task is to see how long it takes for us to catch on to the fact that we are the entertainment? I blame Adam and Eve and that damn snake... I'm gonna find a way to bust outta here... TS
well - that's before Nixon dropped the gold standard in 1971. I doubt it has any sales for the past 35 years.
Gold standard is not a full proof answer, far from it. Most of the REAL gold supply (Gold futs are pure BS) is controlled by a group of few, mining corps, central banks and Spain. It can be manipulated, similiar in the manner that DeBeers works their diamond monopoly. Silver is supposedely a better answer, since it is far more plentiful and its supply is more fragmented.
agree with you - but it does not change the argument too much. metal is metal and makes the valuation base pretty stable. But you can print as much paper money as you want - which is very often a bad thing when combined with human nature....
Well I am far from a supporter of fiat currency, but I have come to believe that the problem is not whether it's backed by a metal. Debasement was a very popular tool of the kings back in the day. Fiat currency can work and has under the proper financial system. 100% reserve banking, no central bank and not government issued currency but private bank notes seem to do the trick. As long as the bank do not consolidate but stay competitive, it seems to work quite well.
I loved FA Hayek - but that is 10-20 years ago when I read his works at university. I was much more libertarian at that time - but this usually evaporates as you get older (and have to feed a family). In summary - it may be a great idea but will never happen in practice....in life when you want a better car you usually do not go directly for Bugatti Veyron if you know what I mean....
Actually I think that currency can be a fair proxy for metal (remember silver certificates?). I personally see little difference between Greenbacks and T-bills as an exchangeable "promise". But I think debt instruments should be the new currency. In other words, at the rate we are printing debt it may make more sense to retire greenbacks, shrink the physical bond instruments down to the size of currency bills and use those as a physical currency. This way it actually pays to keep currency-debt idle on one's wallet since we get paid to "save" while it accumulates interest payments. Think about the fun in exchanging a currency debt note with it's built up equity/interest held on the currency magnetic strip for discounted merchandise that is subject to inflation and not selling (houses for example). The time value of money becomes intimately linked to the currency itself and voila we instantly encourage a national savings program all in one fell swoop. The only down side is that it might give people the idea to automatically deduct the official current inflation rate from the accrued interest... Fun Fun Fun. TS
Greenspan said the worst of the housing adjustment is over, I think he is trying to cover for his own mistake.. http://www.pcquote.com/