S.T.A.G.E. said:
justinian said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Mr Khan said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Mr Khan said:
The only thing gold backing does is make it that much harder to have a flexible currency. Fiat is simply more stable.
Who even operates on the gold standard anymore? India might, i think, though that's showing their weakness.
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Backed currency doesn't need to be flexible because its real. If you have it then you have it. Its amazing how much inflation increases prices to outrageous levels to the point that the bubble had to burst in this country.
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How is it real, though? How are shiny rocks any more real than bits of paper with pictures? (The practical uses for gold and silver notwithstanding)
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What is skin without a skeleton? Answer that question and you'll understand my point. If theres no backing you should've just saved a tree. Gold needed no backing because it was considered a desirable and rare object. In Asia rice was used as currency. You're basically saying air is just as valuable as a commodity that could pass for currency itself. Fiat currency makes it easier to create debt especially when people don't know where the money is coming from. You wouldn't be the wise as to whether the lender had mal intent or not. Everything today is based on faith....which is something we need less of if we want to stay out of trouble.
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I agree with your statement.
Ultimately people will believe whatever they want and usually that is whatever makes them comfortable. If they think the US dollar will be around in their lifetime or otherwise.
I like your point on faith although I take it from a different angle. I believe anything is possible because I have little faith in humans, espeicially those that seek to lead and thus become leaders. Decisions made within are the cause of the fall of empires and great nations. All it takes is a decision and a bad one can be taken tommorow or in twenty years.
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Faith is true in many respects and can bail a person out if they are having issues, but people would make less mistakes if more was expected of them. Faith on the other side of the coin philosophically should create risk, which is what people rely on from investors so yes. However when it comes to currency its a different story.
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Yes, but to me it is all the same. Each country (or group of countries) must make decisions over their currency. These can be genius or disastrous.
Many people have faith in their governments to make the correct decisions. Some don't.
Take China for example. From members of the American government to the average Joe on the street many see China as a threat to their security and to their economy. How much dough does the US owe China?
What they fail to see is that it was decisions made in the US (mainly) that was responsible for the growth in China and other Asian markets. The beast that many Americans now see in China is variably a beast of their own creation.
This is what I mean by decisons made at the top at every level and every dept can be good or bad for a country in the long term. Economics (currency) at this point in human history is at the heart of it. The world has evolved. A few white men in the western world no longer can dictate and call all the shots like they did less than a generation ago. To view the world now as it was in the America's pomp during the 1950's and after doesn't make sense. Superpowers no longer rule for centuries like Rome or the European colonists.
A superpowers greatest enemy is the one within. Not Russia, not China, not N.Korea or Iran. With the way the American government is acting and with a whole lot of their policies in a now global world it seems to me the country is on a straight and downhill road to destruction. I could be wrong but only time can be the judge of that, nothing else.
