MONEY: What if all monopoly money was real?

Saturday, October 11, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sennholz/sennholz19.html

Hyperinflation in Germany, 1914–1923 by Hans F. Sennholz

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How stupendous! Practically every economic good and service was costing trillions of marks. The American dollar was quoted at 4.2 trillion marks, the American penny at 42 billion marks. How could a European nation that prided itself on its high levels of education and scholarly knowledge suffer such a thorough destruction of its money? Who would inflict on a great nation such evil which had ominous economic, social, and political ramifications not only for Germany but for the whole world? Was it the victors of World War I who, in diabolical revenge, devastated the vanquished country through ruinous financial manipulation and plunder? Every mark was printed by Germans and issued by a central bank that was governed by Germans under a government that was purely German. It was German political parties, such as the Socialists, the Catholic Centre Party, and the Democrats, forming various coalition governments, that were solely responsible for the policies they conducted. Of course, admission of responsibility for any calamity cannot be expected from any political party.

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If you ever talked to someone who lived thru that era, you could see fear on their faces. Only stuff was valuable. I remember being told by an old lady: “Each day at lunch time, I would go to Papa’s law office and take the money he collected for services and go buy something immediately. Anything. Didn’t matter what. Things had value; money did not. Papa would do the smae at night when he left the office.” I never forgot that conversation.

I had a fantasy as a child. I bet all kids do. At least kids who want more of what they can’t have. “What if all monopoly money was real?” I’m sure my Mom thought it was very funny

Then as the nerdy bookworm I was, I was on a quest to learn about money. Digesting a few good “iicky nom icks” books — can they be any more boring? — I was a diligent researcher in those days.

I read about the six characteristics of money — medium of exchange, store of value, unit of account, divisible, fungible, and measurable. Learned about how difficulty in barter lead to money. I could differentiate between Commodity, Representative, Credit, and Fiat money. I could define liquidity, velocity, demand curves, and even derivatives. But my young mind blundered on a realization.

It was all monopoly money!

Yes, dear reader, we’ve been defrauded by our own gooferment. Today’s dollar is not the dollar of our parents or grandparents. And, it won’t be the dollar of our posterity.
Fasten your seat belts. The 25% Carter inflation will seem tame after the politicians get finished screwing us.
The only funny thing is that, while every holder of a dollar today is going to be screwed, the biggest holders of dollars is the Chinese Communists. INflation is going to ravage their 5 Trillion Dollars.
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GOLDBUG: More paper money; higher gold values?

Saturday, October 11, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff228.html

Gold, the Dollar, and the Dollar Index
by Michael S. Rozeff

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Since 2001, gold has risen as the dollar index has fallen, but it has risen more sharply because the other currencies have also fallen in terms of gold. This appreciation in gold coincides with a world-wide inflation of paper currencies. Gold caught up to the inflation, so to speak. As long as these central bank currencies continue to be manufactured without solid backing, either gold or tax revenues, gold will continue to have a long-term upward trend. The volatility in gold prices will, in all likelihood, also continue, and that makes it hard to forecast the shorter-term movements with a factor like money supply. Note that the big increases of recent days have not pushed gold to new highs. In the longer run, however, we can be quite sure that gold will move higher if nothing is done to improve the backing of the world’s central bank currencies.

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Seems obvious to me.

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RANT: It’s not an “economy” failure, nor a “free market” failure. It’s a “political” failure!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

On Oct 10, 2008, at 10:08 PM, P wrote:

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From: “Chuck & Joyce”
Date: October 10, 2008 7:18:54 PM EDT
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
Subject: Fw: Our failed economy

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a whore house and selling booze?

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TO WHICH I REPLIED:

the economy hasn’t failed. we’ve failed to keep our politicians in line with what the dead old white guys outlined as the proper role of gooferment. at our own peril. anyone who votes for an incumbent this year is part of the problem. even if the incumbent had NOTHING to do with it or did nothing bad, they were: (1) tacitly complicit; (2) too stupid to realize what was coming down the road; OR (3) ineffective to stop it. Look at how many times Ron Paul was the lone voice “no”! No on the war. No on taxes. No on Fannie and Freddie. No on the Fed. Sigh. Best gooferment money can buy. Sorry. It wasn’t an economy failure; it was a political failure. We may become the next hyperinflation — like present day Rhodesia, Argentina of the 70s, or Germany of the 1930s. We know how well those all worked out. Gold coins may be needed. The Dead Old White Guys told us that was money. But we didn’t listen as FDR and Nixon fooled us. The 1913 FED started to procession to where we are today. Spinning out of control. Does no good to be right when the commonweal goes over the cliff taking us all to perdition. Argh. It’s all socialism and the elite in their hubris have led us there. Now where is my pitchfork and torch!

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Warning! Don’t stick your fingers in the Libertarian’s cage and poke or prod them. They can snap back. Us little L libertarians are very frustrated. No amount of warning “Here comes The Cliff” has done any good. All we get are dumb looks as people ask “Who’s Cliff?” Guess you know now. Welcome to what Mises, Hayek, Rothfarb, and all the “Austrian School” economists have been warning about!

Don’t blame me. I supported Ron Paul!

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