05.19.11
Posted in Fiat money fear and loathers at 7:54 pm by George Smith
From the Pennsylvania Pocono Record, a very small town newspaper, a columnist goes fiat money crazy:
It is not hard to imagine a scenario in which the dollar would get so weak that it would have to be replaced with another currency at some point.
This scenario has been played out numerous times in Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Zimbabwe, et al. For those who think it can’t happen here I would suggest you wake up now. Although past occurrences are not a guarantee that this will happen in the future, the exact situation that we face today was faced by these countries before their currencies imploded. They had bills they couldn’t pay and printed money to create the illusion of normalcy for the population. According to the Federal Reserve, we are printing $1.6 trillion just in 2011 while our economy is actually spending $1.3 trillion less than we were three years ago, according to the Federal Reserve statistics of private sector borrowing …
That $1.6 trillion is creating an illusion of normalcy but we are still mired in a depression. Yes. I said depression. The real unemployment rate and real private economic numbers bear that statement out.
So the main question is how to hedge against a loss of purchasing power.
This is not an easy question. We have to worry about whether the Fed may grow a conscience and actually stop printing. I doubt it but we have to be aware that they are capable of anything and plan accordingly. In a scenario where they do slow down I believe it would be short-lived. Don’t forget there are elections next year.
Because I do believe we may see some weakness in the summer, I believe that we have to add new positions in a prudent manner. Buying and holding gold, silver, and international bonds can be a hedge against loss of purchasing power in the dollar. I look at these as my “core positions.” Oil, natural gas and uranium producers as we speak as well as food commodities and companies that produce fertilizers can be incorporated into a portfolio to also help combat against a loss in purchasing power …
I know that this sounds dire and for most people it will be …
White coots and cranks bid for the Zimbabwe trillion note on eBay:
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and Stanford economist John B. Taylor are among the new owners of Zimbabwean bills. Each keeps one in his wallet, brandishing it at opportune moments …
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05.12.11
Posted in Extremism, Fiat money fear and loathers at 12:17 pm by George Smith
I’m almost tempted to start a new tab to supplant “ricin kooks” and the Cult of EMP Crazy covered in “crazy weapons.”
And name it either “Goldbugs” or “Fiat Money Kooks.” They certainly share some characteristics with the Cult of EMP Crazy.
They’re all from the GOP, they’re all white and they’re fearful of imminent catastrophe always defined in subtext as the unjust end of white god-fearing American-led civilization.
So now whenever something with “fiat money” or “Weimar” ends up in the text and anchored somewhere in Google, it attracts those who’d never read this blog. Just like those who occasionally drift in to post comments in the old Electromagnetic Pulse Crazy threads.
From yesterday, worth bringing up to the top of the page for a few moments:
Guess what the US Dollar, the ZIM Dollar, and Weimar marks have in common? Everything!
Oh, wait. Unlike Zimbabwe and Weimar Germany, the USA has a balanced budget, no debt, and responsible politicians who don’t spend more for entitlement programs than we net in taxes!
Never mind, our FIAT DOLLAR is safe.
I don’t care if someone wants to open the mouth and remove all doubt as to being the fool.
However, I do have one question.
Are there any women — at all — who are goldbug/fiat money kooks?
Being the spouse of one doesn’t count.
And that’s because I’m thinking this is embedded on the genetic material for maleness but recessive, so it doesn’t show up in all us white guys.
Plus it’s linked to other strong traits — like wearing of baseball caps indoors, predilection to quotation of meaningless scripture, ownership of certain small businesses associated with ammo, petrochemicals, hardware, sales of fertilizer, pest eradication and control, and so on. I haven’t been able to nail the entire list yet.
That requires more research.
Krugman does most of it. He has empirically determined data and charts mean nothing to them.
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05.06.11
Posted in Extremism, Fiat money fear and loathers at 9:00 am by George Smith
Quote of the day, from the Economist, referring a Paul Ryan claim about examples of old hyperinflated currencies being handed out:
And then finally, Mr Ryan said, America needs sound money. He told stories of traveling around Wisconsin and being handed pieces of currency from Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe, he remarked on how nothing was more insidious than inflation …
It’s rotten ol’ Tea Party fruit, the crop from years of Fox News’ hourly gold bug commercials, Glenn Beck and parades of experts. One in particular, whose name I forget, was fond of showing an example of some astronomically numbered Zimbabwe note.
He had turned it into a souvenir business.
The phrase “fiat money” is more code for the same thing. Here, a sample from Google — it’s all Ron Paul, goldbuggery, catastrophe, conspiracy and fear & loathing associated with quantitative easing. Another example, as if you needed one, of how Google results can easily be bombed into trash by the practices and world beliefs of a relatively small social class. (An it’s also an example of what story one uses to persuade people who aren’t such hot thinkers to vote for tax cuts for the super-rich and elimination of social programs and public school education.)
All Tea Party articles of faith, now firmly passed into the realm of fears associated with a life driven by superstitions. And it’s exclusively a baseball-capped or blobby disgraceful white man’s disease.
If you run across people like this — and I see the house of one of ’em everyday when I cross the el Molino Street bridge on the way to Rick’s at lunch, a place with a big lawn sign advertising some kook AM radio host — it is best to cross to the opposite side of the street.
How do I know this? By-product of census work.
An even money bet is that the people who buy souvenir Weimar marks and Zimbabwe dollars also have Confederate and Gadsden flags to fly, too.
More code: Fair Tax, abolition of IRS, Bretton Woods, questions re “What do you think about a consumption tax?”
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