Tag Archives: fiat money
Inequality & Technology
Posted by on April 14, 2018
This week on Facebook: The subject of global inequality is clearly one that presents a global dilemma in the search for a rational between the inequalities that economic growth has introduced with the advances in technology¹. The latter being this week’s subject as the harbinger of global inequality that is now being experienced by the developed world. Would that it were that simple, but many more factors are involved and while a scapegoat for global economic woes may be desirable, its use is only papering over the cracks that are now being revealed.
Cash is subversive (2)
Posted by on April 12, 2018
The following is a brief extract from ‘Big Brother Loves You!’ by Detlev Schlichter in which he rails against fiat money and the creation of debt something that I touched on in A Universal Debt. Commenting on the trend towards interventionist policies and assertive state action, The Economist and the Financial Times talk of the trend towards ‘repression’ and ‘national capitalism’ in crisis management. The public believe that greedy bankers and ‘unfettered capitalism’ brought about this crisis. Yet cheap credit through state fiat money and the systematic subsidisation of the housing market, are not features of the free market but of politics. Read more of this post
It’s only money!
Posted by on September 9, 2017
This week on Facebook: Trying to use last weeks post on Criminals & Taxation as a link to those that may follow at some point proved to be very difficult, the reaction of a public administration’s response to economic failure is more akin to investigative journalism than a short, singular, post. So this week I focused a little bit on factors relating to Government economic policy, with particular reference to Social Security and taxation in the UK. My post last week last week illustrated some of the financial disasters that can occur when a public administration overreaches its level of competence. In an earlier post on Debt & Taxation (2013) I began: ‘The role that economic theory plays in the creation of money and the role played by all politicians in the manipulation of economic theory for the purpose of a fiscal policy, bear little relationship to the social responsibility that Drucker applied to a private enterprise.’ Read more of this post
Criminals & Taxation
Posted by on September 2, 2017
This week on Facebook: Sometime in July I read that the fraud scandal carried out at Lloyds bank took the police six years to investigate at a cost £7 million (excluding the cost of the trial). The case was dealt with by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which, regardless of its successes and failures, as part of the public sector, has an impact on a seemingly inexorable budget deficit. It was only casually reading about the Lloyds bank case that I decided to research some of the government’s financial losses¹ for which no one, and especially not a politician or apparently any other public servant is ever held responsible. Certainly some investigative journalism usually results in a story reaching the public, it may even create a furore for a time, but the government know that any furore will eventually subsided and its cause forgotten. Yet if you are taxpayer, and even if you are not, any financial loss by the government has an impact on your well being. For a right or left leaning government, such financial losses become an excuse for increasing government debt and austerity measures. Read more of this post
All that glisters…
Posted by on July 12, 2017
All that glisters is not gold… [The merchant of Venice — Act 2 Scene 7]
Finding an article that included a simple link to cryptocurrency in support of my linking sixteenth century Spanish bullion to modern mercantilism and the desire of a sovereign power to maintain authority over what is now its fiat money was difficult. I eventually concluded that I had write my own. Debasement of the currency is the inevitable result of abandoning a monetary standard¹ that limits the money supply (or commodity money), giving credence to Keynesian economics and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)². Read more of this post
Cryptocurrency bubbles and money
Posted by on July 8, 2017
This week on Facebook: Debasement of the coinage was rare in Greek history with the notable exception of Dionysius of Syracuse. The Byzantine economy was assumed to have a sound fiscal policy but in the eleventh century emperor Michael VII earned the nickname “Parapinaces” or “minus a quarter”, because the gold nomisma was debased by that amount but little is made of the continuous debasement of the Roman denarius, The enforced sale of the monasteries failed to solve King Henry VIII’s financial problems, earning him the nickname ‘old copper nose’ during his great debasement. In a fiat money world debasement by fiscal policy is the norm and has perhaps in part (if not entirely) accounting for the intended use of cryptocurrency as fiat. Read more of this post
Cryptocurrency as fiat
Posted by on July 1, 2017
This week on Facebook: When I wrote Monday’s article in 2011 about fiat money I never had in mind the cryptocurrency in last week’s post, although I was certainly aware that the ravages created by the inflationary effects of fiat money did not protect wealth. Wealth protection only comes to those with the means of investing in things whose rarity increased their value. The rise in the value of cryptocurrency, particularly as a wealth protector (like that of gold), shouldn’t really have come as the surprise it did. Read more of this post
Assignats and Reprises!
Posted by on February 25, 2017
This week on Facebook: I keep getting economic reports that any money I may hold is in danger and that those who want to take it from are my government. That my government should seek innovative means of creating inflation is hardly a surprise, the government’s (apparent) wish dispense with money altogether and make all fiat money digital is news. Although digital money is not new concept and in todays economy is synonymous with debt, the trail blazed by a digital money economy will be complex. Not in the least — I believe — because it will lead to greater debt having to be borne by the taxpayer. In a world scramble for economic growth any public administration where all money is digital in form will find it easier to devalue their currency in a sleight of hand inflation, especially when engaged in a currency war to promote economic growth. Read more of this post
Fleeced Again!
Posted by on October 15, 2016
This week on Facebook: Being somewhat surprised by the scale of the political incompetence (although political connivance would fit equally well) that I came across in last week’s article on pensions, I decided that this week I would look a little deeper. I found that the sorry saga continues with perhaps the only positive slant that could be put on it would be that of politicians caring for their own stipends. Read more of this post
Helicopter Money
Posted by on September 17, 2016
This week on Facebook: Sees me return to economics, yet more history and the despair of an old man who — like all old men before me — thinks that the world is going to hell in a handcart. My first instinct was to ignore articles on helicopter money as it being something that I was incapable of having an influence on (which is true) and finding myself totally confused by the rationales offered by economists and politicians. Nevertheless, the notion of helicopter money made me think of some historic precedents that I believe are valid allusions to its use. Read more of this post
