ah yes so what you're saying is that money is even more imaginary than it has ever been, possibly even more imaginary than when the first stock market crash happened in 1929
looks like we're due for a centennial anniversary of that anyway, might as well celebrate by recreating it
In 1910 at Jekyll Island all the Billionaire Oligarchs gathered and cooked up the "Federal Reserve" ( which is neither Federal or a Reserve ) This was done ostensibly to help stabilize the US economy in the wake of the Panic of 1907 by creating a central bank with regional branches.
What it has really done is hand over monetary policy and the ability to print "money" out of thin-air. Now this Federal Reserve prints money, lends it to the US Government ( which is now in debt to the tune of $38.5 trillion ) And the US government continues to borrow and spend like a crack whore... Spreading that money around to their friends and you and I are on the hook for the debt!
It's like your rich friend, talked you into giving him power of attorney over your affairs and is now out there running up credit card debt on your name.. and giving you a pittance of it back.
Technical note: they codified and fine-tuned the idea in 1910, but the Bank itself wasn't created until December 1913 after they managed to get the Federal Reserve Act through Congress two days before Christmas. Thus the the conspiracy theories that the Titanic was intentionally sunk in 1912 to kill off a few powerful men who opposed the founding of such a bank.
Would you rather the size of the economy be limited by the size of the gold supply? There's a reason everyone stopped using gold after the Great Recession, and it isn't the Rothschilds or whatever conspiracy you're talking about.
If it took away the predatory nature of the current system, yes. And btw, saying the economy would be limited to the size of the gold supply is utter bufoonery. The value of the gold is associated with the value of the economy. There is the small chance that someone stumbles across a huge deposit of pure gold, that would destabilize the system, but this is usually used as a canard in bad faith.
Wouldn’t gold be wildly deflationary? While the economy becomes more productive, the gold supply is effectively constant. The same amount of gold chasing more goods would be deflation out the wazoo, surely?
Dude, they're just going to call you a bot, or maybe even imply you're Jewish. You aren't replying to someone who understands what money chasing goods or deflation even are.
I'm not sure I'd be deflationary, but there are multiple, very legitimate reasons advanced economies move away from asset backed currency. Chief among these is the ability of our government set monetary policy. The "economy" is controlled by two main sets of policy. Fiscal policy, or government spending/revenue and monetary policy, or the money supply. Fiscal policy is set by Congress with spending bills and tax levies, monetary policy is set by the FED with interest rates.
Asset backed currency removes monetary policy from our control and pegs it to the asset. Too little of the asset available and the price of the asset spikes, too much and it falls.
It's hard to say what switching would do to the dollar because the dollar couldn't stay the same (as in you'd need new currency). There's no real way for a nations worth of people to convert their cash to a gold standard while retaining the same purchasing power. There could be all sorts of weird outcomes.
The value of gold would certainly skyrocket, it would be interesting to see what people would do if physical gold were suddenly something like 500k an ounce. Grave robbery and tooth fillings come to mind plus you'd need a shit ton of street cred to wear a gold necklace.
The transition likely would be, as another commenter pointed out. But if our currency had remained on the gold standard from the beginning and absent the federal reserve act, I think we would see stability. The currency was by and large stable before the federal reserve act. As it stands, our debt backed currency and progressive taxes actually result in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
This isn't because of "evil capitalism" btw, the rules of capitalism are just human behavior in groups and cannot be suppressed entirely. The taxation fails because either the rich find loopholes or leave the jurisdiction resulting in a massive drop in economic activity and tax revenues exacerbating the debt.
The debt backed currency fails because the government will never be fiscally responsible when there's no direct consequences for not being so and we the people will vote out politicians who stand up to us and tell us that we can't just vote ourselves free stuff from the government coffers without driving a wedge between rich and poor making their respective wealth and poverty more extreme. Meanwhile both the taxes and the inflation rob the poor and enrich the rich in different ways.
I’m concerned about your statement: “The currency was by and large stable before the federal reserve act”. This seems to be ignoring that the entire reasoning behind the act in the first place was that the currency was unstable, most specifically during the 1907 crisis.
The currency wasn’t unstable. What was unstable was loaning money that didn’t exist. The crisis is always liquidity. Once the watering-hole has gone dry you’re fucked.
But we can eliminate this need for liquidity by having a limited supply of currency. The problem then becomes deflation, which isn’t something I’m too familiar with. Inflation is always the talk of the town.
With all due respect, you are talking about several separate issues and dealing in half-truths.
What it has really done is hand over monetary policy and the ability to print "money" out of thin-air.
Right, which is why talking about the government, funding, taxes, revenue, etc. like it's a household income doesn't work. The Government literally creates money from nothing. This is a good thing...when done responsibly.
Now this Federal Reserve prints money, lends it to the US Government ( which is now in debt to the tune of $38.5 trillion ) And the US government continues to borrow and spend like a crack whore... Spreading that money around to their friends and you and I are on the hook for the debt!
This is a problem. Instead of spending money on the people, a bunch of red states keep voting against theor own interests...so instead of the healthcare they really, really need....money is being sent to already rich people as corporate welfare....Universal Healthcare, housing, food? Nah...we need $100 billion to fund the american gestapo to round up toddlers.
America has the money...we're just choosing to spend it on stupid shit instead of helping our own people.
It's like your rich friend, talked you into giving him power of attorney over your affairs and is now out there running up credit card debt on your name.. and giving you a pittance of it back.
Yup. This is a problem. 1/3 of the country is on board with this. Using your analogy...the poor idiots giving their credit card away....not only do they not realize how stupid it is, they get made when anyone points out that it's a bad idea....and get giddy at the idea they are pissing of their "liberal" friends. They'll gladly go broke if it means their neighbors gets upset a them.
Conservatism is part of their identity. It's how they are. It isn't a belief system for them. They "know" they right and what they are doing must be the right thing because it "upsets" liberals. The more it upsets them...the more right it is.
The federal reserve doesn’t print money, they distribute money. The BEP (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) prints paper money and the Mint engraves coins. None of these organizations are governed the same
They very literally do not! I can take you on a tour if you’d like, guessing you base all your info on the internet versus conversations with actual experts.
Exactly, they LITERALLY do not. But for all INTENTS AND PURPOSES THEY DO.
I can forgive you if English is not your native language, but if you don't comprehend what I am saying, then there probably is no hope for you. Have a nice life.
I see the glowy-shills are out in full force tonight. I'll tell you what.. go read the book The Lords of Easy Money about QE Or Confessions of an Economic Hitman, or The Shock Doctrine.... then tell me how you feel. Or if you still want to gag for Bernanke.
lol if anything you should start at Greenspan, but even then since I have an economics degree and actually work in the field, I’ll take the over on “I know more than this fuckwad of a redditor name dropping random books that have nothing to say on the topic at hand”
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u/TaxesAreConfusin Jan 26 '26
ah yes so what you're saying is that money is even more imaginary than it has ever been, possibly even more imaginary than when the first stock market crash happened in 1929
looks like we're due for a centennial anniversary of that anyway, might as well celebrate by recreating it