ThePythonicCow
7th January 2016, 05:06
I am listening to Jim Willie's latest Youtube interview, Jim Willie interviewed by Elijah Johnson of Finance And Liberty, 5 Jan 2016 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwuJKzJ0mKo).
Once again, as always, Jim is forecasting the "Return of the gold standard".
I disagree with the apparent implications of his forecast.
===
Back in the 1800's and earlier, the common man could use gold and silver for wealth preservation. A gold or silver coin's value, in goods and services, would not change much over the decades and even centuries.
In the late 1800's, in the US, the history I know better, silver was removed from common use. That was for example a key issue of concern in both L. Frank Baum's 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/158/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz/) children's novel, and in William Jennings Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" of speech (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/):
The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1.
In the first half of the 1900's, the Banksters successfully removed gold and silver from common use. In the US, this took a few key steps. William Jennings Bryan's bid for the US Presidency failed, and silver's withdrawal from common use became persistent. That left just gold in common use.
The Bankster induced Panic of 1907 (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/crisis-next/1907/) helped motivate the institution of another 'Central Bank" in the US with the Federal Reserve, in 1913. Then a second bubble in the 1920's ending in the crash of 1929 (http://www.history.com/topics/1929-stock-market-crash) and the following Great Depression (http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression) motivated Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Order 6102 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102), confiscating gold held by US citizens and penalizing "gold hoarders". The fledgling US Federal Reserve system of 1913 had grown up by 1933 to become the sole provider of money to US citizens.
The industrial and military might of the US, along with its being the only major nation not devastated by World War II, and its massive confiscation of gold east (Japan and China), west (Europe) and nationally, were used to support a move of the world monetary system to a US Dollar denominated system. Then in 1971, President Richard Nixon pulled that promise of gold backing from the US Dollar (a promise that had only applied to other nations, not to private individuals). But throughout this time, and continuing for the forseeable future, it was a debt-money system. Money was and continues to be lent into existence, in exchange for contracts promising greater returns in the future, whether by repayment with interest or by confiscation of the property and income streams of the debtor.
In a few decades early in the 1900's, we in the US went from gold and silver in common use, to all money being debt-money. That will not change in this great monetary reset ... we'll still be using debt-money.
===
What's happening now is that the fundamental monetary units in which this debt-money is denominated is changing from the US Dollar to a centrally administered (by the Banksters) "basket" of major national currencies, with controlled "foreign exchange" (Forex) rates determining their relative worth. Whether or not, and to what extent, the words "SDR" and "IMF" appear in the "new monetary system" is more of a publicity issue than a fundamental issue.
Gold will be used, as it was with the institution of the US Dollar Reserve system as the world's "reserve currency" (the fundamental unit of denomination of lending and debts), to buttress the new system, as a scaffolding is used to buttress a new bridge or building, until it is completed and standing on its own. Then once again, that buttress can be ignored and neglected and eventually discarded, whenever it gets in the way.
We are not going back to a common man's gold and silver standard.
We are shifting the fundamental monetary unit(s) in which the world's debt-money system is denominated, from the US Dollar to something only a Forex Trader could love.
===
What we're seeing now, in this Great Monetary Reset, is essentially a modern day version of a Debt Jubilee.
One essential and intended property of a debt money system is that the debt piles higher and deeper, until it collapses. Over the last decade, we've been seeing this come to a climax. Lower quality debt has already been collapsing, in various ways, since 2008. Higher quality debt has been swept up into Federal Reserve backed debt ... that's what accounts for the Trillions of Dollars added to the Fed's balance sheet since 2008. This debt is now being liquidated, exchanged for US Dollars, as the major holders of US debt sell their Treasury debt. Then with the "Reset", when the US Dollar Reserve system falls from grace, these Dollars will lose substantial value ... the last stage of liquidating that debt, while at the same time much of the remaining US Dollar denominated debt will fail, as nations, corporations and individuals go bankrupt.
As with debt jubilees of old, the borrower no longer has to pay (their inability to pay is recognized) and the lender realizes they will no longer receive (they lose great amounts of their apparent savings.) The winners are the Bankster controlled institutions that sweep up real assets, resources and income streams (e.g., tax collections) for pennies on the dollar.
===
Bitcoin will not be our savior here. A few of us with hefty computers and good geek skills will be able to run our own Bitcoin wallet's, fully responsible for the security of whatever bitcoins we own. But:
Most people will rely on bitcoin servers, leaving the security, regulation and privacy of their bitcoin transactions entirely under the control of other, vulnerable, larger institutions.
Major exchange between Bitcoin's and "commonly accepted money" will continue to be controlled by banking institutions and the regulatory agencies they control.
Dominate compute power will continue to enable the "big players" with massive computing power to control the price of Bitcoins, destroying their value as a means of long term wealth preservation.
===
Debt-money will continue to dominate the world's monetary system for as far as the eye can see.
Once again, as always, Jim is forecasting the "Return of the gold standard".
I disagree with the apparent implications of his forecast.
===
Back in the 1800's and earlier, the common man could use gold and silver for wealth preservation. A gold or silver coin's value, in goods and services, would not change much over the decades and even centuries.
In the late 1800's, in the US, the history I know better, silver was removed from common use. That was for example a key issue of concern in both L. Frank Baum's 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/158/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz/) children's novel, and in William Jennings Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" of speech (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/):
The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1.
In the first half of the 1900's, the Banksters successfully removed gold and silver from common use. In the US, this took a few key steps. William Jennings Bryan's bid for the US Presidency failed, and silver's withdrawal from common use became persistent. That left just gold in common use.
The Bankster induced Panic of 1907 (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/crisis-next/1907/) helped motivate the institution of another 'Central Bank" in the US with the Federal Reserve, in 1913. Then a second bubble in the 1920's ending in the crash of 1929 (http://www.history.com/topics/1929-stock-market-crash) and the following Great Depression (http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression) motivated Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Order 6102 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102), confiscating gold held by US citizens and penalizing "gold hoarders". The fledgling US Federal Reserve system of 1913 had grown up by 1933 to become the sole provider of money to US citizens.
The industrial and military might of the US, along with its being the only major nation not devastated by World War II, and its massive confiscation of gold east (Japan and China), west (Europe) and nationally, were used to support a move of the world monetary system to a US Dollar denominated system. Then in 1971, President Richard Nixon pulled that promise of gold backing from the US Dollar (a promise that had only applied to other nations, not to private individuals). But throughout this time, and continuing for the forseeable future, it was a debt-money system. Money was and continues to be lent into existence, in exchange for contracts promising greater returns in the future, whether by repayment with interest or by confiscation of the property and income streams of the debtor.
In a few decades early in the 1900's, we in the US went from gold and silver in common use, to all money being debt-money. That will not change in this great monetary reset ... we'll still be using debt-money.
===
What's happening now is that the fundamental monetary units in which this debt-money is denominated is changing from the US Dollar to a centrally administered (by the Banksters) "basket" of major national currencies, with controlled "foreign exchange" (Forex) rates determining their relative worth. Whether or not, and to what extent, the words "SDR" and "IMF" appear in the "new monetary system" is more of a publicity issue than a fundamental issue.
Gold will be used, as it was with the institution of the US Dollar Reserve system as the world's "reserve currency" (the fundamental unit of denomination of lending and debts), to buttress the new system, as a scaffolding is used to buttress a new bridge or building, until it is completed and standing on its own. Then once again, that buttress can be ignored and neglected and eventually discarded, whenever it gets in the way.
We are not going back to a common man's gold and silver standard.
We are shifting the fundamental monetary unit(s) in which the world's debt-money system is denominated, from the US Dollar to something only a Forex Trader could love.
===
What we're seeing now, in this Great Monetary Reset, is essentially a modern day version of a Debt Jubilee.
One essential and intended property of a debt money system is that the debt piles higher and deeper, until it collapses. Over the last decade, we've been seeing this come to a climax. Lower quality debt has already been collapsing, in various ways, since 2008. Higher quality debt has been swept up into Federal Reserve backed debt ... that's what accounts for the Trillions of Dollars added to the Fed's balance sheet since 2008. This debt is now being liquidated, exchanged for US Dollars, as the major holders of US debt sell their Treasury debt. Then with the "Reset", when the US Dollar Reserve system falls from grace, these Dollars will lose substantial value ... the last stage of liquidating that debt, while at the same time much of the remaining US Dollar denominated debt will fail, as nations, corporations and individuals go bankrupt.
As with debt jubilees of old, the borrower no longer has to pay (their inability to pay is recognized) and the lender realizes they will no longer receive (they lose great amounts of their apparent savings.) The winners are the Bankster controlled institutions that sweep up real assets, resources and income streams (e.g., tax collections) for pennies on the dollar.
===
Bitcoin will not be our savior here. A few of us with hefty computers and good geek skills will be able to run our own Bitcoin wallet's, fully responsible for the security of whatever bitcoins we own. But:
Most people will rely on bitcoin servers, leaving the security, regulation and privacy of their bitcoin transactions entirely under the control of other, vulnerable, larger institutions.
Major exchange between Bitcoin's and "commonly accepted money" will continue to be controlled by banking institutions and the regulatory agencies they control.
Dominate compute power will continue to enable the "big players" with massive computing power to control the price of Bitcoins, destroying their value as a means of long term wealth preservation.
===
Debt-money will continue to dominate the world's monetary system for as far as the eye can see.