Posted in History, tagged brassage, coin, Debasement, deflation, Econometrics, economists, gold, History, inflation, money, puzzle, reinforcement, seigniorage, tale on November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Introduction
I found an article on the Internet by the interesting title of The Debasement Puzzle: An Essay on Medieval Monetary History (reprinted in the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, 1997). A trio of economists wrote the article, all three working at the time for the Federal Reserve System:
Arthur J. Rolnick
Senior Vice President and [...]
Posted in History, tagged children, counting, Education, ivory towers, knowledge, language, mathematics, poetry, reading, schooling, schools, society, spelling, universities on November 21, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Introduction
The single most important task of society is to educate the next generation and prepare it for life. Sadly education is everywhere a total failure. Education does not consist of sending children to schools, education does not stop when a person reaches a pre-determined age or receives a formal certificate from an institution. Education is [...]
Posted in History, tagged cash flow, central bank, discount rate, economy, inflation, interest rate, money, Stock valuation, stocks on November 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In Liquidating the Debt of the United States I showed how the central bank lowers the rate to help expand and refinance the public debt, but there is another reason why lower interest rates are demanded and greeted by stock market investors:
“The basic fundamental value in buying a stock or a business is the cash [...]
Posted in History, tagged economy, inflation, investment, money, poverty, property, tax rate, taxation, Taxes, wealth on November 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Introduction
The tax discussion has degenerated into the most unscientific level imaginable; ideology dominates both sides. The problem is that the tax system has become economically counter-productive and incredibly unfair.
The tax system has been used for everything and anything: regulation, subsidies, welfare, control, social engineering, environmental protection, et cetera. This has resulted in a tax system [...]
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged curiosity, Ezra Pound, poetry, The Cantos, understanding on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“If we never write anything save what is already understood, the field of understanding will never be extended. One demands the right, now and again, to write for a few people with special interests and whose curiosity reaches into greater detail.”
-Ezra Pound, Canto XCVI.
Posted in Statistics, tagged banks, economy, inflation, jobs, money, recession, reserves, unemployment on November 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In The Coming Unemployment Tsunami I showed how the employment ratio has formed a head-and-shoulders pattern that indicated a steep decline over the next five years. Here is an update of that graph: from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (series: EMRATIO):
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged amniota, birds, chicken, Egg, evolution, truth on November 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
What came first: the egg or the chicken?
300 Million years ago: Evolution of the amniotic egg gives rise to the Amniota, reptiles, who can reproduce on land.
150 Million years ago: Birds evolve from theropod dinosaurs. Archaeopteryx is an ancestor of birds, with claws, feathers but no beak.
-Timeline of evolution, Wikipedia
We did not need evolution to [...]
Posted in History, tagged deflation, dollar, economy, finance, inflation, monetary base, money on November 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Flow my tears, fall from your springs
Exil’d for ever: Let me mourn
where nights black bird hir sad infamy sings,
there let me live forlorn.”
-Flow my Tears, John Dowland
In The Magical Jet Engine I wrote about a war in the realm of pure thought between the deflationists and the inflationists. At that time the inflationists were attacking [...]
Posted in History, tagged debt, defeasance, economy, finance, interest rate, leverage, money on November 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In Liquidating the Debt of the United States I showed how the US raised the Federal Funds Target Rate in 1980 to liquidate the debt accumulated from years of deficit spending to finance the Viet Nam war. The high interest rates also helped highly indebted companies to liquidate their past debts. Here is one example:
“The [...]
