The use of gold and silver coin has no inherent weakness. It is the concept of legal tender that is flawed and unjust. By fixing the rate of exchange between gold and silver, and declaring what constituted legal tender, the powers that be seriously intervened within what was supposed to be a free market. Any [...]
Posts Tagged ‘gold’
Will the Real Gold Standard Please Stand Up
Posted in History, tagged coin, gold, gold standard, legal tender, monetary crisis, money, Ron Paul, silver on November 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Re-Introduction of the Gold Standard
Posted in History, tagged currency, economy, Gideon Gono, gold, gold standard, hyperinflation, money, Zimbabwe on August 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In High Treason in Zimbabwe I suggested the introduction of a gold coin, which I called the Zimbi, to solve the hyperinflation of Zimbabwe:
The zimbi would have turned the monetary system of Zimbabwe from the weakest on Earth to the only one based on gold, thus ensuring that Zimbabwe becomes the world’s only country with [...]
So Much for the Facts
Posted in Statistics, tagged china, facts, forex, gold, reserves on April 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Beware the Boom! I wrote the following about China’s gold reserves:
China’s official numbers are constant, but gold produced in China is not exported, hence the gold is being accumulated outside the official reserve.
And now we read:
“China, owner of the world’s biggest forex reserves, said Friday its gold reserves had risen to 1,054 tonnes by [...]
High Treason in Zimbabwe
Posted in History, tagged Africa, dollar, dollarisation, economy, finance, gold, hyperinflation, money, treason, Zimbabwe on March 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The newly installed prime minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, is the worst kind of traitor; he has just surrendered the sovereign right of the people of Zimbabwe to issue money to the United States:
“Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has taken an important step toward establishing the new power-sharing government’s credibility by fulfilling a commitment to [...]
Hyperinflation and Gold Stocks
Posted in History, tagged collapse, economy, finance, gold, gold stocks, hyperinflation, miners, mining, society on December 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Introduction
Today I would like to re-visit a subject that I have already covered twice. In When Gold is Worthless and Hyperinflation and Gold Bugs I argued that gold is not really the safe haven that some advertise it to be. My concern here is historical rather than economic, I am not interested in investment or [...]
Recommended Reading (1)
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged Agriculture, articles, backwardation, Bloomberg, contango, decline, famine, farming, food, gold, gold fever, growth, national wealth, population, reading on December 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A seven part series, ‘Recipe for Famine’, on bloomberg.com charts the effects of neo-liberal policy on agriculture in the third world:
Part 1: Dead Children Linked to Aid Policy in Africa Favoring Americans
Part 2: How Famine Lurked Behind Vienna Toast Where Joe Cocker Crooned
Part 3: World Bank’s ‘Wrong Advice’ Left Silos Empty in Poor Countries
Part 4: [...]
The Printing Press is a Harsh Mistress
Posted in History, tagged balance sheet, central bank, dollar, economy, Federal Reserve, gold, government debt, hyperinflation, inflation, monetary base, money on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Is it possible to have a fiat currency that does not end in hyperinflation? In this post I will try to explain why the answer is a resolute No.
Irresponsible governments who print prodigious amounts of paper to fund expenses beyond their ability to carry the debt are certainly going to end with hyperinflation, as is [...]
Three Economists Fail to Solve a Puzzle
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 [...]
Liquidating the Debt of the United States
Posted in History, tagged bonds, debt, economy, finance, gold, interest rate, money, United States on October 31, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Introduction
As the financial crisis went mainstream talk about the US national debt increased, the media and all kinds of commentators are discussing the huge increase in the debt during the Bush presidency and the ways to pay it off. As usual a lot of nonsense is being said on the subject. In The Humility of [...]
Beware the Boom!
Posted in History, tagged economy, finance, gold, hyperinflation, money on October 21, 2008 | 5 Comments »
The Last Remission
Since September almost everyone has become a financial expert with opinions and plans, I had nothing to say because I have already discussed the crises back in August (see Bagehot on Money & Zimbabwe’s Monetary Policy). Now that the moment of crises has passed people are returning to the diverse issues they usually [...]
Hyperinflation and Gold Bugs
Posted in History, tagged collapse, economy, finance, gold, Gold bug, hyperinflation, society on September 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I recently heard, on a web-cast, a gold bug saying that the coming hyperinflation-due to the $700 billion Paulson plan-will be beneficial to those who have gold. Is that correct? The answer is a resounding NO.
Inflation does not increase the value of bullion it just changes its price in fiat currency. The price of a [...]
Shattered
Posted in History, tagged collapse, dollar, economy, finance, gold, hyperinflation, survival on July 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Two Lines
The following graph is from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank:
Click to view
Blue line: ‘Total Borrowings of Depository Institutions from the Federal Reserve’
Red line: ‘Non-Borrowed Reserves of Depository Institutions’
From the red line we concluded that US banks are insolvent, from the blue we concluded that the Fed (Federal Reserve) has assumed their liabilities. The result [...]
When Gold is Worthless
Posted in History, tagged economy, fiat currency, gold, Machiavelli on March 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
With the eminent collapse of the fiat currencies system in a hyperinflationary burst, the talk of securing wealth in gold is rising; the qualities of gold, as a store of wealth and a measure of value, are exalted by countless internet sites and economic blogs.
The superiority of gold compared to fiat currency is beyond dispute, [...]
