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That you don't realize that the dollar is backed up by the force of the US military shows how far detached those who live in the imperial core are from those wh

by Mizza 5y ago

That you don't realize that the dollar is backed up by the force of the US military shows how far detached those who live in the imperial core are from those who live near its outskirts.

jollybean 5y ago
It's not backed by the US Army, it's backed by the US Governments ability to pay it's debts, and the integrity of the US economy and financial system. Now that is obviously supported by the US Military. But to state without context 'it's the US Army' is just false. There's a lot of question marks about how Central Banks do money supply, but it's part of governance, their books are public, at least now they are. That Tether can still exist even though it's a proven fraud is at the core of the problem: the new RobinHood Armies (not just them of course) are keeping everything buoyed up. Nikola is a similar thing - they have vapour, and yet are worth billions. A lot of this froth exist in regular stocks as well, across the board, but even in Google, Tesla etc.. It's a problem. A lot of this might go away with slightly higher interest rates. When things get close to 0 then a lot of weird leverage things happen. 2% -> 1% interest is one thing, but 1% -> 0% (or negative) and systems start to go weird.
- dheera 5y ago
  > it's backed by the US Governments ability to pay it's debts, https://www.worldometers.info/us-debt-clock/ https://www.worldometers.info/us-debt-clock/ I don't see a whole lot of difference between this and USDT honestly.
  - Mizza 5y ago
    The dollar is the reserve currency of most of the world because of the explicit threat of violence. This isn't hyperbole, this is reality. It's simple. You take the loan in dollars, then pay us back in goods, sold at a discount in dollars. If you don't, we sanction and embargo you. You try to break the embargo, we sink your ships. You try to make your own regional currency, we assassinate you. This is why you can afford to purchase expensive goods yet the people who produce them can't. This is the fundamental basis of the modern world. That more people aren't actively aware of this is the powerful result of ideology.
    - jollybean 5y ago
      "The dollar is the reserve currency of most of the world because of the explicit threat of violence. This isn't hyperbole, this is reality." This is mostly a conspiracy theory. And this: "It's simple. You take the loan in dollars, then pay us back in goods, sold at a discount in dollars. If you don't, we sanction and embargo you. " Is essentially not true in any broad sense. Also, there is no such thing as a 'world reserve currency'. The US does use some leverage to require that Oil is traded in USD, particularly with Saudi Arabia, but that's the price of effectively keeping that nation relatively stable, which is not unreasonable. Outside of Oil, there's really no reason for any nation to transact in USD or to keep reserves other than for what makes sense to them. Oil is a key issue in the equation, but it's not actually essential. The USD is mostly a reserve currency because of the size, openness, and relatively integrity of the US system. The Euro is definitely a 'reserve currency' along with UK pound, but proportionally so. The RMB isn't really a reserve currency because of lack of transparency in China, that said, the sheer power of China means that nations that trade with it will adopt it as a reserve on some level. Cryptos unfortunately don't really solve the problems in this geopolitical equation. But someday, they may help to.
      - Mizza 5y ago
        This is not a conspiracy theory, it's history. You basically described the whole process yourself. But it's not just oil, it's everything the empire needs. > Outside of Oil, there's really no reason for any nation to transact in USD or to keep reserves other than for what makes sense to them. This, however, is fundamentally wrong, and smacks of naive libertarianism. In a "rational" universe, where gravity of a feather falling to earth is frictionless and I trade my two eggs for your bottle of wine, maybe, sure. In the real world, no. The reason is violence. We won the war and we got to set the rules which benefited us at the expense of others. This is undeniable. Other nations transact and hold reserves in dollars, and occasionally Euros, because of the system of force I described earlier. This why the IMF exists. Everything else is ideology. China's Belt and Road initiative is their own alternative to the IMF. They are able to do this because they have a military force which they believe is now capable of standing up to the United States, by which I mean they will be able to impose their violence rather than ours.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    This is what you are looking for WRT debt [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_de...

by Mizza 5y ago

That you don't realize that the dollar is backed up by the force of the US military shows how far detached those who live in the imperial core are from those who live near its outskirts.

jollybean 5y ago

It's not backed by the US Army, it's backed by the US Governments ability to pay it's debts, and the integrity of the US economy and financial system. Now that is obviously supported by the US Military. But to state without context 'it's the US Army' is just false. There's a lot of question marks about how Central Banks do money supply, but it's part of governance, their books are public, at least now they are. That Tether can still exist even though it's a proven fraud is at the core of the problem: the new RobinHood Armies (not just them of course) are keeping everything buoyed up. Nikola is a similar thing - they have vapour, and yet are worth billions. A lot of this froth exist in regular stocks as well, across the board, but even in Google, Tesla etc.. It's a problem. A lot of this might go away with slightly higher interest rates. When things get close to 0 then a lot of weird leverage things happen. 2% -> 1% interest is one thing, but 1% -> 0% (or negative) and systems start to go weird.

dheera 5y ago
> it's backed by the US Governments ability to pay it's debts, https://www.worldometers.info/us-debt-clock/ https://www.worldometers.info/us-debt-clock/ I don't see a whole lot of difference between this and USDT honestly.
- Mizza 5y ago
  The dollar is the reserve currency of most of the world because of the explicit threat of violence. This isn't hyperbole, this is reality. It's simple. You take the loan in dollars, then pay us back in goods, sold at a discount in dollars. If you don't, we sanction and embargo you. You try to break the embargo, we sink your ships. You try to make your own regional currency, we assassinate you. This is why you can afford to purchase expensive goods yet the people who produce them can't. This is the fundamental basis of the modern world. That more people aren't actively aware of this is the powerful result of ideology.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    "The dollar is the reserve currency of most of the world because of the explicit threat of violence. This isn't hyperbole, this is reality." This is mostly a conspiracy theory. And this: "It's simple. You take the loan in dollars, then pay us back in goods, sold at a discount in dollars. If you don't, we sanction and embargo you. " Is essentially not true in any broad sense. Also, there is no such thing as a 'world reserve currency'. The US does use some leverage to require that Oil is traded in USD, particularly with Saudi Arabia, but that's the price of effectively keeping that nation relatively stable, which is not unreasonable. Outside of Oil, there's really no reason for any nation to transact in USD or to keep reserves other than for what makes sense to them. Oil is a key issue in the equation, but it's not actually essential. The USD is mostly a reserve currency because of the size, openness, and relatively integrity of the US system. The Euro is definitely a 'reserve currency' along with UK pound, but proportionally so. The RMB isn't really a reserve currency because of lack of transparency in China, that said, the sheer power of China means that nations that trade with it will adopt it as a reserve on some level. Cryptos unfortunately don't really solve the problems in this geopolitical equation. But someday, they may help to.
    - Mizza 5y ago
      This is not a conspiracy theory, it's history. You basically described the whole process yourself. But it's not just oil, it's everything the empire needs. > Outside of Oil, there's really no reason for any nation to transact in USD or to keep reserves other than for what makes sense to them. This, however, is fundamentally wrong, and smacks of naive libertarianism. In a "rational" universe, where gravity of a feather falling to earth is frictionless and I trade my two eggs for your bottle of wine, maybe, sure. In the real world, no. The reason is violence. We won the war and we got to set the rules which benefited us at the expense of others. This is undeniable. Other nations transact and hold reserves in dollars, and occasionally Euros, because of the system of force I described earlier. This why the IMF exists. Everything else is ideology. China's Belt and Road initiative is their own alternative to the IMF. They are able to do this because they have a military force which they believe is now capable of standing up to the United States, by which I mean they will be able to impose their violence rather than ours.
- jollybean 5y ago
  This is what you are looking for WRT debt [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_de...