4 ms·

I've read a fair share of Austrian Economics and they certainly don't believe that gold was an awful reserve. I have yet to hear a credible argument against the

by lowkey 5y ago

I've read a fair share of Austrian Economics and they certainly don't believe that gold was an awful reserve. I have yet to hear a credible argument against the use of gold as a global reserve currency other than the fact that countries can cheat by lying about their reserves such as they did during WWI. If you have reasoning to back your claim that gold was an awful reserve currency, I would love to hear it.

tablespoon 5y ago
> I've read a fair share of Austrian Economics and they certainly don't believe that gold was an awful reserve. Have you read a fair share of other schools of Economics, or did you just focus on Austrian?
- lowkey 5y ago
  I’ve read Keynes et al as well. None of them make a compelling case against the gold standard. Here is former Fed chair Alan Greenspan’s bullish case for the Gold standard for example [1] [1] http://www.altavra.com/docs/thirdparty/gold-and-economic-freedom-alan-greenspan.pdf?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=1a52f784cea3df48eabd7cb0c05982040b880963-1623651423-0-AVT6dcrUuTtAfljBcQQvENsHagJQmo7zZGMrn2MgsX3kZVYAaq7Upj3bppElt6aRjlz2AY_GPV4F73MmsDVXprGDlFYaamsigmiZjn5rl5zStayELKAoHx4IXAHjFqEQ--Spel4tyHIAm-vqlgY-en1KaVWRGepu9w1EIwOQVlEBVPYJkPlPNWWt5gAz9ssj1s7hfm2nWICyExcUz5uqq-c3Ycjd4Lf2mdYXBZ7mfETjq6uHkrta-vAXEOHNBtyaGih2YSn1C7AGCgbnpFpYhXmfpEaAjYtCiWzYuaObIA8PZNzTvMKR3EQB3hM9zXeIDn82vSnjH4tkGtwzMZomL7nB8eyop1n9k3AJEW_wpjcNt65mybceMlxazR8UoWFQBRm3-7dlfe_xiqryS7e5BsxEiG3VjMMJ4E9nV-WoP3vUSRSAwmLLayNy7aejPu8MAps5dlxTjKaNDghQ2grkWJOCOtm62XKDl-f6MjJoHSBw http://www.altavra.com/docs/thirdparty/gold-and-economic-fre...
  - imtringued 5y ago
    >they would have to resort to primitive barter This is a common myth used to support a gold standard and it's wrong. Barter was rarely practiced because it is too impractical and theoretical. Ledgers and debt existed as soon as imbalanced trade existed. Paying later is a form of debt. Paying too much is a form of debt. In tribal communities people simply kept the ledger in their head. Some of them used physical objects to remind them of their debts but that is not any different from writing numbers into a notebook. Common ledgers were tally sticks [0]. You just take a long object and use a knife to mark how much debt you have. They even had a resurgence in medieval Europe because of a shortage of precious metal coins. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick
    - lowkey 5y ago
      These are all good points and I agree with them, but I don’t understand where the quote came from and whether you are making a case for or against the gold standard.

by lowkey 5y ago

tablespoon 5y ago

> I've read a fair share of Austrian Economics and they certainly don't believe that gold was an awful reserve. Have you read a fair share of other schools of Economics, or did you just focus on Austrian?

lowkey 5y ago
I’ve read Keynes et al as well. None of them make a compelling case against the gold standard. Here is former Fed chair Alan Greenspan’s bullish case for the Gold standard for example [1] [1] http://www.altavra.com/docs/thirdparty/gold-and-economic-freedom-alan-greenspan.pdf?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=1a52f784cea3df48eabd7cb0c05982040b880963-1623651423-0-AVT6dcrUuTtAfljBcQQvENsHagJQmo7zZGMrn2MgsX3kZVYAaq7Upj3bppElt6aRjlz2AY_GPV4F73MmsDVXprGDlFYaamsigmiZjn5rl5zStayELKAoHx4IXAHjFqEQ--Spel4tyHIAm-vqlgY-en1KaVWRGepu9w1EIwOQVlEBVPYJkPlPNWWt5gAz9ssj1s7hfm2nWICyExcUz5uqq-c3Ycjd4Lf2mdYXBZ7mfETjq6uHkrta-vAXEOHNBtyaGih2YSn1C7AGCgbnpFpYhXmfpEaAjYtCiWzYuaObIA8PZNzTvMKR3EQB3hM9zXeIDn82vSnjH4tkGtwzMZomL7nB8eyop1n9k3AJEW_wpjcNt65mybceMlxazR8UoWFQBRm3-7dlfe_xiqryS7e5BsxEiG3VjMMJ4E9nV-WoP3vUSRSAwmLLayNy7aejPu8MAps5dlxTjKaNDghQ2grkWJOCOtm62XKDl-f6MjJoHSBw http://www.altavra.com/docs/thirdparty/gold-and-economic-fre...
- imtringued 5y ago
  >they would have to resort to primitive barter This is a common myth used to support a gold standard and it's wrong. Barter was rarely practiced because it is too impractical and theoretical. Ledgers and debt existed as soon as imbalanced trade existed. Paying later is a form of debt. Paying too much is a form of debt. In tribal communities people simply kept the ledger in their head. Some of them used physical objects to remind them of their debts but that is not any different from writing numbers into a notebook. Common ledgers were tally sticks [0]. You just take a long object and use a knife to mark how much debt you have. They even had a resurgence in medieval Europe because of a shortage of precious metal coins. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick
  - lowkey 5y ago
    These are all good points and I agree with them, but I don’t understand where the quote came from and whether you are making a case for or against the gold standard.