3 ms·

I really dislike this Keynesian line of thinking. It helps Governments print away to glory and have no accountability. You'd only save to an extent, because you

I really dislike this Keynesian line of thinking. It helps Governments print away to glory and have no accountability. You'd only save to an extent, because you have to fulfill your hierarchy of needs. Prices ultimately will reflect supply and demand, and your paycheck will too, not necessarily leaving a huge buffer to invest and save in gold. That's similar to how wages today aren't anywhere close to long term subsistence worthy for the common folk. I admit it may not be as simple as that, but there was a world before fiat printing where gold worked as a harder form of money. It worked for 1000s of years. Everybody thinks that inflation at 2% is healthy etc, but if let to their own devices, tech, food etc. is deflationary and would be substantially cheaper.

imtringued 4y ago
The problem is that the deflation thinking has lead to two world wars. The Austrians are famous for committing extreme austerity before world war two. First hand experience with tough deflation probably caused Hitler to leave Austria and move to Germany where he promised a quick fix through worker programs. His goal to conquer Europe was basically equivalent to trying to rebuild the Roman empire which was dependent on conquering more land to grow its economy. The gold standard has no history of success, it lead to the rise of feudalism and countless of wars, revolutions and conflicts. The only logical answer is to stop the articial price controls on the interest rate and let it fall negative when the economy declines.
- silentsea90 4y ago
  I am not a historian, but to tie world wars to gold standard is very very questionable. Weimar Germany failed due to a variety of reasons (reparations etc) but also because they printed away ie QE to "save the economy". Hitler rose on the promise of a radically better future. The fall of empires in history can quite literally be traced in the % of gold in their coinage Eg. Byzantine, Rome. The problem with history is that one can claim fiat led to the Iphone and that users of gold in the 1500s had bubonic plague, but these links are very tenuous. Humans continue to make progress in science and tech. Revolutions were a result of crumbling economies that lost accountability to their own people. The 2 world wars were fought on debt and broke the gold standard[1]. All wars since have been debt wars [2]. Comparing gold to fiat is in my opinion similar to capitalism vs communism. Do people live on communism - yes. Does the system free up the market to chase efficiency - no. Similarly, making the Govt accountable and free market-y (ie not allowing them to dilute everybody's money via printing which is a hidden tax) will in my opinion bring about a step change in human progress I am glad you bring up the interest rate price control part. I agree. That's one piece of the free market that is missing. The other is the gold standard making the Govt responsible in its spending instead of passing relief acts that package a ton of $ to unrelated expenditures under the name of helping families with children. 1: https://www.britannica.com/topic/money/The-decline-of-gold https://www.britannica.com/topic/money/The-decline-of-gold 2: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-the-fed-hides-costs-of-war https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-the-fed-hides-costs-...
yywwbbn 4y ago
> worked for 1000s Well you would be right if upu only averaged out yearly inflation over large periods of time. However this stability you’re talking about is just an illusion. Year to year it was much worse e.g. during the 19th century yearly inflation in excess of 10% was much more common than after WW2 however it was usually followed by similarly high deflation when the current bubble burst. https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1800?endYear=1914&amount=100 https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1800?endYear=1914...

imtringued 4y ago

The problem is that the deflation thinking has lead to two world wars. The Austrians are famous for committing extreme austerity before world war two. First hand experience with tough deflation probably caused Hitler to leave Austria and move to Germany where he promised a quick fix through worker programs. His goal to conquer Europe was basically equivalent to trying to rebuild the Roman empire which was dependent on conquering more land to grow its economy. The gold standard has no history of success, it lead to the rise of feudalism and countless of wars, revolutions and conflicts. The only logical answer is to stop the articial price controls on the interest rate and let it fall negative when the economy declines.

silentsea90 4y ago
I am not a historian, but to tie world wars to gold standard is very very questionable. Weimar Germany failed due to a variety of reasons (reparations etc) but also because they printed away ie QE to "save the economy". Hitler rose on the promise of a radically better future. The fall of empires in history can quite literally be traced in the % of gold in their coinage Eg. Byzantine, Rome. The problem with history is that one can claim fiat led to the Iphone and that users of gold in the 1500s had bubonic plague, but these links are very tenuous. Humans continue to make progress in science and tech. Revolutions were a result of crumbling economies that lost accountability to their own people. The 2 world wars were fought on debt and broke the gold standard[1]. All wars since have been debt wars [2]. Comparing gold to fiat is in my opinion similar to capitalism vs communism. Do people live on communism - yes. Does the system free up the market to chase efficiency - no. Similarly, making the Govt accountable and free market-y (ie not allowing them to dilute everybody's money via printing which is a hidden tax) will in my opinion bring about a step change in human progress I am glad you bring up the interest rate price control part. I agree. That's one piece of the free market that is missing. The other is the gold standard making the Govt responsible in its spending instead of passing relief acts that package a ton of $ to unrelated expenditures under the name of helping families with children. 1: https://www.britannica.com/topic/money/The-decline-of-gold https://www.britannica.com/topic/money/The-decline-of-gold 2: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-the-fed-hides-costs-of-war https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-the-fed-hides-costs-...

yywwbbn 4y ago

> worked for 1000s Well you would be right if upu only averaged out yearly inflation over large periods of time. However this stability you’re talking about is just an illusion. Year to year it was much worse e.g. during the 19th century yearly inflation in excess of 10% was much more common than after WW2 however it was usually followed by similarly high deflation when the current bubble burst. https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1800?endYear=1914&amount=100 https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1800?endYear=1914...