4 ms·
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
by 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-...