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Huh? Debt is so simple a four year old can understand it. You give me money now and I give you money later. Many financial instruments are more complicated, but
by cynicalkane 15y ago
Huh? Debt is so simple a four year old can understand it. You give me money now and I give you money later. Many financial instruments are more complicated, but bubbles in even the worst ones are the stuff of recessions, whereas systematic monetary and credit crises are the stuff of depressions.
It's possible you're referring to the monetary system itself, which can be confusing. However, monetary issues have historically been much worse under regimes of "real" money, even when you take into account this current crisis. Illusory money done correctly has a lot of nice properties, and a big problem with the euro is that it doesn't have one of the key prerequisites--monetary, fiscal, and economic union in one. When a country can be drained of its credit supply because it's doing slightly worse than others, that's an undesirable monetary regime, and in the end threatens everyone.
- tsotha 15y ago>Huh? Debt is so simple a four year old can understand it. You give me money now and I give you money later. Except that the four year old would be wrong when it comes to fractional reserve banking. I'm trying to imagine how a four year old would understand "You give me a piece of paper promising to pay the money back, and as long as I haven't done it too much (based on the money I have), I create money out of thin air and balance it with your promise to repay."
- 1010011010 15y agoi think a 4 year old would understand that, and think it is a wonderful scam, if she could get away with it.
- tsotha 15y agoIf I had a four year old, I would totally want her to be like that.
- Someone 15y ago"Debt is so simple a four year old can understand it" There is a difference between rational understanding and the way people act. Even if a four year old would rationally understand debt, I am not sure that, if you offer a four year old a hundred sweets on the condition that (s)he will pay you back ten more sweets in a year, the typical four year old would decline.