Nice post Robert.

Certainly when it all comes down someone will pay for and value this (diffficult) creative work. But it’s not at all clear right now how that will work out. We’re in for a rough road for a while I am convinced.

M

I don’t have a problem with the fiat system of money, I think money is just a token of human activity. The gold is us.

I think the decline in purchasing power of the USD has something to do with global trade increases over the last century. We have enjoyed the benefits of being the currency by which all others are measured, and now that is starting to come to an end. But the oligarchs will not let go easily. I agree that the government has cooked the books for the benefit of a few.

We can attribute the cause differently only if we believe that government and business are separate entities. I don’t particularly see any difference when you look at it as a concentration of power. Both bear the responsibility of presiding over a series of increasing speculative bubbles.

As for welfare, social security, etc, I don’t want to live in a world without a social safety net. Implementation is the real debate for me.

As for this blog post I’d be happy to hear what people think of the correlation I am making to the photo world.

Woodrow Wilson probably goes on there somewhere for being complicit in handing the money supply of the United States over to a private entity, but it wasn’t principally his idea.

Inflation, to a classically trained economist, is an increase in the money supply. Inflation does not lead to price inflation – an increase in non-adjusted prices – if the amount of inflation equates to the amount of increase in the economy’s output. However, no government in history, with the exception of that of His Majesty Norton I, has ever so restricted inflation. From a practical standpoint inflation always results in price increases measured in terms of purchasing power for a constant basket of goods and services. The increasing efficiency of the economy somewhat offsets this, but even with official ridiculous government statistics one can see that despite the most massive increase in economic output in the history of our species the USD has depreciated in real purchasing power by over 90% in the last century or so. Somebody’s cooking the books: there is no other explanation.

I agree that corrupt people do corrupt things and therefore where you have inflation you will have usury, but they are mostly just correlated, not cause-related. Probably the most direct link is that when people with capital know that the government is inflating the money supply, they will charge high rates for the use of that capital both to make a profit and to account for the fact that its value is decreasing. If inflation is at 5%, I must lend my capital for MORE than 5%, even if I’d otherwise be satisfied with that much or less, or I am really losing purchasing power.

M

The way I understand it, inflation is part of monetary policy. It is an increase in the money supply. It can have the effect of making things more expensive, but it doesn’t always.

The bankstas in concert with the government, some would say inseparable, have used monetary policy to swell (inflate) the economy and siphon it off at the top. don’t think you can separate usury from monetary policy.