71–80 of 119 posts
Debt: The First 5,000 Years is my preferred introduction. Critically this New Yorker account is missing the word 'usury' which was largely agreed to be evil by early religions and societies that experienced its effects...
So if gold is the only real money (and everything else is just debt)... What does gold’s year-long rally this year tell us?
If it breaks a certain threshold, then you can be certain it will be the global reserve currency again. People often forget how stable the world economy was under Bretton Woods.
The Money as Debt videos by Paul Grignon are a fantastic watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nBPN-MKefA&list=PLmpODdsfpr...
Except that they are not based on real facts. A much better explanation of how money is related to debt, which actually relies on established facts from the historical record, is "Debt: The First 5000 Years" by David Graeber.
So if gold is the only real money (and everything else is just debt)... What does gold’s year-long rally this year tell us?
Faith is the only real money. The only thing money measures is optimism about the future - both micro ("I am optimistic that you can repay this loan") macro ("I am optimistic this country's military spending and worker-hostile environment guarantees my investment will be protected"), corporate ("I am optimistic about the contents of this earnings call"), and specific ("I have more faith in this asset class than in ot…
As a result, faith in money becomes tied to faith in the government's ability to keep functioning, and this can be thought of as a base.
So if gold is the only real money (and everything else is just debt)... What does gold’s year-long rally this year tell us?
Faith is the only real money. The only thing money measures is optimism about the future - both micro ("I am optimistic that you can repay this loan") macro ("I am optimistic this country's military spending and worker-hostile environment guarantees my investment will be protected"), corporate ("I am optimistic about the contents of this earnings call"), and specific ("I have more faith in this asset class than in ot…
Along the same vein, I can't recommend The Bitcoin Standard ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36448501-the-bitcoin-sta... ) enough. The first 60% of the book deals with the creation and characteristics of fiat money and its effect in the World's economy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The tangible items that aren't primarily faith-based are land and housing, so they do well as reliable investments. Why are you ignoring commodities? Wheat, iron, oil etc. are all commodities that are much more useful as a monetary base than land and housing because they are orders of magnitude more liquid (meaning you can acquire it and subsequently sell it while incurring a smaller loss).
Here's my educated guess. The commodities you mentioned work better as a "currency" than "stored value" for an individual. For a physical object to work as a stored value, especially over longer periods, it's got to be durable and convenient to store and protect. Real estate/land satisfies all those as long as the surrounding political situation remains stable. If the state turns rogue or falls apart then you are bet…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is easier for somebody to have more faith in gold than in someone's promise to pay back a debt (using work or a commodity). Especially in dealings between sovereign entities.
So you basically ignore my comment, where I said something about just that, and write an auto-triggered response, got it. Did I just write to some customer service hotline?
And personal attacks are against HN guidelines.
So if gold is the only real money (and everything else is just debt)... What does gold’s year-long rally this year tell us?
The value of gold is inversely correlated with the trust in government bonds. The reason is clear when reading the article; gold is the only real money so the higher the chances of defaults on bonds, the more attractive it becomes to swap paper money for gold. The current gold rally tells us that there is a lot of global political and economical uncertainty. Think of the Brexit, the Iran troubles and the global trade…
And government-issued currency.
> gold is the only real money
No. But gold is one of the better ways to, in essence, short fiat currency.
So if gold is the only real money (and everything else is just debt)... What does gold’s year-long rally this year tell us?
Faith is the only real money. The only thing money measures is optimism about the future - both micro ("I am optimistic that you can repay this loan") macro ("I am optimistic this country's military spending and worker-hostile environment guarantees my investment will be protected"), corporate ("I am optimistic about the contents of this earnings call"), and specific ("I have more faith in this asset class than in ot…
Credit => credo => 'I believe'