What is Digg?163 Comments
- jurnei, on 01/21/2008, -3/+37Excellent resource. Thanks.
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -4/+37To further understand what inflation is and how it happens, here are some links:
HELICOPTER BEN UNLEASHES DOLLAR HYPERINFLATION By Webster G. Tarpley http://actindependent.org/tarpleyarticle.pdf
The U.S. Banking System: Too Big To Bail Out - also by Webster G. Tarpley http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=22000
A lot of people hear this word the news and don't really know what it means and how it could affect their lives. Please inform yourself and know what could happen in the next months and years to the U.S. and so World economy.
Collective shocks can change for worse. If something like this really happens, than you have to be prepared and know what's happening around you.
Maybe I'm speculating too much, but if there's something like an economic hysteria during the last days of the prez. election, than this could lead to a second 2000. - cl2yp71c, on 01/21/2008, -0/+26Beep*
*shudders* - inactive, on 01/21/2008, -6/+32this is very present
money is just paper
there is nothing controlling the cashflow - dukeeeey, on 01/21/2008, -4/+20inflation .. as simple as i can describe it
If you increase the supply of money (print it like crazy) it loses it value
That's pretty much it. Sure .. if say the price of oil goes up you can have cost push inflation. But screwing with the amount of money in circulation isn't going to fix an oil shortage.
Why do we get inflation ? It's because everytime someone gets a loan from the bank, most of the time that money is actually new money. Ie it is created out of nothing and loaned to the person. Thus we have increased the money supply. And yes, you are right this situtation is stupid. We need sound money, that is a monetary system that isn't based on fractional reserve banking, where if the bankers want they can create money out of thin air. - inactive, on 01/21/2008, -0/+15Here is an other very good source: http://www.businessjive.com/ - the dark side of the looking glass, the corruption of our capital markets
- dbhaley, on 01/21/2008, -2/+15A lot of what these videos say is technically true, but the facts are layed out in such a sinister way. All of these videos are in some way misleading. Yes, the federal reserve sometimes buys back treasury securities (an increase or "loosening" of the money supply) or sells the govt securities they hold in a trust (a decrease or "tightening" of the money supply). Most of the time, however, the Fed alters the target interest rate, namely the discount rate, the rate the central bank charges privately held banks to lend money. This stimulates banks to lend at lower rates, and encourages business investment (and consumer borrowing, although to a lower extent). You see, most people carry their liquid assets in digital accounts, so the fed doesn't really need to print money past the replacement rate. They just alter interest rates.
ANYWAY, the fed takes these actions in reaction to economic conditions. When the fed increases the money supply, it stimulates investment, and pushes GDP up, when it temporarily falls. Most economists agree that over time, it would eventually rise anyway, but by altering the MS and accepting inflation as a natural drawback, the economy can produce more and less people have to lose their jobs (via spike in unemployment rate).
As you can see, I've typed two long paragraphs and only began to answer your question. I can't, and noone can, teach you advanced macroeconomics in a youtube video or on a comment thread. I would encourage you to ignore these conspiracy theorists (If you agree with them, just go long on gold or silver, invest in other countries currencies, or place call options on sectors that react strongly to inflation like food/energy; but these are risky moves and most people don't do as such). Instead buy a macro textbook and read it, or watch cnbc or bloomberg and when you don't understand a term, look it up on investopedia or somewhere. These videos are hogwash. - grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, on 01/21/2008, -2/+13Web Tarpley's work is excellent.
- rollem, on 01/21/2008, -0/+8Well you would have to decrease your energy consumption by about 30% every year to beat inflation that way, and it would only work for the first year or two. Assuming that energy takes up 10% of your income (a high estimate) and a 3% inflation rate, you would have to cut out one third of your energy costs in order to save the 3%. But next year, your energy costs are only 6% of your income and you have to cut it by half. The year after that, you would have to spend 100% less on energy in order to "beat inflation."
- BHSPitMonkey, on 01/21/2008, -1/+8I've never seen a Powerpoint like this before!
- ThndrShk2k, on 01/21/2008, -0/+7As you stated, the reason the reserve system is flawed is their power to create the money. The previous post stated that there is nothing wrong with the system, when the power to create money is abused. These things do not contradict each other. One could limit the power to create money and still have that power. This would insure the powers who wish to corrupt the system a heavy roadblock to their immoral goal.
However, the current system we have today is a power that is uncontrolled, unlimited, and unpunished by it's transgressions, and need a fix. A band-aid will not due, as it has no accountability. Restarting the system by eliminating the reserve, backing our notes with gold value, and control the inflation is the only thing we can do to rescue our monitary system. Our inflation due to our borrowing and spending is growing day by day, other countries are losing value in our debt to them, and are concerned for the world market.
This inflation is going unchecked and promoted by govt spending. Eliminating this spending is one way to reduce the inflation, and help the people. But in order to secure the assets of our children and their children, a fundimental reform must take place.
It's not that the system for creating money is the problem itself, but the problem is the corruption of those in charge of creating money. The only reason the constitution gave the ability to coin money to the govt is so they would create money out of Gold and Silver, which is stable, and it's value stays relatively the same. It's scarcity, or lack of supply, is what keeps it's value high. The scarcity of the U.S. Dollar is none, as it is more common than the Canadian dollar, thus worth less than their bank notes. - ath1337, on 01/21/2008, -0/+7U-S-A! U-S-A!
- ithejosh, on 01/21/2008, -2/+9Government intervention led to the Great Depression.
- KOSmurfy, on 01/21/2008, -1/+7I don't understand why you're getting dugg down. If we had a gold standard today, if new gold discoveries didn't keep up with economic growth, we would see deflation.
- S1ngular1ty1, on 01/21/2008, -0/+6Paper money isn't the problem entirely. The problem is the government has the ability to print money whenever it wants to. There needs to be a cap on how much money can be artificially generated by the government like there was when people could exchange their fiat money for gold.
Although this didn't directly control the government, it persuaded them to be more cautionary and limited the amount of money they generated because if people decided to exchange their fiat money for gold, there had to be enough gold in order to make the exchange. - ledguitar, on 01/21/2008, -5/+11"Attempts by governments to manipulate the amount of money in circulation have always been disastrous."
That is not true. The government at certain times needs to control the amount of money in circulation. Government intervention has been necessary many times in the past including getting the U.S. out of the great depression. - ZenFountain, on 01/21/2008, -1/+7Pardon me for being presumptions but I believe you might be biased towards sound money. You do realize that in periods of deflation money lending becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible which freezes investing, causes businesses to fail and eventually ends with a depression. One only needs to gloss over the panic of 1893 to understand the destruction of deflation.
- Scumbunny, on 01/21/2008, -0/+6It's well known that older technology causes flashbacks. In this case, Elementary school 4th Grade flashbacks!
Beep* - ZenFountain, on 01/21/2008, -18/+23Same old same old Federal Reserve conspiracy. The film openly concedes that gold cannot function correctly as a monetary exchange when there is not enough gold to represent the value of goods and services, i.e. a deflationary scenario which is far worse than inflation, but then goes on with the same tired conspiracy of Philip Dru's Administrator being a blueprint for FDR. The Federal Reserve is quasi-government because if congress directly issued legal paper tender, which they DO have the power to do, they would simply print up money as the Weimar Republic had leading to hyperinflation.
The strongest argument against a gold standard is that just as easily as a government can go on a gold standard, or any other "sound money" standard, it can go off the standard in times of trouble, leading to a panic which exponentially compounds the economic crisis. At any rate, if you have truly convinced yourself that we're heading into a crisis where paper USD notes will be worthless you have plenty of options to insulate your assets. Gold, silver, commodities, and foreign exchanges to name a few. There are plenty of books avaliable and investment firms that exclusively deal in "survivalist" economics. Unfortunately the genesis of this movement is rooted in Lincoln's printing of Greenbacks which enabled the Union to finance the Civil War, which is viewed by paleolibertarians (Alex Jones, Lew Rockwell et. al) as the death of the republic. Take your own views on that one... - ctrlfreak13, on 01/21/2008, -1/+6That makes absolutely no sense. You're not actually fixing anything nor are you helping to maintain the value of money you may have in banks or invested nor trying to get a salary increase that's at least on par with inflation. What you're talking about is saving money, and has nothing to do with inflation.
- mdoerr, on 01/21/2008, -1/+6Completely disagree. It is in the rational self-interest of people to stop polluting because it will result in their own harm, especially global warming when you include "one's own progeny" within the umbrella of self-interest. Plus, original sin? What the ***** does that have to do with leading to slavery? That is a joke, right?
- ToddFFW, on 01/21/2008, -0/+5dugg... but that beep is annoying
- feedbyra, on 01/21/2008, -2/+7What if someone took your economics lesson and posted it on Google video?
- ColinCampbell, on 01/21/2008, -0/+5Money in the purest form is a means of exchange in currency for goods. If one party to a transaction has little or no belief in the value of the currency being exchanged, the transaction won't happen. A move back to an asset-backed currency would certainly be painful in the short term but would keep things well within check and would likely be prudent in the long term. At least then the amount of available money is somewhat connected to the amount of available resource. It doesn't necessarily need to be gold, but rather assets at large. But the value of money should be bound to something based in reality, not just the whims of men and women sitting in a boardroom.
- mikemil828, on 01/21/2008, -3/+7//Edward Griffin, done back in 1969 will explain it to you. "Attempts by governments to manipulate the amount of money in circulation have always been disastrous.//
No *****, back in 1969 the fed didn't really know how to control inflation with double digit inflation being the norm, nowadays inflation is still pretty low all nearly everywhere compared to what it was back then, not that it would stop the tin foil hats from declaring the end of civilization is imminent. - TerrorByte64, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4Thank you for a nice introduction to an argument that cannot be summed up in a matter of minutes or even months. It's easy to blame the large Federal Reserve as some ominous monster threatening to destroy us all. I completely agree that it's a twisting of the facts, anytime I begin a discussion of economics I tend to go on for hours, examining the cyclical events that arise over the course of time.
There's no way I can easily convince anyone from this propaganda, I would hope that our money supply not falling apart would be some motivation. - Braddeharder, on 01/21/2008, -2/+6Ayn Rand's objectivism is right in-line with that of Ron Paul's views. In fact, He gives great credit to Rand's Atlas Shrugged influencing him.
Ayn Rand want the government to only secure our individual rights. Not Statist wars, spirit crushing collectivism, or brain washing mysticism. - inactive, on 01/21/2008, -2/+6I was not taught this in school. Now take this and what Ron Paul talk's about and buy a superbowl commercial. Someone set up a paypal account so we can donate haha
- ronk, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4For all you kids who werent born then, the beep is the cue to advance to the next slide in a automatic or manual slide show projector.
- Curlz31, on 01/21/2008, -7/+11I wonder if Obama knows anything about inflation and why recessions occur? hmmmm.....I guess he doesn't know much about it given that he doesn't talk about it, or anything substantial concerning the economy for that matter. I've only seen one candidate who seems to be an expert in monetary policy and it's this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GzRWSof8uQ
- dbhaley, on 01/21/2008, -0/+4Essentially it's the age old Keynesian vs. Classical debate. I am all about free markets. I think it is the best way to prosperity. However, Keynesian monetary policy just makes more sense to me. Why wait around for prices to change? It's just inefficient.
- purpmint008, on 01/21/2008, -1/+5I heard that the Federal Reserve rebates all of the interest it earns from "buying" Treasury Securities (bonds, bills, notes, etc.). Does this essentially kill the "fact" that the Fed charges interest to the taxpayers on money it creates out of thin air?
Can someone please explain? I haven't taken economics YET!
Can someone with an economics degree/education please tell me if these videos have ANY accuracy to them? - superyounan1, on 01/21/2008, -2/+5very informative. I wish voters were required to get educated about monetary policy, social issues, international relations - only the basics, sort of what this video shows off, then ask them to pick politicians that understand the issues too and actually clear concise policies to address them.
- Clark3934, on 01/21/2008, -1/+4"To contend that they [The Federal Reserve Banks] are privately owned and controlled is to deny reality" 22:30 this video.
Wait... didn't Aaron Russo and everyone who hates the federal reserve contend that it *was* a private bank?
Now this video is saying it's bad because it's *not* private? WTF - Gloony, on 01/21/2008, -2/+5Short term debt. The Trans-fat of Finance.
- SoundMoneyMan, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3I disagree. The Federal Reserve system doesn't work because it is fundamentally flawed. By its very nature it has the power to create money out of thin air, and in doing so massively distorts the price system. This kind of control over money is perhaps the greatest power in society... possibly more powerful than a monopoly on violence. And, quite simply, power corrupts.
I do agree that greater accountability would prevent that. And the free market is the most effective form of accountability in existence. Whenever one person or party has control over what constitutes money and the supply of it, things end badly with pain and despair all around. For historical reference, see every fiat currency ever created in all of history. - MindStalker, on 01/21/2008, -1/+4Yep, there isn't enough gold. The solution is to demand the federal government pay off the debt. Elect new politicians one promising to control government spending. Non fiat money would be nice, but yea its impossible now.
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3TL;DR
- Braddeharder, on 01/21/2008, -1/+4Paper money was first made by the Song Dynasty of China in 960, short of copper for striking coins, they issued the first generally circulating notes. The issuing of bank notes was well known to the Founding Fathers, which is why they used the word "coin", not "make" or "construct".
The Founding Fathers chose their words well. - rodgerdodger5, on 01/21/2008, -1/+4The people who made this film underestimated the resolve of the American People. Just look back at your family and look at how your heritage, property, and birthright has been slowly eaten away, borrowed against and condemned. Just look back in your family history. I am sure you can find some examples of your ancestors who owned land, wealth, etc. Now ask yourself what happened to it.
- Braddeharder, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3Slavery? Objectivism defends Human Rights. No one's will is to be subjected to someone else's. No matter what what form it takes. The government's ONLY job is to defend human rights. Freedom of mind (freedom speech and religion), Freedom of the body (Freedom of movement and no one can harm another unwillingly), And The Right to one's own earnings.
The key to helping the environmental issues of today is not more government but less. If you look at the issues, such as dependency on foreign oil, It is large government support that allows oil to stay so cheap on the market. Without all the government support and subsidizes oil would have been too expensive to use, Make electric cars, solar, and wind power more viable on the open market, years ago. - Braddeharder, on 01/21/2008, -1/+4I am glad to see that their is at least one rational person here on digg.
- fuzzynyanko, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3I haven't seen one of those in a long time. A film where you have a slide and you turn it when you hear a *beep*
- pitlord, on 01/21/2008, -3/+6Gee adding currency to the economy CAN cause inflation. OMG that must be what's happening!!! Kill teh Fedzzzorz!
>.>
Buried for missing the big picture.
X^P - adfdsfkjla, on 01/21/2008, -0/+3The US is very much a net importer, thus on the gold standard all of the gold is leaving the country. How does the government get that gold back? If they don't, then the amount of money in circulation within the country dwindles, which absolutely kills loans/investments and generally grinds the economy to a halt.
As an aside, is there any reason to reward savers rather than investors? People saving money doesn't do the economy any good if that money's not in circulation. - inactive, on 01/21/2008, -5/+8i wish I could digg this 100 times. Thank you very much. This video clearly states things that I have been trying to explain to people for years and I am sending this link onward. Seriously, thank you!
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2wrong, when i say nothing is controlling the cash flow im saying that the federal reserve can make 5 billion dollars out of thin air. But if we had a gold standard, this would be an issue, because then they would need 5 billion dollars worth of gold to make it redeemable. Did you even watch the video?
- MindStalker, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Not the only reason, but the stock market has fallen in real value (against gold or silver) sense 2000. It grows where there is an actual increase in production, there hasn't been much, and with the falling dollar the market couldn't keep up.
- Garbagio, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2They explain it in the video. You may be thinking that you'd be carrying around satchel's of coin should we return to a gold standard system but we would still in fact just have gold-backed notes that are 100% backed by gold and silver. This way, it's also a physical representation of how wealthy a nation is. A country needs gold and other tradeable natural resources (food, energy) that can compare to it's population and wealth. If there is a surplus of trade in a nation, then that nation may grow more numerous, prosperous, etc. If a nation lacks food, water, or energy then it has to either limit the living standards or family sizes or borrow/take from outside nations. You would basically keep what you earn and others would not legally take it from you in the form of income tax, sales taxes, alcohol taxes, smoke taxes, price inflation from staged prohibitions, so on and so forth.
- magoghm, on 01/21/2008, -0/+2Aren't they doing something worse than just creating money out of thin air? They are making a commitment to pay that money back, plus interest. And, if they can't just create the money to pay that back, then they must get that money somewhere else.
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