What is Digg?9 Comments
- inactive, on 08/15/2008, -1/+9It's just a hunch, but I can well picture members of the current ruling kleptocracy sitting on huge piles of precious metals ( the actual metal, not paper certificates, which are by definition made of paper and not gold ) and other fungible assets ( oil for example ). I picture this greedy kleptocracy laughing their asses off at those of us in the bottom 99.999% who have bank accounts and certificates and other "pretend" assets. I'm no economist, so any comment on this scenario would be welcome.
Having lived in a country caught in the throes of 70% monthly inflation ( Brazil in the 1980's ) I know what it's like to see prices change twice a day and see even the poorest of the poor throw their hyperinflated money in the gutter because it was literally not worth the paper it was printed on. - KMye, on 08/15/2008, -1/+4@both
Kevin Phillips makes some interesting observations in the first part of American Theocracy about the fall of more modern empires. He draws attention to parallels between the Dutch, the British, and the United States - which while it's eased off of its territorial empire ambitions, I think could rather easily be argued to be an economic empire. He suggests that a great part of what allowed each nation to reach the heights it did was a dominance in the supreme energy of the day - wind and water for the Dutch, coal for the British, and oil for the US - and that the investment and infrastructure it put into its energy medium left it less flexible and able to embrace a new superior form of energy when it came along, which allowed a new player to jump into the lead.
He also draws other parallels between the three, arguing that as the nations/empires kind of languished in their riches, more and more of their economies shifted to financial services than to real economic production. It was news to me that both Ford and GM make more money off of their lending branches than their vehicle production.
Anyway, those kinds of comparisons only go so far; the next "empire" in this sense, at least as tapped by general consensus, is taking a step back as far as energy sources go, out of pure necessity. All the same, I thought it was well-written, interesting reading - wish I hadn't loaned the book out when I was only half done; we all know what happens to at least one out of two loaned books... - XanderDee, on 08/15/2008, -1/+3Yes the signs are there but THIS IS AMERICA is the believe of many. Well last time checked history all empires have come to an end because of uncontrolled spending and debasement of the currency.
Every body dies so does every paper currency.
And yes I am sure someone is sitting around laugh as most people think they have wealth with dollars in the bank account. - StingingNettle, on 08/17/2008, -0/+1It its actually. The fundamentals are still there. This is an amazing discount.
- teichenauer, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1Advice of "Buy Gold!", still beats "Buy mortgage backed securities" now doesn't it?
http://onedollargas.tk/ - brad3378, on 08/17/2008, -0/+1Name one investment that isn't volatile right now
Commodities seem especially volatile ever since the DOW started plunging a few months ago.
BTW - Gold has fallen more than $200 from it's previous high
Will it continue to plunge in value or will it make a spectacular recovery?
Nobody really knows for sure, but I'm sure a digger will come along and tell me otherwise. - Shanich, on 08/17/2008, -0/+1 Gold has always retained its value throughout history , where as paper money has a long history of becoming worthless as a country goes through its death cycle , a ounce of gold has historically been able to buy a nice men's suit , can you say the same about the dollar and its value over history ?
- reed311, on 08/15/2008, -5/+5You might want to check your history books again, because the United States is not an empire and to even suggest so shows a basic lack of understanding of politics.
An empire will collapse when it stretches itself too thin, from assimilating too many regions. The US does not assimilate regions to rule over. You can argue Iraq, but the US does not have direct control over Iraq and Iraq has it's own government. - inactive, on 08/15/2008, -8/+5Gold is down about 70 bucks an ounce, since the Paulies started screaming "Buy Gold!" Meanwhile the dollar keeps getting stronger.
Great investment advice!
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