tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-338251312172561152024-02-19T08:47:05.115+00:00Ye Olde BloggeOne man's journey to the centre of the truth.DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.comBlogger462125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-44832799326140738662014-11-11T10:24:00.000+00:002014-11-11T10:28:51.059+00:00On reflectionConsumer prices are not a global constant, but a reflection of the current state within each economy.
When an economy flags, consumer demand is tepid and, conversely, boom brings high demand.
Given they are managed with the goal of price stability, currencies also measure economic state.
Objective comparison of economic state (via currency proxies) requires a universal unit of account.
InDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-42531680316545111732014-07-24T13:33:00.000+01:002014-07-24T13:33:03.948+01:00Default?US Constitution, 14th Amendment, Section 4: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-55337700823010281922013-12-20T13:11:00.003+00:002013-12-20T13:34:21.628+00:0055,000 dollars
For years, Freegolders have maintained "gold will reach 55,000 dollars in todays dollars".
What has not been said is "gold will reach 55,000 dollars".
Taking the CRB index as a (somewhat imperfect, but sufficient for our purposes here) proxy for the representation of what "todays dollar" is valued at — how much "real stuff" it can buy in the real (non-financial) economy — on any given day DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-20731301627566132792013-11-14T17:27:00.000+00:002013-11-14T17:27:41.894+00:00Hard Money SocialismI'm periodically quizzed about 'Hard Money Socialism'.
1) "What is a 'Hard Money Socialist'?"
Someone who wants to save in currency, and to have the real value of those savings protected by society. (Socialising their risk.)
2) "Freegolders advocate saving in gold. Doesn't that make them 'Hard Money Socialists'?"
You are free to save in any way you choose. Freegolders do not believe gold is DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-78511339058125671692013-10-10T11:53:00.000+01:002013-10-10T11:56:03.995+01:00The problem is persistent imbalance of tradeIsn't it simple?
There is persistent trade imbalance, by design, today.
If the trade surplus countries choose not to perpetuate this imbalance by merely accumulating ever more credits that they will not redeem for useful goods and services, because after all they are persistently running trade surpluses, then they can choose to instead simply redeem the credits for something useless but real DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-5176193962606667852013-10-10T09:48:00.000+01:002013-10-10T09:48:08.540+01:00MelancholiaDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-86663005267234956732013-09-20T21:39:00.000+01:002013-09-20T21:44:35.321+01:00"Shit!"? Or "get off the pot!"?
The suspense is painful… like being trapped in some kind of interminable Vulcan Death Grip, or something…
Western paper traders won't bid up the paper (spot unallocated, GLD shares, futures, forwards, options, XAUUSD longs, swaps, leases, whatever) gold $price, while their technical analysis tells them gold's in a bear market and headed for the S bend (or even just circling theDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-82831258390228449472013-09-19T16:29:00.000+01:002013-09-19T17:52:27.699+01:00New Gold DreamGold is not "financial capital", because it is not money but a tradable asset.
It is also not a "capital good", because it is not significantly part of the means of production.
It is, however, a durable physical wealth asset that can be readily traded for financial capital, which can be used to procure capital goods (or consumption items… or gold!).
If gold were routinely demanded to settle DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-11243581428893383942013-09-17T15:49:00.003+01:002013-09-17T15:49:47.702+01:00Occupy This!
The revolution begins within, comrade!
Nobody is forced to use Wall Street's (The City's, etc, etc) products and services.
You don't have to keep a fat stack of "cash in the bank", that those evil Banksters can gamble with.
You don't need to put on your credit cards a load of pointless stuff you don't need and can't afford.
EveryoneDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-15238989015458302402013-09-05T09:52:00.001+01:002013-09-05T09:53:34.634+01:00OMG teh government is coming to take our money!!I disagree with those claiming "evil government will take our bank deposits!!".
I think instead there simply isn't enough money in the system to cover the amount of assets (bank liabilities… "deposits") that will at some point get called. The banks will not receive a government bail-out again, but savers (those with deposit balances above the insured limit) getting bailed-in.
That isn't the DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-47904621823495525972013-07-18T14:06:00.001+01:002013-07-18T14:06:46.442+01:00No regrets?
Time will tell
DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-42050542270878759152013-07-01T20:43:00.003+01:002013-07-01T20:43:55.268+01:00T'ai shang hsia
Great rising and falling—
People only know it exists.
Next they see and praise.
Soon they fear.
Finally they despise.
Without fundamental trust
There is no trust at all.
Be careful in valuing words.
When the work is done,
Everyone says
We just acted naturally.
Future. Present. Option. Mandatory. Promise. Broken.
DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-63434553001936246332013-06-26T14:31:00.000+01:002013-06-26T14:31:38.081+01:00Why I struggle with Freefiat™The trouble with any fiat currency system is, by definition, the holders of credits in the system are owed something later by someone — which, unavoidably, implies somewhere in the system a corresponding debt must be owed. If all will primarily hoard currency credits as savings, someone or another must be in an awful lot of debt.
Who will owe us?
It just doesn't really sound much DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-79033224023777044782013-06-26T10:18:00.000+01:002013-06-26T10:18:56.209+01:00magic [maj-ik]noun
the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of sleight of hand, deceptive devices, etc.; legerdemain; conjuring: to pull a rabbit out of a hat by magic.
the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature. Compare contagious magic, DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-92183988130638234612013-05-13T13:17:00.000+01:002013-05-13T13:17:33.773+01:00The emancipation of GOLDIn life, all things have an inverse. Good is a derivative of bad; beautiful of ugly; hard of soft; light of dark.
Without the presence of a competing measure, a relative benchmark, it is impossible to properly appreciate anything.
The current quoted gold price is a function of supply and demand in the market for gold-denominated credit. Today you can buy DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-21687473065596662842013-04-26T11:10:00.000+01:002013-04-26T11:10:12.100+01:00The future of gold?Nobody can tell you what gold will be worth; it has no "intrinsic value".
Its value is arbitrary, floating on the whims of collective human emotion.
Nobody can tell you, today, with any degree of certainty, more than... all that glitters is not gold.
How's your weathervane?
DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-26203407297880677892013-04-17T12:31:00.000+01:002013-04-17T12:31:08.193+01:00I can haz conspiracy?Trying to control the world?
I see you won't succeed.
T'ien hsia shen ch'i
The world is a spiritual vessel
And cannot be controlled.
Those who control, fail.
Those who grasp, lose.
Some go forth, some are led,
Some weep, some blow flutes,
Some become strong, some superfluous,
Some oppress, some are destroyed.
Therefore the Sage
Casts off extremes,
Casts offDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-77459996195858900702013-04-08T12:24:00.000+01:002013-04-08T12:24:52.707+01:00The inevitability of changeWith every unit of fiat currency, by its very nature, being an "IOU"… The Rich (at this point, anyone with a positive and non-contracting net worth) holding ever-growing piles, necessitates everyone else to increasingly be in debt to them.
It is inevitable that we must proceed, under the $IMFS paradigm, from "the 50%"… to "the 10%"… to "the 1%"… to "the 0.001%"… to…
It seems to me like "the DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-27578297081475328002013-03-23T22:00:00.001+00:002013-03-23T22:00:29.669+00:00Cyprus Street
I know — let's set ourselves up as an offshore banking centre!
Good luck.DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-61589482936432734432013-03-23T18:08:00.001+00:002013-03-23T18:08:21.157+00:00What's in your head?Recognise beauty and ugliness is born.
Recognise good and evil is born.
Is and isn't produce each other.
Hard depends on easy,
Long is tested by short,
High is determined by low,
Sound is harmonised by voice,
After is followed by before.
Therefore the Sage is devoted to non-action,
Moves without teaching,
Creates ten thousand things without instruction,
Lives but does not own,
Acts but does DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-26787142923722658232013-02-26T12:35:00.000+00:002013-02-26T12:36:42.528+00:00Timeline : Geopolitics in motion
(Click for a larger image)
All this while the accumulated leverage pumped into the "gold" market over the 80s and 90s, in structural support of the dollar until the euro was launched, is still present.
With regard to the price of gold, the Central Banks are not about to just allow the market to collapse the value of their own primary reserve asset. Unlike Western traders, the Central BanksDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-19722535640290236632013-02-26T10:31:00.000+00:002013-02-26T13:34:56.084+00:00The long and the short of it
(Click for a larger image)
While the world still wants long bonds, it's all good.
DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-13192552004760403322013-02-25T14:49:00.001+00:002013-02-25T14:49:19.846+00:00Put your money where my mouth isThe one economic zone in the world today where you are still, relatively, safe to hold the currency, is the Eurozone. It presents an oasis of monetary dominance, in an otherwise-endless world of blossoming fiscal dominance.
Politicians will always prioritise short term expediency over the soundness, longer term, of the monetary system.
#CurrencyWars? Your cash is expendable.
DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-20442704878940299352013-02-19T13:20:00.001+00:002013-02-19T13:22:49.273+00:00Incomplete models produce inaccurate results
Armstrong: Markets decline BECAUSE everyone who has EVER thought about buying has bought. There is no more reservoir of potential buyers to pick up the ball and take to the goal post. Consequently, the market falls because it has lost the momentum to sustain the rally.
With every Central Bank in the world today having a remit for price stability, and with every aspect of the global economy DPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33825131217256115.post-58765119082090124512013-02-19T09:43:00.000+00:002013-02-19T09:43:05.677+00:00Suspense
Bonne journéeDPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01965423353442076871noreply@blogger.com5