lol yeah, acting as fiat currency issuing govts is the same as a household wrt budgetary constraints is goddamn so awful but the sick thing is most treasurers in the world don't quite get the difference

in australia's case, our shadow treasurer would fail the crap out of intro macro

The devastating war thing is more a product of the industrial revolution than central banks. Countries had full scale wars long before central banks existed. In the 20th century, they got to do it with machine guns and tanks and bombs and airplanes for the first time. If it was still all rifles and cannons, the world wars wouldn't have been nearly as devastating, regardless of how much cash central banks were pumping into them.

O_O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_BP7-ba9SM

WWI and WWII weren't even that destructive in terms of percentages of human population killed.

Watch this.

http://edge.org/conversation/mc2011-...iolence-pinker

This is actually a great investment cause it'll cost double in 10 years. Where will be that scarf in 10 years? Oh, right...non-existent.

WWI+WWII combined don't come even close to the Spanish flu pandemic victims from 1918. That's why modern warfare is fought with bio weapons. And guess who are the targets?

Oh yeah?

ants, crickets and of course, wasps.

this is what we do over in ssplo when there is extended bickering with no end in sight. lets see if it works....






and since the super bowl is this weekend....

This really bothers me. It is not immoral to not give. Being immoral means to do things that hurt or harm others. Someone who spends on themselves exclusively is not hurting anyone. They are actually helping the businesses and the people who work there as well as helping themselves. If anytime you could have given instead of spending, you were immoral, we'd all have to give every single penny beyond the most basic of survival expenses away at all moments to be moral.

The paper money represented actual gold. How is a large budget not compared to a small budget? If you spend a lot more than you make, you go into debt whether its big numbers or little ones.

we post pics with absolutely horrendous quality in super low resolution?
good luck with that.

what is wrong with you americans? i see you over and over again posting absolutely crappy pictures of chicks who is either photoshoped to death or got kilograms of make up on their faces.

all right.... the middle one pic is okay, but what the **** is wrong with top and bottom???

I might be wrong about the linkage of central banks and total war (I still dont think I am but I should read more about it definitely). I am much more confident though about many of the other things, including the end of the dollar as the worlds reserve currency, and the likely sustained deflation or hyper inflation we will see sometime soon. Our money isnt backed by anything meaningful. Its only backed by the Fed and the treasury's implicit promise that they can just print more worthless pieces of paper

The Bretton Woods System was enacted in 1971, breaking any link between the dollar and gold




There is no indication that we will be curbing the growth of the 'money' supply at any point. Atleast more people are calling for audits of the fed though

In my opinion the reason that President Nixon had to end the link to gold had mostly to do with the costs from the Vietnam war, and the costs from LBJ's Great Society. The costs from this war and social programs became too great to stay on the gold standard (or what was left of it).

Anyways, I want to write a lot of other things but I know this isnt the place for it. If anyone wants to continue the discussion feel free to PM me.

A consistent and persistent inflation at a moderate level is actually desirable.

The fed has done pretty well on that front.

Gold was just convenient because it doesn't rust and its relative scarcity and convenience. Nowadays, there is little reason to rely on gold beyond historical nostalgia and institutional momentum.

That gold prices fluctuate far more wildly than changes in inflation could possibly justify in the past 20 years or so is actually evidence gold itself has become more of a speculative vehicle than a medium of exchange.

The U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency is backed by a different implicit promise: Any country that attempts to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency is going to get ****ed up. The choices are World War III or shut up and don't rock the boat. It's not going to change because it's not in any powerful county's best interest to try to change it. This is the reason we spend more on our military than pretty much the entire rest of the world combined.

oh lol gold standard. where should i even begin ??? Come on people plzzz are you trolling me ?

Secondly it doesnt matter if a government spends more than they make ! they dont need to pay back the debt, and can devalue money. How can a household do that ?

yes you are probably trolling me. wateva

As we're on the subject, I have 2 questions:

1) is the only difference between 'fractional reserve' banking and a ponzi scheme that the first is government-sanctioned?

2) why is it ok - or even remotely acceptable - that a government can spend more than it makes?

We don't even have to devalue. Our biggest creditors are the branches of US government itself (Fed reserve and Social Security). The government just has to change the laws to lower interest rates and delay payment (hiking retirement age for SS eligibility works to this effect).

Can anyone recommend a good money safe to keep at home? Preferably one that bolts into ground or wall.

I feel like this question should be turned around - why is it not ok?
Lots of very good things come from govts spending more than they take in.
The alternative barely makes sense - how would it be responsible for a govt not to borrow money required to support basic services when credit is relatively cheap and available?

This was more or less exactly the conclusion I came to if you read the rest of my post...

But I guess I agree to deem it immoral is probably misguided.

best line is to obv buy a random(smallish) one and let it stand in your bedroom without no hiding or something. Put just like 1-2k in there. The rest of your money you hide in different places at home

Don't mean to crush your confidence but even the worst putter on Tour makes >50% of his 6 footers and average is around 70%