Currency Conundrum

[TruthIsOutThere]

Ok - I don't want this to turn into a political blame game, so let's start with this basic premise -

Regardless of fault - over the last two decades we have spent too much money which as led to a devalued US Dollar.

So now, we have a weak dollar. As I see it, this has a positive and a negative effect:

1) Commodities are much more expensive for US purchasers. More american income goes into food and fuel purchases, and leaves less money available to spend and stimulate the economy. In fact, I believe that right now a weak dollar is having more affect on gas prices at the pump than anything else. This seems negative.

2) US Goods and Services are cheaper abroad. This could stimulate manufacturing in the US and create US jobs. This seems positive.

So, whch monetary approach is the right one. I tend to think that a stong dollar is better. I think the increased purchasing power of a strong dollar will stimulate the economy more than a manufacturing boom from a weak dollar can.

I just don't think that we will ever be able to reap the manufacturing benefits of a weak dollar while we are competiting against the Pacific Rim and Mexico.

So what is the answer here guys? What do you think? Anyone have any good reads on the topic?

Take care!

 

[sjt18]

Clinton's strong dollar approach had much the same effect as a supply side tax cut. It was effectively a tax cut for the rich.

Either/or is fine with me. Lower the tax rates or pursue strong dollar policies. One apparent difference is that the strong dollar policy worked in an already strong economy. It might not have a stimulating effect all by itself. Investment tax cuts generally help bad economies.

The problem with Obama's "tax cuts" is that they went to consumers and not investors. There was no residual effect in the larger economy.

 

[gsvol]

The real problem dates to 1913 (and before.)

Read 'the creature from Jeckyl island.'

 

[TruthIsOutThere]

The real problem dates to 1913 (and before.)

Read 'the creature from Jeckyl island.'

I will read that. It looks interesting.

 

[gsvol]

I will read that. It looks interesting.

If you want to get really heavy into it, read "Tragedy
and Hope" by Carroll Quigley.

About five years ago I was watching a UT football
game in a sports bar and the guy sitting next to me
was a recent graduate of UT in economics who was
a banker.

He was a thrid generation banker and a really nice
guy. His dad and grandad had been bankers in a
small town bank but he was working in Nashville for
a bank owned by a group out of Birmingham, Ala.

He hated working for them because he had grown up
learning that the banker is providing a service to it's
customers and should treat them with utmost respect.

He complained the people he was working for were
already rich and just wanted to become filthy rich.

They weren't interested in the individual customer at
all, they just were interested in numbers, the total
number of customers and maximum cash flow so that
they could sell the (chain of) bank(s) eventually for
some exorbitant sum.

We started talking about banking and after the UT game
we watched a couple of more games.

When we parted company he said to me; "I've learned
more about banking from you tonight that I learned in
four years at UT."

"The powers of financial capitalism had another far
reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world
system of financial control in private hands able to
dominate the political system of each country and
the economy of the world as a whole. This system
was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by
the central banks of the world acting in concert,
by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private
meetings and conferences. The apex of the system
was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle,
Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by
the worlds' central banks which were themselves
private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism
made possible a centralization of world economic control
and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers
and the indirect injury of all other economic groups."
Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time
(Macmillan Company, 1966,) Professor Carroll Quigley
of Georgetown University

(You might study the history of the BIS as well.)

Professor Quigley was voted by the student body of
Columbia as "most influential professor on campus" for
28 straight years and when William Jefferson Clinton
mentioned his mentors in a speech, Quigley was the
only one he mentioned by name.

Quigley was for the people he was writing about and
the title of his book implies that he hopes they succeed
and it would be a tragedy to resist.

His only difference with them was that he thought
they should take on a more public face instead of
operating in secret.

"I know of this network because I have studied it for
twenty years and was permitted for two years in the
early 1960s to examine its papers and secret records.
I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have,
for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its
instruments. I have objected, both in the past and
recently, to a few of its policies ... but in general my
chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain
unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant
enough to be known."
Dr. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope

It turned out that they strongly disagreed.

 

[KiffinKiller]

rofl. Bragging on a msg board through an imaginary third party.

...and when we parted after many a long conversation, he said to me: "you are the greatest man I have ever met."

 

[gsvol]

rofl. Bragging on a msg board through an imaginary third party.

...and when we parted after many a long conversation, he said to me: "you are the greatest man I have ever met."

Most ankle biters are annoying but somehow I find
you somewhat amusing.

Read some of Adam Starchild's books and get back to
me about what you know about banking.

I find you amusing for one reason because of your
unearned arrogance, unlike those who are willing to
learn, you otoh already know it all.

How pathetic. lol:

 

[KiffinKiller]

Most ankle biters are annoying but somehow I find
you somewhat amusing.

Read some of Adam Starchild's books and get back to
me about what you know about banking.

I find you amusing for one reason because of your
unearned arrogance, unlike those who are willing to
learn, you otoh already know it all.

How pathetic. lol:

Where in my post did I even remotely suggest I knew eveverything? You, however, through anecdote, boasted about your own knowledge.

So when I point out your shamelessness, I'm the one full of shii? You're ridiculous.

 

[n_huffhines]

I will read that. It looks interesting.

It's good, but you'd probably be better off reading End the Fed by Ron Paul. The Creature from Jekyll Island is good, and very informative, but it's also long and the author is a little out there.

 

[n_huffhines]

Hey GS, are you for ending the Fed? That would surprise me because it would probably put a stop to all ME intervention. No politician is going to send us to war if it means his constituents are going to be directly taxed for it.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

rofl. Bragging on a msg board through an imaginary third party.

...and when we parted after many a long conversation, he said to me: "you are the greatest man I have ever met."

Is that the only thing you took away from that post?

 

[RespectTradition]

Inflation is essentially an indirect tax on the wealth of everyone, especially those who try to save and invest. If you have $100 and they take $10 in taxes you are left with $90. If you have $100 and they inflate the money supply so that your $100 now has the buying power $90 used to have, then you have been indirectly taxed $10. Bad bad bad.

 

[gsvol]

It's good, but you'd probably be better off reading End the Fed by Ron Paul. The Creature from Jekyll Island is good, and very informative, but it's also long and the author is a little out there.

Didn't Griffin write that??

How is he out there?

There are several books on this and other monetary matters the public would do well to learn about.

You won't find them in University curriculums.

Reading from Congressman McFadden's speech, recorded in the congressional records might be informative.

The Federal Reserve: An Astounding Exposure 1934

Take the time to read it.

"Mr. Chairman, we have in this Country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the Fed. The Fed has cheated the Government of these United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the Nation's debt. The depredations and iniquities of the Fed has cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over.

"This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of these United States, has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Fed and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.

"Some people who think that the Federal Reserve Banks United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lender. In that dark crew of financial pirates there are those who would cut a man's throat to get a dollar out of his pocket; there are those who send money into states to buy votes to control our legislatures; there are those who maintain International propaganda for the purpose of deceiving us into granting of new concessions which will permit them to cover up their past misdeeds and set again in motion their gigantic train of crime.

"These twelve private credit monopolies were deceitfully and disloyally foisted upon this Country by the bankers who came here from Europe and repaid us our hospitality by undermining our American institutions. Those bankers took money out of this Country to finance Japan in a war against Russia. They created a reign of terror in Russia with our money in order to help that war along. They instigated the separate peace between Germany and Russia, and thus drove a wedge between the allies in World War. They financed Trotsky's passage from New York to Russia so that he might assist in the destruction of the Russian Empire. They fomented and instigated the Russian Revolution, and placed a large fund of American dollars at Trotsky's disposal in one of their branch banks in Sweden ..............................

Hey GS, are you for ending the Fed? That would surprise me because it would probably put a stop to all ME intervention. No politician is going to send us to war if it means his constituents are going to be directly taxed for it.

In a perfect world I would take back the constitutional power to create money from the private interests that now have it. Around fifty years ago I was for the repeal of the federal reserve act but am not sure that is even possible now, even if we could muster the votes in the house and senate which is about as likely as moving all Earthlings to another planet.

“That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true…”
— Thomas Paine

“War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.”
— Thomas Paine

“Buy when the cannons are firing, and sell when the trumpets are blowing”
— Nathan Rothschild

Have you ever heard of "The report from Iron Mountain?"

There will probably be those who will claim this never happened, but it did, let me assure you.



Herman Cain was once a chairman of a federal reserve bank, (Kansas City) and he said there are two things wrong with the Dodd Frank bill, Dodd and Frank.

Cain doesn't go so far as to advocate for the repeal of the fed reserve act but does have some heavy criticisms.

One is that back during the seventies the Fed system was assigned a lot more control and duties concerning the whole economy, not just purely banking and money supply control.

Too bad the liberal press will completely ignore Herman Cain, if he were a black liberal instead of a black conservative, he would be front page headline news on a daily basis.

We need an audit of the federal reserve, about that there is no question.

Inflation is essentially an indirect tax on the wealth of everyone, especially those who try to save and invest. If you have $100 and they take $10 in taxes you are left with $90. If you have $100 and they inflate the money supply so that your $100 now has the buying power $90 used to have, then you have been indirectly taxed $10. Bad bad bad.

About 97% of your lifetime earnings will be eaten up by inflation.

Another point is that when you have an inflationary monetary policy, war is a good thing, the longer they last the better.

The simple reason is this; munitions are manufactured but don't return to the economy and cause a glut of product on the market, thus causing deflation, however munitions are exploded and poof they are gone, thus that amount of the GNP disappears from monetary supply/demand.

 

[n_huffhines]

Didn't Griffin write that??

How is he out there?

I don't mean to dismiss him, because he has a lot of good information, but his interpretation is a little bit too "conspiracy theory" for me. In the last chapter he prophesies the end of America in weird detail. My cousin has actually talked to him on the phone. He loved his book but after talking to him he said that he seemed a little crazy.

 

[gsvol]

I don't mean to dismiss him, because he has a lot of good information, but his interpretation is a little bit too "conspiracy theory" for me. In the last chapter he prophesies the end of America in weird detail. My cousin has actually talked to him on the phone. He loved his book but after talking to him he said that he seemed a little crazy.

Ron Paul seems more than a little crazy to lots of folks.

"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."
- Edgar J Hoover

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States —in the fields of commerce and manufacturing—are afraid of somebody. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
- Woodrow Wilson

Despite these warnings, Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. A few years later he wrote: "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
- Woodrow Wilson

"The real rulers of Washington are Invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes."
- Justice Felix Frankfurter - US Supreme Court Justice

"If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
- Thomas Jefferson

"I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my lifetime."
- Albert Einstein, 1947

As of now the Federal Reserve note is the central bank reserve currencty worldwide and also the money used to trade petroleum, Ron Paul says Ghadaffi wanted to quit taking dollars in exchange for his oil and that is the real reason he was attacked by NATO.

We will see a world currency some day, probably sooner than later.