Greenspan Shocks the World

[Rasputin_Vol]

Someone has to set reserve requirements.

We borrow money to create money. That is our current policy.

 

[utgibbs]

Explain.

Shall I weigh in here on Greenspan as the primary reason for the recent failures of capitalism? I fear a book would be necessary. So, instead, I'll just talk about gold.

Gold is stupid. It's not even a very useful metal. It's a good conductor and inert. Makes a great passivation layer in harsh environments, but, naturally, is too expensive to be terribly useful even here. As far as it goes, Platinum has much more intrinsic value simply because it is one of the most important heterogeneous catalysts on the periodic table, and it has all the physical properties of gold.

Having a gold standard is actually stupid. HOWEVER, tying money to something in the real world outside the back door is not.

This represented the first significant crisis of capitalism in the early 1970s. At the time, Capital was straining its own superstructure. It had come to the limits of the real world outside the back door. Profits were no longer growing fast enough. It begins the counter-revolution to the post-WWII Bretton Woods system (Keynesian) - one which actually did more to increase real prosperity than any other time in human history.

Capital could no longer be tied to the real world. It had to become a product of the imagination. This had happened before, although to a lesser extent, in the 1920s. Ergo, the birth of the fiat currency. Greenspan has done more than any other single person to ensure Capital need not resemble anything in the real world outside the back door over the intervening years - which is the reason Capital transmogrified into financialization which as we know now is a glorified Ponzi scheme only backed up by tax payer dollars and the knowledge that tax payer dollars will convert fictions into real wealth (for the bourgeoisie and their enablers).

This was the last great leap for Capitalism. It's great strength was its power of transmogrification. It could revolutionize itself whenever it met the limits of a finite world. It is, of course, now straining even its imaginary superstructure, and is doomed to implode like a supernova or the Chixulub meteor.

[Note: think about the way Capital has tried to overcome the limits of a finite, biological world. Growth hormones, the "Green" (sic) Revolution, the vast sums poured into Monsanto-ization and biotech gene-play. Capital has "outgrown" the real world for a long time, but the most important work in our own historic time is to find an economy which maintains (and of course elevates most of the rest of the world) to dignity and well-being while remaining rooted in the real world outside the back door. I know of only two countries which have even attempted such a project.]

 

[vol_in_ar]

Barney Frank and Fannie Mae/Mac were the ones responsible for allowing people that didn't need to be buying homes get financed... not Greenspan.

throw Clinton into the mix too...

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

I know of only two countries which have even attempted such a project.]

Which two? opcorn:

 

[utgibbs]

Which two? opcorn:

Cuba and Bhutan.

 

[myrobbins7]

Found this a little interesting..DE GAULLE predicted the US monetary crisis in 1965 - YouTube ..Thoughts?

 

[KentheOrange]

Barney Frank and Fannie Mae/Mac were the ones responsible for allowing people that didn't need to be buying homes get financed... not Greenspan.

Don't forget Bill Clinton and Janet Reno threatening federal action if mortgage companies continued to practice redlining.

 

[gsvol]

I think I may have run him off... :unsure:

I wondered what happened to him. :thumbsup:

What is the FED chairman's job?

Herman Cain explains it in simple terms better than
anyone I've heard.

 

[gsvol]

Gold has value only because financiers and those cashing in huge on it have convinced everyone that it has some sort of intrinsic value. Its commercial value is actually tiny relative to its price.

Its a giant scam, at this point.

Speaking of giant scams: