Our monetary system

[Stevisiov]

Some characteristics that give materials their value are versatility, utility, scarcity. Honestly, if the world were about to end and the only things left were the same amounts of steel and gold each, I would take the steel because you can actually do something with it. Gold is great for trading or for reserve because it is scarce, but you can't actually make anything useful with it.

Gold is actually very useful due to its electrical and anti corrosive properties. It's a lot more useful now than it has ever been in Human history. Admittedly its difficult to rival the usefulness of steel, but part of the reason steel is so popular is because its so common and easy to produce and of course cheap. If Gold was so common, it wouldn't be anywhere near as valuable as it is.

 

[DK]

I'm sorry, but whenever I hear of people talking about gold in a monetary sense I instantly think of that guy.

 

[Joel]

I'm sorry, but whenever I hear of people talking about gold in a monetary sense I instantly think of that guy.

 

[Rue]

http://www.zerohedge.com

👍

I'll add one. Read if you want to know what's really going on in the murky world of the precious metals market, not what the mainstream tell you...

http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/

Someone also asked where the best place to drop a K on PM's is. HK's better than most, combine it with a sightseeing trip! Don't forget, ALWAYS buy physical.

 

[BobK]

EDIT: I dont know how much money in our economy is backed by gold.

If you're talking the US or most (all?) European countries, the answer is zero.

 

[Mattv81]

Guys, hypothetically speaking, if the gold standard were to be implemented globally, what do you think would happen to the price of gold? How much do you think it would rise to?

 

[Omnis]

You're thinking of it incorrectly. There is no one price on gold. Gold is gold. 1 gold can get you 3x or 2y. The gold standard doesn't have to be globally implemented. A market standard will arise out of what is most convenient and best to use. Traditionally it's been gold, but since we have had funny money for a long time now, who knows what it would be.

Right now Federal Reserve Notes are what you need to pay your taxes in. So our modern dollars have value for that purpose if nothing else. When the USA was choosing a currency, they literally just picked what everyone already had-- the Spanish mill dollar. So they adopted a market-born currency as a medium of exchange and made gold and silver legal tender. Today, it's the opposite. The government prevents the market from functioning to protect their global money hegemony with their FRN-dollars.

 

[Mattv81]

You're thinking of it incorrectly. There is no one price on gold. Gold is gold. 1 gold can get you 3x or 2y. The gold standard doesn't have to be globally implemented. A market standard will arise out of what is most convenient and best to use. Traditionally it's been gold, but since we have had funny money for a long time now, who knows what it would be.

Right now Federal Reserve Notes are what you need to pay your taxes in. So our modern dollars have value for that purpose if nothing else. When the USA was choosing a currency, they literally just picked what everyone already had-- the Spanish mill dollar. So they adopted a market-born currency as a medium of exchange and made gold and silver legal tender. Today, it's the opposite. The government prevents the market from functioning to protect their global money hegemony with their FRN-dollars.

Yeah, I kind of get what you mean, but surely it would still have a specific value? If everyone was using gold as currency, then how many copies of Gran Turismo could I buy with an ounce? If you added up all the money in the world and converted it to USD (or GBP), and added up all the gold in the world, and then divided the amount of currency by the amount of gold, then that would be the value wouldn't it? I'm sorry if I'm being an idiot here. I'm certainly not an expert and I'm sure you know a LOT more about this than I do.

 

[Omnis]

Grams of gold would be a much better measure than ounces in today's economy. The value of gold has pretty much been the same, but you've been getting more commodities per oz because naturally we have gotten better at producing everything. The exact value is too much for one person to know exactly. That's why we have markets. Markets don't work when you have one guy or group pretending to know what's best for the economy or what interest rates should be, etc.

 

[Keef]

I'd reckon the value of gold has generally stayed the same, as you said. It only looks like it's going way up because the the thing we measure everything by - the dollar - is losing value. When the yardstick gets smaller, everything you measure with it appears to get bigger.

 

[TT3AZ]

All i know is that people live over their limits. They spend more than they earn, far to much. They become a slave under the babylonian system, and slave under the banks, and commerical products. They will work 24/7 just because they want to show that they have made it. But can sucess really be shown in material things? That is what we should ask us.

As long as people will do anything for material things, then banks and government can and will do as they want. Okay, without consumption, nothing will work, but we need to limit ourselves because it has gone to far.

Then, the elite will do what ever it takes to fill their pockets, that is nothing new, and they will tell us all kind of crap, just so we should forget their dirty little habbits and secrets.

 

[Mattv81]

Grams of gold would be a much better measure than ounces in today's economy. The value of gold has pretty much been the same, but you've been getting more commodities per oz because naturally we have gotten better at producing everything. The exact value is too much for one person to know exactly. That's why we have markets. Markets don't work when you have one guy or group pretending to know what's best for the economy or what interest rates should be, etc.

Relative to currency, the price of gold has more than doubled since September 2008. So if the gold has actually stayed the same but the currency is worth half as much, then wouldn't that mean that the price of everything else would have doubled as well?

 

[TT3AZ]

Relative to currency, the price of gold has more than doubled since September 2008. So if the gold has actually stayed the same but the currency is worth half as much, then wouldn't that mean that the price of everything else would have doubled as well?

It has been confirmed, that higher prices doesnt allways have to fill a function. As i said before, the MDs and elite can do what ever they want, just to fill their pockets. Just as the government and large corporations. They increse their prices because they want more money, and then they tell a lie to the consumers. Its allways the same man, funny part is, the elite kapitalists love this, untill they themselves get suffered from corporate greed.

If nations can sacrify young men, just to go and play a fake war, they they can do anything to fulfill their needs.....

 

[Lain]

Here's a pretty interesting video related to the subject:


The narrator and music are a little overly dramatic at times, and there are some minor logical gaps in the narration, but it's a valiant effort nonetheless. It's 30 minutes though, so grab some popcorn if you choose to watch it.

 

[Omnis]

Relative to currency, the price of gold has more than doubled since September 2008. So if the gold has actually stayed the same but the currency is worth half as much, then wouldn't that mean that the price of everything else would have doubled as well?

Just wait until all that money flows into the economy. Right now the banks are sitting on it. Austrian econ defines inflation using the monetary base. Everyone else uses the basket of goods-- that's why they don't see what's coming until it's too late.

 

[Mattv81]

Here's a pretty interesting video.

The narrator and music are a little overly dramatic at times, and there are some minor logical gaps in the narration, but it's a valiant effort nonetheless. It's 30 minutes though, so grab some popcorn if you choose to watch it.

Very interesting video! 👍 But yeah, the looped dramatic music got a bit annoying quite quickly. I've watch all the Zeitgeist documentaries and they do make some very good arguements for a resourced based economy, and that video makes new arguements that I haven't heard before. My only hesitation is that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", as they say in the original version of Zeitgeist 1. Note they say power, not money. They removed that bit for the 2010 version. It seems a bit dangerous to have the all the worlds resources in the hands of a few technicians, because thats a lot of power. I guess the solution is to have the "global management software" as completely open source and transparent so we can all see whats happening. But still, it would be difficult to keep all this power out of the hands of someone who might abuse it. Also, the Venus Project would have to be implemented globally in order for it to work, and to get to that stage, we'd obviously need a global government first. And the people trying to make it happen at the moment are clearly extremely bad people. Another thing that gave me doubts is that The Venus Project is now being funded by Exemplar Zero, which is a UN organisation, and that seems a bit suspicious.

Just wait until all that money flows into the economy. Right now the banks are sitting on it. Austrian econ defines inflation using the monetary base. Everyone else uses the basket of goods-- that's why they don't see what's coming until it's too late.

Yeah, I guess so.

 

[Encyclopedia]

It has been confirmed, that higher prices doesnt allways have to fill a function. As i said before, the MDs and elite can do what ever they want, just to fill their pockets. Just as the government and large corporations. They increse their prices because they want more money, and then they tell a lie to the consumers. Its allways the same man, funny part is, the elite kapitalists love this, untill they themselves get suffered from corporate greed.

If nations can sacrify young men, just to go and play a fake war, they they can do anything to fulfill their needs.....

Vänsterpartist?

 

[Submerged]

How would the banks have gotten all that money from, Omnis?

The graph just states the time and the accumulation of money. That's it. But it doesn't say where they had gotten the money from and whether its an increase of value that they hold, or whether they had acquired more money.

Although I assume from this part: "sitting on it", it is the increase of gold valuation that has meant that the banks now have lots and lots of value....?

 

[Omnis]

That's the monetary base. They (the fed) got it from printing it and calling it money. Remember the bailout? This is how the bad assets were (are being) "liquidated".

 

[TT3AZ]

Vänsterpartist?

No, i do think people should have money, and use them. And i dont mind MDs etc having good payments. What i do not like, is this white lie regular folks are beeing telled by the elite. Thats the differance between me and others, regardles of political party.