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BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE!
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809802 11/3/2009 8:20 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
time to pay off my credit card bills in full before the weekend.
too bad i can't pay off my car loan in time though :( Quoting: Anonymous Coward 796909
actually if the US dollar crashes your loans would become worthless so it would be better for you to wait until then
still I'd pay them though because it is more likely for the dollar to become stronger (I mean we are experiencing deflation) |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809804 11/3/2009 8:22 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Just on CNBC...The US Govt has put measures in place in case of the disorderly dissolution of the dollar. Link to come Quoting: Anonymous Coward 663837
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809232 11/3/2009 8:26 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | I want the buddy bar and some seeds. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809817 11/3/2009 8:32 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | Will this thread be bumped when everyone is still using the dollar next week? No it will go forgotten just like all of these other weak threads that have no backing. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809843 11/3/2009 9:05 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | I have a strong feeling this is
If I am wrong, I apologize! |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809843 11/3/2009 9:06 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Just on CNBC...The US Govt has put measures in place in case of the disorderly dissolution of the dollar. Link to come
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 809804
Waitinggggggggggggggggggggggggg |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809848 11/3/2009 9:16 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
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Joe Neubarth User ID: 772877 11/3/2009 9:21 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | Again I point out to the uneducated people out there who do not know how to think on their own, if the dollar goes down in value, American products will sell for less than the Chinese make them and everybody would be buying American, including the Chinese who are very frugal.
The best thing that could ever happen to the dollar and the American Economy would be for the dollar to lose value against the other major currencies in the world. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 333904 11/3/2009 9:27 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | Whoever thinks the US dollar will be obsolete in the comming weekend can send all their dollars to me - really I don't mind it ;). |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809843 11/3/2009 9:41 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Whoever thinks the US dollar will be obsolete in the comming weekend can send all their dollars to me - really I don't mind it ;). Quoting: Anonymous Coward 333904
Where should I send. Next week Monday I will not need them. You can just use them for wall-paper or something. |
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weatherbill User ID: 809867 11/3/2009 9:41 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | gees....another boy crying wolf.....
usd can;t be obsolete when all oil and gas (accept in Iran) is still traded for usd..... demand dumbell demand
when are we gonna get rid fo these people who continue to cry wolf....
must wait till sept 2010, but possibly dec. for doom to hit [link to EarthQuake2010.org]
MEGA Quake Tsunami coming Sept 2010. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 333904 11/3/2009 9:45 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Whoever thinks the US dollar will be obsolete in the comming weekend can send all their dollars to me - really I don't mind it ;).
Where should I send. Next week Monday I will not need them. You can just use them for wall-paper or something. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 809843
I will give you my paypal account is that ok? |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 333904 11/3/2009 9:48 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
gees....another boy crying wolf.....
usd can;t be obsolete when all oil and gas (accept in Iran) is still traded for usd..... demand dumbell demand
when are we gonna get rid fo these people who continue to cry wolf....
must wait till sept 2010, but possibly dec. for doom to hit Quoting: weatherbill
Well not only that... but people still like Intel, AMD, Microsoft, Boeing, Cisco, Walt Disney, Las Vegas, even 50 Cent, Mc Donnel Douglas, Armalite etc. etc. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809795 11/3/2009 9:54 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Again I point out to the uneducated people out there who do not know how to think on their own, if the dollar goes down in value, American products will sell for less than the Chinese make them and everybody would be buying American, including the Chinese who are very frugal.
The best thing that could ever happen to the dollar and the American Economy would be for the dollar to lose value against the other major currencies in the world. Quoting: Joe Neubarth 772877
Buying what??? dumbass
What happens when the dollar collapses?
Many things, most of them bad. When foreign investors and central banks stop demanding dollars, U.S. bond prices will fall, which is another way of saying that U.S. interest rates will rise. Mortgage and credit card rates will soar, bursting the housing bubble. Home prices in hot markets like California and New York will fall by 50% or more in a matter of months, bankrupting millions of over-extended homeowners. The U.S. government will respond by opening the monetary floodgates, printing as many paper dollars as necessary to keep the economy from collapsing. This surge in supply will send the value of the dollar through the floor. Prices for most things will skyrocket, and people whose life savings are in cash, bank CDs or dollar-denominated bonds, will be wiped out. Most U.S. consumer finance companies will be ruined, along with their stockholders.
THEN the Dollar Disease will go global. The only reason Japan or Europe have been able to generate their current meager rates of growth is the willingness of U.S. consumers to buy their Hondas and BMWs. As the dollar plunges, Asian and European goods, priced in suddenly-appreciating currencies, will become prohibitively expensive for U.S. consumers, who will respond by buying U.S.-made alternatives or nothing at all. Correctly interpreting this change in buying patterns as a threat to their vital export sectors, European and Asian leaders will respond with the only weapon they have left: monetary inflation. They’ll cut interest rates and buy dollars with their currencies, flooding the world with euros and yen the way the U.S. now floods the world with dollars. The result of these “competitive devaluations” will be a death spiral for all major fiat currencies, in which European and Japanese bonds will, eventually, fare as badly as their U.S. cousins. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 615028 11/3/2009 10:02 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | This is simply BS.
US DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE??? ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?????
THIS IS A HORSE SHIT. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 773669 11/3/2009 10:04 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
This is simply BS.
US DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE??? ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?????
THIS IS A HORSE SHIT. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 615028
[link to www.youtube.com] |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 333904 11/3/2009 10:06 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | Dollar obsolete means that as a foreigner I can buy Intel hardware very cheap, even a beautiful Boeing 747 for nothing... Oh wait, that means the dollar isn't obsolete after all. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 534348 11/3/2009 10:17 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | The Dollar is done but it will be long before I am gone and that will be decades. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 796909 11/3/2009 10:30 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | i'm gonna buy all sorts of cool high priced technology stuff right before the dollar crashes and then sell it. hdtvs, computers, game consoles, speaker systems, etc. i'll make a killing by selling them for whatever currency replaces the dollar. |
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Drakensang User ID: 809578 11/3/2009 10:40 PM
 | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
gees....another boy crying wolf.....
usd can;t be obsolete when all oil and gas (accept in Iran) is still traded for usd..... demand dumbell demand
when are we gonna get rid fo these people who continue to cry wolf....
must wait till sept 2010, but possibly dec. for doom to hit Quoting: weatherbill
Instant Doom (TM) will happen when the next major terrorist
attack strikes American soil.
Assessing current global tensions, I anticipate our waiting
time is significantly less than your projection.
Instant Doom will trash the US Dollar overnight, causing a
complete rout of its value as the world's reserve currency.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack, foreign nations
will regret they did not have a secure backup reserve
currency in place before Uncle Buck was slaughtered...
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MuzicSoulWorldly User ID: 809922 11/3/2009 11:24 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Ummm. yea, pretty much.
Just don't take away American Idol and Hot pockets and we're good to go.
Continue on as you were.....
As a sidenote, why are all of the guys on American Idol fags??? Have you ever noticed this?? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 809518
If you are so for Obama and everything, why would you degrade people like that by calling them degrading names ? I mean, that'z like using the n-word, it'z degrading and disgusting to stoop quite that low. Plus, I mean just because a guy'z demeanor isn't as butch as Tyrese or LL Cool J, this doesn't make somebody gay. You are so sterotypical to say that if somebody does non-masculine thingz that they are automatically gay. Certainly, the majority of people whom act that way tend to be gay, but it'z not absolute and it'z nt at all right to be judging somebody based upon what you don't know, unless they have admitted to it themselves, and even then, calling people degrading names is not cool.
Aaron |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809927 11/3/2009 11:29 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
 |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809930 11/3/2009 11:35 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
G20 Meeting this weekend and they will be talking about getting rid of the dollar. Its finished you have only a couple of days to wind it down and get into SILVER AND GOLD!
[ link to thecomingdepression.blogspot.com]
BS.
International bodies don't have power over me and if they attempt to foist their policies on my life, their lives and those of their families will be in jeopardy.
Come get some! Quoting: Anonymous Coward 806214
sticky |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809916 11/3/2009 11:37 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
That's a load of shit. The recession is over and Obama has saved us. The dollar will never crash!
Are you mentally incompetent? Stuck us with a 12 trillion dollar bill, mass unemployment , billions GIVEN to the bankers for FREE, War in Afghanistan escalating, crashed the housing market and now giving millions for GOLF CARTS? A NEW STIMULUS PROGRAM?
43 States BANKRUPT and the list goes on. OH YES WE ARE SAVED alright
Clearly that poster was being sarcastic.
I don't know, I've been reading dollar crash doom news with prediction dates for over a year now. So far none have panned out. I doubt this one will either. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 793040
i've been reading it since the 70s |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 776606 11/3/2009 11:44 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | Cool! Give ME all the US dollars YOU don't want! |
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russ59dd User ID: 806992 11/3/2009 11:49 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | I have seen a CITI credit card bill on the net,
(personal info didacted) that offered the late
payer a 50% discount if the remaining balance was
paid by 11-09-09. serious. just throwin that in the pot |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 809839 11/4/2009 12:13 AM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
Everyone OK with this? Carry on Quoting: Anonymous Coward 746244
I am O.K. with it cause it is more  |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 757124 11/4/2009 12:32 AM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | I think the world should strongly reconsider allowing the US dollar to go the way of the dodo. If we go broke we'll start another war. This time, it won't be limited to some oil rich nation. |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 810586 11/4/2009 9:41 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote |
The ultimate demise of dollar reserve status
[ link to www.busrep.co.za]
November 3, 2009
By Joseph Edozien
On continued thought, it seems increasingly difficult to avoid the murky conclusion that the ultimate demise of dollar reserve status is the implicit monetary policy of the United States of America.
Both the rhetorical and policy responses from the monetary authorities in the United States to the not so veiled undermining of confidence in the global currency reserve status of the dollar from other monetary authorities, notably from China and Russia, have been remarkably tepid and timid. This diffidence is not normal from America and is therefore thought-provoking.
This of course raises the quite awkward question of why and how patriotic monetary authorities in the United States could possibly see merit in implicitly colluding in the debasement of the perceived value of its own sovereign currency.
Does such implicit collusion make any sense? It does.
New Currency Possible
The eroding fundamentals of the dollar may necessitate its ultimate demise in any case.
One expects that such a death process will be orderly and gradual if there is indeed such a process in the further evolution of global financial events.
But there is a non-ignorable risk that such a death process, if there is such, could spiral out of control of the monetary authorities and become disorderly and sudden after an accelerated period of decline which erodes confidence rapidly, leading to a herd-like stampede from the dollar, thereby entailing catastrophic consequences in the real economic world of you and me.
Ever since the end of World War II, the dollar has been the de facto coin of the globe in international transactions. It has been the world’s de facto unit of pricing account and primary medium of global exchange.
The dollar, clearly, cannot adequately continue these functions in an era of its own debasement.
But why is the dollar being debased?
The process of monetary creation in the United States is conceptually not that difficult to understand.
Roughly and approximately: the United States Government, through its Treasury, issues IOUs of various sorts.
The United States Federal Reserve System, largely a consortium of private banks, monetizes these IOUs by crediting the US government’s bank accounts in its systems. This monetization of the government’s IOUs is created as public debts loaned at interest.
These debts become the assets of the banking system and the liabilities of the American people for several generations going forward since it is loaned on the full faith and credit of the people’s government as secured by its taxing and tax enforcement powers.
In other words, people pay taxes to pay the interest on their government’s debt. Furthermore, this monetization of the government’s debt largely forms the monetary base upon which the banking system then creates more loans of roughly around ten times their magnitude and more. In sum, the United States borrows its money at interest and then the people pay taxes to finance the interest on these loans.
It remains, of course, a ponderable conundrum why any people’s government, let alone that of the United States, would borrow money from largely private parties who create the money they loan out of nothing and then charge an interest for this service. But that odd mystery is a story for another day.
The basic problem facing the United States today is that America is factually bankrupt.
America’s current unfunded obligations, and its total debt, currently exceed the current measurable annual income generating output of the country by many orders of magnitude.
This is sobering indeed. It must furrow the brows of America’s monetary authorities who are charged with doing something about it.
Given that measurable annual income generating output cannot be increased sufficiently fast to a sufficient magnitude, especially if the liability to eventually pay is growing faster than any practically possible increase in that output, it would appear as if there is an intractable problem of threatening dimensions.
But if the currency is debased by inflating its issuance at a sufficiently fast rate, independent of a commensurate increase in output, perhaps there may be a solution even if that solution is unseemly.
This appears from a distance to be the thinking informing the inner sanctums of monetary policymaking in the United States right now. Dilute the debt by inflating the currency! In the end, there may have to be a new currency. Surprise! Surprise! We did not see this coming.
I personally do think we will see a new currency in the United States in our lifetimes, most likely amalgamated with other currencies in some sort of monetary union for a larger internal market.
We should all prepare now for this possibility because it probably is a probability.
What would be the ultimate effect of the demise of the global currency reserve status of the US Dollar, a process which seems now already underway?
Centralised Economy
Global monetary authority will become centralised and concentrated in global financial institutions practically unaccountable to any sovereign states, even if partially held so accountable by formal mandate.
This centripetal movement of global financial power and de facto global financial governance would further weaken state sovereignty and increase the global power of global financial technocrats whose masters will become even less clear and apparent.
This will mean further loss of effective control of states over their national economies thereby casting the Westphalian state system further into the dustbin of history.
We will then have not a multilateral international system of distributed governance but an increasingly unilateral global system of de facto centralised governance.
The concentration and centralization of global monetary policy in global financial institutions will complete the process of financial globalization thereby completing the process of economic and eventually political globalization.
While I will not take a position here as to whether or not this centralization and concentration of global power is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing, I will here take the position that this historic transition should not pass unnoticed or unencumbered with the most vigourous global debate, with the most observant scrutiny from world citizenry.
We should not hand over our financial and economic, and eventually political, destinies to practically unaccountable global technocrats whose real masters we do not know without fully understanding what that really means for us and what it might lead to for our progeny.
Joseph Edozien is Chairman of the South African New Economics Network. Quoting: Anonymous Coward 751857 |
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Anonymous Coward User ID: 810586 11/4/2009 9:47 PM | | Re: BREAKING! THIS WEEKEND THE U.S. DOLLAR IS OBSOLETE! | Quote | After reading this piece, I hastened to acknowledge that the only thing that made sense in this write-up was the caption - The Ultimate demise of the dollar reserve status. It is true there has been lots of discussions on the future of the dollar as a reserve world currency but none of what the writer here says has anything to do with it. I am not sure I will refer to China and Russia as monetary authorities, however, if you are not going to have the chance to read the rest of this piece, here is your take home.
Money supply or money stock, is the total amount of money available in an economy at a particular point in time. This supply of money is determined in several ways, but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and your checking, savings and certificates of deposit accounts (generally referred to as demand deposit). The supply of money (Quantity theory of money) in an economy has a direct impact on the price levels, inflation and the business cycle. In other words, there is strong empirical evidence of a direct relation between long-term price inflation and money-supply growth. Meanwhile this causal chain is contentious, with heterodox economists arguing that the money supply is endogenous and that the sources of inflation must be found in the distributional structure of the economy.
In much simple terms, during the last decade or so, the US government in order to fight its global wars on terror and solve its budget deficit problems has engaged in a lot of borrowing and simply printing money. The fear has been that as a lender (say China) when supply of anything increases - say during the mango season in Cameroon, the price (value) of the mangos (dollar) goes down. Imagine receiving a bucket of dollars as a lender that is worth almost nothing! Therefore the need for an alternate reserve currency.
Before this can be discussed any further, it is important to understand what a reserve currency is. This cannot be done without explaining the theory of foreign exchange reserve. Essentially, every central bank keeps a certain amount of money (backed by an official gold reserve and that gets even more complex...) in a "reserve currency" to settle its foreign transactions - sales of goods and services, movement of capital and exchange of currency to facilitate "value transfer". A quick example - for a Chinese manufacturer to be able to price its pencil in the international market, there has to be a currency (or language) that everyone understands in this case the US dollars. Managed currency regimes such as China's have been deliberately devaluing - or say maintaining their exchange rate very low so as to boost demand for their products and consequently increase exports.
The writer below dwells so much on the creation of money which has been the central piece of the monetary system for centuries. Since the creation of the Bank of England in 1694, this has been happening so I do not see any big deal with that. Just the normal money "creation" by commercial banks. I am not Sure at this stage in the political and economic landscape, I will trust any Asian currency as a reserve currency.
I have not so far seen an argument so narrow like the one the writer puts forth -” In other words, people pay taxes to pay the interest on their government’s debt. Furthermore, this monetization of the government’s debt largely forms the monetary base upon which the banking system then creates more loans of roughly around ten times their magnitude and more. In sum, the United States borrows its money at interest and then the people pay taxes to finance the interest on these loans" Citizens do not pay taxes just to service debts. In fact, at last count, debt servicing relative total tax revenue was less than a 1 basis point.
I writer goes on to say that - "It remains, of course, a (ponderable conundrum) why any people’s government, let alone that of the United States, would borrow money from largely private parties who create the money they loan out of nothing and then charge an interest for this service. But that odd mystery is a story for another day." This is stupid at the least and goes to show the writer's lack of understanding for simple economic concepts or at best, the writer heard about the topic, with very little understanding of the concepts, decided to write about it!
This writer needs to let those who know what they are talking about talk about such issues!
The ultimate demise of dollar reserve status
[link to www.busrep.co.za]
November 3, 2009
By Joseph Edozien
On continued thought, it seems increasingly difficult to avoid the murky conclusion that the ultimate demise of dollar reserve status is the implicit monetary policy of the United States of America.
Both the rhetorical and policy responses from the monetary authorities in the United States to the not so veiled undermining of confidence in the global currency reserve status of the dollar from other monetary authorities, notably from China and Russia, have been remarkably tepid and timid. This diffidence is not normal from America and is therefore thought-provoking.
This of course raises the quite awkward question of why and how patriotic monetary authorities in the United States could possibly see merit in implicitly colluding in the debasement of the perceived value of its own sovereign currency.
Does such implicit collusion make any sense? It does.
New Currency Possible
The eroding fundamentals of the dollar may necessitate its ultimate demise in any case.
One expects that such a death process will be orderly and gradual if there is indeed such a process in the further evolution of global financial events.
But there is a non-ignorable risk that such a death process, if there is such, could spiral out of control of the monetary authorities and become disorderly and sudden after an accelerated period of decline which erodes confidence rapidly, leading to a herd-like stampede from the dollar, thereby entailing catastrophic consequences in the real economic world of you and me.
Ever since the end of World War II, the dollar has been the de facto coin of the globe in international transactions. It has been the world’s de facto unit of pricing account and primary medium of global exchange.
The dollar, clearly, cannot adequately continue these functions in an era of its own debasement.
But why is the dollar being debased?
The process of monetary creation in the United States is conceptually not that difficult to understand.
Roughly and approximately: the United States Government, through its Treasury, issues IOUs of various sorts.
The United States Federal Reserve System, largely a consortium of private banks, monetizes these IOUs by crediting the US government’s bank accounts in its systems. This monetization of the government’s IOUs is created as public debts loaned at interest.
These debts become the assets of the banking system and the liabilities of the American people for several generations going forward since it is loaned on the full faith and credit of the people’s government as secured by its taxing and tax enforcement powers.
In other words, people pay taxes to pay the interest on their government’s debt. Furthermore, this monetization of the government’s debt largely forms the monetary base upon which the banking system then creates more loans of roughly around ten times their magnitude and more. In sum, the United States borrows its money at interest and then the people pay taxes to finance the interest on these loans.
It remains, of course, a ponderable conundrum why any people’s government, let alone that of the United States, would borrow money from largely private parties who create the money they loan out of nothing and then charge an interest for this service. But that odd mystery is a story for another day.
The basic problem facing the United States today is that America is factually bankrupt.
America’s current unfunded obligations, and its total debt, currently exceed the current measurable annual income generating output of the country by many orders of magnitude.
This is sobering indeed. It must furrow the brows of America’s monetary authorities who are charged with doing something about it.
Given that measurable annual income generating output cannot be increased sufficiently fast to a sufficient magnitude, especially if the liability to eventually pay is growing faster than any practically possible increase in that output, it would appear as if there is an intractable problem of threatening dimensions.
But if the currency is debased by inflating its issuance at a sufficiently fast rate, independent of a commensurate increase in output, perhaps there may be a solution even if that solution is unseemly.
This appears from a distance to be the thinking informing the inner sanctums of monetary policymaking in the United States right now. Dilute the debt by inflating the currency! In the end, there may have to be a new currency. Surprise! Surprise! We did not see this coming.
I personally do think we will see a new currency in the United States in our lifetimes, most likely amalgamated with other currencies in some sort of monetary union for a larger internal market.
We should all prepare now for this possibility because it probably is a probability.
What would be the ultimate effect of the demise of the global currency reserve status of the US Dollar, a process which seems now already underway?
Centralised Economy
Global monetary authority will become centralised and concentrated in global financial institutions practically unaccountable to any sovereign states, even if partially held so accountable by formal mandate.
This centripetal movement of global financial power and de facto global financial governance would further weaken state sovereignty and increase the global power of global financial technocrats whose masters will become even less clear and apparent.
This will mean further loss of effective control of states over their national economies thereby casting the Westphalian state system further into the dustbin of history.
We will then have not a multilateral international system of distributed governance but an increasingly unilateral global system of de facto centralised governance.
The concentration and centralization of global monetary policy in global financial institutions will complete the process of financial globalization thereby completing the process of economic and eventually political globalization.
While I will not take a position here as to whether or not this centralization and concentration of global power is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing, I will here take the position that this historic transition should not pass unnoticed or unencumbered with the most vigourous global debate, with the most observant scrutiny from world citizenry.
We should not hand over our financial and economic, and eventually political, destinies to practically unaccountable global technocrats whose real masters we do not know without fully understanding what that really means for us and what it might lead to for our progeny.
Joseph Edozien is Chairman of the South African New Economics Network.
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