http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929#Timeline
History doesn't repeat..but worth thinking about. arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 2:47 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; Sally Lerner Subject: Re: [Futurework] If you were Obama... Sally, There's nothing Obama can do domestically except perhaps appoint a task force to start making plans for emergency welfare after the double whammy that will probably start this morning when Wall Street opens after Labour Day. Obama, like all major politicians, is trapped in a dilemma not of his own making -- of something he is probably not even dimly aware of. This was the Geneva Conference of 1922 when the major powers decided not to return to the gold standard of pre-WWI, but to a pseudo currency standard which then allowed governments to print money without any underlying discipline. This led to a housing crash in America, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression which then swept into all of Europe. Obama, like Bush, must however take responsibility for turning down the persistent attempts over several years by China, Russia, India and several more emergent countries to establish a new world trading currency that would remain stable and be fair to all countries. Since Nixon cut off the last remaining link between the dollar and gold in 1971, America has led the whole world into world-wide currency inflation. This has now compounded to the point when America, Western Europe and Japan are on the verge of a condition that is already being called the Great Recession -- a milder name for a far worse condition than the 1930s. When the price of gold rises high enough to equalise money supply (money in use at all levels) then it can once again serve as the stable substratum for all national currencies even though, as in the centuries before 1914, it was an invisible substratum and only held as a reserve in case of panics. Four years ago, when the Chinese realized that America would probably never agree to go to the conference table, it started planning the Pan Asia Gold Exchange (PAGE). This started operations for Chinese buyers on the Internet on 1 September and is probably already responsible for a 5% rise since last Thursday (gold is even rising almost $20 an ounce as I write this and will certainly be higher when you read this). On 1 January PAGE will go world-wide with depositories and regional collection points in Europe, America and elsewhere. Even if an optimum price for gold is not reached in the next three months then it's likely to soon after the New Year. China, of course, was not involved in the 1922 Geneva Conference because, at the time, it had been carved up by military force into several large trading zones by the Germans, British, French and Portuguese (and not long afterwards by the Japanese), and scarcely existed as a nation. But, as the many American corporations which have set up in China will affirm, China is now asserting itself as a powerful economic force. If America can't rid itself of its addiction to printing money, then gold will have to reinsert itself with help from China. The best thing Obama could do right now as the Great Recession begins to bed itself in is to read a few books of economic history. Oh, and while he's at it, get Bernanke and Geithner to read them, too. Then they can fly to Beijing, or Hu and Wen can fly to Washington, and get something sorted out. Keith At 18:47 04/09/2011, you wrote: 'President Obama's promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least. If he can crank it all the way up to unimaginable, that would be even better. 'This is a moment for the president to suppress his reflex for preemptive compromise. The unemployment crisis is so deep and self-perpetuating that only a big, surprising, over-the-top jobs initiative could have real impact. Boldness will serve the nation well - and, coincidentally, boost Obama's reelection prospects.' Columnist Eugene Robinson Washington Post August 30, 2011 http://tinyurl.com/3tpq9kj What would FWers propose? Sally _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2012/08/
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