On 05/31/2013 10:54 AM, Levi Pearson wrote:
On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 9:43 AM, Michael Torrie <[email protected]> wrote:
I guess time will tell. I don't believe having a prime rate of zero is
sustainable. Though it's doing a great job of enriching people at the
expense of those who are frugal savers.
If by "frugal savers" you mean people who essentially stuff their
money in a mattress, I've already explained why that's not *really*
helping anyone, even in the absence of inflation. Money was invented
to be a liquid asset to facilitate trade, not to "store value".
That's what goods/commodities with real value are for.
Except goods and commodities are harder to secure and keep from spoiling
than currency.
In a way, the depression-era mattress hoarders (and other forms of
lost/non-circulating currency) act as a form of anti-Fed regulation.
While the Fed is basing it's decisions on "reliable" statistics and
market signals, printing cash to cover the treasury which is covering
government budget deficits, the mattress hoarders are decreasing the
supply based on emotion and lack of trust in the banks (and, by
extension, the Fed).
Granted, this is a hair brained idea, and I don't have time to flesh it
out more than that. I'm losing purchasing power as I write this as it is.
To make a long thread short (too late), people scurried to buy bigger
homes as values went up (sometime in greed, sometimes in fear). Banks
lent to keep interest coming in to repay investors and interest. Fed
bought treasuries so government could continue covering-up the largest
ponzi scheme ever. It doesn't take long for Joe Schmoe to wise up to
the fact that there's no way out of the rat race, abandoning any
confidence in currency or investment. Trade slows or stops. Things
will probably even out eventually anyway, another generation of suckers
will be born, we'll all reminisce to our grandkids about the time when
anyone on the street would gladly shave your back for a nickel, and how
we never paid $200 for dinner and a movie (while secretly remembering we
paid twice that for prom!), and the reality will be, the currency number
representing bread price still represents the same hours of work for the
same societal classes, and nothing has really changed; except maybe for
the number of bits in your ciphers. People will still work till they
die, whether middle-aged, or not.
;-Daniel Fussell
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