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Printing money we don't have

Started by Ed, February 25, 2009, 02:36:48 AM

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Ed

This one falls into the category of shocking rather than funny. No laughs to be had here.

To me, it makes me think the monetary system of the entire world has become something false - just a way to keep the rich on top and the poor scrabbling to get there. Forty years ago and before, money was actually worth something, because it was linked to the amount of gold a government held in its vaults to pay the holder of the currency. The gold standard is now defunct, and now all we have by way of guarantee is a government's word that they're good for it. But when they say 'they' are good for it, they mean 'we'. Scary.

http://www.youtube.com/v/3DPfKxOQGHU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

Scary, indeed. I don't begin to understand how national finance works (I struggle with personal finance!) but didn't Gordon Brown sell all our gold off anyway? And I don'tgetthis 1.5 trillion pound debt that we the tax payers are now landed with. What does it actually mean in practice? I know, as a taxpayer, it's now my debt, and I understand that it's so greatthat our children and grand children and probably their children will be paying it off...but what does it mean? Is it that hospitals won't be built? Schools won't get new books and computers? Soldiers won't get flak jackets? What's the real impact?

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Caz

#2
  First time I tried to leave a reply on this one my browser crashed, then it wouldn't connect to cafedoom, weird  :shocked: Anyways, I was going to say that it seems, and I could well be wrong here, that since they started printing more money than the banks, government can actual honour the more often recessions come around and the harder they are.
  I can't help thinking these people don't know what the hell they're doing.
Some may say slaughtered is too strong a word...but I like the sound of it.

Ed

Dunno. I feel a bit more cynical than that - I wonder if a group of individuals somewhere knows exactly how to play the system and that's what they're doing.

On the other hand, I wonder if we've just seen the closest thing to the collapse of the world economy. I saw a news item a week or two ago that said our national debt now equates to approx £33,000 per man, woman, and child in the country. If that's true then my household on its own owes £132,000. WTF is that about? How? Where did that money go?

That cannot be worthwhile.

Even if they let the banks collapse and instead spent that £33,000 on actually giving the cash to each and every person in the country, most of us would be substantially better off than before and monumentally better off than we are now. I'd happily lose all the cash I've got in the bank if you're going to give me £132,000 in return. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is somebody borrowing £132,000 from my family, without even consulting me, let alone seeking my permission, and then giving it away to who knows who. :batterup:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

delboy

And now we hear that the guy who led the RBS into some of their worst deals (i.e. who failed at his job in a very spectacular way)  is, at 50 years old, drawing a pension of £650 000. Jeez. There's a guy who knows ho wto play the gme.

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

starktheground