Currency Wars, USD, YEN, Bitcoin and what it means to you.
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 4:00 pm
I'm going to preface this rant with a comparison to try and get everyone on board. As most of us collectors would agree, limited numbers placed on a print gives it its value and therefore everyone should agree "Less is More". More value, more collectible, more anger about eBay flippers. Demand stems completely from rarity. If everything was open edition, this website and the majority of it's users would not exist.
So in summary. Open editions are bad, Limited Editions are good.
We're on the same page? Great! Now, lets go back to the 20th century for a minute. Specifically August 15th 1971, The United States had been fighting a seemingly endless war in Vietnam and the costs of it were mounting. Then president Richard Nixon needed to figure out a way to pay for the war. At the time all United States Currency was backed by Gold at a locked price of $35.00 per ounce. So, Nixon with 15 finance advisers decided to stop backing the USD with Gold therefore giving himself the ability to create unlimited FIAT out of thin air.
So, Nixon changed the "Limited Edition Gold-Backed USD" into the "Open Edition FIAT CURRENCY USD".... Here's what happened next :
From 1971 to 2013 the cumulative rate of inflation was 473.2%
CURRENCY WAR
Starting in 2007/8 with the mortgage backed security financial crisis the Federal Reserve took a stand to fight off the impending depression by giving Trillions of dollars to bail out the same banks and corporations that started the crisis instead of letting them fail.
What followed was a massive increase in the monetary supply.
and where did all this bailout/QE1,2,3,Infinity money end up? In the stock market.
Okay so the DJIA has hit new all time highs so the United States no longer is in a depression and all is well, right?
Wrong. Japan announced recently that it will begin Easing it's Monetary supply... and it has, aggressively. We are currently in a world wide race to the bottom, where the cheaper your countries exchange rate, the more trade transpires.
More trade you say? How can that be bad?! Well, once every country gets on the bandwagon we will all be printing into a downward spiral. The more money in the system, the less it is worth to the people that use it, and because it is all borrowed from banks the more DEBT will be created.
EU DEBT CRISIS
I'm sure everyone has heard about one European country or another requesting a bailout recently (Greece, Spain, etc). Well the most recent casualty of the DEBT crisis is a small island country called "Cyprus" and the way they are attempting to deal with it is by Taxing the Deposits of all Bank accounts upward of 10%...
The issue is still being debated but while everyone waits patiently the banks are all closed on "holiday" and will be for the foreseeable future, Businesses are only accepting cash and basically all commerce in the country has come to a complete standstill because people can't get their money out of the banks.
Who cares about a little island on the other side of the world? You do! The debt that Cyprus has to pay off so that it can receive a bailout from the EU is..... 6.7 BILLION EUROS, that's Billion with a "B".
In the United States we have a few Trillion more problems than they do....
The only reason our debt has yet to collapse on itself is that we keep raising the amount we can borrow, mostly because we MUST. Without continued borrowing the whole system will collapse.
This sucks! So what can I do? How can I protect myself?
REAL ASSETS & DIGITAL CURRENCY
So if holding currency is isn't safe, what is? Well we could all drain our bank accounts and buy Twinkies but they would get old after awhile and storage would be tough.
So here is what I have come up with to store/save wealth during the impending FIAT Currency paper-storm:
1) Gold & Silver Bullion - Has intrinsic value, has been a store of wealth for centuries.
2) Food/Seed - Everyone has to eat and during any crisis food prices shoot up and shelves clear.
3) Cash - Get Cash from the bank, it will be good during the initial phase of the crisis when banks close and cash is the only form of payment accepted.
4) Alt Currency (Bitcoin) - Unregulated, Encrypted, Secure, Anonymous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
I probably rushed through most of my thoughts so if you want to discuss any/all this mumbo jumbo with me please do!
So in summary. Open editions are bad, Limited Editions are good.
We're on the same page? Great! Now, lets go back to the 20th century for a minute. Specifically August 15th 1971, The United States had been fighting a seemingly endless war in Vietnam and the costs of it were mounting. Then president Richard Nixon needed to figure out a way to pay for the war. At the time all United States Currency was backed by Gold at a locked price of $35.00 per ounce. So, Nixon with 15 finance advisers decided to stop backing the USD with Gold therefore giving himself the ability to create unlimited FIAT out of thin air.
So, Nixon changed the "Limited Edition Gold-Backed USD" into the "Open Edition FIAT CURRENCY USD".... Here's what happened next :
From 1971 to 2013 the cumulative rate of inflation was 473.2%
CURRENCY WAR
Starting in 2007/8 with the mortgage backed security financial crisis the Federal Reserve took a stand to fight off the impending depression by giving Trillions of dollars to bail out the same banks and corporations that started the crisis instead of letting them fail.
What followed was a massive increase in the monetary supply.
and where did all this bailout/QE1,2,3,Infinity money end up? In the stock market.
Okay so the DJIA has hit new all time highs so the United States no longer is in a depression and all is well, right?
Wrong. Japan announced recently that it will begin Easing it's Monetary supply... and it has, aggressively. We are currently in a world wide race to the bottom, where the cheaper your countries exchange rate, the more trade transpires.
More trade you say? How can that be bad?! Well, once every country gets on the bandwagon we will all be printing into a downward spiral. The more money in the system, the less it is worth to the people that use it, and because it is all borrowed from banks the more DEBT will be created.
EU DEBT CRISIS
I'm sure everyone has heard about one European country or another requesting a bailout recently (Greece, Spain, etc). Well the most recent casualty of the DEBT crisis is a small island country called "Cyprus" and the way they are attempting to deal with it is by Taxing the Deposits of all Bank accounts upward of 10%...
The issue is still being debated but while everyone waits patiently the banks are all closed on "holiday" and will be for the foreseeable future, Businesses are only accepting cash and basically all commerce in the country has come to a complete standstill because people can't get their money out of the banks.
Who cares about a little island on the other side of the world? You do! The debt that Cyprus has to pay off so that it can receive a bailout from the EU is..... 6.7 BILLION EUROS, that's Billion with a "B".
In the United States we have a few Trillion more problems than they do....
The only reason our debt has yet to collapse on itself is that we keep raising the amount we can borrow, mostly because we MUST. Without continued borrowing the whole system will collapse.
This sucks! So what can I do? How can I protect myself?
REAL ASSETS & DIGITAL CURRENCY
So if holding currency is isn't safe, what is? Well we could all drain our bank accounts and buy Twinkies but they would get old after awhile and storage would be tough.
So here is what I have come up with to store/save wealth during the impending FIAT Currency paper-storm:
1) Gold & Silver Bullion - Has intrinsic value, has been a store of wealth for centuries.
2) Food/Seed - Everyone has to eat and during any crisis food prices shoot up and shelves clear.
3) Cash - Get Cash from the bank, it will be good during the initial phase of the crisis when banks close and cash is the only form of payment accepted.
4) Alt Currency (Bitcoin) - Unregulated, Encrypted, Secure, Anonymous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
I probably rushed through most of my thoughts so if you want to discuss any/all this mumbo jumbo with me please do!