Fed up withFed credit Oct 4, 2008
After awhile, as my jaw muscles unclench from the fear, I would be able to explain that this TFC is the source of the fabled "money from thin air" of story and song, which I had hoped would be best remembered by my Mournful Mogambo Ballad (MMB) titled "Fiat Money from Thin Air". Alas, the tune proved to be less popular than I had hoped ("I actually feel soiled having just listened to it." - Chicago Sun), but which contained the immortal lyrics, "Fiat money from thin air will create real debts... (Asia Times Online)
What’s Left of the Old Right Oct 4, 2008
It also opposed fiat money, alcohol prohibition, high tariffs, and belligerence abroad. But Flynn was soon disillusioned, writes Raimondo. (The American Conservative)
The world's most powerful currency Oct 3, 2008
The only reason that I stop bawling like a little crybaby is the knowledge that the people who own gold, silver and oil will get rich, rich, rich, and since I own gold, then people will want me to loan them a few bucks out of my huge stacks of money because they are starving, and their children are starving, and I will say "No!", and it will be thin gruel indeed for them to hear my mocking voice again echoing in their heads, "Buy gold, silver and oil, you morons, because your stupid government... (Asia Times Online)
Your views: Fixing the financial fiasco Oct 3, 2008
They continuously print fiat money, not backed by anything. All they have is worthless paper and artificially create prosperity by excessive credit borrowing. (Florida Today)
U.S. government too involved Oct 3, 2008
Our financial system is melting down because it s fundamentally flawed, a house of cards that will inevitably fail, as all fiat money systems in history have ... Since we left the gold standard and the Fed began printing fiat money and causing inflation, the dollar has lost 95 percent of its purchasing power. (Logan Herald Journal, UT)
Politicians Use Bailout to Grab More Power Oct 3, 2008
Fiat money confused monetary transactions. 4. (SmartMoney)
Investors start fresh gold rush Oct 3, 2008
Fiat money, in extremis, is accepted by nobody, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, told lawmakers in Washington almost a decade ago ... The in extremis scenario was for years only a possibility in the mind of die-hard gold bugs, but the financial crisis is leading regular investors from the ultra-rich to middle-class savers to believe that the environment in which Mr Greenspan said fiat money would be worthless is now around the corner. (FT.com -- Markets)
READERS WRITE: MORE LETTERS ON THE ECONOMY Sep 24, 2008
This is something that is possible only with fiat money. Second, the lenders, especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, knew that they could always run into the protective arms of the government if their bad loans ever came home to roost. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Opinion)
Greatest-ever buy opportunity Sep 23, 2008
Now, everyone around here knows why I say that "right now is the greatest silver and gold buying opportunity of all time", and when anyone sees me walking down the street, I can hear them say to each other "Look out! There's that Disgusting Mogambo Idiot (DMI)! Let's run away lest he catch hold of our raiment and harangue us for hours about how the despicable Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution was only joking when Article One, Section 10 said that only silver and gold will be used as... (Asia Times Online)
Gold slides as fears subside Sep 20, 2008
Gold often rises in times of financial crisis and heightened geopolitical tensions because the metal's intrinsic value is not tied to fiat money. Bullion hit hard as investors switched funds back to rebounding equity markets as US stocks rose more than 3%, and shares in Europe and Asia also gained sharply. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Bottom ofthe class Sep 18, 2008
This little know-nothing snot thinks it's "daft" to prefer the non-inflationary security of a stable money supply (as with gold) instead of the guaranteed-ruination of a fiat money supply, especially one where that money is created out of un-payable debt in an out-of-control fractional reserve banking system. Hahaha. (Asia Times Online)
Spooky stats from the US Mint Sep 17, 2008
Sure enough, he immediately said, "There are an infinite number of possible answers. Maybe the Treasury does not want to part with its remaining gold at these current low prices. Maybe the Treasury does not want Americans to exchange their fiat dollars for the safe haven of gold as the central banking fiat money scheme implodes. Maybe the Mint doesn't have any gold because the 2,783,218.656 ounces were loaned out. Maybe the Treasury doesn't have any gold either. Of course, no one really knows... (Asia Times Online)
Gold falls as safe-haven demand fades Sep 16, 2008
Though gold normally gains on safe-haven buying during financial crises because its value is not tied to fiat money, portfolio managers were keen to shed positions in commodities after Lehman's bankruptcy, the takeover of Merrill Lynch, and fears major insurer American International Group needed to raise additional capital. In afternoon trade, spot gold was down 1. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Genuine currency too gets cheap to print Sep 13, 2008
This is fiat money, which is not backed by anything of value such as gold or silver. It means its simply worth whatever RBI say its worth. (Economic Times)
LETTERS: NCT, Sept. 12, 2008 Sep 13, 2008
When we refer to fiat money, we are referring to money that exists because government declares it into existence ... Fiat money is exchanged in the economy as long as there is faith in the government that issues it. (North County Times)
See no room for Freddie, Fannie-like cos: Greenspan Sep 11, 2008
Greenspan: First of all one should remember that we have a fiat money system. This essentially means that at a minimum, government must intervene for the process of maintaining money supply because when we went off the Gold Standard, which was an automatic mechanism, we essentially created the discretionary money system. (Moneycontrol.com)
The assets of penultimate fools Sep 9, 2008
He asks me, "Why?" Because that's the trouble with fiat money and the excesses of money and credit that are thus possible to produce; once you get started with that crap, you can't quit, as inflation in prices just keeps going up and up (necessitating the creation of more money and credit to pay the higher prices), and all the money "invested" during the boom in stocks, bonds and houses is lost unless more money is created for another crop of "greater fools" to buy the assets from the... (Asia Times Online)
Silver stats to salivate over Sep 4, 2008
No, the point is that you would be buying gold, silver and oil if you had any smarts, or even a vague, passing familiarity with the entire historical record of what happens when a government is so corrupt that it deficit-spends, and especially when it compounds its folly by paying for it with the creation of a fiat money. And it is doubly especially about how you would be buying gold, silver and oil when the state and local governments do the same borrow-and-spend-o-holic thing, and triply... (Asia Times Online)
Central banks need a Basel lll Aug 29, 2008
Central banks were created to manage liquidity with fiat money, to preserve the value of their currency and to safeguard the stability of their national financial system ... Under fiat money, when the central bank pegs the loan rate of interest below the marginal rate of profit, it sets in motion a cumulative expansion in the demand for and supply of loans, currency issue, and the price level ... Inflation could continue without limit because, contrary to the gold standard, which precluded... (Asia Times Online)
Gold's Bull Runs of the Past Aug 4, 2008
Volcker was also the one who put an end to the great bull market in commodities, when he recognized that too much fiat money and too much cheap credit were eating away at the very foundation of the U.S. financial system. Sounds familiar. (Suite101.com)
The Rubber Band Snaps at 140 USD-Per-Barrel? Jul 29, 2008
50 USD for 1 Euro; when the Euro gets there it can fall and fast, with no floor, like it rose against the US dollar with no ceiling which is par for a fiat money The Trichet gang will not take this lying down and will crank up interest rates. So will Bernanke. (Energy Pulse, CO)
Strippers jockey for pole position Jul 24, 2008
The historical record of monetary policies as regards fiat money sure makes investing easy, as it does not even involve using a calculator, working, or even thinking. Buy gold, silver and oil. (Asia Times Online)
The power of the Chinese credit card Jul 23, 2008
" There is part of me that suspects conspiracies and treachery at every turn, mostly in the form of a malignant government snooping around, looking for money or crooks, and then I end up on the list of "Guys who think that the Congress is a bunch of ignorant, corrupt, stupid losers, which is what you always get at the end of long economic booms", with a cross-reference to the list of "Guys who think that the Federal Reserve has perversely created so much money and credit in a long boom that... (Asia Times Online)
Question prices at the pump Jul 14, 2008
Jim Randleman wrote on Jul 13, 2008 3:18 PM:" Republicans.....Democrats.......they are the two parties that keep the people divided and squabbling while they run amuck. The people argue and fight amongst themselves while both party elected officials wine and dine with each other to make their "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" "pork barrel" deals to share your hard earned dollars... Both parties make promises but how soon the ones that elected them forget and become apathetic. If their... (Rockingham Daily Journal, NC)
Froth comes off latte economy Jul 8, 2008
Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs. The announcement that Starbucks plans to close 600 stores and fire 12,000 employees is emblematic of the major restructuring that lies ahead for the deeply maladjusted US bubble economy. (Asia Times Online)
Too much for a fiat currency Jun 24, 2008
And the worst of all is when a government creates too much fiat money, like now, and now all that money that has been created around the world has to be spent on something, driving up the price, and the people who sold that something made a profit, and then they will spend the money on something else, driving up the price of that, too ... And that is why the Founding Fathers, while writing the constitution, scratched out the part where it said "Bankers and politicians will please refrain from... (Asia Times Online)
Should Fed hike rates? Jun 17, 2008
Should Fed hike interest rates. It's your chance to sound off on various topics. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Time to Put Investment Banking Back in Its Box Jun 5, 2008
Banking in a fractional reserve, fiat money world is inherently a non-market exercise in legalized deceit,'' says Corrigan at Diapason. The unfettered finance which it allows is all too prone to wreak a devil-take-the-hindmost havoc once it becomes unanchored from reality and succumbs instead to the intense, positive feedbacks which operate within it on both a systematic and a psychological level. (Bloomberg -- Columnists)
Exploding innovations Jun 4, 2008
Free markets are economically optimal, but partially free markets, with endless creation of fiat money and implicit government guarantees of the big boys, can produce perverse and dangerous results. Martin Hutchinson is the author of Great Conservatives (Academica Press, 2005) - details can be found at www. (Asia Times Online)
Stop the Fedbefore it's too late May 31, 2008
The interest rate rule has been repudiated by eminent monetarists as inapplicable to fixed and stable exchange rates and as damaging to fiat money. Monetary orthodoxy requires that a central bank manage liquidity and not interest rates. (Asia Times Online)
Barack, Billary or Barr? May 28, 2008
However, an empire funded with fiat money debt will eventually collapse. Eventually may have finally started to arrive. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Opinion)
Banking on incompetence and theft May 23, 2008
" and the only way to shut him up is to rudely tell him that he only said what Ludwig von Mises and the whole Austrian school of economics said, and if that doesn't shut him up, mention how that proves he never had an original thought in his whole stupid life, and even though he is rich because he bought gold as a defense of this banks-abetted-by-government explosion of fiat money and leveraged financial crap, he didn't even think of that, either! I am embarrassed to admit that there is nothing... (Asia Times Online)
Robert Rubin's poisoned chalice May 21, 2008
The Greenspan Fed again came to the rescue by turning on the fiat money spigot to fund a housing bubble mistaken as a miraculous boom, applauded by a grateful Congress overtaken with unquestioning awe and blind adulation normally reserved only for living gods. (See , Asia Times Online, February 24, 2004). (Asia Times Online)
The Earthling economics experiment May 20, 2008
And the people of this planet have discovered universal reading and writing, and so they know from their own history books what happens to any idiot country that uses, and then abuses, a fiat money and bank debt until the sum total of debt becomes literally un-payable. What makes Earthlings so interesting is. (Asia Times Online)
A fear of falling Fed credit May 9, 2008
But this is not leading to one of my Predictable, Loud And Tiresome Mogambo Editorials (PLATME) about the absolute stupidity of the fake, fiat money that we use as currency, or the sheer preposterousness of allowing the banks to act so stupidly in creating so much money and debt, or about sheer insanity of disregarding the requirement, per the Constitution, that money be only of silver and gold so that money would not lose buying power due to over-issuance of money, mostly because that boat has... (Asia Times Online)
The Stock Screaming "Buy Me!" May 9, 2008
$7 online stock trades. It's the most important stock you can own. (MSNBC -- Business)
The rising protectionist tide Apr 23, 2008
Second, governments, especially the United States, printed excessive amounts of fiat money, causing an immense speculative bubble. Finally, the panic was exacerbated by an unwise speech by public sector bureaucrat, World Bank president Robert Zoellick, who advocated a "new deal" for world food production, inevitably involving vast taxpayer subsidies through the World Bank, and thereby turned popular concern about price rises into panic. (Asia Times Online)
post a comment » Apr 9, 2008
Now we are already reading of fiat money ready to be thrown at the new regime in exchange for mineral resources. The Chinese already have a foot in the door. (International Herald Tribune)
Abolish Fed, don’t expand it Apr 8, 2008
The founding fathers knew the dangers of fiat money; they experienced it firsthand. Fiat means not backed by gold or silver. (Logan Herald Journal, UT)
Letters for April 3, 2008 Apr 4, 2008
It is even worse when government spends fiat money that it has not raised in taxes. That deflates all money value and amounts to an invisible tax on everyone, working and earning or not. (North County Times)
The Fed and thestagflation specter Apr 3, 2008
Fiat money, because it is almost costless to print, should not become an instrument in the hands of public powers who use it the way they want in response to budget deficits, hiccups in the stock market, or other purposes no matter how laudable they could be. Full employment is often cited as an objective of monetary policy and provides a reason for central banks to relax monetary policy. (Asia Times Online)
Bad news fortax revenues Mar 18, 2008
When the song is played backwards, it sounds like "You're freaking doomed, you moron, because you are so damned stupid that you let your precious elected officials let the Federal Reserve create so damned much fiat money and so damned much credit, via so damned much unlimited fractional-reserve banking, and for so damned long, that you must be brain-damaged to even bravely hope that it will not end badly, you stupid lame brain!". My amazing musical talents aside, there is no end to my contempt... (Asia Times Online)
A rich free-market legacy - for some Mar 15, 2008
Our current economy, with its wide financial safety net, fiat money, and highly leveraged financial institutions, has been a conscious choice of the American people since the 1930s. We do not have the choice of accepting the benefits of the current system without its costs. (Asia Times Online)
In phony-baloney money we trust? Mar 15, 2008
Of course, since we are talking about hypocritical America, this is the same intellectually bankrupt country whose own constitution literally requires that inflation in prices be zero (through the handy and fool-proof expedient of money being only coins of gold and silver), but which is a country that actually has a money that is neither gold nor silver, but instead its exact freaking opposite; a 100% phony-baloney fiat money. Hahaha. (Asia Times Online)
Whatever happened to Ron Paul? Mar 6, 2008
Pauls campaign, he said, has opened peoples consciousness to the idea that our fiat money system is destroying the middle class. . (MSNBC -- Race)
Real 'Work'? Clinton Swipes at Chelsea's Profession... Feb 20, 2008
that's because your cadre works around the clock trying to cover up the swindle of fiat money, fractional reserve banking, and false asset values. Posted by: TheChairman | Feb 20, 2008 12:03:44 AM. (The Drudge Report)
Ephemeral hell Feb 9, 2008
Well, to be fair, I also no longer feel compelled to jump to my feet, run to the window, and shout, "We're freaking doomed, you morons! Your stupid, un-constitutional fiat money and unlimited fractional-reserve banking in the hands of an intellectually corrupt Federal Reserve and a willing accomplice in the Congress (except Ron Paul) will destroy you with inflation in prices, just like it has destroyed every other stupid country that has ever dared commit such halfwitted folly!". But you are not... (Asia Times Online)
Keynesian quackery Feb 2, 2008
Perhaps because of this stimulus plan thing, or perhaps because of the Zimbabwe thing, or because of something else, like maybe how the CIA was controlling his brain with some kind of neural neutralizer ray gun or something and now their budget has been cut and the agents are reassigned to the "war on terror" or something, but whatever it was, Mr Ackerman now says, "But that doesn't mean an ounce of gold cannot get bid up in the meantime to $10,000, however fleetingly, before the fiat money that... (Asia Times Online)
Short-term thinking Jan 28, 2008
Chris wrote on Jan 23, 2008 11:41 AM:" This recession is being caused because of insane amounts of deficit spending by the federal government, as well as inflating the currency by printing it when they can't borrow enough from China. So now they want to exacerbate the problem by doing it again? And in the face of an already enormous $250 billion deficit this year? What kind of morons run this country? Who votes for them? We can't afford this b.s. anymore. Cut the bloated government, scale back... (Sioux City Journal, IO)
Free money to the rescue Jan 16, 2008
Then I will say, "And I will tell you, and the audience, and all the viewers at home who want me to sweep Kelly up in my arms and start kissing her all over, the Big Freaking Lesson (BFL) that is thus gleaned from those 4,000 years of economic history!" Then I will lean forward, all confidential and secretive, and say, "Come closer! Closer!" while lowering my voice to draw them in, lower and lower and closer and closer, until I suddenly and unexpectedly explode, "Buy gold! Buy as much gold as... (Asia Times Online)
Free money popular? Surprise, surprise Jan 11, 2008
This 10% level is, at every point in history except right now, the place where people are rioting in the streets and bankrupted people are jumping from window ledges because they are ruined, and all the way down they can hear the words of The Mogambo echoing in their ears, "You should have bought gold when I told you to, but noooOOooooo! Not you! You are too smart to listen to a street bum named The Mogambo Guru, and too stinking cheap to loan me a lousy five bucks! No, for someone as smart as... (Asia Times Online)
Courting disaster Jan 8, 2008
As a little background for the benefit of those who will later be asked, "What in the hell made that Damned Mogambo Idiot (DMI) go crazy like that?", the answer is that the Supreme Court in (as I recall) 1934 said that money did NOT have to be gold and silver, as literally required by the constitution, and that Supreme Court infamously said that the damnable FDR and his federal government could impose a paper, intrinsically worthless, fiat money on the country, despite what the constitution... (Asia Times Online)
Paper Pushers Jan 8, 2008
There aren t many historical examples of advanced, industrialized nations relying on a combustible mix of debt and fiat money to the extent the U.S. does. Argentina is one, as well as Germany during the early 1920s. (The American Conservative)
Ron Paul is a good choice Jan 8, 2008
joemonty wrote on Jan 7, 2008 6:06 PM:" Brian typed: As long as people are being born and growing up and entering the workforce it would be counterproductive to go back to gold or silver standard. To paraphrase Brian - fiat money is good as long as we are alive. Brian, This is a riduculous economic argument for the purpose of the Federal Reserve. Anyways, I found a quote from Bernanke on the federal reserve web site in which Bernanke says the Fed caused the Great Depression. I had to check it... (Lodi News Sentinel, CA)
5 comments Dec 21, 2007
Right now, there is very little full faith and credit, necessary when you are operating a global Ponzi scheme of fiat money creation ... Merry Christmas from the fiat money capital of the world- Washington, D.C. Gold anyone ... Merry Christmas from the fiat money capital of the world- Washington, D.C. Gold anyone. (Human Events Online)
Ron Paul: 'Listen to what he has to say' Dec 17, 2007
God bless America, the troops, and Ron Paul " Mayberry wrote on Dec 16, 2007 1:24 AM:" Nine Trillion in debt; 60 Trillion in unfunded liabilities; Destruction of individual rights by Patriot act; Fiat money; borrowing money to fight wars for nothing; Dept of Indoctrination (aka education); loss of habeas corpus; failure to file declarations of war; the list is endless; Ron Paul is the only solution; he will end these attrocities and put us back on the path of a government limited by the... (Sioux City Journal, IO)
Subprimed to loselots of money Dec 12, 2007
It's from looking at all of the rest of human history, peopled as it was by the same sort of lying, corrupt, stupid, ignorant, thieving scum that we have today, and we look at all the governments thus composed that wanted to spend, spend, spend money (all of them), and we look at all the schemes they cooked up to get the money to spend, spend, spend, and we look especially carefully at those times when the government decided, "Hey! This 'gold and silver as money' crap, holding our money supply... (Asia Times Online)
Mythili Bhusnurmath: Gold shines Dec 7, 2007
The bank argues that confidence in the fiat money systems ability to preserve economic value is being shaken, driven by a weakening US dollar. A major implication of the recent US dollar sell-off and strong performance in gold is what could happen if the dollar were t 00004000 o continue to lose its position as the de facto base to which many countries tie their currency. (India Times)
How the Fed Pulled the Rabbit out of the Hat Dec 3, 2007
Throwing out all the noise about creating a moral hazard in so doing, the Fed has a responsibility to make its fiat money acceptable in the marketplace. Period. (Human Events Online)
You Can Blame Herman Hollerith for the Sub Prime Meltdown Nov 27, 2007
After all, that is its job, to control the nation s money supply by increasing or decreasing the amount of fiat money in circulation and to set the interest rates that the banking system charges lenders. Turning over this most important of the free market s products -- the creation and supply of money -- to the government-controlled monopoly of the Federal Reserve Board back in 1913 may yet turn out to be the most profoundly disastrous policy decision that the Congress has ever made in a long... (Human Events Online)
Bank robbery Nov 20, 2007
How can you steal fiat money. Our bank accounts were robbed in 1968 when the dollar was taken off the gold standard. (Odessa American, TX)
Ron Paul: A vote for restoring rights and freedoms Nov 18, 2007
Mitch C wrote on Nov 17, 2007 10:29 AM:" Wow, there are a lot of uninformed readers here! Ron Paul is for *eventually* basing our money on something other than paper, and he has said so very recently. He entered politics for the very reason that the Gov began printing fiat money, has studied the subject constantly, and is now the foremost authority in Congress on this subject. If I'm not mistaken, he voted for the fence, but the more reasonable solutions he will offer is to bring our troops home... (Sioux City Journal, IO)
New Column: You people are cheap, cheap, cheap Nov 12, 2007
", "biggest savings" etc. We have been conditioned to think that we are foolish if we don't hunt for the best "bargains" and own the flashiest toys. Next, the perceived entitlement of annual raises for just putting in time guaratees inflation. Add to this mix, fiat money and corporations being overly focused on only current quarter's profits and you have a recipe for a lazy and cheap society that incurs thousand of dollars of credit card debt to mollify their desires to have the latest techno... (Longview Daily News, WA)
Gold: A barbarous relic Nov 9, 2007
We will look back on today's fiat money system, and finally see it for what it always was: a barbarous relic. Nathan Lewis is the author of Gold: the Once and Future Money, published by Agora Publishing and J Wiley. (Asia Times Online)
PART 1: A structural link Oct 13, 2007
A central aim of mercantilism was to ensure that a nation's exports remained higher in value than its imports, the surplus in that era being paid only in specie money (gold-backed as opposed to fiat money). This trade surplus in gold permitted the surplus country, such as England, to invest in more factories at home to manufacture more for export, thus bringing home more gold. (Asia Times Online)
