• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Money/Banking/Economics

Jan 27, 2013
1,383
0
0
Visit site
Everyone uses it but what is money? How's it created? Who should have the right/power to create it?
What is fractional reserve banking? Should there be reserve requirements? What should those be? Who should determine said requirements? Should banking be transparent?
Are economic models that don't factor in money creation or banking, as espoused by classical economists, relevent, functioning theories that we should be beholden to?
Should I mention the 1.5 quadrillion in derivatives? What's a derivative and why should anyone care?
Should anyone be held accountable if fraud is found in any of these systems?

p.s. I'm not an economist nor do I work in any directly (we all work with it one way or another obviously) related enterprise. Just curious is all.
 
I think we should go back to using large carved rocks as money. As the pic shows, there are a lot of advantages. It is hard for someone to rob you. Not only is it easy to flaunt your wealth, it is pretty much required. Try showing off how rich you are by putting a pile of greenbacks in front of your house and see what happens.

yap2-8451313d0e86f96a838b2ffc48b42bb5f633f29b-s6-c10.jpg
 
Jan 27, 2013
1,383
0
0
Visit site
"Try showing off how rich you are by putting a pile of greenbacks in front of your house and see what happens."
It is our house and cars and boats and, and, and...that flaunt our "wealth", or more likely debt these days. Spot the progress.




In this neck of the woods the indigenous people used coppers, but then they had potlatches and gave their wealth away. I don't see that happening either.
 
Oct 30, 2011
2,639
0
0
Visit site
Money is created by central banks. In theory anyone could create their own currency (some shops do; vouchers) but generally central banks, backed by governments, do so.

I don't know what fractional reserve banking is.

Classical economics is, in my view, not the best way of explaining macroeconomic behaviour.

Derivatives are essentially more or less any contract that goes on between financiers relating to payment at different points in time. Commodity futures are derivatives, for example. People should care what derivatives are because an awful lot of the planet's economic activity is co-ordinated, to some degree, with them.

Yes. The person(s) committing fraud should be held accountable, and if there are people whose job it was to spot such a fraud and they did not, then so should they.
 
Jan 27, 2013
1,383
0
0
Visit site
Fearless Greg Lemond said:
It is really nice to see how capitalism cannot survive without growth.

I will not post too 'hardcore' vids on here, guess you know where to find them.

Infinite growth on a finite planet was doomed to fail at some point. This 6000 yr. (so we`re told, Gobekli Tepe is dated 12000) experiment has been interesting. In the final equation we`re still entirely dependent on natural capital, that`s the final arbiter. Everything is born, grows, matures, decays and dies -nothing new under the sun. Clever doesn`t change that.

Hardcore is the new softcore.
 
Jan 27, 2013
1,383
0
0
Visit site
Why Has Iceland Experienced a Strong Economic Recovery after Complete Financial Collapse in 2008?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-ha...r-complete-financial-collapse-in-2008/5320866

"Grimsson gave a famous reply to the financial MSM reporter, stating that Iceland’s recovery was due to the following primary reason:

„… We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the poor, and we didn’t introduce austerity measures like you’re seeing here in Europe. …“"
 
RetroActive said:
France is 'totally bankrupt', jobs minister admits...l[/url]

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s “Economic Legacy”...

I once again will issue a warning about not letting this thread turn political. We already have two political threads and do not need any more. I realize this may seem strict to some, but we've been over this issue before in other threads several times.

If you wish to discuss finances, commerce or economic structures, or even true economists, that's fine. But when you start bringing up political figures, parties, or influences, do it in one of the other established threads.

This is my last warning.
 
Say, are J.M. Keynes, Steve Keen, Yanis Varoufakis and Michael Hudson real economists? For all I know they all have had something to say abobut our subject, though none of them fits into the current mainstream.

Anyhow, the 300 trillion Libor Lies story from a few days back was rather mindblowing. Pretty complex stuff, but it all seems to boil down to there having been a cartell that controlled interest rates, laying foundation to generating derivatives, etc.

Some bump, there.
 
Oct 21, 2012
1,106
0
0
twitter.com
Can someone explain how this works? Zimbabwe's public account stood at a mindblowingly low US$217 a few days ago. What?! My current bank balance is about US$20 greater than that, and I'm on less-than-minimum wage!

(Sure, they may have gotten it up to $30m the next day, but it's a clear sign that they're perilously close to not being able to pay their civil servants.)
 
Jan 27, 2013
1,383
0
0
Visit site
Alpe d'Huez said:
I once again will issue a warning about not letting this thread turn political. We already have two political threads and do not need any more. I realize this may seem strict to some, but we've been over this issue before in other threads several times.

If you wish to discuss finances, commerce or economic structures, or even true economists, that's fine. But when you start bringing up political figures, parties, or influences, do it in one of the other established threads.

This is my last warning.

Fair enough, it's a fine line that constantly shifts. All head, no body, gotcha. As for "true economists" you'll have to define that for me.
 

TRENDING THREADS