Economics talk

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HavocXphere

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Not quite sure whether to post this in Biz/Finance or news...but found a very interesting talk on economics.

Fairly wild mix of messages (socialism bad, ANC policy, Venezuela, bit about Scandinavian countries).

Learned a fair bit from it so def worth a watch. Ignore the title about collapse etc...it's actually reasonably positive/neutral.

[video=youtube;9RpH1zKuRg0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RpH1zKuRg0[/video]
 
The more one can tell the truth about the Great Regulatory State and wake people up the better - provided it translates into changed policy, of course.

So many people unthinkingly call for increasing State regulation and control of the economy, never realising that it destroys not just justice, but also wealth, livelihoods, and ultimately human beings.

Glad Russ also sees through Pravin Gordhan and his loopy statism.
 
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Less interference from government is what is needed in this economy
 
watched the first 20 minutes and then switched off

when does he speak about the dollar and its function as a reserve currency and the effects it has on "free markets", given that the dollar is essentially just a piece of paper not backed up by anything

when does he speak about bankers controlling the governments that control the population?

when does he speak about the rating agencies taking accountability for their opinions?
 
Dollar "not backed by anything"? In the final analysis, all money is fiat, even gold. It has no inherent value. It is simply a token, a tradeable representation of something intangible: a human promise, word of honour.
 
Arthur said:
Dollar "not backed by anything"? In the final analysis, all money is fiat, even gold. It has no inherent value. It is simply a token, a tradeable representation of something intangible: a human promise, word of honour.
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but unlike gold, the US can just print more and more and more of it, and they can do that in a unilateral fashion and thus create huge distortions globally, not much honour in printing a note for very little cost and putting a $100 sign on it, unless you have a different view of honour.
 
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So can - and does - every government on earth. The problem is very much deeper than insane monetary policy. It's what happens when we become detached from sound anthropology. And that's a worldwide problem.

We can't fix money until we fix people.

I agree with you that one of the great modern evils is the printing of money by the Fed.
 
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Arthur said:
So can - and does - every government on earth. The problem is very much deeper than insane monetary policy. It's what happens when we become detached from sound anthropology. And that's a worldwide problem.

We can't fix money until we fix people.
Click to expand...


if Zimbabwe prints huge amounts of money, they will experience huge amounts of inflation, just like any other currency that's not a reserve currency.

Have you seen the inflation in the US? do you know whats the growth rate attached to US M3 money supply?

I did not say monetary policy is the be all and end all, but it certainly is an obvious problem, and its something the presenter in the clip totally ignored.
 
I agree. Nationalising the currency under a State monopoly and then gratuitously printing more tokens (money) is a great evil. It destroys.
 
Arthur said:
even gold. It has no inherent value
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Circuit boards? Jewelry? Heat shields in aerospace?

To say gold has no inherent value is simply not true, it has other uses than being coined and kept as money. Perhaps rather "not enough intrinsic value to justify its cost"? Paper money does not have any intrinsic value whatsoever.
 
NarrowBandFtw said:
Circuit boards? Jewelry? Heat shields in aerospace?

To say gold has no inherent value is simply not true, it has other uses than being coined and kept as money. Perhaps rather "not enough intrinsic value to justify its cost"? Paper money does not have any intrinsic value whatsoever.
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Hehe. I understand your quibble. But even that use is not "inherent". A barbarian with a heap of the stuff is no better off than with a pile of stones. The value comes only as a token of exchange representing something else, or in the application of the material for social or other real utility (such as electronics, jewellery, etc).
 
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saturnz said:
watched the first 20 minutes and then switched off

when does he speak about the dollar and its function as a reserve currency and the effects it has on "free markets", given that the dollar is essentially just a piece of paper not backed up by anything

when does he speak about bankers controlling the governments that control the population?

when does he speak about the rating agencies taking accountability for their opinions?
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All interesting points, but somewhat beyond the scope of the talk. Think you'll have to do your own talk if you want them included. ;)
 
HavocXphere said:
All interesting points, but somewhat beyond the scope of the talk. Think you'll have to do your own talk if you want them included. ;)
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That's the problem, if you are going to speak about macro issues then you have to speak about macro issues.

At present the biggest macro issue in economics is the dollar and the distortions it creates.

And I did start my own thread in the philosophy section.
 
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Good talk, thanks.

What I took away is that we're a socialist state, and that modern socialism is Marxism 2.0 - with govt effectively an owner of the means of production via regulation and taxation. As such we can expect stagflation and corruption... until our monetary system is corrupted too, at which point we can expect collapse.

His "good news" I suppose is that we're far the Venezuela/Zimbabwe experience (with Rand M1 growth over the last 10 years lower than dollar growth, even) and that we have time, hyperinflation being the final loss of confidence in a currency that has been unhinged for years.

Like a good classical liberal, he's challenging the fundamental political philosophy, not merely corruption, but the underlying idea of the state as an important economic actor.
 
Tomtomtom said:
Good talk, thanks.

What I took away is that we're a socialist state, and that modern socialism is Marxism 2.0 - with govt effectively an owner of the means of production via regulation and taxation. As such we can expect stagflation and corruption... until our monetary system is corrupted too, at which point we can expect collapse.

His "good news" I suppose is that we're far the Venezuela/Zimbabwe experience (with Rand M1 growth over the last 10 years lower than dollar growth, even) and that we have time, hyperinflation being the final loss of confidence in a currency that has been unhinged for years.

Like a good classical liberal, he's challenging the fundamental political philosophy, not merely corruption, but the underlying idea of the state as an important economic actor.
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the monetary system has been corrupted for a very long time, I'm not sure how you got the point that there will be a point in the future that we have to wait for "until our monetary system is corrupted too"
 
saturnz said:
the monetary system has been corrupted for a very long time, I'm not sure how you got the point that there will be a point in the future that we have to wait for "until our monetary system is corrupted too"
Click to expand...

You'd have to make it to the 50-minute mark for that.
 
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