Another great piece by our friends over at Thundering-Heard
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U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.
–Ben Bernanke, Chairman, US Federal Reserve Board, from a speech in 2002
If the governments devalue the currency in order to betray all creditors, you politely call this procedure “inflation”
–George Bernard Shaw
At the end fiat money returns to its inner value – zero.
–Voltaire
Gold can make its way through the midst of guards, and break through the strongest barriers more easily than the lightning’s bolt.
–Horace
Three short segments on gold:
1. Why Did Gold Become Money?
Everyone knows that gold and silver were used as money for millenia. But those who despise gold as money, who call it the barbarous relic, who think government-created paper and electronic bits are the best money, claim that it was arbitrary that gold became money. Here is a scientific treatment of the topic, a link to a 6-minute video about why humans chose gold and silver as money versus all other substances available to them from the Periodic Table of Elements: Why Did Gold Become Money? Continue...
