Comments on: A New Bretton Woods Vs. The Old Bretton Woods

By: Sonja Galic

Sonja Galic — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:39:38 +0000

All economic theories are subjective, relate mainly to human beings. None of them are exact - economics is a very inexact science. Keynes was right to say governments must intervene to protect jobs for many reasons - one being to assure taxes are paid so a government can continue to function hence Rudd's intervention is extremely good if it protects jobs. Gold may be worth 5 dollars an ounce but if I do not have 5 dollars I cannot buy it and therefore it may be worthless. I can only buy it if I have a job.
Being human I must have habitation hence building homes is a good incentive. I must have food hence assuring the food supply is important.
Regarding free trade, England has realised it now has nothing to sell because it ceased manufacturing a while ago. So it was not a good idea to import everything.
Japan has realised nobody wants or can afford its cars so only producing cars was not a good idea or possibly using robots to produce too many cars was not a good idea.

By: Sonja Galic

Sonja Galic — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:32:33 +0000

Given human innate programming we must continue to live in a "Christian Social - Democrat Capitalistic" society ie a kind capitalism, a welfare state, which allows each person to own something personally, an income, a job, a home, a family, privacy,land, to be able to strive for those, preferably without greed by Uber-capitalism, mega-companies owned by nobody and everybody s shareholders or by a Mega Polit Bureau; everything human is subjective so whether money is pegged to gold at 35 an ounce or to the dollar doesn't matter - land would be better; land is now in short supply as population outstrips the earth's crust.Land should be expensive.
Banks must be regulated more - perhaps as they are in Australia. The men in charge of them were playing childish games, unknowingly.

By: spring morning

spring morning — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:44:31 +0000

I spent 4 years in China seeing the reality of Mises theory of Malinvestment. I highly doubt their leaders will give up control of the money supply; it is just too useful a tool.

By: NewTV.com

NewTV.com — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:21:36 +0000

Nice work Nathan.

The end of your article is perhaps the most intriguing as you refer to China, Russia and the Middle East.

All three regions have hinted recently at a new era of gold and silver based currencies. The Middle East (OPEC) has even hinted on multiple occasions that oil and natural gas can be sold for silver and gold, as well as a basket of currencies.

I would also like to reply to Jon Bain’s comment.

Jon, a currency has NEVER (as in thousands of years) been backed by something that is difficult to transport. Food and grain? Yes. But energy? NO. It is a little silly to contemplate energy as a currency. You could however barter with energy (as with many other good and services.)

By: Jon Bain

Jon Bain — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:45:21 +0000

Adolph Hitler put them in charge! Inadvertantly. But so long as the world is hedged in by that bloody US$, its never going to get out of this slump.

By: Charles Norville

Charles Norville — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:42:19 +0000

I don't know with energy it is turned on and off like a tap, look at oil. Gold is a finite rare earth metal. But its interesting about making things more energy efficient - this business of carbon tax the consumer is bound to get hit in the pocket, whilst manufacturers make obsolescence part of their market strategy. Look at printers, for the consumer (unlike the worlds treasuries lol), the manufacturer is always changing the ink heads to prevent generic substitution.

Still it would be kind of strange going back to $35US/oz for gold, talk about deflation, one thing for sure the $US is in deep trouble, and the $US seems to be in charge of values of things set against its economy. As the saying goes "who put them (US) in charge"

By: Jon Bain

Jon Bain — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:32:36 +0000

I would suggest an energy standard, instead of gold.

All energy can be converted to electricity, which can be consumed in nearly all situations. People would be motivated to create energy efficient products in order to save energy (new money).

Reusable energy, such as wind and water, would then be ideal, and this would fuel the global economy in this direction. It would inspire confidence, which is severly lacking in the current system. And, energy has value of its own, unlike gold or paper money.

The credit for this idea would be attributed to Sid Meier of Firaxis, as far as I can tell.

By: Charles Norville

Charles Norville — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:25:49 +0000

Global socialism is the new thing (unfortunately), global corporatism is a sham of corruption. The gold standard fixed to $35US/oz did not allow the currency printing press to run overtime, to inflate assets wealth at the expense of others. Now every one has a printing press. The biggest bubble is population which feeds the asset wealth, welcome to WWIII.

I'm wondering if China will inflate its yuan to 40% and close down the printing presses are they economically strong enough? Shouldn't this help their imports of cheaper materials and energy to promote domesticated industry.

By: Curt

Curt — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:43:17 +0000

Nathan, great article. The world is headed towards a global currency with a global bank followed by a global government. The only problem is that 'capitalism' is not part of the plan.

Foreign world leaders are using this opportunity to create a global socialistic economy, which is the exactly was WWII fought to overcome. A global socialistic economy will once and for all enslave mankind. Most of the world government leaders are corrupt and their corruption will be empowered as America and the dollar weaken.

Despite this, the economy will remain in recession for decades. Gold standard or not, they will not be able to stop the finanicial damage that his been building for 40-50 years. I am torn as I which for my gold investments to prosper, I also see the future of America declining and the rise of a corrupt global government.