I’ve been reviewing a number of the online offerings of Chris Martenson, whose “crash course” on contemporary economics was made known to me on a recent “Kunstlercast.” I was particularly taken by this chapter, on the extremely recent nature of the monetary system that we are now watching unravel before our amazed and fearful eyes (less than forty years old, and not likely to last another decade, if another year). Those willing to watch it should be aware that it portends the collapse of our monetary system, with nasty implications for American society as we know it (developed further in subsequent chapters. By the end, you will probably be considering some stocks of ammo and gold).
Amity Shlaes offers an extremely cogent history of FDR’s ushering in of this new monetary system in her excellent book The Forgotten Man (currently on my bedstand, and an extremely engrossing read at that). Anyone who is not endeavoring to take a crash course on these issues only has themselves to blame for their blissful ignorance. Of course, many stock portfolios are down some 50% as a result. We are on a train that it appears we cannot stop, and I’ll be damned if I know when or even how to jump off. But it’s an amazing ride, and not without some fascination at the sheer hubris and grandeur of human folly.
Watching our government take advantage of Reserve Currency Status, thinking that somehow a magic wand shall appear in the Western sky and make inflation vanish…well, I think of the Soviets and wonder exactly how much longer their totalitarian experiment in negation could have gone on had they possessed Reserve Currency Status.
The Brains in the Treasury think they can control the tiger they have by the tail just like all the Brains on Wall Street thought they could control the blackboards of computations they created in an effort to practice a new kind of alchemy which turns foolhardy bundles of unsecured debt into a commodity.
To bad we cannot base the currency on mumbo jumbo
Mr. Deneen, thank you for the links.:)
Ah…For the days when the majority of the money source for the Federal government was the tarriff… 😉
I was impressed with Mr.Martenson’s “Crash Course…” So, I sent the info to several on my email list. I’m convinced if the average citizen knew more about the working of the Federal Reserve: they would demand it’s abolition.
In the meantime, this crisis, like 9/11, is an excellent opportunity for those in power to grab more power! Unfortunately, human nature being what it is… The boat is going to have to sink or run aground before people stop bailing it out and repair the holes.
Repealing the 16th and 17th Amendments would be a good start.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Patrick, but Schlaes is a hack writing for the CFR – her degree is in English, which is not a criticism except to say that perhaps Nobel Prize winning economists (Paul Krugman and ALL other economists not tied to the corporatist teat) might have a better handle on what was or was not the cause of the great depression, and how those facts bear on our current recession. Amongst that group there is general disparagement of Shlaes ideas, expertise and source of funding. Keep that mind as you read her revisionist history.
Readers need to be somewhat discriminating as to what they allow into their intellectual inner space – GIGO, don’tcha know. At least readers need to read critically. Sometimes it pays to know what the bought-and-paid-for hacks of the world have to say – it gives you a clue as to what their masters want you to believe.
Jake
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