Thursday, January 19, 2012

Of Money and Metals Part III - Debt: The Barbarous Relic

1/19/2012 Portland, Oregon - Pop in your mints...

{Editor”s note: The following is a continuation of the series “Of Money and Metals.”  Please click here to view the Part I and Part II

As the world descended further into depression which eventually led it into the Second World War (Editor’s Note:  It should come as no surprise that the only two World Wars have come after the declaration that debt is money), The Keynesian adherents clamored for more debt as the only answer to the world’s economic ills.


What Keynes and his Harvard trained legions fail to comprehend is that the only permanent cure for an economic depression is to allow each individual to declare what he or she will use as money and allow market participants to coalesce around what at that time is best suited for the role of money.  For balance sheet recessions, such as the one the world is currently experimenting, are merely symptoms of a rigid money supply which has failed to keep up with the demands of a dynamic economy.


Under current theory, the government sacrifices the dynamic economy in the name of preserving the “integrity” of the monetary system.


When it is quite obvious that it is the monetary system that has failed, the government’s response can only be seen as idiotic at best.


What makes the situation of the past 100 years even more untenable is that money, instead of operating as a lubricant for economic activity, is more like concrete.  Such is the inherently destructive nature of debt as money. 


For the only rule with regards to money which is imposed as a matter of natural law is that debt cannot ever be money.  It is a concept so clear that it escapes most academics and government officials.


The former "Barbarous Relic" - by Toi Mine courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Now, the Keynesian indoctrinated readers of these words are no doubt dusting off the “silver bullet” of Keynesian theory:  That gold, which is widely held as the logical alternative to the “debt is money” insanity, is a “barbarous relic.”  In layman’s terms, Keynesian theory holds that any attempt to limit the money supply via natural means, the most popular being a gold standard (fixing the price of gold in terms of monetary units) will cause a deflationary spiral which will bankrupt the entire world.


Even Adam Smith argued that the mining of metals for use as currency was essentially a lamentable waste of resources.


We could not agree with them more.  The limited amounts of gold in the world make it wholly unfit for everyday exchange.  Gold, rather, is generally agreed upon to be the most perfect savings vehicle that the world has yet discovered.


So Keynes, despite promoting a theory which sacrifices the yang (savings) and glorifies the yin (debt) is right after all?  Not quite…


Using the same logic with which the Keynesian so adeptly slays the gold standard, it quickly becomes obvious that by declaring that debt is money is not only a violation of natural law, it makes debt, rather than gold, the new barbarous relic.


Debt has a distinct disadvantage to gold in that it can be quickly and completely destroyed.  Once it is assumed by the majority that a certain debtor will not be able to make good on their debts, the debts owed by the debtor, and any money in circulation which is either directly or indirectly related to the existence of these debts, is destroyed.  For debt, at its base level, is a figment of the imagination until it is settled in real terms by the delivery of money in settlement of the debt.


It would hold, then, that debt, the new “barbarous relic,” is exponentially more dangerous than gold when used as money.  The reasoning is the following, while the quantity of debt in the world can be suddenly and permanently reduced, the quantity of gold, which is admittedly difficult to increase, is at the same time extremely difficult to decrease.


Yet even given the strong advantage of gold over debt as money, it is obvious that both the Keynesians and the gold bugs are sadly mistaken in formulating their ultimate solution to the eternal problem of the money supply.


When it comes to determining the proper money supply, Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market can be seen slapping both Keynesians and gold bugs silly!


For the problem with declaring anything, be it gold, debt, or white elephants as money, has nothing to do with the fitness of gold, debt, or white elephants for use as money, rather, it lies in the act of the minority attempting to dictate what will be used as money by the majority.


Money, in a general sense, is a good of the highest order.  There is nothing in nature which states that gold, silver, seashells, or anything else must be used as money.  The historical association of gold and silver as money is the result of their superior fitness for the role of money.  It is simply a product of the collective wisdom of mankind, gleaned from experience as free exchange and the division of labor began to bring order to man’s chaotic surroundings.


However, just because gold and silver were superior in their role as money in the past does not necessarily mean that they enjoy some sort of divine designation as money.


Gold and Silver, like all things occurring in nature, are in limited supply.  The fact that they occur in nature gives them a distinct advantage over debt (which is simply a promise to pay in the future) in that debt, which is theoretically in infinite supply, quickly loses value against scarce real goods due to the fact that debt, in theory, enjoys an infinite supply.


Anyone can make promises to pay in the future, it is the function of debt markets to determine what those promises are worth today.  Ironically, the value of debt today is perilously tied to speculations about the money supply, which is in turn dependent upon the issuance of debt.  Thus, declaring debt as money provides the economy with yet another hindrance in that the debt markets are increasingly disconnected from their noble origins; the debtor’s perceived productive capacity.


It is clear that mankind is in a perilous predicament.  Will we take hold of the simple answer, which lies in free banking and free determination of what will serve as money?


More to come…


Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!


Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com
P.S.  For more ideas and commentary please check out The Mint at www.davidmint.com

Key Indicators for January 19, 2012

Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,657 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
M1 Monetary Base:  $2,167,800,000,000 RED ALERT!!!  THE ANIMALS ARE LEAVING THE ZOO!!!M2 Monetary Base:  $9,805,600,000,000 YIKES UP $1 Trillion in one year!!!!!!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Of Money and Metals, Part II - The Keynesian Nightmare

1/18/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

{Editor"s note: The following is a continuation of the series "Of Money and Metals."  Please click here to view the Part I

In 1913 the US Congress passed the now infamous Federal Reserve act.  Not unlike the recent passage of the 2012 NDAA, it happened during the winter holiday when the populace was largely distracted by the festivities.

While the Federal Reserve act has wrought many injustices on the earth, undoubtedly the greatest injustice which continues to cause the greatest amount of damage to mankind was the subtle replacement of money proper with Federal Reserve notes.  This action effectively declared that debt is money, in direct violation of natural law.
The Federal Reserve, in direct violation of Natural Law
While this fact may have seemed like a minor detail with regards to custodianship at the time, the declaration was, in essence, handing Frodo’s One Ring to the financial and governmental authorities of the earth.  For it gave them largely unfettered access to the accumulated savings of the entire earth and, in the case that the savings ran dry, the unhindered ability to incur debts against the future production of the entire earth as well.

The only thing that they needed was to compel the entire earth to accept debts as money in everyday exchange.  In the west, they have largely succeeded.  In the east, the acceptance of debt as money has been violently forced upon the populace through a series of wars.

Yet as we stated yesterday, debt and money are polar opposites.  To declare that debt is money was not only insane, it was a direct violation of natural law.  This violation of natural law began to reap its terrible harvest in 1933 with the onset of the great depression.  Yet instead of admitting defeat and leaving the quantities of debt and money in the hands of the people, where it naturally belongs, the authorities presented an academic apologist to confirm for them that debt was indeed now money and that all that was required was more of it.

Enter John Maynard Keynes, best known as the father of the Keynesian school of economic thought.  Mr. Keynes developed a thesis which “correctly” diagnosed that the economic problem facing the earth was a lack of money.  What Keynes and those who subscribed to his theories have failed to realize is that the Federal Reserve, in declaring that debt was money, had placed a significant impediment to the creation of money, the remedy which the earth desperately needed.

Instead, Keynes and his colleagues skipped over the only viable solution, namely, allowing the free market to determine what constitutes debt and money and in what quantities each was needed, and offered the world a solution which has been the equivalent of injecting poison directly into the veins of the ailing economy.  The poison of which we speak was injected as a result of the testing erroneous hypothesis:

“The problem is that there is not enough money.  Because debt is now money, it follows that more debt must be incurred to create the money necessary to spur production, employment, and all the things that people now associate with a healthy economy.  Further, there is not enough money precisely because the people are not sufficiently indebting themselves.  Since the people are not inclined to further indebt themselves (Editor’s note:  the people are naturally reacting to natural law, which naturally calls for less debt and more saving), it is the duty of the government to increase overall indebtedness, and therefore the money supply, on behalf of the people.  It must force the people to do what they cannot (or more accurately, will not) do for themselves.”

As insane as this line of thought sounds, it is today generally accepted as natural law by nearly every Harvard trained economist, and therefore government and central bank official, on the planet.  The only difference between the 1930’s and today is that today, circa 2012, this disastrous line of thought is practiced on a much grander scale.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment:  The Barbarous Relic and Trust Jesus!

Stay Fresh!


David Mint


Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

P.S.  For more ideas and commentary please check out The Mint at www.davidmint.com


Key Indicators for January 18, 2012


Copper Price per Lb: $3.73
Oil Price per Barrel:  $100.77

Corn Price per Bushel:  $5.93  
10 Yr US Treasury Bond:  1.90%
FED Target Rate:  0.08%  ON AUTOPILOT, THE FED IS DEAD!

Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,660 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY

MINT Perceived Target Rate*:  1.50%
Unemployment Rate:  8.5%
Inflation Rate (CPI):  0.0%
Dow Jones Industrial Average:  12,562

M1 Monetary Base:  $2,380,300,000,000 RED ALERT!!!  THE ANIMALS ARE LEAVING THE ZOO!!!
M2 Monetary Base:  $9,829,100,000,000 YIKES UP $1 Trillion in one year!!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Of Money and Metals, Part I - Balance


1/17/2012 Portland, Oregon - Pop in your mints…
It is turning out to be an unusually dry winter here in Portland.  It is a refreshing break from the usual incessant pounding of rain which blesses this part of the world between November and May each year.  Perhaps we are just now getting back the lost months of June and July of 2011, as nature has a way of evening things out over time.

We have observed that there is a perfect balance in God’s creation.  Some call it a yin and yang, male and female, mercy and justice, freedom and slavery, heat and cold.  For every extreme, there is a force which, given enough time, will work to counteract the excesses wrought by the seemingly uninhibited operation of its polar opposite.

It should come as no surprise, then, that in the economic sphere, debt and money fall into the same category of opposing natural forces.

Yes, debt and money are two completely different forces.  One takes from the future to provide for the present, the other takes from the past towards the same end. 

Yin Yang - A picture of balance


Simple, right?  Male, female, Yin, Yang, case closed.

Yet circa 2012, for some odd reason, there seems to be an abundance of debt and a dearth of money in the world.  The world as we know it is perilously out of balance.

How can this be?  Why are things so far out of balance?  In the interest of time, we will sum up what is otherwise a long and painful explanation in the following way.  Roughly 100 years ago, by decree of the financial authorities, debt was declared to be money.

Ever since then, man has lived in a state of economic confusion.  On one hand, He has seen an unprecedented level of technological advances and a resulting rise in his standard of living.  On the other hand, on net, he, or someone acting in his name, has borrowed an unprecedented amount of money from the future in order to achieve these advances and consequent rise in his living standards.

How is this possible?  Didn’t simply declaring debt is money relieve man of having to save?  After all, if everyone simply assents to accepting promises to pay in the future for goods or services delivered or performed today, haven’t we trumped the need for savings, the Yang, as it were?

More to the point, have the laws of nature with regards to money been permanently altered?

If only it were so.  Unfortunately, the longer man labors under the false assumption that debt is money, the greater the pain which will be incurred by mankind as nature unilaterally brings the earth into balance.

More to come…

Stay tuned and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com

P.S.  For more ideas and commentary please check out The Mint at http://www.davidmint.com/

Key Indicators for January 17, 2012

Gold Price Per Ounce:  $1,653 PERMANENT UNCERTAINTY
M1 Monetary Base:  $2,380,300,000,000 RED ALERT!!!  THE ANIMALS ARE LEAVING THE ZOO!!!
M2 Monetary Base:  $9,829,100,000,000 YIKES UP $1 Trillion in one year!!!!!!!