We often speak of international trade as if it were an unfathomable mystery, opaque to the understanding of anyone without an economics doctorate. That’s particularly the case in exchanges over trade balances, a contentious topic these past few decades. That America should have a negative balance of trade is regarded as a shameful thing, …
Category: money and currency
Feb 24 2025
Investing, Speculating, And Hedging
Because of my interest in monetary theory, I’m occasionally asked whether the precious metals are a “good investment.” It’s a question that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no, because it lacks context. The required context is the answer to this question: “Where do you store value?” I regard gold …
Feb 07 2025
What Is And What Is Not “Property?”
Time was, we thought we knew. Silly us! Property – that which is “proper” to an individual owner – is in a sense an undefined term. Ever since John Locke attempted to define what makes an item one’s property, semanticists and “experts” have nibbled at the edges. Even some decent people, who genuinely …
Nov 14 2024
How Long Has It Been Since Your Last Hyperbola?
Here’s one, just in case you’ve forgotten: All right, it’s a little glitchy. However, it illustrates a critical relationship: the one between the size of the money supply and the value of the dollar. What’s that you say? The chart doesn’t graph those things? Ah, but it does! The size of the …
Nov 12 2024
Unanswered Questions Dept.
Nasty habits usually come with their own punishments. My nasty habit is talking about money. Not how to make oodles of it; that’s an arcane art. At any rate, I haven’t mastered it. No, I talk about the nature of money, and why it’s no longer with us. I shan’t repeat the litany …
Oct 22 2024
Visions Of Sugarplums
Let’s talk about money: Well! If the subject is money, is there really more to say than that? Frankly, yes. Relax, Gentle Reader. I’m not about to quote Francisco D’Anconia at you. But he did have a point or two, especially this one: the first thing looters and totalitarians go after, when …
Oct 18 2024
Watching The Gold Market
Gold is tearing through every threshold anyone has proposed for it. Americans smart enough to hold some physical gold should not take this as a reason to sell their holdings. Speaking for myself alone, if I had any unemployed cash just now, I’d be buying. But more to the point, the steady increase …
Sep 24 2024
A Useful How-To
Courtesy of David DeGerolamo, we have this: Gold… Today, another NEW record high in US dollar terms. In other words, The dollar is getting debased rapidly vs. gold. — Gold Telegraph ⚡ (@GoldTelegraph_) September 23, 2024 And it is so. The awareness of that debasement (which is a synonym for inflation) has driven …
Sep 13 2024
Brace For Impact
Gold is flying: $2577.80 / Troy oz. Silver is as well: $30.58 / Troy oz. Platinum, palladium, and rhodium are all up sharply. Copper’s moving, too, albeit more gently. Would you like to know why? Just go here. The aggregate federal debt is now $35.3 trillion. That seriously exceeds …
Sep 03 2024
Sometimes You Just Have To Laugh
…and I did: A conservative estimate holds that there are 240 billion pennies lying around the United States — about 724 ($7.24) for every man, woman and child there residing, and enough to hand two pennies to every bewildered human born since the dawn of man. (To distribute them all, in fact, we’d …
Aug 28 2024
Hedging
Save only real wealth. — John A. Pugsley Pugsley’s book The Alpha Strategy is one of the wisest pieces of financial advice ever penned. It’s also entertaining and hilariously funny, by turns. And now you can read it for free, at the link above. Since I retired, I’ve been unable to afford …
Aug 24 2024
The Unchanging Nature Of Wealth
I know, I know: the title “gives the game away.” And it does. But perhaps not in its entirety, Gentle Reader. I restrained myself from applying the title I really wanted to use. Breck Dumas of Fox News tells us: It takes more to be viewed as rich in the U.S. this …
Jun 17 2024
A Proper Response To Ignorance
Three years back, Elon Musk was briefly in the news for this statement: “Goods & services are the real economy, any form of money is simply the accounting thereof.” That tweet was absolutely correct…but it displeased a lot of less savvy types, including a few who argued that Musk’s statement was tantamount …
May 04 2024
This Is The Nation’s Top Economic Advisor
And you won’t believe the crap he spouts, or how he stammers and misdirects: Time was, even a schoolchild knew what money is: money n: a medium of exchange and a store of value. I was taught that before I could write a check. Note the and in the definition. Money must …
Mar 06 2024
Cash And Chaos
This bit of news rang a bell for me: LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – A Senate bill introduced on Tuesday would prohibit businesses from refusing cash-only payments. […] Senate Bill 306 has not been assigned to a committee yet. [Steve] McClain said the Kentucky Retail Federation will be closely monitoring it. …
Sep 28 2023
For Those Who Still Use The Phrase “Sound As A Dollar”
This is a very astute observation. It’s a major milestone in the death of a fiat currency when its issuers need to get bribed in a harder money. https://t.co/0l6DRFrTtR — Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean) September 27, 2023 Ponder that! Remember that when the corruptocrats of other countries solicit bribes, they usually demand that they be …
Sep 12 2023
Invidious Comparisons Dept.
This story provoked quite a range of reactions from readers. Mine was “Why did ‘they’ wait so long when the danger to ‘them’ is so obvious?” Bank Shuts Down ‘Silver Stackers and Gold Stackers’ Shop’s Business and Personal Accounts An Ohio-based coin shop owner recently took to YouTube to share alarming news: His …
Sep 01 2023
Money And The Processes At Work
Bustednuckles deposeth and sayeth: One of the things that is amazing to me is the gamble the people in charge of the money supply system are taking. They are deliberately killing the dollar as they have run it as far as it will go before it becomes completely worthless, while thinking that they …
Jul 22 2023
Things Predators Like
Predators of all sorts will concentrate where the prey is fattest. — Arne Stromberg, Gallatin University Robert A. Heinlein promoted this concept of a human trichotomy: …and no third category. What follows from that partition is an even simpler dichotomy: You’re either a Maker or a Predator. Anyone who doesn’t get …
Jul 11 2023
Illegal Tender
With all the worrying going on over the ominous prospect of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), it’s just occurred to me to wonder: What is the state of the legal tender law? We know – hey, it’s printed on every BLEEP!ing Federal Reserve Note – that federally approved physical currency is “legal …
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Margaret’s Recent Novels
