It made me think about the gold standard, currency devaluation, and runaway inflation.
During the Roman Empire the Roman currency kept having to be changed because gradually the leaders were making the coins thinner and even mixing in cheaper metals. The Romans learned well about inflation and how money can be devalued.
The loony dictator Mugabe in Zimbabwe understands hyper inflation, and the Germans certainly learned about it before the war. Wheelbarrow loads of currency needed to buy one loaf of bread, etc.
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I gave the guy one American dollar and counted out 15 of the Mexican coins. It is fascinating to me how one Mexican coin used to be worth $1 (one peso). Then it a bit later it was worth $5, then $20, and later $100, and $200 and so forth. --Greed and living beyond one’s means.
When Bill Clinton ended his presidency America’s economy was in a surplus situation. The Reagan Republicans had run up a terrible deficit, but the fiscally responsible Democrats had finally paid it off.
Now after 8 years of the Republican George Bush incompetency, the county is back in a really disastrous deficit situation. Spending vastly more than we make. Or as it is sometimes called, just running the printing presses day-and-night printing more dollars. Of course nowadays it is done with mouse clicks, but the concept is the same.
I worked to get Obama elected. I think he is smart, ethical, and I agree with his ideas.
Obama’s economic plan employs classical intentional deficit spending as outlined by the famous economist John Maynard Keynes. I think this is probably the right thing to do; but we do need to recognize that this is a bit of an experiment. There is a small chance that it won’t work, and that the U.S. Dollar will become as worthless as the Mexican Peso.
This is all thanks to the greed of the Republicans, and their dismantling and refusal to obey financial laws and regulations. They called this “de-regulation” and said that it was a good thing. Their philosophy was to let the rich get away with virtually everything, even not paying hardly any taxes. The Republicans said that these rich jerks would finally make so much money that a little bit of it would eventually trickle down to the middle and working classes. This was complete hogwash. It just legitimized their greed.
No two ways about it, over the long term, both the country and it’s citizens need to start living within their means.
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IN THE NEWS:
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* Zimbabwe releases 15-figure banknote
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The Zimbabwean central bank has announced it is to bring a new banknote into circulation, with a face value of 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars - or 1 followed by 14 zeros. New 10, 20 and 50 trillion dollar notes will be released at the same time. The billion dollar notes introduced last week no longer meet the demand.
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On the black market the new 100 trillion dollar note is worth around 230 euros, but by tomorrow its value is likely to have dropped considerably. Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate. The most recent official figures, from July last year, put inflation at 231 million percent, but experts say the real figure is much higher.
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