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Sunday, August 02, 2009 – with
Scott Smith
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Posted by Dave Kress on 8/2/2009 5:22:01 AM
On Balance, the power elite has the power and many, if not most, hard asset media commentators do not have much power but appeal to a growing but small, powerless Internet audience (us).
It is now nearly 30 years since the last bull run in hard metals fueled by speculation. How much longer can one wait for the final verification and realignment of gold, silver, and world currencies? I am 68 and have been tracking this stuff for 35 years!
Every argument has been proffered by all hard money analysts and yet nothing happens. Will it take a biblical holocaust as words are clearly NOT SUFFICIENT to create the change all hard asset writers and readers want??
I am not willing - or capable - to wait much longer nor should you. It is time to mobilize for action. ... BUT HOW?
Reply from the Daily Bell:
Education - non-violent change - is key. The Internet provides a unique opportunity, in our opinion.
Posted by Bill C. on 8/2/2009 12:18:40 PM
Chapman's views of unions and their role in economic progress tells me all I need to know about his understanding of history. Collectivism breeds mediocrity as has become all too obvious in recent decades. His calls for government regulation to protect the interests of the working class sound an awful lot like Obama (emphasis on "awful"). Also, all money is ultimately "fiat" money.
Reply from the Daily Bell:
Gold-as-money is certainly not fiat money.
Posted by Bill C. on 8/2/2009 3:59:17 PM
I won't debate the debatable hard-money point. My frustration is with the focus on central banks when our liberties and prosperity are more seriously threatened by the ever-growing intrusion of governments into our lives, both through taxation and spending and through oppressive, undemocratic regulation. Cycles are part of life, and economic cycles existed before and after the introduction of central banking.
The U.S. economy has experienced tremendous growth during the century in which we've had a central bank with markets imposing a discipline when the central bank acts irresponsibly; Americans are aware of that progress despite their current anger at the Fed.
Ron Paul and others like him will never be more than fringe candidates as long as their focus is so fixed on central banking, an arcane subject that understandably causes the eyes of most listeners to glaze over. Statements to the effect that China can't succeed because it has a central bank (my reference is to an earlier article) fly in the face of the century of superb progress enjoyed by the US "despite" its central bank.
Even libertarian ideas ought to be "tested for reasonableness."
Reply from the Daily Bell:
A thoughtful feedback. Let us respond with a different perspective, below ...
There is a strand of free-market economic thought (to which we subscribe) that argues the greatness of the current American empire was anchored in its pre-industrial free-market roots. The culture of entrepreneurialism was therefore likely well established ("Yankee ingenuity") before the civil war and the subsequent and ongoing centralization of power within the federal government.
Could the analog be the Roman Empire - lauded for its greatness? Please remember the Roman Empire was a REPUBLIC for hundreds of years before an empire broke out. An argument may be made (and has been) that the greatness of Rome was actually the greatness of the republic - which the empire gradually dissipated as Rome sank into authoritarian ruin.
It is possibly a logical fallacy to draw a conclusion from two events, occurring serially, which nonetheless may not have a direct relationship? Central banking did occur in America at the beginning of the 20th century. But to conflate the greatness of that "American century" (such as it was) with the imposition of a central bank may or may not be accurate. We obviously don't believe it.
Posted by Kaydell Bowles on 8/2/2009 4:59:59 PM
Thanks for the information and a good article. Yes we Americans need to exert more pressure to fix the Federal Reserve especially when the cannot account for about 2 trillion dollars
Reply from the Daily Bell:
According to some legislators (Grayson?) it is closes to eight or nine trillion.
Posted by Bill C. on 8/2/2009 7:18:37 PM
I would never conflate the greatness of America's 20th century with the imposition of a central bank, which is why I deliberately took your perspective that such greatness was achieved "despite" the imposition of a central bank (a reality that sometimes seems to escape "goldbugs" in their animus toward central banking. Central banking may be a villain, but there are more dangerous (by far) villains to fight on behalf of our freedom and prosperity. And the case against central banking is not nearly as easy to make to the public as the case against the Leviathan government.
Reply from the Daily Bell:
Good points. But there would not be a Leviathan without central banking. It is central banking that provides monetary rocket fuel that makes regulatory democracies feasible. Without the fiat money system, the only methodology of control would be the blunt and brutal one of totalitarianism. The beauty of central banking is that it provides most if not all of the control of totalitarianism over time without the obviousness. One needn't declare oneself ruler if one has access to the fount of power which is money creation. Unless people understand central banking they will never understand the true nature of the modern sociopolitical and military-industrial Western matrix.
Posted by Bill C. on 8/2/2009 9:45:09 PM
You may be right, though I don't know if your assertions can be proved. With or without a Fed, the government has the power to tax and spend and regulate. In any case, if the merits of your above assertions are not obvious to me, a very strong advocate of free-market capitalism, then I rest my case about it being a much harder campaign to win than the easier argument against big-government socialism. Anyway, I thank you for indulging in this dialogue, and I wish us both great success in helping to change the philosophical direction of the U.S. and other western nations.
Reply from the Daily Bell:
Thanks for the feedbacks - and for your commitment to free-market change.
Posted by Hart on 8/6/2009 1:27:36 AM
Anyone who educates themselves about the origin of the Fed, its subsequent activities and its inability to make the right calls will invariability come out for dismantling it.
The difficult part is in getting that message to enough voters and breaking through their indifference. I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for results to show effect.
What appears more likely in the near term is a breakout in Gold. Yes, the US Gov appears to be succeeding in at least one thing... the destruction of the USD. Oh course, it just might get out of hand ... as in USD being neutered as a reserve currency and OIL being in something other than USD.
My oh my... won't that cause a ruckus.
Reply from the Daily Bell:
Our money would be on gold.
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