Hello Ray, Today is an unhurried day in a leisurely week of a dawdling month in an otherwise exciting year of the new millennium.
I booted up my computer, it worked; updated my Microsoft Money data, and not very much happened to my portfolio; tapped into my various on-line accounts, they are still there; checked the price gold, and it did not move outside of the expected range. Maybe October will be more exciting. I must therefore count my blessings, had MS Money already done so:0)
For breakfast, I reached for the coffee flavored yogurt, but instead settled for Lemon seasoned sour milk. To add some exhilaration I am drinking Cranberry juice instead of mineral water, taking on board Maurice’s point that we zombies must exercise our freewill every so often lest we forget how.
Maurice is partially correct in that we must not blame all of our economic state on the Central Banker, for he is but one man, though an important one, who provided the sauce at a party at which our friends lost a fortune, ruined their retirement plans, and short-circuited their goal-oriented savings pool. We must also blame the investors and speculators, for they chose to buy into the hype cheered on by all, including the Central Banker.
Similarly, we cannot blame McDonald’s for the coffee that is too hot, but also the driver for drinking coffee while talking on the phone during a drive to work as she was putting on her makeup.
Or, similarly, we must blame heftier folks who eat a bag of potato chips every half-day, washed down with 2 cans of Coca Cola, and not just lay the responsibility at the packaged food manufacturers. Nope, they should not be able to sue anyone to recover the price of one economic class ticket per trip taken.
There are many variations to “guns do not kill people, people …”.
Today I read about the universe of Yap, located in Micronesia. They have done an admirable job of operating their traditional monetary system, based not on the propaganda-induced trust in fractional reserve madness or fiat dictated insanity, but on absolute faith in solid limestone disks.
These rock disks in question are large, cannot be easily moved, almost perfectly circular in shape, with a hole in the center through which two people can thread a pole to move it from one place to a better place. It just so happens that due the weight of the disks and their function, one place is as good as every other place.
The Yapese uses their rock disk money for large transactions (land) and do not move them even as their ownership changes hand. Every Yapese knows who owns which disk, why, and for what length of time. The Yap islands have no native supply of limestone (they are canoed from Palau), so counterfeit money is non-existent.
I am guessing that these stone disks accrue no interest, surmised from the fact that there are no stone disks of smaller denomination and, I am speculating that they are rarely loaned out.
The supply of the disks is constant. The disks hold their purchasing value well in terms of land purchased, and given increases in population and material affluence (denominated in USD, the daily unit of exchange for common purchases, such as McD burgers), I suppose the disks will appreciate against the USD and every other fiat currency over time.
Oops, I forgot, the stone disks are obviously not gold specie. Stone disks make up a fiat currency system. The happy Yapese are more adept at operating a currency system than dear old Maestro, the man who saw a bubble, couldn’t be sure, didn’t know what to do, and still has the presence of faculty to quibble that it all wasn’t his fault, but we should blame irrational exuberance and infectious greed.
Here are some references to reading materials on the lighter side of what you recommended:0)
econ.utoledo.edu
mantaray.com
maxrules.com
stonemoney.com
Chugs, Jay |
