Phil > I think at some level you are playing the devil's advocate
Of course, a lot is tongue in cheek but most is what I believe.
> you fully understand the dishonesty of the system, but correctly observe that to get anywhere, you have to go with the trend, the end of which cannot be known.
Even more than that, I think it's wrong to preside over the situation by taking a moralistic view. Like life itself, the world is what it is and we have to make the best of it -- as it is.
> But more and more attention is being focused on the problem, and that is my simple argument for gold. Perhaps buying an index fund or any particular stock or current bubble asset might be a better investment, but who knows.
Gold is fine in its place, wherever that is, but not as a means to justify an "I told you so" attitude. We no longer have "hard" money and we are not going back to it so it's no use pining for it and trying to blame the economic ills of the world on a need for it.
> Perhaps buying an index fund or any particular stock or current bubble asset might be a better investment, but who knows.
You might be surprised. I was when I saw how many excellent global ETF investments there have been. And that's in the US.
finance.yahoo.com
> I focus on the debt issue because I truly believe it is the achilles heal [heel] of our financial system now spreading world wide
The debt is merely a means to an end, like money itself. In order to survive, become wealthy, if you will, one has to use the debt/money to acquire assets and then use the these assets productively. IMO, your fear and dislike of debt is the alter ego of the gold argument about "hard" (fixed) money but the truth is that there isn't nearly enough gold in the world to "back" all the paper money, even at $10,000 an oz. And, anyway, as you know, the money is actually paper -- it's what one does with it that counts -- like life itself.
Here's quite an interesting piece, again the same convoluted story about the dollar and the debt but also some insights.
myrtlebeachonline.com
>>"We really view China as the lynchpin in this," said Patricia Mears, the coalition's executive director. "China is looking for job creation and internal stability, and they have taken a currency position for export-led growth."
Dooley agrees China is the lynchpin. But he does not see Beijing strengthening its currency any time soon.
From a Chinese perspective, the most important economic problem of the age is finding jobs for the 200 million people moving from farms to cities.
Manufacturing exports can solve that problem if the Chinese currency remains pegged to the currency of the major buyer of those goods - the United States.
The system can endure, even if U.S. bonds are not paying much, as long as the labor surplus lasts. And once the Chinese workers are absorbed, India will follow the same path, Dooley said. U.S. consumers will benefit from cheaper goods, but the U.S. labor market will have to adjust to the growth of foreign manufacturing, even if that means shrinking the workforce or the number of U.S. automakers.<< |
