i didn't find out much about what grant thinks at the link you posted, so i went to youtube and searched for him. i found him in a recent 40 minute video.
starting in about the first 3 minutes of the video i watched, he made the distinction of debt liquidation driven price deflation and price deflation driven by high tech production. he said central bankers don't take that difference into consideration, and i agree with him on that. hardly anyone talks about that distinction.
he also says he's guessing that a metal by weight currency might be arrived at as the best form of currency. on that point, i disagree. a metal by weight currency would work, but not as well as a good fiat currency.
i think a fiat currency that is privately issued would be better, with some caveats. as grant seems to hint at, fiat currency doesn't have to be issued by a government in order to work.
to me, the major caveat of any fiat currency, is that it needs a free market economy to operate in. if we don't have a free market economy, a fiat currency becomes much less reliable and can even break down in a worst case scenario. in that scenario, a metal by weight currency would be better.
but the advantage of a fiat currency in a free market economy, is that it will actually gain strength along with the economy.
a well run fiat would be more stable in value than any metal, including gold. not only that, but in a free market, the price of nearly everything, including gold, should gradually decline with time, as labor efficiency increases through automation.
in other words, i think we should tie the value of a currency to the rise of the aggregate value of labor through efficiency, rather than on the probable declining relative value of a metal, or any other tangible object.
where i disagree with him most is when he talks about 'helicopter' money like it's possible. it isn't possible in our monetary system. it's possible in zimbabwe's system, but not ours. that's because our dollars have to be brought into our economy with value. dollars can't be printed up and then legally given away or 'dumped'. they can't be released without earning interest. therefore, 'helicopter' money can't happen.
all in all, i agree with you that he's a very sharp guy.
here's the video that gave me some info on the way he thinks..
youtube.com |
