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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 8bits who wrote (42680)	12/14/2005 2:50:54 AM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

I think the mexican mother next door uses a prepaid VISA or Mastercard credit card with 500 dollars - it is not a promise to pay - she already sent them 500 dollars to put on the card and then she wires money to her sister back home. Providian is the name of her issuer I believe. I have one with amalgamated bank myself. I think she even gets new card numbers every so often so no one can steal her credit card number and go on a shopping spree with her prepaid money. Its not an IOU until you get 6 or 7 levels deep with the currency eh? Checkcards/smartcards are being used more and more everyday. Your point though about transactions - the way the world works today - globalized - information society - how can we escape the society we have created? Bits go back and forth all over the airwaves and satellites and transactions are done - so many every nanosecond - there is just no other way to accomodate that without a credit card/checkcard/debit card type of society. All this virtual money protected by databases and algorithms and encryption. Warren buffet says the US dollar will fall, we dont make anything anymore, but that can be accomodated by a rise in the currency of those who still do make things, china india. Visa and all the rest can continue to function in a free floating rate world where the asian currencies skyrocket and the nations with lots of natural resources currencies skyrocket and the US dollar falls if that is its destiny. But some here say no no no - we will be trading chunks of metal back and forth on lines over a map to make transactions happen and economies flow - that is just silly. I tried to spend a 100 dollar bill at walmart - they wouldn't take it - dont have the change - neither will mcdonalds - but they both take my prepaid credit card/smart card/debit card. Society and global meme processes will have to fundamentally change and go backwards if you ask me for chunks of metal going back and forth to really be in vogue again. I don't ever foresee in mine and your lifetime SI BOB taking a gold chunk of metal for an SI registration - I do foresee him taking some type of virtual money based on systems backed up by databases and algorithms and encryption - and if those systems are based on yuans or US dollars or swiss francs I don't know - but I seriously doubt they will be based on chunks of molecules of gold.