In other words…damn if we do and damn if we don’t.
Do you have a proposal to the mentioned problem?
He has not. Fiat currencies do they job well enough.
There are really only 2 paths: revolution or political reform. Revolution can be peaceful or not. Secession is basically a combination of both revolution and reform. It would be the more probable option than outright reform of or a grassroots revolt against the federal government. We need either military or political power, or some combination of these. Both can result from economic power. Spreading information as to why the state is the root of our problems seems like a constructive goal; however, it seems this could be done better in some form of professional media rather than grassroots activities (both in total audience reached and reduction of misinformation). Thus, I think everyone who really wants to make a difference should either focus on working hard and saving (hopefully not in US dollars or denominated assets…). In the case of a supreme government blunder, such resources could be used to secure the military resources or public opinion pull necessary to revolt against or reform the state. And by blunder, I mean something far worse than current. Our current economic recession is small potatoes (at least right now). So is the Military Commissions Act and the Iraq War. These things simply do not have enough impact on the average person’s daily life to fundamentally alter their thoughts on governance. Instigating WWIII or a dollar collapse, on the other hand…
Anyone who says the economy is rigged and their economic power is fundamentally outperformed by the statists who are subsidized are simply whiners. Yes, the balance is tipped in their direction; but let’s not act like underdogs never win. Also, the statists have a flawed economic belief system. They will always be subject to busts and other unintended results of their own foolish actions. I think the biggest one of these is the GATA claims about gold price manipulation. If governments are artificially undervaluing gold, buy it! When they run out of gold, the price should skyrocket. This would represent a shift of economic power from central banks to freedom-loving individuals. Most government policies are short-term solutions. Consistently betting against them in the long-term represents an economic advantage to us. Finally, the statists seek to enjoy life at the expense of others. We seek to restore liberty and justice for future generations. Thus, the statists are more inclined to spend their wealth on luxurious consumption, while we forgo consumption to prepare for a battle to reestablish morality.
If there is any form of US revolution, I think it’s a way off. Revolution is like a wildfire, not some coordinated plan. If a revolution is viable, you’ll probably be able to find others who want to revolt for the complete opposite reasons, with the complete opposite goals. We are likely to require massive government failure before revolution is a widespread public notion. Look at the Soviet Union. They are a good model for a peaceful, secessionist revolution. Yet it took a long time for the state to blunder their capital structure so badly that the satellites voted to secede.
(As far as anti-state terrorists, saboteurs, etc. I think that’s a terrible strategy. We should let the state produce its own blunders, rather than do anything to risk the public blame us.)
I think the fact that our treasury notes are trading at negative rates is more than enough proof that there is at least some demand for a 100% reserve bank. I mean why the hell would you pay THE GOVERNMENT to hold your money?
If people started more banks like the free lakota bank there might start to be interest in this type of banking and competition in the market. Helping to make our libertarian/anarchist dreams come true.
Recently I attended a lecture, where I heard quite interesting point about banking supervision. The idea was that special supervision is not needed, the only thing that should be done is that banks should disclode information about their portfolio, they should make public in which to sectors they provide loans and depositors can judge themselves about riskiness of the specific bank. This can be spread on offshore banking as well.
This can work different ways. if firms reveal their investments, it could expose them to undesirable consequences. investors may prefer a non-public balance sheet. maybe they can get a larger, or more stable return.
on the other hand, maybe investors want to know. seems they definitely do right now. seems it’s not and all or nothing thing, just different markets. of course, it would be fraud to list a “complete balance sheet” that is actually incomplete.
complexity can be as bad as not knowing, though. consider the rating agencies, the mortgage buyers and sellers, the SIV creators and buyers. more importantly, what about the complexity tampering with money and credit supply does. seems everyone was fooled, and we are expecting regulators to out-perform the market. well, that’s still believing in a falsehood. the SEC had two major growth periods after the Keating scandal and the Enron/WorldCom scandal. Now, it’ll have another one and become more inept after Madoff, even though the private sector spotted him as early as '99. We need a free market, so the competent investors determine what is produced and how, not the failed ones.
Why does the public want to know what assets banks hold? Some consider banks public institutions, because they feel “credit” and deposits, or the underlying economy they facilitate, should be guaranteed. Yet this would be best acheived by true interest rates (not distorted ones from credit/money created by banks, but by actual saving), decentralized banking, unrestricted branch banking, and full reserve deposits. Because gov’t imposes their monopoly money (not in the sense of the game but their exclusive privileges), full reserve banks cannot compete with inflationary banks.
to answer your question, yes. let the market, aka economic freedom, determine investments, savings rates, interest rates, currencies, exchange ratios, reserve ratios, and everything else.