Global Currency War Could Redline All Systems
Almost everyone wouldn't mind being one of the 1% as we are bombarded daily
about the advantages of being 'rich' or 'wealthy.' But defining those terms is
about as nebulous as the blizzard of IRS forms and schedules attempting to
define income.
The collapse of the bitcoin realm was met with a collective yawn by the
media. But there is but one difference between the bitcoin and what passes for
currency of the realm these days--the realm acknowledges its fiat currency
whereas no country claimed the bitcoin.
Articles on the inevitability of the bitcoin's collapse and how the dollar
or euro or yuan or whatever monetary system you happen to believe in provides a
secure place to keep your wealth are already cropping up. The authors point out
the foolishness of the people who bought into the bitcoin idea while grandly
proclaiming something along the line "you can safely store your savings for a
time they are needed at a government-guaranteed bank." How can that be when
almost every country in the world claims all deposits into their banks as
belonging to the banks, not the people who made the deposit?
I read one essay from a noted economist in which he carefully explains how
money permits a nightclub singer to buy bread from the baker who can then pay
for his music choice from iTunes. All this simply because the United States
government has declared the dollar to be "legal tender for all debts public and
private." The writer even tosses in the fact the dollar is a safe haven because
the IRS will only accept dollars at tax time.
And Santa Claus is real too.
What these benevolent economists fail to mention is measuring any wealth
by government-approved fiat is an act of futility in itself. The countries in
question can, and do, print wealth at will--with only one basis: the perception
of value by the seller and buyer. That is the curse of fiat.
But it is also why the current global economy is failing. There is a
concerted effort by more than one government to promote the value of its
currency of choice over any other currency simply through this perception.
Forbes contributor Robin Lewis went to great lengths in the newest edition to
point out the world's population may soon "come to view paper money as
worthless" because of this growing currency war.
The Rant has been stating the same thing since 2009 and has presented far
more facts than Lewis.
But Lewis got to the end-game position of the Rant when he said. "The
downward spiral could lead, at best, to a global Japan-style deflation and, at
worst, a worldwide depression. Then maybe we will reinstate bartering where
borrowing, debt and interest rates will not exist." Nor credit cards or
paychecks or wire transfers. Everything will become hands-on once again and not
subject to the whims of cyberspace.
Others in the media have started to chime in, maybe because of the swath of
international suicides in the world's financial community.
Criminals like Al Capone who were the face of crime for the FBI for more
than 60 years, dealt in this quasi-barter community Lewis 'envisions,' but were
also trapped because they measured everything in terms of dollars as well. This
eventually led to Capone's demise, not at the hands of the world's cops but at
the hands of the IRS agents. Capone was convicted of hiding income from the
government and essentially never charged with any of his murders, assaults or
other unlawful acts except as incidental to the charge of defrauding the United
States government of legal taxes.
If only Capone had made a half-hearted attempt to make tax payments on his
ill-gotten booty he probably would never have seen the inside of a cell and
would have died peacefully in a Chicago-style gangland war.
Make no mistake, the world currency war is alive and well. It is
threatening the global economy with more certainty than the physical upheaval in
the Ukraine ever thought of and will have a much greater impact than our
government's sudden interest in a war of words with Putin could ever
achieve.
A mere week after the G20 made its fateful decision to increase world GDP
by $2 trillion, reports from manufacturing sectors put the issue in doubt. From
Asia to Europe and over to North America, manufacturers changed gears last month
it seems. They downshifted unexpectedly with factory growth missing
all projections.
Less factory growth means fewer amounts of fiat changing hands in Lewis'
outline. This can only intensify the depth of a currency war and seems to be
breathing life into the notion a full-fledged currency war is already in
place.
Since Asian factories were hit hardest it would lead to the conclusion the
PBOC (People's Bank of China) is on the hot seat. But the yuan is holding strong
because, as an anonymous Shanghai-based trader with a large international
banking concern told the Wall Street Journal, "Nobody dares trade against the
PBOC. Nobody dares invest in the yuan because it is China and China owns a piece
of everyone's debt. Nobody in the industry can afford to challenge the
prevailing optimism. You'd get run out of the business to point out the
fallacies of the current situation."
I have repeatedly told people "there is not safe haven" for their wealth as
long as they insist on measuring it in terms of the fiat of the month. It is
comforting to know others are coming to the same party. But none of those
joining are in government and few are in the media.
The story is too grim for the fluff that passes for news these days. Any
reporter with the temerity to state the accurate position of the realm's
currency would be out of a job. To be blunt about the currently acceptable
definitions of wealth or rich, "How can you feel good about yourself and your
prospects when you've been using a crooked measuring stick?"
"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas
Jefferson
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