Here is a decent summary of the Platinum Coin chronicles from The Atlantic.
I think that the fact that this nonsense is being discussed by Very Serious People demonstrates how far off the cliff of reason our financial and political systems have already gone. Let's hope China et al. are willing to view America's antics with the same jolly forbearance.
I got a kick out of this late breaking article over at ZH, and about the ¥100 Trillion Pair of Chopsticks. It is not enough to be willing to print money, and give it to your wealthy friends for their personal enjoyment. That looks like foreign aid being given to some hard luck third world country where the money flows primarily to their warlords, and little reaches the people. You have to find the guts and the honesty to take on the hard job of reforming the corruption, imbalanced economic structures, and cronyism between the oligarchs and the government that got to where you are in the first place. And that is where the credibility trap comes in. What concerns me a bit is not that so many otherwise intelligent people do not understand the nature of money, because so few really do. What really concerns me is that those that do understand what is going on seem to be toying with this whacko monetization scheme, which shows a certain desperation and lack of a Plan B that should make those who are holding their paper very uncomfortable. If anything could bring a couple million people with torches and pitchforks to Washington in protest, the Platinum Coin pretension might just do the trick. Editorial comment on the state of modern economics in the video clip below. The twilight of ancien régimes and dying empires may embrace extravagant fashions in thought and produce eccentric, démodé behaviour, but sometimes they are set to catchy tunes.
As for the rest of the world:
“The burning question that I always have, I’m amazed at their ongoing willingness to continue to accumulate, and hold, such large amounts of US denominated bonds. It’s been my view that they are basically playing a Ponzi scheme. I’ve had that confirmed when I’ve had long discussions with different sovereign wealth funds and different government agencies around the world. They’ve been willing to play this game, but more and more now, as their domestic economies have grown and the US portion of their exports becomes smaller, and with the amount of T-Bills that they have (already) accumulated, I believe they’ve reached the boiling point where they are really going to be unwilling to grow their reserves (of US Treasuries). Just the process of not growing their reserves is going to be very disruptive. If they are not willing to accumulate more T-Bills, this is going to force the trade deficit closed. I think that is really going to rock the financial world at some point in the near future..." Sprott President Kevin Bambrough in today's KWN Interview
Posted byJesse
