why the trade deficit does not matter(the Rio Tinto example)

[gwynedd1]

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

But silver can run out to, just like gold

Hi NJ Chutzpah,

I mean to say imitate historical silver.

actually, in your primitive island scenario, wouldnt fish be a good currency because fish is always needed since it is the food, and it replenishes itself, and the technology is not advanced enough to overfish, or farm them?

I think at this point we want something public and simple. If you can't trust your government to do that you can't trust them. We need a 5 grader system. If the people understand the system they have some defense.

But we do not produce any oil really?

Not for export. However its like two tribes using missionary IOUs.

[eatfastnoodle]

Originally Posted by gwynedd1

Hi eatfastnoodle,

Again, thats why its a dilemma. I could have titled it, "Those of you who have studied the issue for 15 minutes and offer "common sense solutions" have no idea what you are talking about".
That kind of input does not matter. I am warning anyone who will listen that anyone who uses their intuitive understanding of basic economy is going to be completely and utterly fooled by what the bankers have waiting for them. They have made it their life work to grow wealthy on the sweat of others. If one does not learn the unintuitive system every good sense statement like "we have too much debt", or "greed" or "off shoring is the cause" or "we should pay down debt etc" is simply an utter waste of time. The system is rigged to do all those things.

Well, it's never just money, debt, manufacturing or even the whole economy. I believe it's more about the overall system and relative position held by each other in the system. And like it or not, over the past half century, the current system brings enormous benefit to the West over all and the US in particular, but like all living organism die, all systems inevitably die as a result of all the imbalances built up over its life cycle. I don't think a change of monetary system or a few more victory in wars can save the systems. Just like victory in WWI and WWII didn't save France and Britain, the primary beneficiaries of the old collapsing colonial system. We're about to enter unchartered territory because the old west-centric is gradually fading while advancement in technologies would create a world totally different from the world before the rise of European civilization. Worse still, genius of Albert Einstein deprives us of the most effective way of reorganizing the world system, namely, war. What's gonna happen next is anybody's guess. The US will probably limp along for quite some time as the so called sole superpower of the world. While the imbalance of the system would probably manifest itself more in the form of increasing domestic instability in all countries, rich or poor. Nobody knows what's gonna happen, and a change of monetary system, if it ever happens, will not be magic cure.