16-Feb-16 World View -- Missile strikes on Syria's hospitals and schools called 'war crimes'

[John]

16-Feb-16 World View -- Missile strikes on Syria's hospitals and schools called 'war crimes'


China's massive lending binge: four times as much as forecast

** 16-Feb-16 World View -- Missile strikes on Syria's hospitals and schools called 'war crimes'
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ ... tm#e160216


Contents:
Missile strikes on Syria's hospitals and schools called 'war crimes'
China to substantially increase military budget as army restructures
China's massive lending binge: four times as much as forecast


Keys:
Generational Dynamics, Syria, Aleppo, Azaz, Bashar al-Assad,
Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, Doctors without Borders,
China, Xi Jinping

[Guest]

John, do you believe all the Internet conspiracy talk about China and Russia adopting a gold standard? And would it work? Who could trust China and Russia to redeem gold on demand? Do you think that any country will return to a gold standard?

[John]

> John, do you believe all the Internet conspiracy talk about China
> and Russia adopting a gold standard? And would it work? Who could
> trust China and Russia to redeem gold on demand? Do you think that
> any country will return to a gold standard?

First off, Russia and China hate each other, so any strategic deal
between the two will be short-lived.

The whole concept of a "gold standard" is complete nonsense.

The total amount of gold that's ever been mined is worth about $8
trillion. That's a tiny fraction of all the currency in the world.

For example, the news story that you're responding to says that China
is "printing" 2.51 trillion yuan ($385.6 billion). Under a gold
standard, they'd be required to back that currency with gold. Since
there's no gold available, they'd have to back the new money with
something else, say, gold certificates issued in lieu of gold. But
then the gold certificates just become another "fiat" currency.

Then there's the problem that anyone can create new money. If I lend
you a dollar and you give me an IOU for a dollar, then we've created a
dollar of new money. You have a dollar you didn't have before, and I
have the same amount of money since I have a security (the IOU) worth
a dollar. Do that a million times, and we've created a million new
dollars. Banks, real estate firms, and hedge funds have an unlimited
ability to do that kind of thing, and the only thing preventing it is
ethics, morals, and fear of being prosecuted, and if all of those are
lacking then a disaster is inevitable.

Every bubble -- Tulipomania, South Sea Bubble, French Revolution,
Panic of 1857, 1929 -- was based one way or another on securitization
of debt, consolidation of securities, and some permutations of
consolidated securities. This creates massive amounts of new money,
and when the bills come due, those debts become worthless, and so do
the consolidated securities and permutated securities. All that new
money disappears, causing massive deflation and financial disaster. A
"gold standard" is completely irrelevant to this process.

[Guest]

Marc Faber said a a conference a few years ago that if they made gold $10,000 an ounce (or higher), then the gold standard would be feasible. Do you believe fiat currencies are here to stay?

What do you think of going cashless? I think cashless socities are dangerous because the government could turn off your money supply at will. Dissidents would starve.