We went from #1 creditor nation to #1 debtor nation while Reagan was in office. It was probably lend-lease that made us rich. Deuteronomy says to lend but do not borrow. I don’t think we have a solution. If we had free land, homeless people could start a homestead. Space being the last frontier is all pie in the sky.
“Just weights and measures” is all about fair trade and fair competition. What do you mean by fiat money? Money is just the lubricant that makes trade easier. The problem is with shortages making everyone poorer. Divide all land equally… among 6 billion people and each person gets about 4 acres including mountains deserts and frozen tundra. More economic justice helps but it can’t reduce the cost of living which should be zero. The solution will be burn everything up with super volcanoes and give people like-new planets when they are allowed to live
About the Gold Standard: I use to think it was a good idea, but not any longer. Deflation is all bad. I think the federal reserve blew it by making inflation too low. They are trying to keep it at 2% but that collapsed the housing market and deflation on the biggest market. When the advise of leading economist is to not spend money you know that deflation is happening. I saw them on AOL advising people to not invest in houses or education but put them in T-bills. Money will continue to be uninvested in anything but T-bills as long as deflation is happening.
Demand side says it is the quantity of spending. Supply side says it is the quantity of investing. It is not the quantity of either, it is the quality of both. In other words, “waste not, want not”.
Too many farmers invest in too many tractors and have an over supply of food which is what caused the great depression in the first place. In other words, supply side economics is totally bogus and economists don’t know what they are talking about.
People put their life savings in houses and are being trapped by deflation because the Federal Reserve Board doesn’t know how to correctly measure inflation. Houses have become worth less than their mortgages and people are being ruined by this mistake.
Steady inflation does not hurt anybody because everyone knows what to expect as stated in economics text books. However, like I said several years ago, 2 digit inflation is too high for people to like making capital investments. I’m suggesting that 2% is too low because it is measured wrong and shortages are forcing a rising cost of living that is not controlled by what you value money at. Real wages go down when the cost of living goes up no matter what the value of money is. Period.
