[ale] those of you reading this while within US jurisdiction should have a care....

[Christopher Ness]

On Wednesday 16 October 2002 04:33 pm, Kilroy, Chris wrote:

Since ALE is supporting this discussion this far, I will throw my two cents 
(copper) in. I am not normally a gold bug - in fact, I own none. And only two 
silver dollars. But...
In many respects we are harvesting the results of actions under two different 
Presidents from before most of us were born. First Frankin Roosevelt took us 
off the gold standard  And then Richard Nixon finished the job by making 
money no longer redeemable in Silver. That left our currency supported by 
nothing but "the full faith and credit of the United States of America".  At 
its simplest level, right now people have no faith in the US of A. Even 
writing that makes me nervous, but how else can you explain people running 
away from investing in our country and its businesses. People should be 
buying stocks now while they are "on a 50% sale". Coca-Cola (which dropped 
10% today) is selling just as much Coca-Cola as they ever have. Home Depot is 
selling a little more than they have as people fix things rather than buy. 
The Southern Company sells more kilowatts every single day.  But since we 
have no faith we are not going to buy stocks until somehow magically, the 
price goes back up to overpriced levels when the public will buy again.

The other thing that currency is is a marker for my labor in a barter economy. 
I will run cat 5 through your building in return for a potato grown by a 
farmer in Idaho who will who buys a tractor from a plant in Moline Illinois 
that uses software coded by one of you who needs the cat5. But this too 
requires faith. Faith that each of us will be there and willing to hold that 
dollar until you use it when it will still have value. Well, right now we 
aren't worried that the dollar is inflating and losing value. We are worrying 
that when this dollar goes away, we won't get another. For whatever reason, 
we worry about this. Whether that reason is that we fear war, or terrorists, 
or the DMCA, or Government expansion, or stock fraud, or the histerysis loop 
of all histerysis loops, the fear that the economy will never come back, the 
results are the same - the economy is in retreat. It will stay that way until 
we, the people have Faith again or until there is something that we value.

The politicians aren't going to do it for us - the only power they have is to 
bribe us with other peoples money which when you examine it closely is only 
your own money with a few pieces removed and used to bribe other voters. 
Neither they nor Allen Greenspan make real money. The Federal Reserve Bank's 
money that they loan the Federal Government is still only promises against 
the future. So right now the Politicians are discovering they don't have the 
money coming in in taxes to make these bribes. They could borrow it from the 
FRB, but the problem there is that like a young person with his first credit 
card, we are overborrowed as a nation. Those minimum patments are too much 
for us so even with the lower "Teaser" interest rates that Greenspan is 
offering, we can't afford another loan. So once more it comes down to us - 
You and Me.
 
The following is principally directed to Robert Harris as he is the principal 
whiner about what Bush and Greenspan have done to him:
You are still alive. You still have a mind. You are apparently physically 
able.  Get out there and make something. Or write something.  Or do something 
on spec. If you have something of value to offer people, something that they 
will value, they will buy. If you wait for a "company to give you a job", 
prepare for a long wait.

Thus endeth the sermon of the day.





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