Iran is accepting and encouraging other currencies, other than the dollar, for its oil. Oil has been propping up the dollar’s value for a long time and this is a huge threat to the dollar. Iraq did this in 2000 and we all know what happened to them (they were attacked and the US seized control and priced oil in dollars again).
I’m guessing the US will be attacking very soon. It’s not going to be a good day.
I’m VERY far from being an economist but it seems like now they can bite the hand that used to feed them… As far as I know the extremist muslims issue is just a part of the problem, the other being that they can’t know what the feeding hand was used for previously and they don’t know the stuff they where fed with. (I’m “pushing the metaphore”)
Does this mean that the dollar exchange rate’s gonna decrease? Which would mean changing your money into a different currency if you wanna keep your assets relatively intact, right?
The rats want to know if it’s time to flee the sinking ship.
Edit: Not good about the war.
Good thing I paid for my Killimanjaro trip yesterday then.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7374585792978336967
Watch this for an amusing look at the dollar/oil reasoning behind the invasion of Iraq and the escalation of tensions between the US and Iran and Venezuela (Who have also begun trading oil in other currencies).
Fiat money is a sinking ship. You should never have any assets in something that is guaranteed to decrease in value. All fiat currencies do.
If you need a stable store of value, you should have all your assets in a basket of commodities. If you want to invest and take the risk associated with it, you should put your assets in stocks, futures, and similar riskier investments.
When the US used gold and silver for it’s currency, before the federal reserve, the prices of items decreased in value about a third (since the formation of the US). After the federal reserve and through the psuedo-gold standard and then the purely debt-standard, the prices have increased about 20 times.
Making money is good, by the Fed I mean
Counterfeiting may ruin the “money supply -Fed system”. Other then that, it beats the old "gold and silver is real money ", system , because it can grow.
If you want to buy and horde metals,… no one is stopping you. You are free.
Because the economy -population- GNP- everything grows each year, each year the “Fed” , expands the money supply, by telling the Mint to print "extra ", new money.
If new money cannot be "created ", by some reliable entity, it will cause a money shortage,…like the 30’s depression.
To keep prices stable, when the economy expands 5% a year, the money supply should be increased the same amount.
Unless I’m misreading your post, you are INCREDIBLY wrong. And if I am, please correct me. You’re completely forgetting inflation (which is caused in large part by using paper money in the first place). You’re talking about nominal GDP, which is the GDP in today’s dollars. The only useful number is real GDP, which has been adjusted for inflation.
Pretend we live in a little mini community, with 5 people. I’m the government, and you and 3 friends are the citizens. We use brown pebbles to trade for goods and services that we want. Let’s just say that this is a very naturally equal economy, and you all have 5 pebbles. Now pretend I try to make everyone richer by giving each person 5 more pebbles that I found by the ocean. Is anyone really richer? You all have more money, but do you have more purchasing power? If everyone has more money, it doesn’t matter.
Cool way to think about it.
But if you just use your pebbles to get goods and services (and don’t share or let people know where you got the “counterfits”), even though it’s wrong, you are wealthier. So wealth is theft.
Well, I’ll change it to something that only I control in this little community. Water bottles, for instance. Only I can make them, and only mine are valid as currency.
And they are accepted as currency? Even if you make thousands for yourself, and use them to trade for ALL the goods and services?
Then you are TRULY WEALTHY!!
But that’s just good business. I could do the same with widgets.
So who gets to use this newly created money then?
Hording something is not a problem because if one commodity is no longer a common money used in barter, then a new commodity will become predominant. The market will choose the best things to use. It just so happens that time after time, gold and silver have been the naturally occuring commodities of exchange. Nobody can just create more gold and silver without real effort (mining and refining), so nobody can just create new money and have the luxury of having an unlimited supply of money to use first before everyone else sees the effect of more money in the society (inflation). Storing value does not have to be in a single commodity. We can own many commodies, exchange them for the commonly used currency (gold or silver?) and use it at a store. We’d be exchanging something that has intrinsic value, instead of exchanging a near worthless piece of paper that only derives its value because we can use it to pay taxes.
The great depression was not caused by a lack of new money creation. It was caused because the money supply was retracted by the Federal Reserve. They shrank the money supply. When there is no money available for people to use, they have a hard time buying things and paying workers.
Just as Thomas Jefferson warned us, if we let the bankers control the creation of money, first by inflation and then deflation, we will be homeless. That’s what happened in the US. The Federal Reserve Bank (a private organization) took control of the money supply, inflated it (1913-1929), then deflated it (great depression), and then the US declared bankruptcy in the 1930s, and our country has since been under the control of our creditors and we have been enslaved from birth to repay our debt.
It’s obvious.
The 14 english marinemen + 1 marinewomen… why were they so suddenly released?
Why were suddenly these Irani diplomats* released, that were hostaged and datained for long in Abu Ghraib (without charges)?
Maybe because Russian intelligence said that the US would strike Iran, possibly with a nuclear weapon, at 4 am on Good Friday.
No, I think it was just a simple trade of prisoners.
Nuke? That maybe could happen if the roles were changed and Iran would hostage US diplomats and put them in jail without any trail. Though nuking is a very powerfull and totally unaccepted method.
Anyway, it’s a good moment to focus attention to media from Iran.
I bet “W” will invade Iran just before he leaves the White House.
The US attack was not because of the hostages, but releasing them just before the time attack would have happened may delay any attack as it would be harder to sell to the public on the reason of attack.
Yes, that last part (sell the public the reason of attack) need some more media manipulation and brain-spoiling.
But the longer that takes the more time Iran has to keep developing.
I still don’t get what’s wrong with making prisoners (when your diplomats are treated much worser).
Or what’s wrong with having nucliar programs (when those who forbid are doing the same or even worse).
The US is controlled by imperialists that are doing some empire building. Oil is the gold of today, so anything that is being done by a country that has lots of oil will be manipulated by the imperialists so that they can justify an attack to expand.
Even trading oil in Euro’s in stead of USD’s (as decided by the OPEC)?
They would not justify an attack based on that.
But it is cause for the US to be the pawn that attacks.