As a boy, in the early 1950s, I had a severe addiction to m&ms. a bag for a a nickel had a good amount. I am lucky that passion has passed as now one cannot afford to become pre-diabetic.
I have watched my country become poorer and the wars, none of which we have in any since won, become stupider.
close parallel or correlation between the economic impact of the ‘unit of account’ and ‘store of value’ function of the coinage of 16th and 17th Century Spain, and the effect upon the economy of the United States today of the reserve currency status of the $US.
The $US has been since 1971 purely a fiat currency, not backed by gold or silver, but merely by the good faith of the United States government, so the United States, because other countries are for the moment prepared to accept dollars as payment for their exports, can obtain useful and beneficial goods and services in exchange for pieces of paper, rather than pieces of eight.
Spain didn’t have that option, and from early modern times until the 19th century, and throughout the period of its empire in South America, operated a bi-metallic coinage system, with silver coins being used for day-to-day transactions, and gold Escudos for larger ones; ie the Spanish currency had a ‘real’ value, and not just a nominal value, and could be melted down for use as jewellery, or for other purposes according to the wish of the holder, but couldn’t merely be conjured up out of thin air.
Because of the high standard and consistent level of purity of the Spanish coinage both Reales and Escudos were widely accepted internationally, and both silver and gold flowed freely into and out of Spain in the form of specie.
In economic terms the impact of such large inflows of precious metals was an increase in the level of prices due simply to a supply and demand effect, and this price inflation spread from Spain to the rest of Europe, as new and increased supplies of silver and gold followed the intra-European trade routes.
The actual parallel between early-modern Spain and the United States in the 21st Century is perhaps that both countries, then and now, chose to waste immense resources in pointless and ultimately unsuccessful military adventures, and in pursuit of unachievable goals and objectives.
Had they instead chosen to focus their resources in the development of their domestic economies, the world would be a very different place, so perhaps that’s the lesson that the United States could learn from the Spanish experience.
All currency, yes, even gold and silver are fiat currency, holding value only because we define them as such. Nothing whatsoever descends to us from Heaven stamped with God's seal of value.
Except that our military adventures have been pretty most parts of GDP, not, I'd argue the most important of fiscal policy that just refuses to collect enough in revenue to pay for non-investment expenditures.
The Spanish Empire did not "collapse". It stumbled on past the Spanish Golden Age for generations though the English, French and Dutch took a few nibbles out of it in the Caribbean. Spain only lost the bulk of its empire courtesy of Napoleon who triggered civil war in Spain when he tried to put his brother on the throne and meanwhile in the New World the colonies decided it was time for independence. It was the US in 1898 which gave what was left the coup de grace.
As for the US, it does not have an empire, unless you count a few little possessions of which Puerto Rico is the largest. I certainly hope does not have ambitions to create a true American Empire-- the time for such things is now past, and even in the golden age of empires it was often true that it cost more to hold onto foreign provinces than any proifit gained thereby.
You mentioned Detroit's car industry and collapse and the strong dollar, I remember once seeing a price comparison for top-end luxury cars in France in the early '60s (so about ten years before the bottom fell out of the US car industry) on Curbside Classics a couple of years ago, and the Cadillac Eldorado of the day was nearly as expensive in France (obviously not in the US!) as a Facel Vega or Rolls-Royce—and rich French people still bought them!
Forgive the bluntness below. All of you need to know some very basic truths about America.
No. This analogy and the assumptions are wrong.
The regime of Tariffs Trump overturns was reverse Tariffs directed against the American people by American globalists, who hate us insanely. This being a unique historical development-Elites that Genocidally hate their own people-your analogy fails.
Unless you can find another example in history, I cannot.
What Trump is really doing is extracting a real Tribute that pays America instead of allies buying US Treasury bonds that we the taxpayers pay interest on, last year we paid $1,250,000,000,000 in interest on those bonds.
$1.25 Trillion dollars.
So YES EUROS, we’re done paying you and doing most of the dying too. No more 🩸and no more 💰💵. However-
Trump offers 0% tariffs if you build factories in the United States, and yes hire Americans as workers.
The other bad assumption is that we America are an Empire. That word was never used until the last decade, indeed it’s only in common usage with EU countries, our own 🇺🇸 people recoil at it still, just as no Emperor was ever so degraded as to call himself Rex - King - no American says this… the closest ever were the drunken Madeleines Albanian Albrights and Clinton coke heads saying “hegemony.” The sight of swaying crones and eunuchs warm not our hearts.
Finally please understand the map and the resources and the balance of American trade are American; we not only have no need of Empire we cannot indulge it further.
You cannot appeal to an Empire that is recoiling at the real costs and finds the very word repulsive, especially as the Senatorial class you are in this strange loop of mutual extortion has utterly lost its fighters and workers and taxpayers. I like you but look how bluntly I make the case regardless. Yankee is going home, our own elites utterly betrayed us, were they not so feeble they’d be lining the lampposts.
===============
Now it gets worse… this man Trump is now trapped by the Epstein scandal and his own experience of being falsely accused checks him from ruining others who are blameless.
Now Trump is merely the Usher of the inevitable doom of all these lies he’s exposed, but given the correlation of forces* he certainly must have expected his own doom. He’s opened up 80 and more years of lies and frauds covering up more lies and frauds. Yes it goes back to FDR and his very first term.
It will be interesting to see if there’s either a ruthless escape or an honorable end - or both - for our Hero Don we now hunt as Vigilante out of favor, for he gives us never enough.. no politician can.
No. Until we’re spitting our own blood 🩸 these “justices” we demand our just too easy, too li
*For this analysis only a tool as cold as the Russians at their best will do…
And the decline in manufacturing jobs ("Rust Belt" "flyover country" and "Baltimore") are likewise not necessary for the US dollar/financial system to serve their various roles.
It's closer to the opposite. If the US were a higher net saving nation (in particular if our tax system did not produce a huge growth -sapping transfer of resources from investment to consumption) that would be good both for "the dollar" and tradeable goods and services vs non-tradables.
As far as I can tell 16-17th Century Spain had a "Resource Curse" which is only a curse when the necessarily temporary drawdown of the resource is not invested in growing the economy. Boy, was that the case in 16-17th Century Spain. [But thanks for containing the Ottomans. :)]
By running trade deficits since Nixon closed the gold window, the world’s poorest poor have been lifted mightily from their squalor. This is well documented. Just look at China for confirmation.
Tho it’s true that in that time the rich have gotten richer in this country, relatively speaking, running a trade deficit, like an incoming tide, raises ALL boats.
That’s a good thing for global stability as well as for common sense justice, if not also for our own sense of morality.
Triffin Dilemma as a justification for running trade deficits is a hoax with an inherent contradiction: to quote late Herbert Stein, if something can't go on forever it will stop. A country consistently running large trade deficits will either run up large debts or lose control over its assets or both (we did both) and its currency will eventually lose the reserve status. There are better ways to supply a currency to the world, such as investing into assets in other countries. The fact that the "we must run deficits" argument is being widely repeated just illustrates corruption of our politicians and much of the economic profession (which serves such politicians).
Experience shows that empires can run deficits for a long time before they are so much in debt that they must increase taxes across the board. This strangles the economy and starts an unavoidable death spiral.
As a boy, in the early 1950s, I had a severe addiction to m&ms. a bag for a a nickel had a good amount. I am lucky that passion has passed as now one cannot afford to become pre-diabetic.
I have watched my country become poorer and the wars, none of which we have in any since won, become stupider.
This is why I am chairman, CEO and only member of the neutralistassociationofthe.us.
It is probably too late, but we need to come home, adopt a neutralist foreign policy and more importantly, a neutralist ethos.
Thanks for sharing this interesting article.
I’m not entirely sure that there’s any very
close parallel or correlation between the economic impact of the ‘unit of account’ and ‘store of value’ function of the coinage of 16th and 17th Century Spain, and the effect upon the economy of the United States today of the reserve currency status of the $US.
The $US has been since 1971 purely a fiat currency, not backed by gold or silver, but merely by the good faith of the United States government, so the United States, because other countries are for the moment prepared to accept dollars as payment for their exports, can obtain useful and beneficial goods and services in exchange for pieces of paper, rather than pieces of eight.
Spain didn’t have that option, and from early modern times until the 19th century, and throughout the period of its empire in South America, operated a bi-metallic coinage system, with silver coins being used for day-to-day transactions, and gold Escudos for larger ones; ie the Spanish currency had a ‘real’ value, and not just a nominal value, and could be melted down for use as jewellery, or for other purposes according to the wish of the holder, but couldn’t merely be conjured up out of thin air.
Because of the high standard and consistent level of purity of the Spanish coinage both Reales and Escudos were widely accepted internationally, and both silver and gold flowed freely into and out of Spain in the form of specie.
In economic terms the impact of such large inflows of precious metals was an increase in the level of prices due simply to a supply and demand effect, and this price inflation spread from Spain to the rest of Europe, as new and increased supplies of silver and gold followed the intra-European trade routes.
The actual parallel between early-modern Spain and the United States in the 21st Century is perhaps that both countries, then and now, chose to waste immense resources in pointless and ultimately unsuccessful military adventures, and in pursuit of unachievable goals and objectives.
Had they instead chosen to focus their resources in the development of their domestic economies, the world would be a very different place, so perhaps that’s the lesson that the United States could learn from the Spanish experience.
All currency, yes, even gold and silver are fiat currency, holding value only because we define them as such. Nothing whatsoever descends to us from Heaven stamped with God's seal of value.
Except that our military adventures have been pretty most parts of GDP, not, I'd argue the most important of fiscal policy that just refuses to collect enough in revenue to pay for non-investment expenditures.
But noble Roman we 🇺🇸 don’t want and don’t need the Empire, nor our Tribune, nor we his Populares, nor can we afford it…
It’s MAGA not MEGA …
The Spanish Empire did not "collapse". It stumbled on past the Spanish Golden Age for generations though the English, French and Dutch took a few nibbles out of it in the Caribbean. Spain only lost the bulk of its empire courtesy of Napoleon who triggered civil war in Spain when he tried to put his brother on the throne and meanwhile in the New World the colonies decided it was time for independence. It was the US in 1898 which gave what was left the coup de grace.
As for the US, it does not have an empire, unless you count a few little possessions of which Puerto Rico is the largest. I certainly hope does not have ambitions to create a true American Empire-- the time for such things is now past, and even in the golden age of empires it was often true that it cost more to hold onto foreign provinces than any proifit gained thereby.
You mentioned Detroit's car industry and collapse and the strong dollar, I remember once seeing a price comparison for top-end luxury cars in France in the early '60s (so about ten years before the bottom fell out of the US car industry) on Curbside Classics a couple of years ago, and the Cadillac Eldorado of the day was nearly as expensive in France (obviously not in the US!) as a Facel Vega or Rolls-Royce—and rich French people still bought them!
Forgive the bluntness below. All of you need to know some very basic truths about America.
No. This analogy and the assumptions are wrong.
The regime of Tariffs Trump overturns was reverse Tariffs directed against the American people by American globalists, who hate us insanely. This being a unique historical development-Elites that Genocidally hate their own people-your analogy fails.
Unless you can find another example in history, I cannot.
What Trump is really doing is extracting a real Tribute that pays America instead of allies buying US Treasury bonds that we the taxpayers pay interest on, last year we paid $1,250,000,000,000 in interest on those bonds.
$1.25 Trillion dollars.
So YES EUROS, we’re done paying you and doing most of the dying too. No more 🩸and no more 💰💵. However-
Trump offers 0% tariffs if you build factories in the United States, and yes hire Americans as workers.
The other bad assumption is that we America are an Empire. That word was never used until the last decade, indeed it’s only in common usage with EU countries, our own 🇺🇸 people recoil at it still, just as no Emperor was ever so degraded as to call himself Rex - King - no American says this… the closest ever were the drunken Madeleines Albanian Albrights and Clinton coke heads saying “hegemony.” The sight of swaying crones and eunuchs warm not our hearts.
Finally please understand the map and the resources and the balance of American trade are American; we not only have no need of Empire we cannot indulge it further.
You cannot appeal to an Empire that is recoiling at the real costs and finds the very word repulsive, especially as the Senatorial class you are in this strange loop of mutual extortion has utterly lost its fighters and workers and taxpayers. I like you but look how bluntly I make the case regardless. Yankee is going home, our own elites utterly betrayed us, were they not so feeble they’d be lining the lampposts.
===============
Now it gets worse… this man Trump is now trapped by the Epstein scandal and his own experience of being falsely accused checks him from ruining others who are blameless.
Now Trump is merely the Usher of the inevitable doom of all these lies he’s exposed, but given the correlation of forces* he certainly must have expected his own doom. He’s opened up 80 and more years of lies and frauds covering up more lies and frauds. Yes it goes back to FDR and his very first term.
It will be interesting to see if there’s either a ruthless escape or an honorable end - or both - for our Hero Don we now hunt as Vigilante out of favor, for he gives us never enough.. no politician can.
No. Until we’re spitting our own blood 🩸 these “justices” we demand our just too easy, too li
*For this analysis only a tool as cold as the Russians at their best will do…
Thanks for teaching me about Triffin's Dilemma (now I can impress my friends with my erudition, errrr, be a pedantic bore).
Empires may come and go, but Spain's contributions to world culture include paella and Penolope Cruz, for which we should all be grateful.
And the decline in manufacturing jobs ("Rust Belt" "flyover country" and "Baltimore") are likewise not necessary for the US dollar/financial system to serve their various roles.
It's closer to the opposite. If the US were a higher net saving nation (in particular if our tax system did not produce a huge growth -sapping transfer of resources from investment to consumption) that would be good both for "the dollar" and tradeable goods and services vs non-tradables.
As far as I can tell 16-17th Century Spain had a "Resource Curse" which is only a curse when the necessarily temporary drawdown of the resource is not invested in growing the economy. Boy, was that the case in 16-17th Century Spain. [But thanks for containing the Ottomans. :)]
By running trade deficits since Nixon closed the gold window, the world’s poorest poor have been lifted mightily from their squalor. This is well documented. Just look at China for confirmation.
Tho it’s true that in that time the rich have gotten richer in this country, relatively speaking, running a trade deficit, like an incoming tide, raises ALL boats.
That’s a good thing for global stability as well as for common sense justice, if not also for our own sense of morality.
Triffin Dilemma as a justification for running trade deficits is a hoax with an inherent contradiction: to quote late Herbert Stein, if something can't go on forever it will stop. A country consistently running large trade deficits will either run up large debts or lose control over its assets or both (we did both) and its currency will eventually lose the reserve status. There are better ways to supply a currency to the world, such as investing into assets in other countries. The fact that the "we must run deficits" argument is being widely repeated just illustrates corruption of our politicians and much of the economic profession (which serves such politicians).
Experience shows that empires can run deficits for a long time before they are so much in debt that they must increase taxes across the board. This strangles the economy and starts an unavoidable death spiral.
Depends on the DWL of the taxes. :)
We 🇺🇸 cannot afford to be the world’s currency provider and the world doesn’t need our currency.
We seem to be trying to get out of this situation by being as obnoxious as possible but it’s not working fast enough.
If for example we were any worse to Germany we’d be blowing their Bunds on cocaine, strippers and tacky red sports cars…. But it’s not working.
Why won’t they let us leave?
We need this man now (best Nixon ever)
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxF3uX7ElRP_bmbCASaHqJhIlaWqyuIbAF?si=ULdIwozwqXWYlA_C