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    Money Mayhem: The Bewildering Consequences of Cutting Money Free
    Money Mayhem: The Bewildering Consequences of Cutting Money Free
    Money Mayhem: The Bewildering Consequences of Cutting Money Free
    Ebook54 pages34 minutes

    Money Mayhem: The Bewildering Consequences of Cutting Money Free

    By John Looby

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    The world changed on 15 August 1971. After almost a quarter of a millennium broadly tied to gold, the money of the world was cut free. The consequences have been dramatic and far-reaching. The United States is now in the unprecedented position of being the issuer of an unanchored global reserve currency. By contrast, and however reluctantly, the rest of the world is now in the unenviable position of being the forced user of the unmoored US dollar. Developments as disparate and apparently unrelated as the outcome of the Cold War, the accelerating pattern of boom, bubble & bust, and the stunning rise of China stem directly from that historic, and historically recent, decision. Since that seminal night in the White House, we are all hostage to a compellingly incentivised and bewilderingly diverse money creation machine, effectively unhindered from exploiting a stacked heads I win / tails you lose relationship with the rest of society. Contrary to much conventional economic thinking, the accelerating pattern of boom, bubble & bust should be little surprise as the political and monetary authorities in whom we trust are little more than impotent accommodators of an unmoored monetary mayhem beyond their control; a mayhem, in truth, beyond any control.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOak Tree Press
    Release dateJul 21, 2018
    ISBN9781781193570
    Money Mayhem: The Bewildering Consequences of Cutting Money Free

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      Book preview

      Money Mayhem - John Looby

      2018

      INTRODUCTION

      The world changed on 15 August 1971. After almost a quarter of a millennium broadly tied to gold, the money of the world was cut free. The consequences have been dramatic and far-reaching. And we are still grappling with them.

      The pressured decision of an ultimately disgraced US President a mere generation ago to break with centuries of accepted wisdom changed our world – and continues to profoundly affect our lives.

      Developments as disparate and apparently unrelated as the outcome of the Cold War, the accelerating pattern of boom, bubble & bust, and the stunning rise of China stem directly from that historic, and historically recent, decision.

      Since that seminal night in the White House, we are all hostage to a compellingly incentivised and bewilderingly diverse money creation machine. Moreover, the political and monetary authorities in whom we trust are little more than impotent accommodators of an unmoored monetary mayhem beyond their control; a mayhem, in truth, beyond any control.

      PROLOGUE

      The fall of Rome in 476 AD is one of the most significant and widely debated events in history. For many, the progressive collapse of the monetary economy played a pivotal role in the descent of much of Europe into the Dark Ages.

      The purity and weight – in other words, the intrinsic value – of the silver denarius had been sacrosanct to Romans for centuries. As a unit of account, a means of exchange and a store of value, it played a key role in the monetary stability and economic success of the greatest Empire the world had ever known.

      This began to change in 64 AD, following the great fire that destroyed much of the eternal city. Rather than raise taxes to fund the massive re-building work, the pressured Emperor Nero chose to scale back the purity and weight of the silver denarius. The long journey towards monetary collapse had begun.

      By the late 3rd century, the silver denarius had been debased to the point that it contained just 0.02% of silver, and confidence in its value had all but evaporated. The economic destruction wrought on the middle class and their savings had brought the Empire to the brink of civil breakdown. The attempt by the Emperor Diocletian to stabilise the economy by rebasing the denarius to close to its intrinsic value proved a jolting failure, as the lack of silver caused trade and activity to contract sharply.

      Falling tax revenues eventually forced direct state appropriation of cattle and food and the consequent abandonment of land. This progressive collapse of the monetary economy helped fracture the weakening Empire, before it finally succumbed to the Barbarian onslaught.

      The collapse of classical civilisation into the often-chaotic world of the Middle Ages unleashed enormous political, economic and social change. However, the challenge of successfully grappling with issues of money and value remained just as pressing as in the days of Diocletian.

      A brief glance at monetary history confirms the regularity of dramatic upheaval. Periods of gold or other intrinsic standards have gyrated or co-existed with periods of private credit or sovereign money systems. Ultimately, the power of the sovereign to decide what it will accept

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