[OT] Ameros will clog the tubes - was Re: Network Neutrality

[Andy Bradford]

Thus said Nicholas Leippe on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:54:57 MST:

> Money  supplies  _must_  be  able  to  expand.  Seriously,  watch  the
> documentary. I wish everyone would.

This doesn't have anything to do with an argument against gold as money.
The supply of gold can certainly expand, at least until we've discovered
all of it. Even  then, if we had an absolute fixed  supply of money, why
_must_  it be  able to  expand? Given  a fixed  supply of  money, prices
would generally  decline over time  as productivity and  improvements in
technology  generated  more real  wealth.  Or  more  to the  point,  the
purchasing power  of said  fixed amount  of money  would be  rising over
time. And also, if  gold were suddenly no longer able  to meet the needs
of people, it would be replaced by something better, naturally.

Fiat money was not something that the people desired or demanded, and in
fact, it took ``legal tender laws'' to actually make people use it.

> 2)  Fractional  reserve banking  allows  banks  to control  the  money
> supply. (Thus  they can  facilitate transfers  of wealth  to them--the
> rich get richer)

I believe it would be more  correct to state that governments that don't
allow banks practicing in fractional reserve banking to fail when people
demand their money, is what allows banks to control the money supply.

I've watched The Money  Masters and I found it to be  less useful than a
good economics book.

Andy
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