$100 Dollar Bill Toilet Paper
If you want to show your contempt for currency and feel that the dollar is devalued, you can use it to wipe your bottom on and express your true feelings about the state of the financial system!
Also available in euros.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Toilet Paper Money
Fiat Currency: Using the Past to See into the Future
The history of fiat money, to put it kindly, has been one of failure. In fact, EVERY fiat currency since the Romans first began the practice in the first century has ended in devaluation and eventual collapse, of not only the currency, but of the economy that housed the fiat currency as well.
A short article explaining what happens when banks create money out of thin air.
The history of fiat money, to put it kindly, has been one of failure. In fact, EVERY fiat currency since the Romans first began the practice in the first century has ended in devaluation and eventual collapse, of not only the currency, but of the economy that housed the fiat currency as well.
A short article explaining what happens when banks create money out of thin air.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Fiat money alchemy
Gold Coin Vending Machine Offers Profit in Case of a Bank Run
The Stuttgart-based company just unveiled its first prototype at the Frankfurt airport, which offers a 1g gold wafer for €30, a 10g bar for €245, or gold coins. The machines are wired to monitor current gold prices and adjust their rates accordingly.
Thomas Geissler, who owns TG-Gold-Super-Markt, told The Telegraph, "German investors have always preferred to hold a lot of personal wealth in gold, for historical reasons. They have twice lost everything. Gold is a good thing to have in your pocket in uncertain times.
Doesn't it seem kind of twisted to make the spectre of a financial crash into a glittering vending machine offering salvation in the event of a bank run?
Can you imagine the scene if banks started putting these things outside their front doors?
The Stuttgart-based company just unveiled its first prototype at the Frankfurt airport, which offers a 1g gold wafer for €30, a 10g bar for €245, or gold coins. The machines are wired to monitor current gold prices and adjust their rates accordingly.
Thomas Geissler, who owns TG-Gold-Super-Markt, told The Telegraph, "German investors have always preferred to hold a lot of personal wealth in gold, for historical reasons. They have twice lost everything. Gold is a good thing to have in your pocket in uncertain times.
Doesn't it seem kind of twisted to make the spectre of a financial crash into a glittering vending machine offering salvation in the event of a bank run?
Can you imagine the scene if banks started putting these things outside their front doors?
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Zimbabwe Times
Improbable research: the hundred trillion dollar book
Gideon Gono, author of the new book Zimbabwe's Casino Economy – Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges, displays a rare, perhaps unique, kind of scholarly reserve. Since December 2003, Gono has been the governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank.
Two weeks ago, Gono was awarded the 2009 Ig Nobel prize in mathematics. The Ig Nobel citation lauds him for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers – from very small to very big – by having his bank print banknotes with denominations ranging from one cent to 100 trillion dollars.
During 2007 and 2008, Zimbabwe's inflation rate rose past Olympian heights: topping 231m%, by Gono's reckoning; and reaching 89,700,000,000tr%, according to a study done by Dr Steve H Hanke of Johns Hopkins University and the Cato Institute.
The book explains that every larger, richer country will face the same problems...
Gideon Gono, author of the new book Zimbabwe's Casino Economy – Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges, displays a rare, perhaps unique, kind of scholarly reserve. Since December 2003, Gono has been the governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank.
Two weeks ago, Gono was awarded the 2009 Ig Nobel prize in mathematics. The Ig Nobel citation lauds him for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers – from very small to very big – by having his bank print banknotes with denominations ranging from one cent to 100 trillion dollars.
During 2007 and 2008, Zimbabwe's inflation rate rose past Olympian heights: topping 231m%, by Gono's reckoning; and reaching 89,700,000,000tr%, according to a study done by Dr Steve H Hanke of Johns Hopkins University and the Cato Institute.
The book explains that every larger, richer country will face the same problems...
distortion economy
State should have let banks fail, says Nobel-winning economist
"I find it very ironic that people who have always been in favour of market economics all of a sudden suspended the rules of capitalism. It really undermines the functioning of the economy. It's a distortion to the economy."
But his comments came as a security analyst in London said troops would have had to be deployed on the streets if the government in Britain had let large banks there fail.
"I find it very ironic that people who have always been in favour of market economics all of a sudden suspended the rules of capitalism. It really undermines the functioning of the economy. It's a distortion to the economy."
But his comments came as a security analyst in London said troops would have had to be deployed on the streets if the government in Britain had let large banks there fail.
More light reading - 2
Chris Dodd: Confidence Man
What does it mean to “have confidence” in a private, voluntary, free market transaction?
If you deposit money in an ATM, how can you be confident that the cash you put in will be available to you later?
If you pay an insurance company for future protection, how can you be confident it won’t go out of business?
If you invest in the stock market, how can you be confident you won’t lose money?
What does it mean to “have confidence” in a private, voluntary, free market transaction?
If you deposit money in an ATM, how can you be confident that the cash you put in will be available to you later?
If you pay an insurance company for future protection, how can you be confident it won’t go out of business?
If you invest in the stock market, how can you be confident you won’t lose money?
No running please! (update)
Dutch central bank takes over DSB - oct 12
“The bank called for the emergency measure [to take control] due to a large outflow of liquidity that endangered the continued existence of DSB over the short term,” the central bank said in a statement.
Nout Wellink, president of the central bank, said DSB was now under administration in a process likely to lead to liquidation.
DSB boss took millions from 'his' bank - oct 13
On Monday, the bank was put under central bank control and administrators were appointed. The intervention followed a run on savings. In total, over €600m was removed from the bank over the past few days.
All savings at the bank have now been frozen and bank customers can use their bank cards to withdraw a maximum €750 - or €250 a day - before Wednesday afternoon.
Savers with up to €100,000 in the bank will be able to get their money back under the country's deposit guarantee scheme. But some 4,000 people with savings in excess of this amount are likely to lose the rest.
And some 4,000 people with subordinated deposits, which earned interest of around 6.5%, are not covered by the guarantee scheme at all.
Too late... the runnings all done... the fat cat got the cash... and the small guys are left waiting.
“The bank called for the emergency measure [to take control] due to a large outflow of liquidity that endangered the continued existence of DSB over the short term,” the central bank said in a statement.
Nout Wellink, president of the central bank, said DSB was now under administration in a process likely to lead to liquidation.
DSB boss took millions from 'his' bank - oct 13
On Monday, the bank was put under central bank control and administrators were appointed. The intervention followed a run on savings. In total, over €600m was removed from the bank over the past few days.
All savings at the bank have now been frozen and bank customers can use their bank cards to withdraw a maximum €750 - or €250 a day - before Wednesday afternoon.
Savers with up to €100,000 in the bank will be able to get their money back under the country's deposit guarantee scheme. But some 4,000 people with savings in excess of this amount are likely to lose the rest.
And some 4,000 people with subordinated deposits, which earned interest of around 6.5%, are not covered by the guarantee scheme at all.
Too late... the runnings all done... the fat cat got the cash... and the small guys are left waiting.
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