Quote from: evoorhees on July 07, 2011, 09:34:04 PM

Speculators make markets MORE stable, not less. Or perhaps I should rephrase that - they make markets more rational, because when a speculator sees a price he deems "irrational" he can take a financial position in the other direction and profit if he's correct. This incentive encourages people to critically asses the market in question. A market in which speculation was difficult would be a market I'd be less confident in.

For commodities markets, sure. For a fledgling currency? Not so much. There's a reason that early on, currencies have always had to be backed by something tangible: it allows a consistent, stable value for the currency to exist right out of the gate, so people don't have to worry that they're going to be stuck with worthless paper if they accept it for their goods and services. It's like training wheels on a bike -- you really need extra stability at first to build confidence.

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Protip: name-calling is unnecessary. I'm not going to call you a "nutter-butter" just because you believe economies should be centrally-planned.

If it helps, I meant nutter-butter in the nicest possible way. Cheesy

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People have this impression that the dollar has been around for hundreds of years and has proven its trustworthiness. They do not realize that it has only been a mere 35 years since it was disconnected from gold. The USD, in its current form, is only 35 years old, and given the fact that the US Gov is in debt far beyond what it can repay without printing the money (especially if interest rates rise), and that other nations are growing increasingly skeptical about its place as the world reserve currency, you will see the dollar in a long-term decline over the coming two decades. This decline could turn into a collapse very quickly as the vast sums held in reserves are sold by nations who increasingly prefer to trade without US dollars.

What other currency is the rest of the world going to switch over to? Euros? Yuan? Yen? The USD is still far and away the safest place for other nations' currency reserves.

I agree that our national debt is getting too large and we need to reduce our deficit to avoid getting ourselves into hot water down the road, but it's hardly the impending apocalypse you're trying to portray it as. As for your 35 year argument, you're trying to create a more uncertain image for the USD than is realistic. It's not like there was some fundamental shift in the 70's where people were marching down to the bank to get their gold every week and suddenly couldn't because of this massive paradigm shift. The government simply realized that keeping large reserves of gold was unnecessary -- the training wheels could be taken off and the bike would keep rolling along just fine. Which it has, and will continue to do. Better, in fact, because now without the training wheels you can do maneuvers you couldn't do (like avoid a full blown economic depression).