Quote from: chemicalbruva on December 27, 2013, 01:57:53 AM

Quote from: phiche on December 27, 2013, 12:01:26 AM

Quote from: brush242 on December 25, 2013, 02:02:47 AM

The problem with this particular forum is that it seems that many (most?) of the posters don't really know the slightest thing about basic economics. Not the Austrian School, the Chicago School, Keynesian economcs, Paulsy Krugmanian, Bastiat, Hayek, Mises, Prescott, Lucas, zip. Nada. Nothing.

It reminds me of the people who will happily discuss US budgets and monetary policy, but don't know the first thing about fiat money, the Federal Reserve, what the power of the printing press actually means, or anything else. They are the same people that think that there is a Social Security "Trust Fund" and never pause to think what it would mean to loan money to themselves.

As a greater commentary, beyond this board, it's a very sad thing. This stuff is important.

And the problem with "economics" is that none of the models actually reflects what happens in the real world (maybe a silhouette at best until a bubble bursts and they all stand around looking dumbfounded wondering how did that happen because that's not in their model), and that people who call themselves "economists" are complete shams too.

Here is the reason why I'm investing more in bitcoin:

Our monetary system requires an ever expanding debt base in order to sustain itself (because money=debt). The issue is that most people, governments and companies in the western nations are so far in debt that they cannot take on the required loans to continue the expansion of the money supply to the level that is required to keep the system working. This is why central banks have had to step in with Quantitive Easing - to make up the shortfall in debt/money creation that we previously took on ourselves.

So our monetary system essentially behaves like a great big ponzie scheme (which actually broke in 2008 and has been collapsing ever since). Just wait until the Fed starts to reduce QE in 2014 - I predict markets to start going haywire and they will have step back in and actually increase the money printing to $100+ billion every month. That's when the average people (and the media) will finally realise that things have started to go really wrong, and the price of bitcoin will break into 6 figures.

Couple a monetary system that requires infinite growth with the fact that we live on a planet with finite resources and it's pretty easy to predict how it will turn out. There is nothing to be admired about anyone that calls themselves an "economist" or thinks they know about "economics".

Here is a litmus test to try out on someone who claims to be an economist: Ask them if they think economics is a science. If they say "yes", then ask them if they can explain the "scientific method". If they can explain it, then ask them why economics is taught as a "humanity" in school? If they can't explain, punch them in the face.

phiche, agree 100%

As someone who excelled at Economics in high school I have to admit that economic theory (nowadays) is but a excuse the horrific amount of financial theft taking place in today's system.
It has so little bearing on reality that economics textbooks may as well be sold in the fiction section. As a teenager, economics seemed something so noble. It was the science that explained how people connect through commerce, why currencies exist, why wealth gaps exist and how governments administrate the economy for the good of society.

When you see the sheer amount of corruption and theft at the highest level, you begin to see that all this is irrelevant.
We are all rats in an economic experiment which aims to test just how low you will go just to be able to consume more so that you can satisfy some manufactured craving. IMO, western society has been reduced to the economic formula: work->consume->die.

Hopefully, people on this forum see how cryptocurrencies can help us break out of this hypnotic cycle and start to change the world around us for the better. I don't think you need to be very knowledgeable in economics to see what is going on.

+1