Forum Post: All terms of money should be translated into Years at Minimum Wage.
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 3, 2011, 9:08 p.m. EST by Cayce
(83)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
$800,000,000,000.00 Bail Out = 53,050,397 years at 7.25 per hour.
The TARP authorization from Congress was for $700 billion ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program ). We have yet to spend it all, and we've already received payments with interest exceeding the amount "lent." The lending of this "money" was worth it compared to the consequences we suffered at the start of the Great Depression when we REFUSED in inject liquidity into the system (under pressure from Hoover and his Secretary of Treasury and Comptroller of the Currency who both sat on on the Governing Board of the Federal Reserve) and let the banking system collapse per "free market" principles.
Note the Banking act of 1935 (as I recall) REMOVED the Secretary of Treasury and Comptroller of the Currency, both short term political appointees, from the Governing Board of the Federal Reserve specifically to PREVENT political interference in the operation of the Federal Reserve. This was a "lesson learned" from the Depression that many who ask for more "transparency" and "oversight" of the Federal Reserve fail to appreciate.
Finally, it's worth noting that the "money" we "lent" was actually nothing more than a balance sheet transaction between computers. $800 billion is represented by 40 bits of information in a computer memory occupying a few nanometers of silicon and consuming a few nano-watts of power. Nevertheless, we got back more "bits of wealth" than we transferred.
How can we do all this with such impunity? The dollar is the world's reserve currency, and it seems for now at least, we can create extra "bits of wealth" without much impact on the value of the dollar. Even after "Quantitative Easing," the dollar remains strong. Google "US Dollar" and look at it's relative purchasing power vs the other currencies of the world.
This nifty situation we enjoy comes with a price. Google "Bretton Woods" and then "Triffin Dilemma" to understand the forces that drive us to print dollars in sufficient quantity to support the expansion of the world's economy growth. We will someday lose the privileges associated with being the reserve currency as the IMF's SDRs are phased in, but will we gain the freedom to pursue monetary policy in America's local interests in return. This transition will take a long time, but it's already under way.
Don't sweat the bail-outs. They were both necessary and appropriate, and they involved nothing more that ledger sheet entries on a few nanometers of silicon.
you don't understand much do you? i mean about anything. if you're going to try and me a smart rhetorical douchebag at least keep the facts consistent.
protip: look at the correlation of BRIC central bank USD accumulation and federal reserve open market operations since 2008. (this is the part that demonstrates I'm smarter than you)
OK. Since your objective is to prove your worth, I concede. Feel better ?
The ability to take an example "money = time" and write with such intensity gives me a lot of respect for you and what you do. You are great at facts, what about ideas?
How would you define money?
See my post and the discussions at http://occupywallst.org/forum/what-is-money/ .
Money is just a token we use to facilitate commerce, and it has no intrinsic value. This becomes even more evident when one considers that the majority of the world's "monetary wealth" is actually just digits in computer memories.
Money is just a translation of time or ideas into numbers in which we can buy the things we need or want.
I trade my time and ideas for money in order to trade my money for food and housing.
OK, but do the little tokens or numbers have intrinsic value, or is the REAL value measured by the goods and services exchanged ?
All terms of money NEED to be translated to "legal tender" then people need to do some homework and study just exactly what legal tender is..........