[ExI] Summer weather and COVID-19

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark via extropy-chat
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2020 10:57 AM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Summer weather and COVID-19

 

On Sun, May 24, 2020 at 12:32 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

 

> There is good reason why they can’t just print money based on nothing.  We can’t manufacture wheelbarrows fast enough.

 

>…You're worrying about the wrong thing, there has never been a time in American history when interest rates were lower or inflation was less than right now.Herbert Hoover thought as you do and figured that the way to deal with the economic difficulties of 1929 was to increase  tariffs and drastically cut government spending, and he succeeded in turning a garden variety recession into a worldwide Great Depression.

 

>…And even in the worse inflation in American history it was less than 20%, I really think we can make wheelbarrows fast enough to keep up with that, although if your suggestion is followed the uprising from millions of penyless unemployed may cause a shortage of guillotines.

 

John K Clark

 

 

 

Trying to print our way out of trouble is robbing those whose wealth is largely in the form of currency: the lower-end wage earners.  Pensioners and those who depend on annuities have few options: they feel the pain we heard so much about in the late 70s.  Those most in debt were in good shape: they were able to pay back with smaller dollars.  

 

People of my parents’ generation were nearly unanimous in their advice: buy the biggest home you can possibly afford, then borrow against the house as often as you can, for inflation will come along and make you a hero.  I did neither of these, for I realized high inflation and high interest rates are never guaranteed.  I bought a modest home and eschewed debt at every opportunity.  I was holding fixed-rate bonds in 2008, when the unforeseen happened: interest rates dropped to impossibly low levels and have stayed there ever since.  Inflation never came, and that counter-strategy made me a hero.

 

I freely admit in retrospect I got really lucky.  But my notion has always been the same: technology comes along and makes things more efficient, economies grow.  Until they don’t anymore.

 

There is no magic to a printing press.  The government can print money but it cannot print wealth.  Minting too much currency is the Sheriff of Nottingham approach: it robs from the poor and gives to the rich.

 

spike

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