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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark via extropy-chat<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, May 24, 2020 10:57 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Cc:</b> John Clark <johnkclark@gmail.com><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Summer weather and COVID-19<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>On Sun, May 24, 2020 at 12:32 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span class=gmaildefault><i><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>> </span></i></span><i>There is good reason why they can’t just print money based on nothing. We can’t manufacture wheelbarrows fast enough.</i><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…You're</span></span><span style='font-size:13.5pt'> worrying about the wrong thing</span><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>, t</span></span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>here has never been a time in American history when interest rates were lower or inflation was less than right now.</span><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>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.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>>…And even in the worse inflation in American history </span><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>it</span></span><span style='font-size:13.5pt'> was less than 20%, I</span><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> really </span></span><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>think we can make wheelbarrows fast enough to keep up with that</span><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>, although if your suggestion is followed the uprising from millions of penyless unemployed may cause a shortage of guillotines.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmaildefault><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>John K Clark<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>