[ExI] Warren Buffett is worried too and thinks Republicans are "asinine"

[John Clark]

On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 11:29 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> creationism.  The Tea Party holds no position on that subject.
>

I don't know how you determine the position of the Tea Party about anything
except by looking at the position of Tea Party members, and nearly all of
the most prominent ones are creationists, and very vocal and militant ones
too. And there is a connection, if you're irrational in one subject, like
biology, I think you're probably more likely to be irrational in another
subject, like economics. At any case it would certainly be irrational and
an avoidance of reality to claim that there is not a strong connection
between the Tea Party and creationism.

> This world must not depend on money which has value based only on trust
> and faith.
>

Spike, that's the only type of money there is and it is the only reason any
form of exchange has value.

> We need money that represents actual wealth,
>

Actual wealth? Like what, atoms that contain 79 protons and 118 neutrons?
The only reason that stuff has value is that people think it has value and
they have faith that value will continue in the future. That's why it's
money, although a form of money that is not nearly as important to the
world economy as the US dollar is. And if we go along with your plan and
dump thousands of tons on the market the faith in the future value of that
stuff will be destroyed too just like the value of the dollar, and with
nothing left to use we'll be bartering 2 skinned squirrels for one can of
beans.

> based on evidence and frequent verification by exchange.
>

The US dollar has been the backbone of world exchange for nearly a century,
and you want to destroy that and make gold worthless too. And you think the
world economy can withstand those two devastating head shots and continue
on as if nothing has happened. I think there will be blood in the streets,
in fact there would be blood in the streets today if more people had voted
Ted Cruz's way on Wednesday night.

> You have produced no evidence to convince me that we can continue to
> borrow three billion dollars a day and sustain that indefinitely.
>

I don't know about indefinitely but there is plenty of evidence it's not a
immediate problem. I'm sure you believe in the wisdom of the free market as
I do, and the market is saying that the government HAS NOT printed too much
money in the last few years; inflation is the lowest it's been in many
decades, in fact it's so low it's starting to scare economists. And
interest rates are also the lowest they've been in decades which means the
free market is not expecting inflation to pick up anytime soon.

Inflation happens when there is more money in circulation than there are
things to buy, but today it's the very opposite; there are millions of
houses with nobody living in them and factories are operating far below
their maximum capacity, the lowest level in my lifetime. Right now the big
danger is deflation not inflation.


> > My shocking theory: all governments and all nations must live within
> their means.
>

That is incorrect. The government of the USA has not lived within its means
since 1835, and yet it continues.

>All governments must balance their books,
>

No government on earth balances their books nor do they need to because
they have the power to print money. True, that power can be abused but it
can be abused in 2 different ways, printing too much and printing too
little. Today there is zero evidence the USA is printing too much.

   John K Clark
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