The Truss/Kwarteng Era
- Thread starter nsacpi
- Start date
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
For those who would like to do some larnin' about the Great Depression and the two decades leading up to it I recommend three economic historians. Peter Temin (who was one of my professors). The late great Charles Kindleberger. And Barry Eichengreen (whose book Hall of Mirrors I am currently reading).
sturg33
I
How are you supposed to help someone who is certain they are educated but are wrong about literally everything.
The creation of the federal reserve was the opening salvo to killing the gold standard.
A simple review of Wikipedia to help you
Governments with insufficient tax revenue suspended convertibility repeatedly in the 19th century. The real test, however, came in the form of World War I, a test which "it failed utterly" according to economist Richard Lipsey.[16] The gold specie standard came to an end in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire with the outbreak of World War I.[39]
By the end of 1913, the classical gold standard was at its peak but World War I caused many countries to suspend or abandon it.[40] According to Lawrence Officer the main cause of the gold standard's failure to resume its previous position after World War I was "the Bank of England's precarious liquidity position and the gold-exchange standard". A run on sterling caused Britain to impose exchange controls that fatally weakened the standard; convertibility was not legally suspended, but gold prices no longer played the role that they did before.[41] In financing the war and abandoning gold, many of the belligerents suffered drastic inflations. Price levels doubled in the U.S. and Britain, tripled in France and quadrupled in Italy. Exchange rates changed less, even though European inflation rates were more severe than America's. This meant that the costs of American goods decreased relative to those in Europe. Between August 1914 and spring of 1915, the dollar value of U.S. exports tripled and its trade surplus exceeded $1 billion for the first time.[42]
Ultimately, the system could not deal quickly enough with the large deficits and surpluses; this was previously attributed to downward wage rigidity brought about by the advent of unionized labor, but is now considered as an inherent fault of the system that arose under the pressures of war and rapid technological change. In any case, prices had not reached equilibrium by the time of the Great Depression, which served to kill off the system completely.[16]
For example, Germany had gone off the gold standard in 1914, and could not effectively return to it because war reparations had cost it much of its gold reserves. During the occupation of the Ruhr the German central bank (Reichsbank) issued enormous sums of non-convertible marks to support workers who were on strike against the French occupation and to buy foreign currency for reparations; this led to the German hyperinflation of the early 1920s and the decimation of the German middle class.
The U.S. did not suspend the gold standard during the war. The newly created Federal Reserve intervened in currency markets and sold bonds to "sterilize" some of the gold imports that would have otherwise increased the stock of money.[citation needed] By 1927 many countries had returned to the gold standard.[37] As a result of World War I the United States, which had been a net debtor country, had become a net creditor by 1919.[43]
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Per usual... War requires tons of money and a sound money system can't finance it. So let the printers begin. The federal reserve loosened the gold reserves needed for exchanges... And off we go.
We then had FDR and Nixon officially officially kill it. When they just needed that printer to go into overdrive.
We can all point it back to 1913... Right at the beginning of your hilarious inflation chart
I legit feel bad for your students
The creation of the federal reserve was the opening salvo to killing the gold standard.
A simple review of Wikipedia to help you
Governments with insufficient tax revenue suspended convertibility repeatedly in the 19th century. The real test, however, came in the form of World War I, a test which "it failed utterly" according to economist Richard Lipsey.[16] The gold specie standard came to an end in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire with the outbreak of World War I.[39]
By the end of 1913, the classical gold standard was at its peak but World War I caused many countries to suspend or abandon it.[40] According to Lawrence Officer the main cause of the gold standard's failure to resume its previous position after World War I was "the Bank of England's precarious liquidity position and the gold-exchange standard". A run on sterling caused Britain to impose exchange controls that fatally weakened the standard; convertibility was not legally suspended, but gold prices no longer played the role that they did before.[41] In financing the war and abandoning gold, many of the belligerents suffered drastic inflations. Price levels doubled in the U.S. and Britain, tripled in France and quadrupled in Italy. Exchange rates changed less, even though European inflation rates were more severe than America's. This meant that the costs of American goods decreased relative to those in Europe. Between August 1914 and spring of 1915, the dollar value of U.S. exports tripled and its trade surplus exceeded $1 billion for the first time.[42]
Ultimately, the system could not deal quickly enough with the large deficits and surpluses; this was previously attributed to downward wage rigidity brought about by the advent of unionized labor, but is now considered as an inherent fault of the system that arose under the pressures of war and rapid technological change. In any case, prices had not reached equilibrium by the time of the Great Depression, which served to kill off the system completely.[16]
For example, Germany had gone off the gold standard in 1914, and could not effectively return to it because war reparations had cost it much of its gold reserves. During the occupation of the Ruhr the German central bank (Reichsbank) issued enormous sums of non-convertible marks to support workers who were on strike against the French occupation and to buy foreign currency for reparations; this led to the German hyperinflation of the early 1920s and the decimation of the German middle class.
The U.S. did not suspend the gold standard during the war. The newly created Federal Reserve intervened in currency markets and sold bonds to "sterilize" some of the gold imports that would have otherwise increased the stock of money.[citation needed] By 1927 many countries had returned to the gold standard.[37] As a result of World War I the United States, which had been a net debtor country, had become a net creditor by 1919.[43]
_-------------
Per usual... War requires tons of money and a sound money system can't finance it. So let the printers begin. The federal reserve loosened the gold reserves needed for exchanges... And off we go.
We then had FDR and Nixon officially officially kill it. When they just needed that printer to go into overdrive.
We can all point it back to 1913... Right at the beginning of your hilarious inflation chart
I legit feel bad for your students
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
Also interesting to note that the price of gold is down 10% in the past year. The purchasing power of the dollar has dropped about 10% (rounding up) going by the CPI in the past year. This means the purchasing power of a bar of gold is down 20% in the past year. 20% inflation if you shop with gold!
However, in its defense gold has hung in there like a champ compared to new-fangled alternatives like bitcoin that are down 70% in the past year. If we were on the bitcoin standard that would translate to about 80% inflation! Making gold look good I must say.
However, in its defense gold has hung in there like a champ compared to new-fangled alternatives like bitcoin that are down 70% in the past year. If we were on the bitcoin standard that would translate to about 80% inflation! Making gold look good I must say.