guys I just love talking about economics let me tell you why

[jorb]

Experience is always personal, isn't it? Nevertheless it always bothers me when people refer to alleged conspiracies of big companies without ever being called to specify which specific companies are doing what, precisely. (Nah, man, just companies. They're big. And stuff. You know. Man.) I can give you a very precise account of what certain government institutions are doing, and since their power is a monopoly on the use of force and a monopoly on the issuing of currency rather than whatever soft power a company can hope to wield...

The Federal Reserve just today announced that it's going to inflate the dollar to the tune of 600 billion dollars(!!!!). A forced redistribution of wealth that makes the Soviet Union seem nice in comparison. The monetary policy is apparently "Full speed ahead", much like the Titanic.

http://rss.economist.com/blogs/freeexch ... y_policy_0

[Potjeh]

United Fruit Company.

[jorb]

I'm the last to deny that several big companies are in cahoots with the government, and I would also argue that several big companies maintain their standing and position because of government privilege. Notice how the government is a determinant qualifier in all those statements.

[jorb]

Indeed, the Fed itself is a pseudo-private organization.

[jorb]

The Federal Reserve just today announced that it's going to inflate the dollar to the tune of 600 billion dollars(!!!!). A forced redistribution of wealth that makes the Soviet Union seem nice in comparison. The monetary policy is apparently "Full speed ahead", much like the Titanic.

Just because this pisses me off to no end. Observe what this means: It means that the Federal Reserve has effectively reduced the value of all dollars previously in circulation by 600 billion, value which now belongs to the Federal Reserve.

Money is theoretically infinitely divisible. The amount of currency units in circulation is therefore for all intents and purposes completely irrelevant, (whether I charge ten kronor or ten öre for my tossed salad is completely irrelevant, as long as the purchasing power I acquire in exchange for said ass kissing stays the same) except in the case where you introduce new units into an already defined supply. When you introduce new units into an already defined supply, the scarcity of each individual unit in that total supply is reduced, and the price of it correspondingly drops. The net effect is still zero -- the value total of the supply stays the same (or drops, as people catch wind of your inflationary policies and abandon the currency) -- except for the person or organization which actually introduces the new units into general circulation, i.e. The Federal Reserve. This is the same logic as that behind counterfeiting, but for some obscure reason it's OK for the government to do what private individuals cannot. Murdering, stealing and fraud are obviously all on the list.

No company in the world has that kind of power, and it should come as a surprise to no one that it is being ruthlessly abused. It is a wicked numbers game which has zero economic effect other than redistribution of wealth, and the creation of boom-bust cycles, yet it is being played out and perpetuated in every country in the so-called civilized world. The claim that we somehow need inflation, that we can "run out of money" or that an expansion of the money supply is at all meaningful, is bogus, and was exposed as such by David Ricardo in the early 19th century, in his essay "The High Price of Bullion", which I can recommend anyone and everyone to read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RUkIAA ... &q&f=false

Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, 'Account overdrawn.'

If I were to tell you that loftar and I were going to fix the value of bread in Haven & Hearth to exactly five bricks, and defame and deride anyone paying more or less than that as dangerous speculator causing horrible imbalances in the global economy, you would laugh at me. Perhaps you would even be able to see that these "dangerous speculators" are doing everyone a favor by trading against the real value of bread -- determined by supply and demand -- and not according to our whims. Yet when the government in the real world attempts the exact same feat, you take it seriously. Theoretically speaking, which should be easier to control: The world of Haven, where loftar and I can define or redefine the very fundamentals of reality, or actions and reactions taking place in the real world? If we can't control prices or manipulate the market forces in a world where we for all intents and purposes are gods, how do you think the government will fare in a world where it decidedly isn't of a godly breed, but rather traces its origins to some Stygian hellpit?

But, by all means, keep deriding "uncontrolled capitalism" (I.e. exactly what exists in H&H, i.e. freedom). Maybe one day the guy selling you your bread and butter will finally have had enough of being called a crook for doing so, and decide not to sell you anything. Sadly, the one thing that Lenin was right about is that a capitalist will sell you the rope to his own hanging.

With that said I leave you in the good company of the Economics Nobel Laureate of 2008.



Said and done. Giving Hitler the peace prize suddenly seems like less absurd of an idea. Words cannot begin to describe the epicness of the fail.

Note to self: Add tin-foil hats to H&H.

[spectacle]

If I were to tell you that loftar and I were going to fix the value of bread in Haven & Hearth to exactly five bricks, and defame and deride anyone paying more or less than that as dangerous speculator causing horrible imbalances in the global economy, you would laugh at me. Perhaps you would even be able to see that these "dangerous speculators" are doing everyone a favor by trading against the real value of bread -- determined by supply and demand -- and not according to our whims. Yet when the government in the real world attempts the exact same feat, you take it seriously. Theoretically speaking, which should be easier to control: The world of Haven, where loftar and I can define or redefine the very fundamentals of reality, or actions and reactions taking place in the real world? If we can't control prices or manipulate the market forces in a world where we for all intents and purposes are gods, how do you think the government will fare in a world where it decidedly isn't of a godly breed, but rather traces its origins to some Stygian hellpit?

Why don't you try it then? Make a crafting recipe that takes 5 bricks as input and outputs a piece of bread, and a similar one in reverse. It would be easy with your godlike powers.

[jorb]

I sense a scheme to fool me into bringing farming stats into the brick quality determined resource trees.

[Potjeh]

Unregulated market is a perfect breeding ground for monopolies.

[Zirikana]

Unregulated market is a perfect breeding ground for monopolies

A monopoly can never be stable without governmental support.

[spectacle]

Unregulated market is a perfect breeding ground for monopolies

A monopoly can never be stable without governmental support.

Of course it can.