• Appaloosa
    +2
    @spaceghoti -

    I would say you could anchor value to carbon and stick to a "standard", but that is not what the monetary system, value system is based on anymore. If you want to pick gold or Unobtanium, pick it and stick to it, don't change it to whatever manipulative trader of nonsense says something is worth.

  • spaceghoti
    +5
    @Appaloosa -

    Can the current system be gamed? Yes it can. Is the current system more prone to cyclical boom-and-bust periods? No it is not. As I've already sourced, rejecting a commodity standard has stabilized our economies so that governments are locked into economic policy contrary to what conditions require. You really don't want to have to raise interest rates during a recession or lower them during a boom, but that's precisely what happened while we were on the gold standard and it helped turn a recession into depression. What's more it kept happening regularly, wiping out the savings of the poor and middle class.

    Since leaving the gold standard we've experienced recessions but they've been moderated by fiscal policy. The only time we experience big economic crashes is when we're governed by fiscal conservatives who insist we must keep our hands off and let the market correct itself. That's when the problems are most likely to bloom out of control and hurt the most people.

    If safeguarding our citizens' interests is wrong then I don't want to be right. But there's a reason why the gold standard option is a fringe movement among economists.

  • Appaloosa (edited 7 years ago)
    +2
    @spaceghoti -

    I see, so value is relative to whatever is valued at the time, such as now. That value is what, may I ask, stability? I might add that some may think the current policies have wiped out the poor and middle class, but that's just what some fringe people might be reading.

    • Appaloosa
      +2
      @spaceghoti -

      Oh dear, the famous CPI index