Gold Standard Movement Growing

[Razgovory]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium

I remember reading it in GURPS: Steampunk.

[Razgovory]

We'd turn English. 

I kept thinking during the film, Jesus Christ, the love interest is ugly.  And that's before the radiation.

[Ed Anger]

Threads makes you want to root for the nuclear weapons.

[Razgovory]

Threads makes you want to root for the nuclear weapons.

I think the guy who was suppose the marry the girl lucked out getting nuked.



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Only could find a small photo.  I don't think that's a picture of after the Nukes.  I think that's just the way 1980's Britain looked normally.  But, God!  that chick has as all the sexual charisma of Kathy Bates

[Eddie Teach]

She's not a porker like Bates.

[grumbler]

The value of gold has always struck me as absolutely bizarre.  I sort of understand its value as a currency in ancient economies, but other than its lack of reactivity it's not really good for that much (except wiring and some other industrial applications).  Isn't gold really just as much fiat currency as paper?

Gold has an extremely low storage cost, as it doesn't burn, rust, mix with other elements, etc.

The goods with the lowest storage cost will always be the currency.  There is an island society in which huge rocks are the currency, even though no one can move the rocks.  The rocks don't cost anything to store and stay the same forever, so serve as a good currency.

[Razgovory]

I bet there's an economic law that predicts what will become money.  In Africa they used big bits of iron as a medium of exchange.  No idea why.  You would think making currency out of something that can be used to make useful tool (or weapons), would not be ideal.

[Admiral Yi]

I bet there's an economic law that predicts what will become money.  In Africa they used big bits of iron as a medium of exchange.  No idea why.  You would think making currency out of something that can be used to make useful tool (or weapons), would not be ideal.

Tell that to people in prison or post war Germany.  It makes a lot more sense to me to use something as a currency that has an intrinsic value.

[Razgovory]

I bet there's an economic law that predicts what will become money.  In Africa they used big bits of iron as a medium of exchange.  No idea why.  You would think making currency out of something that can be used to make useful tool (or weapons), would not be ideal.

Tell that to people in prison or post war Germany.  It makes a lot more sense to me to use something as a currency that has an intrinsic value.

It may be that I'm confusing currency, and a medium of exchange.  Though generally I think you wouldn't want a situation where you wouldn't want to use a useful metal (like Iron) as a tool because of it's value as a currency.

[grumbler]

I bet there's an economic law that predicts what will become money.  In Africa they used big bits of iron as a medium of exchange.  No idea why.  You would think making currency out of something that can be used to make useful tool (or weapons), would not be ideal.

Tell that to people in prison or post war Germany.  It makes a lot more sense to me to use something as a currency that has an intrinsic value.

That increases storage costs, because while stored you are forgoing the value of using the tool or whatever. 

That doesn't mean that the currency has to be lack intrinsic value, just that competitors have to have higher storage costs either as direct costs or opportunity costs.

[Admiral Yi]

It may be that I'm confusing currency, and a medium of exchange.  Though generally I think you wouldn't want a situation where you wouldn't want to use a useful metal (like Iron) as a tool because of it's value as a currency.

If you're talking about a fiat currency then you don't want everyone consuming your money and taking it out of circulation.  I was talking about non-fiat currency.  With fiat currency you take whatever the ruler says is currency in payment or you go to jail.  The trick with non-fiat currency is to make everyone except it as such.

[Martinus]

I bet there's an economic law that predicts what will become money.  In Africa they used big bits of iron as a medium of exchange.  No idea why.  You would think making currency out of something that can be used to make useful tool (or weapons), would not be ideal.

Tell that to people in prison or post war Germany.  It makes a lot more sense to me to use something as a currency that has an intrinsic value.

Well, these are pathological systems developed by people who are already used to the concept of currency (and the neat value equivalency system it entails) but you could really argue that the prison thing is simply a variant of a barter system.

[Martinus]

It may be that I'm confusing currency, and a medium of exchange.  Though generally I think you wouldn't want a situation where you wouldn't want to use a useful metal (like Iron) as a tool because of it's value as a currency.

If you're talking about a fiat currency then you don't want everyone consuming your money and taking it out of circulation.  I was talking about non-fiat currency.  With fiat currency you take whatever the ruler says is currency in payment or you go to jail.  The trick with non-fiat currency is to make everyone except it as such.

When does it stop being a currency and becomes barter, in your scenario?

[Martinus]

Anyway, I'd argue that "consumable currency" is not only bad for the currency system itself (as others pointed out, you can't easily increase or decrease the amount of currency in circulation, and people will consume the currency thus leading to unpredictable deflation bouts) but also the flipside of this being the chilling effect the reduced consumption of the good being the currency (due to people hoarding) will have on the economy.

For example, petrol or aluminium as the currency would be rather disastrous.

[Admiral Yi]

When does it stop being a currency and becomes barter, in your scenario?

When people trade goods and services for other goods and services.