My long awaited pre-order of this book arrived yesterday. Am only up to chapter 4 so far, although am finding it a good read (after a slow start) So far it's done a great job of reminding me of other reading and research I've done, and has given an easy to read overview of previous currency crises (up to 1921-36 atm) - I'm looking forward to getting to the juicy bits at the end, but have so far resisted the temptation to skip to the last few paragraphs Verrry tempted to skip to chapter 11 (ominous coincidence?) which is titled "Endgame - Paper, Gold or Chaos", so might be a long night tonight so I can get to it!
here's James Rickards on Capital Account last week [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZkNSfh2oz0[/youtube] In this Capital Account with Lauren Lyster...A report from US Congress says the Chinese renminbi could threaten the dominance of the US dollar within a decade. We've seen tough talk between the countries on currency before, including now, but are we already in the throes of a currency war? We talk to James G. Rickards, author of Currency Wars, who sure thinks so. Meanwhile, US President Obama calls the Asia-Pacific region a top priority of US security policy. And the US is stationing troops in Australia reportedly to counter China's expanding influence. But could the next war be waged not with boots on the ground, or drones for that matter, but with financial weapons: stocks, bonds, and derivatives? Also, one clothing company thinks they have a better solution for US-China relations. It involves world leaders making love, not war.
Dammit, I'm still waiting on mine! I hope it arrives before everything comes to pass. hmm spoiler alert on chapter 11.....
Wow, brilliant book. Just about to start the last chapter but towards the end where he combines inter-disciplinary sciences together with economics to form a picture of the system is absolutely fascinating and just makes so much sense. This guy is really impressive. I mean, his KWN interviews are the most impressive of anyone but he really takes it up a step. Big government lovers need to read this book so they can discover how the system really works and find out just what it is they are defending. Highly recommended. EDIT: finished it, I found the endgame scenario quite credible, the 95% tax on gold holders profits seems ominous. I also enjoyed the part where he describes the Fed as being essentially bankrupt and how they are propping it up interesting.
What does "bankrupt" mean in regards to a national or central bank? Such banks in the past have operated in negative equity - and been successful too. "Solvency" to some degree is an old wives tale, in this context.
Depends who's calling on the organisation... if I had money and it became known that organisation was insolvent they would not have my money for long, if no one calls it can be BAU
Except with a national currency no one can call on your currency. For someone to exit - someone has to enter. The value of the currency is ultimately determined by the productive capacity of its users. The equity of the central bank is frankly irrelevant in a productive economy. We have historical precedent as evidence.
Bankrupt means they are no longer giving their profits to the Treasury because they can't afford to. Their equity has dried up from bad debts on their books and they went to the govt to ask to be able to create their own bonds to sell to raise money. They were denied, so now they have to give treasury iou's rather than the money itself. You are right that they can survive for awhile but they still have operating expenses to pay. They are still a bank.
Got the ebook a little while ago and finished it this afternoon. A good read in parts. His concept for a gold standard at the end where the fed maintains the gold price around a targeted figure is a good one. The flow of gold into and out of government hands would install discipline in a similar fashion to how gold would flow under the classical standard he talks about earlier. He is essential advocating a currency board with gold as the currency and the fed acting as the board.
I'm still waiting for the book to arrive, hopefully it will get to me before X'mas so that I can read it during my break.
Got mine, great read. But to be honest, most of whats in the book was explained by him during interviews. I would love to see debate between him (Rickards) and Kyle Bass, that'd be something
That would be interesting to see Aengrod I think I understand what you are saying and your first sentence makes sense to me if I change "the value of the currency" to "the value of the total pool of currency", although I disagree with your reference re the equity of a central bank being irrelevant. i.e. The value of the total pool of currency is ultimately determined by the productive capacity of its users. Now what might be the affect of diluting the pool without changing the productive capacity of it's users? Unless I missed something? (wouldn't be the first time!)
Googled if i can have it downloaded for free. and i did http://www.crocko.com/F4535B75338E4...y_Wars_by_James_Rickardsforexebooks.co.in.zip
Is it hard to buy it and not "steal it"? 17$ is not much for Rickard's hard work. He even bashed Nasim Taleb and his "Black Swans" as left-alone, with no further explanation quite funny actually
