The sadly reality is that the common man on the street has no idea about the difference between the two. As long as they can pull out a piece of plastic and buy a big mac, some nice shoes and a sparkling new TV no one cares about how "money" works only what "money" does. As them the difference between money and currency and you will just get a blank look. "Those who know, know what they know, and those who don't know don't know what those who know know." Now solve the riddle.
You seem to have a very negative view about the common man on the street, and what do you have against buying a Big Mac, nice shoes or a new TV? This isn't an anti-consumerism post is it? Is the common man a 'sheeple' in this story? The common man can also pull out his bit of plastic and feed his family, pay his bills and keep a roof over his head and if money can do that then who cares how it works, he can watch a DVD without knowing how a laser works as well. If there isn't an obvious difference between money and currency then you can't expect people to care about it when they have real issues to deal with. Not wishing to sound harsh but riddles really wind me up
Agreed. However, there will come a time when money will no longer work then at that point EVERYONE will care about HOW money works.
I didn't care about how it worked when I didn't have much, though I had my suspicions it was evil. Then I had enough, and they tried to take it away from me. I started blaming them instead of the money (Inanimate objects do not have morality, but the way they are used can represent good or evil). Since then I've learnt a lot about how it works, and how to make it work.
Except it keeps on going, even when you think it can't continue, the euro refuses to collapse, the printing presses are working all day and all night in the US, Banks are having their bail ins, inflation, fractional reserve banking, global financial crisis, commodity bubbles. People need something for transactions, can't go back to barter.
Crescendo Andrew Hoffman| September 30, 2014 - 3:24pm http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/crescendo-13647 Last night, I was honored to receive an email from Hugo Salinas Price, the self-made Mexican billionaire who along with being a staunch GATA supporter has lobbied for decades to re-monetize silver. A more amiable man one cannot meet, particularly given his wealth and status. His wisdom is otherworldly, but the most notable aspect of the email was that when it comes to the Cartel's most vicious attacks to date, his frustration like fellow billionaire Eric Sprott, is no less obvious than mine. Together, we are watching a mere handful of corrupt politicians and bankers armed with unfettered printing presses and financial weapons of mass destruction attempt to destroy the world's masses for their own benefit. Of course, he sagely concluded "this too shall pass," mirroring yesterday's comments from the great Richard Russell In its battle to make its fiat currency the only legal currency, the Fed has adopted a strategy of denouncing the precious metals. But ultimately the truth will win out, and the fiat dollar will join all the other dead fiat currencies that have become footnotes in economic history. Remember, every currency that has left the gold standard has died. Without the backing of gold, no currency has survived, and there are no exceptions. Sooner or later, a new world reserve currency will be adopted. It will be at least partly backed by gold. -King World News, September 30, 2014 Price than said "I have the impression events are building up to some great climax. We are living in a dream world, and the dream will turn into a nightmare soon enough" which, in turn, inspired today's title, "Crescendo." We couldn't agree more; although by "crescendo," we don't necessarily anticipate a singular apocalyptic event although of course, such a scenario is eminently possible. Rather, a sharp reversal of six years of Central bank-manufactured, government-abetted market gains; exposing the horror that lies beneath of a financial system so horribly rotted it cannot stand the light of non-QE, non-ZIRP day. Frankly, I've run out of adjectives to describe my incredulity in watching the Cartel attack paper PMs on a 24/6 basis, with not a second passing without a new "cap" or "attack" algorithm. Sixty-seven straight "Sunday night Sentiment" attacks; "2:15 AM" raids on 90% of trading days since Obama's infamous April 2013 "closed door meeting" with the top TBTF bank CEOs; "sixth sigma" raids at the thinnest times of the global trading day; and, of course, unrelenting raids at "key attack times" like the 7:00 AM EST open of the New York pre-market session, the 8:20 AM EST COMEX open, the 10:00 AM EST PM Fix, the 12:00 PM EST "cap of last resort" and the 2:00 PM EST "crybaby" time, if all else fails. Plus raids when any and all news emerges particularly, "key attack events" like NFP reports, FOMC meetings and Fed Chairman speeches; not to mention, any other time PMs threaten to rise. Such as this morning, when following an utterly horrific "unexpected" plunge in the Shiller Real Estate Index (recall Friday's article, "Housing Recovery RIP"), gold was stopped by a prototypical "Cartel Herald" algorithm within $1 of going positive for the day per the DLITG or "Don't Let it Turn Green" stratagem utilized for the past decade. Frankly, the only scheme more blatant is the PPT's ceaseless support of the "Dow Jones Propaganda Average," via the "dead ringer" algorithms I have written of for years in yesterday's case, utilized at exactly the level I years ago identified as "the ultimate PPT limit down level" for U.S. stocks; yes, the same 1.0% level that marks the Cartel's "limit up" level for 99% of gold's trading days. Remember, "Cartel Rule #1" is "thou shalt not allow PMs to surge, whilst the Dow plunges." And as you can see by the aforementioned Dow "dead ringer" below and blatantly obvious gold "DLITG" algorithms preventing violation of this rule was yesterday's job one. Yes, we're definitely building to a "crescendo" but the $64,000 question is, of what? Mathematically, the long-term is set in stone and likely, the "long-term" will arrive much sooner than most can imagine. As we have noted ad nauseum, the world passed "peak debt" long ago; and thus, with global debt loads exploding and the resulting, deleterious effects of inflation and stagnation proliferating, it's only a matter of time before history's most concentrated doses of money printing, market manipulation and propaganda implodes of its own weight. In a nutshell, the "99%" are poorer than ever; the "1%" more blatantly corrupt; and the economic outlook the worst since the Great Depression. Geopolitical tensions have ballooned to levels not seen since World War II, population explosion is straining a finite level of resources, the "final currency war" is expanding; and much of the world is entering a "demographic hell" that will increase the reach of economy-killing socialism. And what if "extraneous events" continue to besiege humanity, like the horrifying droughts afflicting California and Brazil? Again, per the great Richard Russell Some experts fear the California drought, which is part of a wider drought across the West that has lasted 14 years, could be the beginning of an historic mega-drought, a decades-long period of extreme dryness that geological studies show occurs in the region every 400-600 years. A new Cornell study estimates a 20%-50% chance of a 35 year mega-drought by the century's end. Nevertheless, California's population is expected to grow by 50 million by 2050, making the effects of the potential water crisis even more severe. Will Richard Russell move back to New York? -King World News, September 30, 2014 Today's headlines speak of collapsing economies in Japan where real wages and industrial production depict the horrifying stagflationary impact of Abenomics; accelerating European "deflation" although I assure you, ZERO Europeans are experiencing a lower cost of living; and the all-out bursting of the historic Chinese real estate bubble, as land sales are down an astonishing 50% year over year. Even the Russian economy is suffering miserably; and trust us, the unprecedented Ruble collapse amidst ill-conceived Western sanctions will be properly "retaliated" against. Brazil, India and South Africa i.e., the other "BRICS" are watching their currencies FREEFALL against the "strengthening dollar"; as the virulent, Fed-exported inflation we warned of yesterday engulfs the planet like financial Ebola. Again, we cannot emphasize enough that the dollar index' recent (modest) increase has nothing to do with an improving U.S. outlook; but rather, as in 2008, a global fear response to the inevitability of the oncoming "big one." Better yet, I'd like to see just one MSM outlet note the "pink elephant" truth that, just as the recent Euro plunge will cause massive European inflation, the simultaneous dollar surge will wreak havoc on U.S. corporate earnings. And this, amidst an environment of record corporate debt, the weakest global economic environment since the Depression and amazingly, despite the aforementioned market goosing, massive pension underfunding. As for gold and silver, sentiment is so low, even "top analysts" are giving up. To wit, Louise Yamada, who was Wall Street's top-ranked technical analyst when markets were still freely traded (I consulted her often when we worked at Salomon Smith Barney) "gave up" on gold today, further validating the "historic capitulation" we wrote of yesterday. Demonstrating just how clueless Wall Street has become, her manipulated charts tell her $700-$800/oz. is now possible, despite the fact the industry is already on the verge of collapse; and oh yeah, the most PM-bullish economic, monetary and geopolitical environment of our lifetimes. To that end, note today's "trifecta" of unexpected plunges in U.S. home prices, the Chicago PMI Index and consumer confidence. However, a strange thing has happened in the physical PM world. Following a brief "deer in headlights" phase in early September, when readers started demonstrating genuine fear and irrationality, the emails have become more bullish than ever. Physical demand has indisputably exploded in recent weeks as exemplified by Andrew MacGuire's comment yesterday that 650 tonnes have been bought in the London OTC market. Indian and Chinese demand have also surged, as have U.S. Mint sales of both gold and silver Eagles. In fact, August was Miles Franklin's second best month of 2014 and September is blowing August away. Silver is particularly vulnerable to an upside explosion; as aside from trading WAY below its cost of production and Shanghai inventories down to essentially nothing, prices have now moved into backwardation i.e., an extremely rare condition, reflective of significant product shortage. It is also more oversold than at any time in its 14-year bull market; and thus, as demonstrated in 2008, 2011 and 2013, extremely prone to said shortages. And even JP Morgan has quietly whittled its COMEX silver short position to its lowest level since acquiring Bear Stearns' tainted book in 2008. Normally, I'd end with something designed to urge you to financial action. I'm going to take a slightly different tack today, but something tells me the effect will be the same if not, more so. To wit, Jon Stewart did a segment yesterday about how Congress refuses to debate America's commitment of significant resources to destroying the Middle Eastern ISIS organization. At its end, he posts a quote from departing Congressman Jack Kingston, who obviously spoke his mind only because he just lost his re-election bid. Frankly, even I have never been more disgusted or terrified at how rapidly my formerly wonderful country is deteriorating A lot of people would like to stay on the sideline and say 'just bomb the place and tell us about it later.' It's an election year. A lot of Democrats don't know how it would play in their party, and Republicans don't want to change anything. We like the path we're on now. We can denounce it if it goes bad, and praise it if it goes well and ask what took him so long. -MSNBC.com, September 24, 2014 Frankly, I can't think of a better reason to run screaming from the fiat currency such monsters "manage" and into the only asset they can't destroy.
Currency and money live side by side. Currency is a subset of money. Should the currency model collapse, those left holding money will survive. Until then it is best to keep a foot in both camps. Work and live with currency, and then park all excess into money. I would still keep two to three months currency under the mattress as a short term contingency should the currency model collapse and the world shifts towards a money model.
The riddle is solved if you look at currencies and currency revaluation. How many times have I see a company revalue their stocks? One day you may have 100,000 shares and then the next those shares could be "re valued" sometimes 10 for 1 or other ratio (Many of the older folk would have seen this); then you see that your capital can evaporate into thin air. (Happens a bit to Junior stocks) How about when "Currencies" are re-valued? Imagine a country re-valuing their currency? One day you have 100 grand in your bank account, you've been putting off buying physical metal and at the close of play one Friday the big-boys call a bank-holiday and then decide to revalue. Your 100 grand is exchanged at a ratio of 10 for 1 or maybe 100:1 or 1000:1; you can bet you would have wished you had physical metal and fwiw, I reckon there's a few Greek and Russian folk who wish they had physical metal in the possession instead of paper money. Re-think the USD. Re-think a falling AUD. Re-think how China can crash our AUD. Re-think what governments are capable of. There's no harm in having hard assets if you think there's a currency crisis and... if it does eventuate (History shows it has) you'll wish you had a few blobs of metal.
This has always had me thinking. So if my 100K in old currency becomes 10K in new currency, what happens to my debts? Does my mortgage go from 500K to 50K as well? And technically a loaf of Tip Top Hi-Fibre bread (No plug intended) would have to go from $4.50 to 45c in new currency right? I some how doubt it. And are we then supposed to sit there an analyze every item on the shelves of Woollies to ensure they have been revalued correctly in the right ratio? Need answers.
Didn't this happen in 1966 or whenever Australia switched over to decimalisation? Surely someone on the board can remeber that far back.
it would be the adjusted value, ie no change. just remember the rule, it is put in place to protect one and only. and too bad you have a debt!!!
