Gosh, people send me stuff. Today I discovered a huge windfall. My friend and volunteer moderator DB Stealey sent me 100 TRILLION dollars in the mail today. Here’s a scan of the bank note:
I’m rich! I can fund my own climate research group, I can get that Ferrari! Now all I have to do is convert it to US Dollars…and um…plot like Dr. Evil here.
Oh, wait…
Seems it is worth about $30 in this January 2009 BBC article. Well at least I can buy a nice lunch.
Well, maybe not. McDonalds maybe?
Lessee…what’s the exchange rate today?
Maybe if I hurry, I can still buy a hot dog and a coke at Costco. I wonder why they bother putting a security strip in the banknote?
Well, it’s still worth more than this:
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Happy Friday everybody!
RockyRoad (05:42:32) :
And now neither is the United States on a gold standard. Sucks for us; personally I’d strongly recommend that you diversify your portfolio and buy gold and silver if you want to insulate at least some of your wealth from our own errant ways. The rest of your assets will be subject to the whims of irresponsible politicians and bureaucrats.
Unfortunately, gold is also subject to political idiots. You may recall that FDR confiscated gold in the 30’s. Swindled the public out of billions. And he the icon of liberal democracy, a hero to Obama. I believe it will happen again.
Best to hide the goodies!
@ur momisugly brc (07:00:27) :
I think we are on the same wavelength, although gold has not been the only “standard” throughout history in all cultures. We tend to focus on the ancient European/Mediterranean cultures and forget those parts of the planet that Alexander, etc. didn’t know about. Those other cultures had other standards – ivory, and indeed shells, etc. that represented agreed value.
We sure have evolved complicated societies over the centuries. I wonder why?
Tim Clark (09:00:11) :
(…)
Unfortunately, gold is also subject to political idiots. You may recall that FDR confiscated gold in the 30′s. Swindled the public out of billions. …
———-
Reply: Yes, and I understand the executive order that allowed for that confiscation is still on the books and has never been rescinded! All it would take is a word from the Prez and they’d come after it again–most sources people use for precious metals have such good records that finding those possessing it won’t be difficult. Get ready to be swindled again!
Mugabe stopped obeying his sponsors, the British government and his fate was sealed. Zimbabwe has also had a terrible drought. So, concidentally has North Korea.
MI6 cultivated anti socialist Nelson Mandela in South Africa to avoid making the same mistake there. Turned him into a global hero and made him president. It’s no capitalist paradise.
@ur momisugly brc (07:00:27) : PS: All that said, I also have physical possession of gold, silver, gems, and arable land with gas and oil under it, and various “old-world” marketable skills. But I am content to play the game for the time being.
Curiousgeorge (09:16:38),
Gold has always been used for money world wide. Some backward societies used inferior money, which only lasted until the use of precious metals replaced it. China, Russia and India used gold as a store of value [ie, money], as did all other significant cultures.
The case of Alexander is interesting. He was hailed as a god for two thousand years after his death. Most people think it was due to his military victories, but it was actually what he did following his victories.
The Persian empire was a mercantilist economy, which meant that governments [satraps; governors] hoarded immense quantities of silver and gold, without allowing it to go into circulation.
Alexander had the huge quantities of silver bars he captured minted into coins [tetradrachms] and paid his soldiers with them, so the coins promptly found their way into general circulation. The effect on the economy was enormous.
People no longer had to trade a cow for five pigs, eight chickens and a bale of hay. Now they could use money instead. As a result the Hellenistic economy exploded, and through the mechanism of the velocity of money the entire middle east became much wealthier than it had ever been.
Because of their almost immediate newfound prosperity, they revered Alexander as a god. The reality was that Alexander’s policy greased the wheels of the economy, and allowed anyone to become wealthy, to store their wealth in an easily moveable form, and to run efficient businesses.
Now we are moving back toward a form of mercantilism, with government control, and its knowledge of the location of money [serial numbers on banknotes, no more bearer bonds, political pressure on Caribbean and Swiss bankers to disclose the identities of account holders], making the possibility of confiscation ever easier. And with human nature involved, how long will politicians be able to resist the lure of easy money?
Wild speculation on commodities happened creating “inflation” even when the money was gold.
Read the Mayor of Catsorbridge if you don’t beleive me.
Let’s put the blame where blame is due:
Greenspan manipulating the interest rate to create “constant low inflation.”
the repeal of Glass-Stegal,
the banks that were “too big to fail” threatening congress with “total destruction” if they don’t hand over the money,
massive fraud in mortgages that went un-checked by the SEC,
spending, spending, spending by the government.
etc..
Hahahaha….good luck with that!
Beware Anthony, this is a note from the “heart of darkness”.
I often wonder how the world got like this, but perhaps this is our nature.
The hell on earth that is Zimbabwe must be the work of the Devil, I see the Devil’s work all around, so if the Devil exists, what about God?
South Africa, the new Zimbabwe? Bet you!
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/new_hit_song_in_south_africa_k.html
Hey
Anthony —
you might (not) share your retirement by joining
the 400 million dollar (bonus) Exxon retiree
-Lee Raymond-
on the golf links
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Profiling-CEOs-and-Their-S-by-Thom-Hartmann-100423-529.html
Lee Raymond did more than pump gas for Exxon–
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Lee_Raymond
he also headed up their Exxon URANIUM division
for
ten years — which might help explain
the recently revealed Exxon enthusiasm for
carbon legislation — they win both with and without carbon legislation —
they straddle the agw fence–
Indeed, Exxon will not be paying taxes on
either oil or uranium –and their
usa govt uranium and oil subsidies are far more
than all renewable energy credits paid out
to greenies. (exxon solar is not green —
just pathetic)
Lee Raymond earned his 400 million,
although he probably has never worked as hard as you have.
Well, I was going to submit a long diatribe as to the state of the US economy, which no one would be interested in or read. Instead, I’ll just give these suggestions to those who wish to set something aside in case the value of the US dollar falls below that of Zimbabwe’s:
To store wealth, hold some gold (treat it like a CD or money market account, use it to buy houses and cars).
For large purchases (refrigerator, TV, etc…) keep silver on hand.
For everyday barter (primarily food), mini-bottles of liquor are great.
If the economy revs up and rising tax revenue is sufficient to manage our growing debt, the gold and silver will always retain value, and you can toast the great economy with the alcohol (it will never go bad)!
E.M.Smith (16:15:01) :
BTW, while Gold “has issues” as a currency … it is a decent yardstick for long term value of other currencies. Through most of history one ounce of gold has bought “one mans fine suit of clothes”.
So if you want to ‘benchmark a currency’ using a gold reference is a decent way to go.
about 1960 something:
Gold: $45 / ounce
Bread: 10 cents / loaf
House: $7000
Car: $1400
—…—…—
I would add “price of energy” to that:
A bit harder to maintain through the the centuries though:
We’d have to start from “a cord of wood”, then equal that to a “ton of coal”, then a “barrel of oil.” Each represents a unit of energy as a resource that can be (must be!) bought and sold at an agreed upon price, regardless of what is going to be done with the energy . Now? Perhaps overlap a barrel of oil with a 1000 Kwatt.
Just plain funny.
😀
As a long time collector of older [pre-1928] U.S. currency, I’m always fascinated by the notes used when the country was on the gold standard: click1, click2, click3
[The $20 gold note’s reverse looks sort of red in the picture, but the actual color is closer to yellow to orange/yellow, to indicate gold. There were also brown back notes, in addition to yellow and green back notes.]
Today the highest U.S. denomination is $100 [Euros are availablle in $500 denominations]. But as recently as the 1930s there were $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000 and higher denomination notes in circulation. Some examples: click1, click2, click3
theBuckWheat (14:37:12) :
… We must stop our government from going any further
down the road it is on. We must grow our way out of this recession. We
cannot print our way out of it.
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You are too late. Obama authorized the doubling of the US money supply as soon as he hit the oval office. That halved the value of the dollar right there unfortunately that is not the end of it. The banks can now take that additional money supply they were handed and perform “Fractional Reserve Banking” on it. Given there is no effective reserve requirement and the Fed has been disconnected from the control of Congress we are at the Federal Reserve (JPMorgan Chase Bank) mercy.
David Rockefeller has hosted luncheons at the family’s Westchester estate for the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors, following the annual Washington meetings of the World Bank and IMF. Rockefeller’s Chase Bank served as training grounds for three World Bank presidents, John J. McCloy, Eugene Black and George Woods.
E.M.Smith says: April 24, 2010 at 7:25 am
the point of all that being, the treasury does not create any money, it borrows it. all of it.
well, outside of what it steals from us.
Anthony,
Perhaps you could send the Zimbabwe note to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, with a sticky note attached “This is what happens when you create fiat money out of thin air”.