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Response: Money and Payments: The US Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation

Implications from the Federal Reserve’s Paper

Our first comment is that every monetary change from the Founding of America through present has been to move away from free markets, and to adulterate our currency. An analogy could be made to the Ship of Theseus, with each good plank replaced with an unsound board. A Zombie Ship of Theseus, decaying, but still afloat.

Let’s walk through the Fed’s paper. The very firstparagraphon page 1 says, “The Federal Reserve, as the nation’s central bank, works to maintain the public’s confidence by fostering monetary stability, financial stability…”

Monetary stabilityis defined as2% debasement per annum, an Orwellian twist. Andfinancial stabilityin the Fed’s regime is a myth.Interest rates shot the moon between 1947 and 1981, and since then have been falling—with volatility—into the black hole of zero.Meanwhile debt grows exponentially, and the marginal productivity of debt—how much GDP is added for each new dollar of debt—falls decade after decade. It is not only unstable, but unsustainable, heading towards an ultimate heat death of the economic universe.

“CBDC is defined as a digital liability of a central bank that is widely available to the general public.” In other words, it’s like holding a paper dollar bill except it’s digital. Which implies several things:

  • The Fed could muscle out the banks from the demand deposits business
  • The Fed could buy all the assets, which the banks now finance with demand deposits
  • Thus, money and payment services could become more socialized
  • The government could declare paper is no longer legal tender, thus forcing everyone into CBDC
  • The government could track who spends their CBDC, and what they buy
  • This spending data could be used in a social credit score system

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Zombie Ship of Theseus

The Ship of Theseus is an old philosophical thought experiment. It asks a question about identity. Suppose you replace all of the boards of a ship with new ones—is it still the same ship?

We are not going to try to resolve this millennia-old paradox. Instead, we are going to add one more element, and then tie it to the monetary system. The additional element is what if the replacement boards are adulterated in some way. That is, each new board is warped, or weakened, or otherwise not fit for purpose.

It should be clear that replacing boards with unsound wood does not alter reality, only the ship. It does not remove any constraints such as the need to be watertight. It does not make anything better, only adds new flaws.

Let’s call this new ship, with each original board replaced with these adulterated boards, the Zombie Ship of Theseus. It looks like the Ship of Theseus. However, it does not work like it. It has been corrupted to work in a different way, i.e. to lull sailors into going out to sea, where a storm will drown them.

 

The History of our Warped Monetary System and Currency

So how does this relate to the monetary system and the currency? There has been a centuries-long process of replacing important boards. Let’s highlight the key changes.

The Original System

At the Founding of America, there was the original Ship of Theseus. One had the right to deposit one’s gold (we will leave out silver, as this complicates the story somewhat) and get a paper bank note in exchange. Or one could keep one’s gold, if one did not like the terms. One had the right to redeem the note, and get one’s gold back…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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