Plenty of protests have gone on this year. Jan Skoyles believes they will continue on into next year as more people realise the failings of our monetary system. But will they know to campaign for sound money? Time Magazine’s person of the year is The Protester.
From the Arab Spring to the London Riots to the Occupy Movement which spread across the world, this year was the year of the protest. Some protests were in regard to justice, some for democracy, some for women’s liberties and others against corruption and greed. In some cases it will turn out to be a force for good, as we can see in the states as they try and find their way to freedom and liberty.
The right to protest is a human right. The media has been at the front of every protest, except the protest against the theft and abuse of our monetary system.
To be fair, the Occupy movement and other banking protest groups have almost, almost, hit the nail on the head. But not quite. We still fail to see any high level debate, or even media coverage, of the issue of money creation nature of money. The fiat monetary system on which we currently operate has led to a huge misallocation of resources and has undermined the world economy. This is obvious on both a national and international level.
Politicals has become dysfunctional and corrupt
Time magazine states that the protests of 2011 all began as independent affairs. But, the article states they were all fighting against the same thing.
“All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries’ political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt, sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats. Two decades after the final failure and abandonment of communism, they believe they’re experiencing the failure of hell-bent megascaled crony hypercapitalism and pine for some third way, a new social contract.”
This is true. However the protest which should be the protest of 2012, needs to be a protest against the money which facilitates these “sham democracies and crony hypercapitalism”. We are all, inevitably and unavoidably, linked by the inequitable construct of fiat money.
Intolerable levels of government power
Due to the irresistibility of manipulation, fiat money is inherently inflationary. It is unbacked, governments have the monopoly of issuing the currency and yet banks are able to multiply the money supply through credit creation. What does all this lead to? The devaluation of your money, and intolerable levels of government power due to control of the most important commodity in our lives.
The current financial crisis will be five years old in 2012. There isn’t a country left untouched by the floundering monetary system. Isn’t it time more people stood up and asked why it still isn’t fixed? Why we, in the 21st century, still have growing numbers of unemployment and children living below the poverty line? Our current monetary system is no longer bringing us the prosperity it promised us. It has failed miserably, and worse governments, the people we elect, have failed to realise this.
Next year some of the major countries in our international monetary system, including the US and Germany, will be electing new leaders. What are the chances of the new politicians standing up to this abuse which has been going on in their countries for in excess of 40 years?
There is not a day goes by, or has gone by for the past year, in which we haven’t received further bad news of the markets and destructive actions of the monetary system.
At the moment it feels as though every week there is new summit for the G7, G12, G20 or the EU leaders, depending on who they like or not, or the IMF. All of them gather to try and appear as though they are working to find a solution to this financial mess, however all they do is add to the debt mountains we have been building since 1971.
“In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty”
Speaking to Libertarian Dr Tim Evans, of the Cobden Centre, last week I had a great discussion with him as to what we thought would be coming up in 2012. Whilst we had both mused about what would happen in the financial markets, particularly the Eurozone and the US Dollar, we mainly talked about what we thought would happen with the people, the victims of this financial bloodbath.
We concluded that as more people began to feel more than just a pinch then we would see increasing numbers of them more than just pinch back. We think we will see more protests, more riots and far more eruptions of discontentedness.
Watching Max Keiser a couple of weeks ago on RT it occurred to me that now more than ever is the time for a regime change, a revolution, or at least a protest. Speaking to Capital Account, Mr Keiser pointed out that when the middle-classes begin to rise up we start to see change, as demonstrated throughout history. On news that 75,000 are due to lose their jobs in the US and banks are lining up to announce similar cuts, Mr Keiser believes we are heading for an “historic inflection point”.
This inflection point is where we begin to see a “global insurrection against banker occupation, a thousand protests around the world.” History shows us, according to Mr Keiser, when the middle-class starts to rise up you have fertile ground for a regime change. So far, the significant protests we have witnessed – the Occupy Wall Street protests have not managed to make enough of an impact on the lives of those who need to be impacted.
The year of the protestor will continue
Ever since I became interested in Austrian economics, and as this crisis has snowballed, I have become increasingly aware of the lack of choices we all have. Very few people, affected by this crisis, have made the choices which got us into this position.
We have a central bank which has a monopoly over the money supply and the interest rate, a government which sits in the back pockets of the banks and businesses and a welfare system which best serves those who can pick and choose rather than the poorer citizens. All of these issues have fiat money and control of the money supply, at the centre of them.
Protests about human rights, dignity and equality are all enormously important. But then so is the money which we try and earn to provide our daily needs, that is eroded by the printing presses of central banks and government. I suspect the year of the Protestor will continue into next year, but they need to focus their protest on the tyranny of fiat money and campaign for sound money.
Jan Skoyles is an economist at The Real Asset Company and contributes to other sites such as Renegade Economist. Jan’s interest in economics lead her to the Austrian school and the ideas of sound money and gold and silver. Read more of her articles.
-OR-
Please Note: Information published here is provided to aid your thinking and investment decisions, not lead them. You should independently decide the best place for your money, and any investment decision you make is done so at your own risk. Data included here within may already be out of date.
The year of the protester
Posted Dec 22 2011 by Jan Skoyles in Original commentary with 1 Comment
Plenty of protests have gone on this year. Jan Skoyles believes they will continue on into next year as more people realise the failings of our monetary system. But will they know to campaign for sound money? Time Magazine’s person of the year is The Protester.
From the Arab Spring to the London Riots to the Occupy Movement which spread across the world, this year was the year of the protest. Some protests were in regard to justice, some for democracy, some for women’s liberties and others against corruption and greed. In some cases it will turn out to be a force for good, as we can see in the states as they try and find their way to freedom and liberty.
The right to protest is a human right. The media has been at the front of every protest, except the protest against the theft and abuse of our monetary system.
To be fair, the Occupy movement and other banking protest groups have almost, almost, hit the nail on the head. But not quite. We still fail to see any high level debate, or even media coverage, of the issue of money creation nature of money. The fiat monetary system on which we currently operate has led to a huge misallocation of resources and has undermined the world economy. This is obvious on both a national and international level.
Politicals has become dysfunctional and corrupt
Time magazine states that the protests of 2011 all began as independent affairs. But, the article states they were all fighting against the same thing.
“All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries’ political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt, sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats. Two decades after the final failure and abandonment of communism, they believe they’re experiencing the failure of hell-bent megascaled crony hypercapitalism and pine for some third way, a new social contract.”
This is true. However the protest which should be the protest of 2012, needs to be a protest against the money which facilitates these “sham democracies and crony hypercapitalism”. We are all, inevitably and unavoidably, linked by the inequitable construct of fiat money.
Intolerable levels of government power
Due to the irresistibility of manipulation, fiat money is inherently inflationary. It is unbacked, governments have the monopoly of issuing the currency and yet banks are able to multiply the money supply through credit creation. What does all this lead to? The devaluation of your money, and intolerable levels of government power due to control of the most important commodity in our lives.
The current financial crisis will be five years old in 2012. There isn’t a country left untouched by the floundering monetary system. Isn’t it time more people stood up and asked why it still isn’t fixed? Why we, in the 21st century, still have growing numbers of unemployment and children living below the poverty line? Our current monetary system is no longer bringing us the prosperity it promised us. It has failed miserably, and worse governments, the people we elect, have failed to realise this.
Next year some of the major countries in our international monetary system, including the US and Germany, will be electing new leaders. What are the chances of the new politicians standing up to this abuse which has been going on in their countries for in excess of 40 years?
There is not a day goes by, or has gone by for the past year, in which we haven’t received further bad news of the markets and destructive actions of the monetary system.
At the moment it feels as though every week there is new summit for the G7, G12, G20 or the EU leaders, depending on who they like or not, or the IMF. All of them gather to try and appear as though they are working to find a solution to this financial mess, however all they do is add to the debt mountains we have been building since 1971.
“In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty”
Speaking to Libertarian Dr Tim Evans, of the Cobden Centre, last week I had a great discussion with him as to what we thought would be coming up in 2012. Whilst we had both mused about what would happen in the financial markets, particularly the Eurozone and the US Dollar, we mainly talked about what we thought would happen with the people, the victims of this financial bloodbath.
We concluded that as more people began to feel more than just a pinch then we would see increasing numbers of them more than just pinch back. We think we will see more protests, more riots and far more eruptions of discontentedness.
Watching Max Keiser a couple of weeks ago on RT it occurred to me that now more than ever is the time for a regime change, a revolution, or at least a protest. Speaking to Capital Account, Mr Keiser pointed out that when the middle-classes begin to rise up we start to see change, as demonstrated throughout history. On news that 75,000 are due to lose their jobs in the US and banks are lining up to announce similar cuts, Mr Keiser believes we are heading for an “historic inflection point”.
This inflection point is where we begin to see a “global insurrection against banker occupation, a thousand protests around the world.” History shows us, according to Mr Keiser, when the middle-class starts to rise up you have fertile ground for a regime change. So far, the significant protests we have witnessed – the Occupy Wall Street protests have not managed to make enough of an impact on the lives of those who need to be impacted.
The year of the protestor will continue
Ever since I became interested in Austrian economics, and as this crisis has snowballed, I have become increasingly aware of the lack of choices we all have. Very few people, affected by this crisis, have made the choices which got us into this position.
We have a central bank which has a monopoly over the money supply and the interest rate, a government which sits in the back pockets of the banks and businesses and a welfare system which best serves those who can pick and choose rather than the poorer citizens. All of these issues have fiat money and control of the money supply, at the centre of them.
Protests about human rights, dignity and equality are all enormously important. But then so is the money which we try and earn to provide our daily needs, that is eroded by the printing presses of central banks and government. I suspect the year of the Protestor will continue into next year, but they need to focus their protest on the tyranny of fiat money and campaign for sound money.
Jan Skoyles is an economist at The Real Asset Company and contributes to other sites such as Renegade Economist. Jan’s interest in economics lead her to the Austrian school and the ideas of sound money and gold and silver. Read more of her articles.
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Please Note: Information published here is provided to aid your thinking and investment decisions, not lead them. You should independently decide the best place for your money, and any investment decision you make is done so at your own risk. Data included here within may already be out of date.
Tags: Economic Policy, Inflation, sound money Categories: Original commentary