[lbo-talk] The Ron Paul/ Goldbug/ Old Left Consensus?

boddi satva lbo.boddi at gmail.com
Wed Sep 10 20:23:21 PDT 2008


In response to the article Doug Henwood forwarded on behalf of Comisar Proyect, I think we have to face some facts:

There is no oil cisis.

There is no grains crisis.

There are no shortages of industrial commodities.

The prices of commodities from nickel to oats are falling through the floor - simultaneaously.

And while this is happening, the value of the dollar is rising meteorically.

There's no doubt that America is getting weaker. But does that necessarily mean that other powers are getting stronger?

I don't think so. I think that is a false conclusion derived from bad economics, over-reliance on European history by mainstream academics, and Leninism.

There is a concept which so many lefties and righties seemingly cannot deal with - Money.

The lack of understanding of money makes Marxian goldbugs over-estimate the TRPF, and for the Ron Paulites to over-estimate the effect of inflation on the dollar and over-estimate the value of gold.

Fiat money is offensive to people. Its difficult to understand, that's true. I don't really understand it, I don't think anyone does. But that doesn't make it false, certainly.

Lefties do understand liquidity, which the non-goldbug righties don't understand, so that's good. But we have to get our minds around this money thing.



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