patrick.net

tatupu70 says

How could you make the dollar worth less than one millionth of its current value without stealing purchasing power from people?

Create a new 2014 dollar that is worth exactly one millionth as much as 2013 dollars because there are exactly one million times as many of them. Distribute these dollars as replacement for existing dollars.

For paper currency, let people trade in one 2013 dollar for one million 2014 dollars. For electronic money, the vast majority of money, simply move the decimal place over for all balances (credits and debts). It's trivially easy with electronic money and relatively easy with paper money.

The net effect on exports, however, is zero because instead of paying 100 2013 dollars, the importer would simply pay 100,000,000 2014 dollars. It's the weakening of the dollar, not the weak dollar that promotes exports by having domestic dollar holders subsidize the importers at the expense of the domestic dollar holders.

tatupu70 says

Whether you do it all at once or over a long time period, the effect is the same. It makes doing business in the US cheaper.

This is precisely not true, which why all the so-called "weak dollar advocates" would never ever accept my plan to do an instantaneous one-time weakening of the dollar and then letting it stay at that value.

Monetary units are arbitrary measurements. It doesn't make your dick bigger if you measure it in centimeters, inches, or feet. What matters is that whatever arbitrary measuring stick you use doesn't change with time. Your dick doesn't become bigger because you redefine the inch to be half it's original size.

By the same token, U.S. goods don't become cheaper because the dollar is "weak" compared to some other arbitrary measuring stick. U.S. goods become cheap because the precise mechanism used by banks to "weaken" the dollar forces your grandmother to spend her purchasing power to lower the price that Bob in China gets for our oil. It's a zero-sum game and your grandmother loses.

mell says

PS commenting on the outrage:

OMG IT'S SO UNFAIR. I NEVER watched this show before didn't even occur to me to research it because everyone is always nice to me. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS PIMP MY MIDDLEMAN SKILLS AND MY BOOKS AND THEY WERE MEAN TO ME!

Poor Schliffler, sand in the vag really hurts.

Vicente says

Poor Schliffler, sand in the vag really hurts.

LOL

Schiff thinks that the 'free-market' BS he spouts is one way, he just learned that it's not. But really, isn't that just the truest form of a free market that he's constantly harping about, but now doesn't like?

Vicente says

mell says

PS commenting on the outrage:

OMG IT'S SO UNFAIR. I NEVER watched this show before didn't even occur to me to research it because everyone is always nice to me. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS PIMP MY MIDDLEMAN SKILLS AND MY BOOKS AND THEY WERE MEAN TO ME!

Poor Schliffler, sand in the vag really hurts.

Like smaulgld said, he fell for it and I don't doubt that he likes being in the spotlight, be it for promoting his business or - which is more my suspicion - himself. But conducting politics by who you like and dislike instead of using logic and deduction leads to piss poor outcomes and you should admit that his logical and thoughtful comment clarifying his stance pretty much dismantles everything said on this thread against him.

upisdown says

Vicente says

Poor Schliffler, sand in the vag really hurts.

LOL

Schiff thinks that the 'free-market' BS he spouts is one way, he just learned that it's not. But really, isn't that just the truest form of a free market that he's constantly harping about, but now doesn't like?

That's why he is not using the lawyers, because he believes in a free market. Unlike a lot of our resident and "morally superior" patnet quarterbacks who think it's ok to abandon the rule of law and fuck over whoever they don't like as long as someone benefits they do like and turn this country into a banana republic ;)

mell says

That's why he is not using the lawyers, because he believes in a free market.
Unlike a lot of our resident and "morally superior" patnet quarterbacks who
think it's ok to abandon the rule of law and fuck over whoever they don't like
as long as someone benefits they do like and turn this country into a banana
republic ;)

Before you start carving that statue of him, would he and HAS he, displayed the same level of tolerance/restraint that you claim he's showing now, because IF he did actually persue any legal action, it would just compound the stupid and callous crap that he said, wouldn't it?

There's more than one video out there of him lashing out at anybody who crosses him or questions his thoughts/predictions.

upisdown says

Before you start carving that statue of him,

I think he is somewhat vain and possibly shrewd (hard to establish without knowing someone personally), so I'd pass on the statue for now.

upisdown says

would he and HAS he, displyed the same level of tolerance/restraint that you claim he's showing now, because IF he did actually persue any legal action, it would just compound the stupid and callous crap that he said, wouldn't it?

Possible but conjecture.

upisdown says

There's more than one video out there of him lashing out at anybody who crosses him or questions his thought/predictions.

Yes, he comes across as a know-it-all and sometimes stubbornly maintains his stance, but that's also what gets him media attention, and it takes guts, esp. what he did in 2007-2008, going against the entire mainstream media grain. Of course all the uber-rich housing overlords here on patnet knew everything about the housing bubble and would have done the same thing if the media had cared for them and therefor PS is no match for them! I heard one even has a blog about Phoenix.

mell says

Yes, he comes across as a know-it-all and sometimes stubbornly maintains his
stance, but that's also what gets him media attention, and it takes guts, esp.
what he did in 2007-2008, going against the entire mainstream media grain. Of
course all the uber-rich housing overlords here on patnet knew everything about
the housing bubble and would have done the same thing if the media had cared for
them and therefor PS is no match for them! I heard one even has a blog about
Phoenix.

Yea, some pariah. Sorry, but there's quite a few people that thought the same thing that don't have the priveldge or access of a pulpit or public bullhorn on CNBC to say it.
That alone is why I don't put much, if any faith in any of his 'predictions'.

LOL, he wasn't even the ONLY one to say it either. There was a link that someone posted to a site comparing just when he and others made their predictions about the economy, along with other predictions and who was the most accurate too.

Dan8267 says

The net effect on exports, however, is zero because instead of paying 100
2013 dollars, the importer would simply pay 100,000,000 2014 dollars. It's the
weakening of the dollar, not the weak dollar that promotes exports by having
domestic dollar holders subsidize the importers at the expense of the domestic
dollar holders.

OK--I see what you're saying, but I still disagree that time has any relevance. The key point in your system is the way the new dollars are distributed. If you did it in the exact proportion of the current wealth, it wouldn't have any effect on purchasing power.

I was thinking more along the lines of the way it usually happens--where many of the new dollars are used to pay off trade deficits so those dollars leave the country. If you devalued the dollar instantly but sent 75% of them overseas, then doing business would be more favorable in the US. Time isn't important.

Here is an hour of schiff explaining what happened
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9LNP-yXXUc

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

You know what's really retarded? Getting in front of Samantha Bee and thinking you're not going to be zoo'ed out.

Peter Schiff is probably one of the best know Austrians, me thinks pretty good PR. Do you think Paris Hilton is also stupid? What about Miley Cyrus?

Given the estimated gross tonnage, I believe the universe must be made of stone to support itself.

sbh says

indigenous says

mell says

If you look at the progressive tax rates, a lot of these "socialist" countries tax less than the US, some have flat taxes.

What is your source of information on this?

Be gentle with Indigenous here, Mell, you hold the very fabric of his universe in your hand.

Because Dan doesn't consider income redistribution as stealing.

tatupu70 says

Dan8267 says

A weak dollar, a strong dollar, it doesn't matter. You could make the dollar worth less than one millionth of its current value. It wouldn't help exports one damn bit if you did so instantaneously and without stealing purchasing power from people.

How could you make the dollar worth less than one millionth of its current value without stealing purchasing power from people?

SoftShell says

Because Dan doesn't consider income redistribution as stealing.

Currency debasement is income and wealth distribution from the middle class to the filthy rich who do not work. And yes, it is stealing, no different from breaking into someone's house and robbing them.