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ACE
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Currency manipulation
« on: March 16, 2005, 09:24:54 PM »

I think one good way to dismantle capitalism is the destruction of capital itself, the tool itself I mean.  You see money has become less of a real entity and more an abstract concept.  I committed computer expert could destroy for example huge sums of electronically managed money by means of a computer virus.  But let's not start by talking about the dirrect approach, I.E. buring money in bond fires.  Because money has become an abstract thing this imaginary concept, it's effect on people has been some what piculiar.  People say the Soviet Union calasped because it when bankrupt, however it's Rival the U.S.A. has been Bankrupt for quite some time aswell.  The U.S. Government I mean, infact it's policy when it comes to spending is "if you haven't collected the money in taxes don't worry make it up and call it Deficit spending".  This basically means the U.S. has been spending trillions and trillions of dollars that DON'T EXSIST!  Perhaps had the Soviet Union tried this it might never have callasped.  You see when government employee in the U.S. are paid with this imaginary Deficit money they Actually get to spend it, while on the other hand in the Soviet Union if they didn't have the money in the budget they couldn't spend it and the workers simply didn't get paid, it was "Sorry no rubles for you."  This was a poor tactic and it might have worked better to have employed the tactic of imaginary money like the U.S.  But I digress.  Because money itself has become to a large extend an imaginary thing, it's value too can be altered to suit the aims of toppling capitalism.  Things don't have set values, a loaf of bread for example might cost one amount in one location and a Huge amount more in another location even within the same country,  This lack of stability can be exploited and used to the advantage of toppling capitalism.  If people can't trust money the practicality money itself begins to deminish.  The global ecconomy is based largely on this trust, and if people can't trust the money to acheive their goals the system will topple.  Because money is abstact it can be undone it's not a solid camodity and can be disrupted with ripples of dought distrust and uncertainty.  Will you money be able to buy a loaf of bread tomorrow?  Not if it's Imaginary made up money.........
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ckaihatsu
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Currency manipulation
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2005, 12:45:43 AM »

> I think one good way to dismantle capitalism is the destruction of capital
> itself, the tool itself I mean. You see money has become less of a real entity
> and more an abstract concept.


I'd like to point out that major shifts in capital -- and even minor ones -- depend on flows of information. While the capitalist management may be obligated here and there to give some companies a slap on the wrist -- fines from the SEC, say -- most disputes would be handled politically so as to keep things quiet and behind-the-scenes. Occasionally the system goes into larger crises which are not easily swept under the rug, as with Long-Term Capital Management in '99, and, more recently, Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, and others.


> I committed computer expert could destroy for
> example huge sums of electronically managed money by means of a computer
> virus.


I seriously doubt this scenario, from a technical standpoint -- if it did happen it would be the result of some company winding up with the short end of the stick in some political transaction.


> But let's not start by talking about the dirrect approach, I.E. buring
> money in bond fires. Because money has become an abstract thing this imaginary
> concept, it's effect on people has been some what piculiar.


Capital is *not* an imaginary concept. It is quantified information derived from surplus labor value and market machinations on capital, combined with political global dynamics. The world's system of capital flows may be seen as complex as a macrocosm of the workings of an individual brain.


> People say the
> Soviet Union calasped because it when bankrupt, however it's Rival the U.S.A.
> has been Bankrupt for quite some time aswell.


Yes, but in which country's currency has oil been traded in for decades? The petro-dollar is only now coming under threat of competition from the euro, not that the euro even represents a very healthy economy.

The best analogy I've heard for that of the U.S. and its petro-dollar is that of an individual who is able to settle accounts by writing checks which then are *not even cashed*. In essence, the post-World-War-II era has seen foreign central banks exchanging *real* labor-backed local currency *just to buy U.S. dollars*, so that they can begin business transactions!

Another analogy is going to a video-game arcade to buy mandatory (expensive) tokens, in order to do business.

The Soviet Union's economy was not competitive enough, in the realm of petro-dollars, to be both self-sustaining, *and* attempt to compete with the U.S. in the nuclear arms race.


> The U.S. Government I mean,
> infact it's policy when it comes to spending is "if you haven't collected the
> money in taxes don't worry make it up and call it Deficit spending". This
> basically means the U.S. has been spending trillions and trillions of dollars
> that DON'T EXSIST!


This is true, but again, so many countries have been buying U.S. Treasuries for so long that the U.S. economy is able to run almost on mere worldwide confidence alone. Fundamentally it's a confidence ("con") game, or a Ponzi scheme, or a pyramid scheme.

However, the process is now threatening to go into reversal, as countries like Iraq (circa 2002), and now Iran, and possibly Japan, shift to a petro-euro, and away from the petro-dollar.

This, along with lessened buying of U.S. Treasuries, would threaten to jack the confidence game into reverse, with possible selling of U.S. assets. See:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8354.htm


> Perhaps had the Soviet Union tried this it might never have
> callasped. You see when government employee in the U.S. are paid with this
> imaginary Deficit money they Actually get to spend it, while on the other hand
> in the Soviet Union if they didn't have the money in the budget they couldn't
> spend it and the workers simply didn't get paid, it was "Sorry no rubles for
> you." This was a poor tactic and it might have worked better to have employed
> the tactic of imaginary money like the U.S.


Economically the USSR was an island economy toward the end. While its legacy of central planning and authoritarianism allowed it to industrialize extremely quickly through the '40s and '50s (at great human cost), it could not keep up with the Western consumer-goods boom, the microchip boom, and, finally, the nuclear-arms race.


> But I digress. Because money
> itself has become to a large extend an imaginary thing, it's value too can be
> altered to suit the aims of toppling capitalism. Things don't have set values,
> a loaf of bread for example might cost one amount in one location and a Huge
> amount more in another location even within the same country, This lack of
> stability can be exploited and used to the advantage of toppling capitalism.
> If people can't trust money the practicality money itself begins to deminish.


I agree, to a point. The U.S. had to take out Iraq because of its shift to the petro-dollar, and now it also wants to take out Iran for the same reason, but it can't do it so easily as now its military is stretched very thin. But keep in mind that the world capitalist economy is more intermeshed than ever before, and so countries like Japan and China would not so quickly un-hook their own economies from the U.S.'s. China, for example, which is going through frenetic growth, is having to politically command a weaker value of its currency, the yuan, in relation to the dollar. The black market will give you more dollars for the yuan than the Chinese government will. And meanwhile the world's proletariat has no material alternative to capitalist currency and enforcement.


> The global ecconomy is based largely on this trust, and if people can't trust
> the money to acheive their goals the system will topple. Because money is
> abstact it can be undone it's not a solid camodity and can be disrupted with
> ripples of dought distrust and uncertainty. Will you money be able to buy a
> loaf of bread tomorrow? Not if it's Imaginary made up money.........


I wish economics were as simple as that, but it isn't. However, we can forsee the systemic crises of capital like storms on the horizon. As Japan stagnates, Europe stagnates, the U.S. slows down, and China begins to hit the wall, there will be a worldwide deflation across the board, no matter how much additional currency is printed. If things level out too much, especially probable in today's hyper-proletarian globalized economy, the leverage of the capitalists' capital will dramatically decrease against the bread-and-butter demands of the working class. Think Argentina 2002 on a global scale...!


Chris






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ckaihatsu
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Currency manipulation
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2005, 11:15:30 PM »

http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/articles/51?POSTNUKESID=d943c6598e2c7dddc03382d400eaa72f

Repatriation of the US Dollar
Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 09:36 AM


Quote

There’s only one country that has completely removed the dollar from its economy and due to its size this is really only a symbolic role. Thanks to a bartering arrangement with Venezuela for oil, Cuba fairly recently was able to do away with the dollar from the island completely. Cuba needed about $4 million dollars per day for the purchase of oil on the world market now they no longer need to accumulate this amount. This annual $1.5 billion needed for dollars should be almost microscopic by comparison to the $55 trillion floating around the world. Unfortunately for the US each dollar purchase of oil has an exponential effect on the other commodities that were needed to come up with the $1.5 billion. I don’t have a formula for this calculation, but I would have to imagine that this $1.5 billion reduced the demand for dollars by some $10 billion or more. Unless you’ve been paying attention, a $10 billion decrease in demand for dollars is nothing when compared to the current total market for dollars.

Other countries have taken various actions to reduce their dependence on the US dollar.









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Re: Currency manipulation
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2005, 09:15:53 PM »

The kind individual that made a contribution regarding America’s federal obligations has made a number of errors. America’s budgetary deficit is financed through “real dollars” - physical currency. If it was “electronic currency” - “abstract currency”, federal employees would be paid in “electronic credits”, not dollars. However, most of America’s budget gap is financed by Asian and Latin American Central Banks. We have a trade deficit approaching $700 billion per year. Most of our trade deficit is related to trade with Taiwan, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea and Mexico.

Those Central Banks exchange dollars for domestic currency [so a South Korean business sells Wal Mart a DVD player for $30 USD, Wal Mart pays the manufacturer $30 USD, the manufacturer takes the $30 USD to the Central Bank (or a local commercial bank) and exchanges it for 30,000 KRW. The $30 is added to the Central Bank’s “foreign reserves”.

Most Central Banks recycle their reserves back into the U.S. economy by purchasing treasury bonds. Foreign Central Banks own a significant share of U.S. treasury bonds. Those Central Banks are the reason interest rates have been so low, even with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates [Greenspan’s “Conundrum”].

The Soviet Union would never have been able to do what we do. The U.S.S.R. could have sold treasury bonds to their own population [workers of the SSSR could have purchased interest yielding bonds from the Soviet Treasury], however, that would have little economic benefit. [America rarely benefits when the borrowing is financed by Americans---- “crowding out effect”. Unlike the United States, the Soviet Union wouldn’t have been able to sell bonds to foreigners. Most foreigners didn’t have confidence in the SSSR’s economic prospects and wouldn’t have risked their capital by buying Soviet bonds. Without access to cheap foreign capital, budget deficits don’t make much sense.

As for currency manipulation, that’s a crucial problem with capitalism. Mexico’s “Peso Crisis” in 1993, Russia’s “Ruble Crisis” in 1996 and 1997, the Asian “Financial Crisis in 1998”, Brazil’s “Real Crisis” in 1998, Argentina’s “Financial Crisis” in 2000 and 2001 all had very real economic and financial consequences that devastated workers, consumers, investors, savers and businesses. The “FX Market” is very much an institution of manipulation and “electronic cash flow” that allows speculators to hedge and leverage returns at the expense of real workers, real consumers, real investors and real businesses.

However, there’s been a proposed solution to this problem. The Tobin Tax is currently being advocated by many businesses, investors and social advocacy organizations. A slight international tax of 0.10% to 0.25% per trade could eliminate most speculative currency activity, without hurting physical investments. Such a proposal, if implemented, would raise between $100 billion and $300 billion, enough to fully finance the Millennium Development Goals and eliminate poverty throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. Unfortunately, our current system renders that nearly impossible. It’d be near impossible to get together the international unity and solidarity required for a global implementation of the Tobin Tax. Even when implemented, it’d be hard to monitor transactions and make sure the tax is being paid.
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Stonewall
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Re: Currency manipulation
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2005, 09:19:23 PM »

For more information on the tobin tax: http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/
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ckaihatsu
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Re: Currency manipulation
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2006, 12:03:22 AM »




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