Monday, November 23, 2015

My letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer re: Learn Economic Nonsense from the Fed



Re: Fed to help teachers learn finance

Dear Sirs:
Here is what the Fed will teach about money and finance:

Lesson #1: Print money
Lesson #2: Print more money
Lesson #3: Print even more money

Here is a quote from Mr. Bill Martin, a high school teacher who has taken many Fed classes:

"We hook the students with questions about the $100,000 bill," he said: "Where does money come from? It's created by lending. You take some of that $100,000 bill, lend it at an interest rate, say, to 100 people, and they grow a business and it becomes $200,000. That's how wealth is created. Growth doesn't happen unless lenders lend. You borrow to grow, and then pay it back with interest."

It's magic! (Or is it?) If banks can create $100,000 of wealth at the stroke a pen (by lending), why can't you or I do the same thing? We print $100,000 on our personal copiers and lend it at interest. Voila! Instant wealth!

Pardon me if I do not believe this nonsense. Wealth is created by hard, smart work, plus saving to build capital. It is not created at the stroke of a pen or from the rollers of a printing press.
 

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Another socialist EU proposal to reward irresponsibility

From today's Open Europe news summary:

Commission eyes jointly funded Eurozone deposit guarantee scheme

The Financial Times reports that, according to leaked documents seen by the paper, the Commission is planning to create a Eurozone Deposit Guarantee Scheme, which would initially support national schemes but eventually replace them with a fully mutualised system by 2024. The move is strongly opposed by Germany, which is currently the only Eurozone state to have a fully funded deposit guarantee scheme, as required by EU law.
 
 
Despite the fact that centralization of money and banking regulation at the EU has led to nothing more than an increase in member state transfer payments funded by debt, the EU Commission continues business as usual. It is blind to the consequences of its actions and desires a steady march toward a European super state.
 
Germany must leave the European Monetary Union before these new laws come into existence. Its national wealth is being stolen by back door policies such as this. Furthermore, it is not in Europe's long term interest to have Germany's wealth destroyed. Germany needs to regain control of its own economy and can do so only by regaining control of its own money and banking system. This is not abandoning Europe but saving Europe from itself. Without German guarantees the rest of Europe would be forced to abandon the worst of their socialist policies. The best role for Germany is to set a good fiscal and monetary example for the rest of the EU (plus the US and the rest of the world) to emulate.