What happens to the value of money when you print as much as you want promiscuously wantonly? Isn't that a great bad, not a great good?

So not to worry. Eventually it will normalize with no lasting harm done? Didn't inflation go up drastically in Venezuela or some other South American country decades ago? I'm probably conflating things but overnight the economy crashed because of devaluation. I'm sure you know to what I refer tom and I'm hoping you will correct me. Thank you for your reply and Happy Friday. Hope all is well with you and yours! :)

Been away since May 1st---an unfortunate side effect of it being difficult for me to treat all opinions with respect.

My answer was confined to the current situation in the USA---theoretically, a nation that has the power to tax and which has enough wealth to pay those taxes does not have to ever file for bankruptcy.

Venezuela is not in that position.  Here's a short article on what's been going on in Venezuela lately.  (The article mentions hyperinflation in Hungary after WWII---I remember a comment that one would have been (infinitely) better off if he had bought a case of wine rather than accumulating money before hyperinflation---a commentary on the two functions of money I mentioned in my answer---store of value and medium of exchange.  It eventually took a wheelbarrow full of the local currency to buy a loaf of bread)

And Yes,I forgot to add the link---sorry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/venezuelas-inflation-rate-may-hit-1000000-percent-yes-1-million/2018/07/24/90d59086-8f4a-11e8-ae59-01880eac5f1d_story.html

This post was edited by tom jackson at May 22, 2020 2:34 PM MDT

Oh dear tom. I've lost more than one pal due to the inability to just walk away rather than engage. I never engage with folks like that. I don't have the patience nor the inclination so I protect myself by avoiding them altogether. That's why I'm still here. I just avoid the trap. I've done that since forever. Did it at my former stomping Grounds Answerbag. I fell into the trap a few times early on and then decided I was sick and tired of it. So I just figgered out how to save myself. Maybe you can learn how too? My other pals could not do that and they are gone from here and they were gone from other elsewheres. I know it's the coward's way out. On the other hand I am not banned so far. On occasion I get my hand slapped because of the use of words the watchers find distasteful. So the question is pulled or adjusted. I don't care what happens to them once I ask them. Anyway you have to be true to you and do what you must. Glad to know it was not anything tragic or dangerous. Thank you for your reply and the link! :) This post was edited by RosieG at May 24, 2020 6:57 PM MDT

No tragedies involved, fortunately---thank you.  I personally think a term of service on any site that requires respect for all opinions is inimical to the truth. 

But I have come to realize that it is unlikely that any member's thoughts on Trump---whether negative or positive---will be changed by any answers or comments on here.

I can live with that.... This post was edited by tom jackson at May 24, 2020 2:24 AM MDT

"Changed"? Good grief I don't for a moment believe that. That's not the point of being here for me personally. I feel an OBLIGATION to point out things that are untenable unendurable illogical inane. I certainly don't do it to change anyone's mind about anything. The views are rock solid petrified. I know that. I do it for my own sanity and I do it daily. Each day there are more grotesque unbelievable evil things that occur under the chokehold of the powers that be..his cabal..the toady sycophants and spineless eunuchs he controls. As well as his adoring worshippers to whom he can do no wrong. Every common sense anything is trampled on. Fair is a joke. TRUTH is the enemy and so the mobs he influences are always out there murdering what we used to revere. I won't let them get away with it without pointing it out. I do it for me and my sanity. Selfish I guess. Once in  awhile I encounter others whose views are somewhat in line with mine. An island of sanity...a watering hole to keep us going and knowing we are not alone. Thank you for your reply tom. Change minds? That is the last thing I would expect to facilitate enable promulgate achieve. No matter. I carry on despite my not mattering at all. I do to me. This post was edited by RosieG at May 24, 2020 2:32 AM MDT

I too feel the obligation to point out things that are untenable, unendurable, illogical, and inane. The problem is how to maintain respect for the person who is posting such things---when an intervention of some type is probably what would be more effective.

I remember when I was ask.com had a Q & A section that I frequented.  One day a member who had gained some respect posted a suggestion that someone gargle with a highly corrosive liquid.  

Naturally, I immediately reported him and his response was quickly removed.

Some opinions on Q & A sites can be equally as damaging to the intellect when casually imbibed.



This post was edited by tom jackson at May 24, 2020 6:46 PM MDT

The Bank of England stores gold for people and countries from all around the globe Rosie...Venezuela store all its gold here in England for them to keep it safe......so safe infact that it's now refusing to give it back to them now they want it return...
How do you get your money back from a tyrant that's five thousand miles across and ocean and refuses to return things that isn't theirs to keep...
They say they have the virus there and it's getting worse....they have no money to pay for the things needed to fight it...:( 

SERIOUSLY D? Venezuela sent all its gold to England for safekeeping? I never knew countries did stuff like that. I mean that is very weird to me. So England is the Fort Knox for Venezuela? I wonder why a country would TRUST another country to do that? Thank you for your reply and the shocking (to me) info. The more I learn the weirder things get! :)

This is one of those situations where my brain is woefully limited Walt. I can't grasp how it works despite your reply. I always thought the economy of every country was precarious and so wrong decisions could damage it grievously for a very long time. I mentioned Venezuela to tom. Seems to me decades ago something drastic happened there and overnight the economy crashed badly. Perhaps it was another country. Economists don't agree so my not understanding it isn't a horrible thing. I guess once again time will tell. SIGH. Thank you for your reply. I wish I understood it. My bad! :)

Walt is also right.  I was born in a simpler time so that when I bought my fireworks as a kid, the Morgan silver dollars in my pocket that were dragging my shorts down could be exchanged for FIREWORKS!!!.

To the extent that I can be confident that I can cash a check for my anticipated Memorial Day Expenses and buy (exchange a known amount of my paper currency as a result of writing and cashing that check) the necessary ice and other items at the convenience store over the next few days for approximately the same price---adjusted upward perhaps for my convenience in shopping at the closer store---speaks to the use of "real" currency as a "medium of exchange."

(Here's a reference to the slight difference Walt refers to:

• The U.S. Federal Reserve controls the supply of money in the U.S., and when it expands that supply it is often described as "printing money."
• The job of actually printing currency bills belongs to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but the Fed determines exactly how many new bills are printed each year.
• When it is said that the Fed is "printing money," the reference is really to the central bank increasing the money supply in the system, such as through quantitative easing (QE), an asset-purchase program.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/082515/who-decides-when-print-money-us.asp

Thank you for your reply and the link tom. I appreciate both. Is there a limit to responsibly increasing the money supply? Or is it the sky? Meaning there is no limit to it?

Here's a similar question--> "What's the tallest thing we could build?"

https://www.sciencealert.com/what-s-the-tallest-thing-we-could-ever-possibly-build

Two more similar questions:

How deep is the ocean?

How high is the sky?


This post was edited by tom jackson at May 25, 2020 1:56 AM MDT

I did not read the link yet. Isn't the deepest we know the Marianas trench...almost 7 miles deep? As far how is the sky there 200 billlion to 2 trillion galaxies. Each galaxy is comprised of dust and stars and billions of planets unless I misread what I read. So as far as how high the to which sky do you refer? Thank you for your reply and the link and Happy Monday.

My intent was to suggest that other things come into play when one extrapolates.  For example, if money is to be a medium of exchange, then the amount in circulation has to be enough for everyone to have some, but if it is also to be a store of value, it must have some identifiable value; So if there is an island with twenty thousand residents and twenty thousand more move in, you can't just double the money supply because you would then have double the money trying to buy the same amount of goods (= inflation), and yet those new residents do need to have a medium of exchange. From the other direction, doubling the supply would cause the natives of that island to have their individual units of their medium of exchange lose 50% of their value.

It requires a balancing act; not a simple formula.

Thank you for taking the time to explain it so I can understand it tom. What a pain in the keester! I sure wouldn't want any part of that balancing balancing adjusting tweaking. Just reading it makes me antsy and unsettled. Why would anyone be drawn to such a job? Happy Tuesday tom! :)

Yep---the devil is in the details.

Indeed! Happy Wednesday to thee and thine tom! :)

There is very little that has intrinsic value D. Only that which we impute to it. You how wantonly promiscuous homo saps are. Thank you for your reply and Happy Monday! :) This post was edited by RosieG at May 25, 2020 2:00 AM MDT