The Problem with Budget Surpluses (or even too-small deficits)

[El_Machinae]

Bit of a quip but it's not based on a barter system, it's based on a debit-credit system.

Bit of a counter quip, but you cannot have a debit-credit system that really does anything without first having trade. And, trade generated using currency is not significantly different from barter. At least, not enough to pick a nit.

Currency is just glorified barter, that's where the illusion starts. Debit-credit is a rung up the ladder from currency or barter, your choice.

 

[Farm Boy]

Bow to the men with guns I suppose. Or try and cheat. Or convert enough into dollars and leave the rest in something else. I suppose if you can keep a tight enough reign on valuation everything works out fine. The PRC might keep those housing prices going for a long time. But even the professionals aren't flawless. My only feeling is that the higher you spool deficits the more you are running high risk high reward. That isn't to say running zero risk is the best option, but ''we can do this forever!'' just reeks(to my uneducated brain) of the ramp off the cliff. Especially when I think the already rich have gamed the system to make sure it first pays out to them.

 

[Hygro]

Bit of a counter quip, buy you cannot have a debit-credit system that really does anything without first having trade. And, trade generated using currency is not significantly different from barter. At least, not enough to pick a nit.

Currency is just glorified barter, that's where the illusion starts. Debit-credit is a rung up the ladder from currency or barter, your choice.

Debit-credit preceded currency. That's what money is, a government backed debit-credit system. I don't think there's ever been a sustained barter system among strangers, which historically have existed in short periods when existing money economies fall apart. That's probably why bartering and trading with a financial intermediary looks similar to us, because when we barter we have an experienced, abstract value system assessing things in the background.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Okay, you have no confidence in the dollar. You take your earning in bitcoin. I'm the IRS and I say, congrats on earning 20 bitcoin this year, I'll be taking 38% of that in dollars.

What are you going to do?

Just because this struck close to home I have to answer...

Not pay.

Of course I have no clues about bitcoin, I only operate in dollars, but only the paper sort, not the electronic sort. I suspect bitcoin is easier to keep track of from a distance.

At any rate, while it seems reasonably intuitive that just cranking up the presses and wantonly increasing currency in circulation will devalue it I'm not going to join the throng at echo point. I have to think though that such a solution would have to hurt the straight cash hoarders keeping it under their mattress.

 

[Hygro]

Just because this struck close to home I have to answer...

Not pay.

Of course I have no clues about bitcoin, I only operate in dollars, but only the paper sort, not the electronic sort. I suspect bitcoin is easier to keep track of from a distance.

At any rate, while it seems reasonably intuitive that just cranking up the presses and wantonly increasing currency in circulation will devalue it I'm not going to join the throng at echo point. I have to think though that such a solution would have to hurt the straight cash hoarders keeping it under their mattress.

It does hurt the cash hoarders. They are welcome to acquire interest bearing accounts. Fight the good fight on not paying btw. While taxation allows the power for spending to work (taxation gets the money accepted), and spending allows us to push production past private sector inefficiency and non-maximization, it's pretty non-legit with democracy.