The Crypto Winter

[Neil Johnson]

Well (jamesd's "because they can" comment not withstanding) the stated
reason  for uncoupling money from precious metal was to allow the government
greater flexibility in controlling the supply of money. Supposedly they
could increase the amount of money available when times were bad (to make
things better) or decrease it during good times (to prevent inflation). Of
course it also allowed them (the government) to buy things without raising
taxes (just print more money), but they got burned when it led to inflation
in the 70's.

Check out Menard Keynes (sp?). Although I'm pretty sure most  people on this
list consider his ideas blasphemy :) .

There are still a lot people that believe the U.S. should return to the
"Gold Standard" meaning the amount of money in circulation should equal  the
amount of gold held by the U.S. government. That's what Fort Knox was
originally for.

Seesh 3:00 AM better get to bed.

-Neil

----- Original Message -----
From: <jamesd at echeque.com>
To: <cpunks_anon at EINSTEIN.ssz.com>; <cypherpunks at EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: The Crypto Winter


>     --
> On 18 Nov 2001, at 14:17, Neil Johnson wrote:
> > > > It would seem to me that digital cash would be better off
> > > > not being tied either of these trust systems, but somehow
> > > > develop it's own.
>
> James A. Donald:
> > > That is a really dumb idea.
> > >
> > > It took governments a generation and the vigorous and
> > > frequent application of bayonets and batons to render their
> > > money independent of precious metals.
>
> Anonymous:
> > but why did governments engage in the vigorous and frequent
> > application of bayonets and batons to render their money
> > independent of precious metals?
>
> Because they could.
>
>     --digsig
>          James A. Donald
>      6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
>      e14ZjXqdjvPhGbY7gUaOBA42wTiDnGWfnEJ2q84q
>      4dPLVHJB12eAfQgOC1preE0ABpS1HIjeAfHn/qQN8