Never trust me to actually shut up and go to bed.
I am reading a history of the currency crises of East/Southeast Asia in the late 90’s. What is interesting to me is that Bretton Woods, once we got off the flimsy gold standard they had retained, in the early 70’s, effectively made the dollar into gold. Rather than keeping gold in the vault, developing nations have to keep dollars in their vaults. There are other reserve currencies–the yen, the Euro, the Mao–but dollars are still the “gold standard” for the simple reason that as stupid as we have been, we have been less stupid than others.
This leads logically, though, to the contention–which I will have to ponder–that our Federal Reserve is the only TRUE central bank in the world, since it is uniquely empowered to create the world’s de facto reserve currency.
I am reevaluating many things. One possibility I am considering is that some American banks are in fact predatory around the world. This says nothing about America as a whole, but speaks rather to a disease that perhaps affects other nations more overtly, but is not absent here either.
To be clear: I believe in Capitalism, but do not believe that fiat money qualifies as Capital; it is an abuse: there is in my view no other way to view it.