Category: Fiat Currency
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Syria, Iran, and Egypt - Troubled Currencies Project Update / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Syria: Since August 26, when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began laying the groundwork for military intervention in Syria, the Syrian pound (SYP) has taken a beating on the black market. Indeed, the SYP has lost 24.07 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar (USD) in the two days since Kerry’s announcement. Currently, the exchange rate sits at 270 SYP/USD, yielding an implied annual inflation rate of 291.88 percent. In countries with troubled currencies, there is no better measure of economic expectations than the black-market exchange rate. The recent deterioration in the SYP/USD exchange rate clearly indicates that Syrians are anticipating Western military intervention in the near term.
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Thursday, August 22, 2013
To Make Sense of the Coins Act, Follow the Money / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
The American people might be surprised to learn that for the past 20 years a handful of lobbyists and lawmakersmostly from states with mining and metal-processing interestshave been pushing a proposal to take away dollar bills, and force the public to use metal coins instead.
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Competing Currencies in Somalia / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: MISES
The Great Debate
For years a debate has raged in monetary economics over the credibility of the theory that a more stable monetary system would emerge were the system to allow for concurrent currencies operating under no legal restrictions.
One side of the debate, represented most prominently by Milton Friedman, believes that the emergence and acceptance of a new currency would be hindered — and its ability to supplant an incumbent currency all but eliminated — by network effects and/or switching costs.
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Tuesday, August 06, 2013
What’s Next for the U.S. Dollar and Currencies? / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Axel_Merk
In the short to medium term, the U.S. dollar and currencies are heavily influenced by what the Fed may be up to next. As the Federal Reserve (Fed) may be reading tealeaves as much as anyone else, we may be facing particularly high policy uncertainty that, in turn, reflects on elevated volatility in the bond and currency markets. The good news is that this may yield opportunities for the prudent investor.
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
What Is Syria’s Iranian Credit Line Worth? / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Last week, the press was filled with reportage about Tehran throwing a lifeline – actually a credit line of $3.6 billion – to the Syrian regime.
The announcement of this Iranian lifeline should have changed the economic expectations of Syrians in the throes of what has morphed into a bloody civil war. Indeed, if it materializes, the $3.6 billion credit line should allow Damascus to conserve its dwindling supply of foreign exchange. This development should have thrown a positive expectation shock into the market for the Syrian pound.
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Friday, July 26, 2013
Egypt’s Vanishing Currency Black Markets / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Despite escalating tensions between Egypt’s new military-backed government and supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, there is at least one positive development coming out of the Land of the Nile. Yes, at long last, some semblance of stability appears to be returning to Egypt’s economy.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The World's Troubled Currencies / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
For academics, the term "troubled currency" might be a term of art. But for people who are faced with such a currency, they know a troubled currency when they see one. Today, this is the case for millions of people around the world — most notably in Iran, North Korea, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt and Syria.
A troubled currency is one in which users have lost confidence. When users no longer think a currency will retain its purchasing power, they attempt to dump it for a stable foreign currency (or commodities). As the demand for the troubled currency evaporates, its value vis-á-vis stable foreign currencies collapses, and prices for goods and services sold in the troubled currency soar. As this process develops, expectations about the currency’s ability to retain its purchasing power deteriorate, and a doom loop ensues. At the extreme, doom loops can culminate in hyperinflation — an inflation rate of over 50% per month. This, however, is rare. Indeed, there have only been 56 cases of hyperinflation.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Value of the Syrian Pound Hits an All-Time Low / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
ime has imposed harsh penalties for currency trading on the black-market. This strategy proved wildly unsuccessful when it was utilized by the Iran in October of 2012.
Indeed, as was the case in Iran, attempts to suppress currency exchange have sparked a panic – a run on the Syrian pound. As of 10 July 2013, the value of the Syrian pound on the black market has hit an all time low, with the current black-market exchange rate now sitting at 295.00 SYP/USD.
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Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Do We Need A New Single World Reserve Currency? / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Andrew_McKillop
GOLD, CO2 AND THE DREAM OF NEW WORLD CURRENCIES
Gold bugs might think that so-called Currency Wars – a chaotic attempt at competitive devaluation of all major present currencies and the unpublicised main reason for Quantitative Easing – means that gold's supposed 'natural role' as a strong, solid and reliable money standard can only be bolstered by the rush to devalue. However, as we know, gold itself has suffered massive coordinated attacks this year. Recent gold price falls have been so violent – while QE money printing remains so extreme – making it likely the time-hallowed central bankers' action to talk down gold prices, to bolster their fiat paper moneys, is running at a flat out pace. At the same time however, competitive devaluation by the bankers of their fiat paper moneys is also running flat out!
Friday, May 10, 2013
Dollarize Argentina Now / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Argentina is once again wrestling with its long-time enemy, inflation. Now, it appears history may soon repeat itself, as Argentina teeters on the verge of another currency crisis.
As of Tuesday morning, the black-market exchange rate for Argentine pesos (ARS) to the U.S. dollas (USD) hit 9.87, meaning the peso’s value now sits 47.3% below the official exchange rate. This yields an implied annual inflation rate of 98.3%.
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Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Currency Wars Winners and Losers / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Axel_Merk
Who is winning the “currency wars”? Our take on the greenback, yen, sterling, euro and gold:
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Jim Rogers On Central Bankers Currency Debasement "Race to Insanity" / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon writes: If you are invested in the lofty stock markets of the United States or Japan, legendary investor Jim Rogers has a message for you ...
Euphoric gains always lead to hangover pains - it's just a matter of when.
"This is artificial, as I've [repeatedly] said," Rogers told Money Morning during an exclusive interview Sunday night. "This is the first time in recorded history where nearly all the central banks in all countries are pumping out lots of money, debasing their currencies, printing money. I've never seen this in history, and now we've got everybody - or nearly everybody - doing it."
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Sunday, April 21, 2013
Classic Cars the Fun Antidote to Money Printing? / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Submissions
Malcolm Frost writes: It was Winston Churchill who famously reminded us, “destiny calls and we must obey”. Well, at the very least, us lesser mortals must comment. So fingers and keyboard come together to put electronic pen to screen on an issue of great potential importance to all car lovers: “motoring during monetisation”. So what exactly do we mean by “monetisation”? Well, to put things more crudely, we are referring to sneaky debt-default by governments various. By now we should all know the form. Politicians of every hue have run up levels of debt that can never be repaid (or can they?). Similarly, consumers are literally awash with red ink having paid ridiculous multiples of income for housing and having indulged in probably the biggest orgy of consumption in history.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Bitcoins Risk Reward / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: BATR
Money is supposed to be a store of value. After the recent collapse in the dollar convertible price of Bitcoins, the inevitable scrutiny in the viability of the monetary system is warranted.
The official description of Bitcoin states: Bitcoin is an experimental, decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority managing transactions and issuing money carried out collectively by the network. Purported myths and ground rules on how the alternative currency operates, provides calculated reading. Whether this accounting system can or would be accepted as an credible medium of exchange on any large scale is certainly an open question.
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Monday, April 15, 2013
Making Sense of U.S. Money / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Stephen_Merrill
What possibly has happened to the finest invention in the long history of nation-states?
With the Greatest Depression grinding along the deepest of cliffs, with America’s Afghan wartime ally Harmid Karzai accusing US forces of homicide bombings to spread terror in his country and with our President no better able to stage-manage the federal sequester than he has accomplished with the general economy, the present state of affairs seems dire for the US monolith, a quite Soviesque look actually.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Bitcoin Money of the Future or Old-Fashioned Bubble? / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: MISES
Patrik Korda writes: Bitcoin has been all the rage lately. The stuff, or lack thereof, runs on peer-to-peer technology, is fully decentralized, has no patents, and is open source. Currently, there are almost 11 million bitcoin units in existence and the maximum amount of bitcoin units that will ever be created by the logic of its design are 21 million. For more details on how they work, see the recent Mises Daily “The Money-Ness of Bitcoins” by economist Nikolay Gertchev.
Friday, April 05, 2013
China’s Attack on the U.S. Dollar / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Investment_U
Carl Delfeld writes: The greenback gets no respect these days.
The latest “sky is falling” event for the U.S. dollar is a plan to make the Chinese yuan and Australian dollar freely convertible into each other. As of now, the Chinese currency is only convertible into the Japanese yen and U.S. dollars.
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Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Fiat Currency Collapse / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Submissions
Lance Burnham writes: If all fiat currencies in history eventually collapse, how do we see it coming? Could it happen to the US dollar? How do you survive something like that?
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
World's First Bitcoin ATM to be located in Cyprus / Currencies / Fiat Currency
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
While European politicos negotiate in Brussels, deciding the fate of other people's money in Cyprus, the free market has already moved in to help Cypriots get access to their money via other means...
Banks have been closed for the last week in Cyprus and if they do re-open on Tuesday, it has now been announced that daily withdrawal limits at ATMs will be 100 euros per day.
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
Dealing with QE-Wars and Fiat Currency Devaluations / Stock-Markets / Fiat Currency
By: Gary_Dorsch
Whether you live in Cyprus, England, Japan, the United States, or elsewhere, the battle for financial survival is taking on new dimensions. At issue is the steady dilution of the purchasing power of money that is perpetrated by the world’s central banks, and worries about confiscation and taxation of monies by government authorities. Even the giant Multi-Nationals, that stashed trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens, are feeling a bit uneasy about reports that the G-20 plans to crackdown on their money laundering schemes in the future.