• 0 Posts
  • 84 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

help-circle



  • I still feel nervous about a regional nuclear war* between you and Pakistan or a land war with China, particularly as the region dries out.

    Neither will happen. Both our politicians and Pakistani generals love sabre-rattling. Both also love their wealth and status too much to do anything stupid. And while China can really hurt us in a potential war, they can do at least as much damage by stopping exports to us.



  • When you have commodity money, the value of the money is derived from the value of the commodity.

    The value of the commodity acts as a floor, but the face value is dictated by supply and demand, and demand usually exceeds supply, driving it significantly above the floor. Take gold, for example. Gold’s intrinsic values are (1) it’s pretty and can be used to make decorative items, and (2) it has some applications in electronics. It can’t be eaten, can’t be worn, and it’s too soft even to make tools out of it. Yet, its extrinsic value is huge, because it is publically seen as a good medium of exchange and so a lot of people want it.