mpescatori wrote on 09/11/12 at 07:25:27:srinath wrote on 09/05/12 at 04:51:49:justin_o_guy2 wrote on 09/04/12 at 22:27:33:Look at how Iceland handled it. Bankers have RUN out of there. They have teams scouring the world hunting them,or so Ive heard,
And when the worlds reserve currency becomes the Icelandic kroner will you please let me know ... And here is the biggie -
We dont care if the banking billionaire "masters of the universe" get up and leave to go to any other darn rats hole in the world ... they still owe US taxes.
We in fact dont care if they do leave, what I would do is publish the fact that they have left, and publish the locations of their houses in the local papers and drop it off @ local soup kitchens ... a good dozen families can live just in their pool houses.
Cool.
Srinath.
The US $ GRADUALLY became the world staple currency after WW2.
Before WW2, it was the British Pound AND the French Franc.
Before WW1, the Italian Lira was THE booming hard currency in Europe, to the point a Sterling Lira actually went on par with the UK Sterling Pound towards the end of the 19th Century.
I don't know which way things may be going, or how the world will look in another 30 years' time.
If you're wise AND have money to spare, invest in Swiss Francs, better still, invest in Brazilian Reals, Indian Rupees or SouthAfrican Rand.
The Randier the better
I really really doubt any currency can get the USD off that mantle, pre 1964 it could have been possible, but once the gold standard was done with no one has a prayer.
The next decade we will watch the unwinding of the Euro.
We will also watch the escalation of the yuan to the worlds second reserve currency, cos they have been borrowing albeit a small amount compared to ours from some middle east and african countries. Some of it is in yuan and the rest in USD.
India has a tendency to print not borrow. India would end up with inflation and no worries about surging debt. No one has been willing to lend to India too.
Anyone who has debt from the US designated in USD is simply put, holding onto paper we decide what its value is. There is no one else holding on to any other kind of our debt.
China has been buying up land and mines and what not in other countries with the idea that they can harvest and strip other countries of their resources. They will simply be hit with a export tariff when things get tight. You may own a mile here, that doesn't mean you can bring in your people to dig it out and transport it back to your country. Much like Japan bought real estate in the US in the 80's. The fear among the clueless americans was that "japan is going to own us" Hell no. They can own this square of land here, that doesn't mean they can visit their "square" without a visa, they can collect rent on it, but they cannot even be here to maintain it. They would have to hire people here. And best of all, they cannot cut it out and take it to japan or china. All I can say is, we should sell everything to china and deny them visa's to come here for any reason. We then get the municipalities to write em up as poorly maintained etc if applicable, and the chinese will be forced to hire locals to work maintaining the properties. China will then hold on to tons of worthless paper pro notes saying we owe em 20 trillion and hold on to land they cannot see, touch, reach or collect rent on without paying 50-60% to a maintenance company. That would be a good way to fry them for currency manipulation and for having near slave labor conditions in factories and undercutting our markets.
In any case "get real" doesn't mean get the currency called the "real" ...
Cool.
Srinath.