Free Talk Live

Russia wants the ruble to be one of the world’s reserve currencies as President Dmitry Medvedev renews his push to reduce the dollar’s dominance and make Moscow a global financial hub. “Only three, five years ago it seemed like a fantasy” to create a new reserve currency, Medvedev said yesterday in a speech in St. Petersburg, Russia. “Now we are seriously discussing it.”

The dollar plunged today following a United Nations report which called for the greenback to be replaced as the global reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights (SDRs).

In March, Kevin Brady (R-TX) introduced H.R.4180 (Sound Dollar Act) and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a companion bill (S.2247 Federal Reserve Modernization Act) in the Senate. These two bills are actually seven pieces of legislation, put into a single bill. There is nothing in this bill that would prevent the Federal Reserve from continuing to inflate the currency. Nothing to prevent future cycles of “boom and bust.” The “Sound Dollar Act” is another misnamed piece of legislation designed to trick the American people into supporting bad legislation.

According to a leaked cable the increase in China’s gold reserves is intended to “kill two birds with one stone.” Firstly, it serves as a model for other countries to encourage reserving more gold, and therefore less USD. Second, it strengthens the Chinese currency, the Renminbi, so that it can begin to replace the declining USD as the world reserve currency. All of this spells bad news for the American economy.

Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It’s settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank’s fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there’s one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad: bitcoins, the online-only currency.

Bernard von NotHaus, 67, was convicted today by a federal jury of making, possessing, and selling his own coins, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Following an eight-day trial and less than two hours of deliberation, von NotHaus, the founder and monetary architect of a currency known as the Liberty Dollar, was found guilty by a jury in Statesville, North Carolina, of making coins resembling and similar to United States coins.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official: After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years. But, an increase of 2% a year over a period of 20 years will lead to a 50% increase in the price level. It will take 150 (2032) dollars to purchase the same basket of goods 100 (2012) dollars can buy today. What will be called the “dollar” in 2032 will be worth one-third less (100/150) than what we call a dollar today.

A peer-to-peer currency exchange done without coercive influence is now worth more than the dollar. Which just goes to show that a currency can exist without governmental intervention.

One of my friends recently got into a debate over monetary issues. It seems there’s a rather large number of US residents that are unaware of what makes money good or bad. To alleviate this, I’m going to list the properties any good currency should have. I’ll also compare 3 currencies to see how they measure up: the US Dollar (aka Federal Reserve Notes), precious metals (gold and silver), bitcoin.