Economics still dominates much of the news and should, because we are all affected by the roller-coaster reports everyday.
The latest is all the news about “Cash for Clunkers” crazies. So many are praising as a panacea to save the economy from disaster. It was such a wonderful idea, according to some, the program ran out of money quickly, now politicians scrambling to repeat the disaster of this “wonderful” idea.
From time to time in my previous articles, I’ve written a bit about my experience with economics. To many of us the very word, “economics” sounds complex and intimidating. There is a language in the money world that many of us do not understand.
We read articles in magazines, books, blogs and listen to money reports via the six o’clock news. There is bull market, bear market, up-turns, down-turns. There are Keynism and Austrian schools of thought on economics. There is the Federal Reserve, central banks and community banks. There is the Euro versus the Dollar… gold, silver, paper money. And on and on about money and economics.
I was sitting in an economics class in the sixties when the professor asked me what I knew about economics. My response was, “I only know one thing. When your outgo is more than your income, your upkeep will become your downfall.” He suggested that might be a matter of cash flow. He was a professor of the Austrian School of Economics and very smart. I was very ignorant about the subject of economics. And to this day, still do not know very much about the subject, but I studied and read a lot and learned a few things. Elementary stuff, dear Watson.
Throughout history, the accepted medium of exchange has been gold and silver. They have intrinsic value. Along came President Roosevelt in the thirties and gold and silver was removed from the backing of the U.S. dollar. He changed the monetary policy.
Copyright 2008-2012, Anne Cleveland. Feel free to quote me or use snippets of my text with attribution – but please refrain from reusing entire posts without first procuring written permission.
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