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Did You Know: The original US currency was called a Fugio? Instead of the phrase “In God We Trust”, it said “Mind Your Business”.
The word Fugio is Latin for ‘I Fly’
More from wikipedia:
On April 21, 1787, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized a design for an official penny, later referred to as the Fugio cent because of its image of the sun shining down on a sundial with the caption, “Fugio” (Latin: I flee/fly). This coin was reportedly designed by Benjamin Franklin; as a reminder to its holders, he put at its bottom the message, “Mind Your Business”. The image and the words form a rebus meaning that time flies, do your work. This design was also used on the “Continental dollar” (issued as coins of unknown real denomination, and in paper notes of different fractional denominations) in February 1776.
Some historians believe that the word “business” was intended literally here, as Franklin was an influential and successful businessman. Given Franklin’s history publishing aphorisms, it may have been intended to mean both monetary and social business.
The reverse side of both the 1776 coins and paper notes, and the 1787 coins, bore the third motto “We Are One” (in English) surrounded by thirteen chain links, representing the original thirteen colonial states.
Following the reform of the central government with the 1789 ratification of the 1787 Constitution, gold and silver coins transitioned to the motto ”E pluribus unum” from the Great Seal of the United States.
The U.S. will win the global currency race to the bottom but decimate its economy in the process, economist Peter Schiff said.
With global central banks using currency manipulation to spur growth, capital markets have been awash in talk of what the fallout will be for investing strategies and consumers who may have to bear the weight of inflation.
LongtimeFederal Reservecritic Schiff said the central bank is being forced to prop up an ailing U.S. economy and the only way it can is by weakening the dollar.
“There is a currency war going on,” Schiff said at the Inside ETFs conference presented by Index Universe. “The irony of a currency war which makes it different from other wars is the object is to kill itself. Unfortunately, I think the U.S. is going to win the currency war.”
The CEO of Euro Pacific Capital in New York has been one of the market’s most outspoken supporters of gold as a hedge against inflation specifically and global turmoil in general.
He believes the metal will be a prime beneficiary of the currency war, while consumers will be its main victim.
“Anybody who believes there is no inflation isn’t shopping,” he said.
Government cost-of-living indexes such as theconsumer price indexare a “total fraud. Consumer prices in the U.S. are moving up much faster than indicated by the CPI. It is manipulated. It is deliberately designed to mask inflation, not report it,” he said.
As for U.S. economic prospects, Schiff believes they are gloomy.
Gross domestic productindicated a slight contraction in the fourth quarter, though most economists expect that to change in future revisions and growth to be steady but modest through the year. In the meantime, the European sovereign debt crisis is beginning to return to the news as well, though the stock market hasn’t seemed to mind any of it.
But that could change quickly.
“We’re broke. We owe trillions. Look at our budget deficit, look at the debt to GDP (ratio), the unfunded liabilities,” Schiff said. “If we were in the euro zone they would kick us out.”
For Schiff, such talk, though incendiary, is fairly routine.
He found a good deal of interest at the conference, though, with attendees crowding him after his panel discussion even as some other participants were beginning to catch flights out.
“The Fed knows that the U.S. economy is not recovering,” he said. “It simply is being kept from collapse by artificially low interest rates and quantitative easing. As that support goes, the economy will implode.”
Sometimes the consistent propagation of doom & gloom, especially from a well known and trusted source, causes the doom & gloom to come into fruition.
Even if I didn’t believe the US dollar was ready to collapse, which I do, I’d still bet that it would due to so much talk and preparation of it. The sell-offs will come and the investments will shift and it will all happen very quickly by those that have large sums of capital and the sophisticated machinery to detect and move said capital, leaving the unsophisticated investors at the bottom of the leftover rubble.
My advice to small time players is to get out and never come back in or know how hot of a fire they are playing with.
Charles de Gaulle, in 1965, predicting the global debt crisis due to the fiat currency of the US.
How Long Will the Dollar Remain the World’s Reserve Currency?
How Long Will the Dollar Remain the World’s Reserve Currency?
by Ron Paul
We frequently hear the financial press refer to the US dollar as the “world’s reserve currency,” implying that our dollar will always retain its value in an ever shifting world economy. But this is a dangerous and mistaken assumption.
Since August 15, 1971, when President Nixon closed the gold window and refused to pay out any of our remaining 280 million ounces of gold, the US dollar has operated as a pure fiat currency. This means the dollar became an article of faith in the continued stability and might of the US government
In essence, we declared our insolvency in 1971. Everyone recognized some other monetary system had to be devised in order to bring stability to the markets.
Amazingly, a new system was devised which allowed the US to operate the printing presses for the world reserve currency with no restraints placed on it − not even a pretense of gold convertibility! Realizing the world was embarking on something new and mind-boggling, elite money managers, with especially strong support from US authorities, struck an agreement with OPEC in the 1970s to price oil in US dollars exclusively for all worldwide transactions. This gave the dollar a special place among world currencies and in essence backed the dollar with oil.
In return, the US promised to protect the various oil-rich kingdoms in the Persian Gulf against threat of invasion or domestic coup. This arrangement helped ignite radical Islamic movements among those who resented our influence in the region. The arrangement also gave the dollar artificial strength, with tremendous financial benefits for the United States. It allowed us to export our monetary inflation by buying oil and other goods at a great discount as the dollar flourished.
In 2003, however, Iran began pricing its oil exports in Euro for Asian and European buyers. The Iranian government also opened an oil bourse in 2008 on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf for the express purpose of trading oil in Euro and other currencies. In 2009 Iran completely ceased any oil transactions in US dollars. These actions by the second largest OPEC oil producer pose a direct threat to the continued status of our dollar as the world’s reserve currency, a threat which partially explains our ongoing hostility toward Tehran.
While the erosion of our petrodollar agreement with OPEC certainly threatens the dollar’s status in the Middle East, an even larger threat resides in the Far East. Our greatest benefactors for the last 20 years − Asian central banks − have lost their appetite for holding US dollars. China, Japan and Asia in general have been happy to hold US debt instruments in recent decades but they will not prop up our spending habits forever. Foreign central banks understand that American leaders do not have the discipline to maintain a stable currency.
If we act now to replace the fiat system with a stable dollar backed by precious metals or commodities, the dollar can regain its status as the safest store of value among all government currencies. If not, the rest of the world will abandon the dollar as the global reserve currency.
Both Congress and American consumers will then find borrowing a dramatically more expensive proposition. Remember, our entire consumption economy is based on the willingness of foreigners to hold US debt. We face a reordering of the entire world economy if the federal government cannot print, borrow and spend money at a rate that satisfies its endless appetite for deficit spending.
Russia wants to move to a gold standard.
India and China started to by Iranian oil with gold.
China to start selling oil in Yuan.
Hell, the reason we invaded Iraq was because Saddam wanted to switch from Dollars to Euros for oil.
I can probably cite a dozen more occurrences but I think this is enough to scare anyone who understands why remaining the world’s reserve currency is so important.
Dowling Duncan and redesigning the American Dollar:
Why the size?
We have kept the width the same as the existing dollars. However we have changed the size of the note so that the one dollar is shorter and the 100 dollar is the longest. When stacked on top of each other it is easy to see how much money you have. It also makes it easier for the visually impaired to distinguish between notes.Why a vertical format?
When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally. You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically. Therefore a vertical note makes more sense.Why different colors?
It’s one of the strongest ways graphically to distinguish one note from another.Why these designs?
We wanted a concept behind the imagery so that the image directly relates to the value of each note. We also wanted the notes to be educational, not only for those living in America but visitors as well. Each note uses a black and white image depicting a particular aspect of American history and culture. They are then overprinted with informational graphics or a pattern relating to that particular image.$1 – The first African American president
$5 – The five biggest native American tribes
$10 – The bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution
$20 – 20th Century America
$50 – The 50 States of America
$100 – The first 100 days of President Franklin Roosevelt. During this time he led the congress to pass more important legislations than most presidents pass in their entire term. This helped fight the economic crises at the time of the great depression. Ever since, every new president has been judged on how well they have done during the first 100 days of their term.
You dropped George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin for two of the worst Presidents we’ve ever had.
Good job, good effort.
(via toteardown)
