david927

> Imagine that nobody figured out the truth about gravity until Newton. It was only one hundred or so years between Copernicus and Newton. And it looks like in that time Hooke and possibly others …

> the Empire tried to cope with decline by debasing currency That sounds like, "The spouse tried to cope with the failed marriage by cheating." Maybe, but maybe also it played a role in…

You keep arguing my words and not my point and I’m not sure what you think that type of sophistry is going to win you. You are well aware that the Denarius went from pure silver to .02%. You know it’s…

That's exactly what I'm saying. It would be seen as a competing currency, like gold, and prohibited. Michael Burry tweeted this earlier this year, "Prepare for inflation. Re-opening &…

Of course -- all financial strategies are bets. Good luck.

Are we just supposed to leave out that many empires simply collapsed, like the Roman Empire? So that it didn't go back to a gold standard because it no longer existed? I mean, maybe you have a p…

The assets don't disappear. Gold doesn't disappear. People will still want to trade. They'll have assets and want different assets. Barter stinks. Countries will have surplus grain…

Someone cleverer than I answered you above. “This has all happened before” is true.

First, there are fewer than 200 countries. Second, they've only left it since the 1970's in the current era and that was because the US could use its dominant position to do so (the Petro-do…

Because the economies are interlinked and so a major economy defaulting starts a domino process where almost all debt goes into default. The currency of any country is legal note that says that count…

> a return to the gold standard after its general global rejection has not happened before But only because a general global rejection didn't happen before. Remember that the "general …

The same rules would apply to any competing currency, such as Bitcoin.

Like a major economy defaulting

> Care to put a number of years on that? I'm not a soothsayer; I'm not trying to time anything. I'm saying the steering wheel and pedals have come off the car and it's going 80…

Any amount. The idea was that owning wasn't really the problem, they just didn't want you easily trading it. So you could have a huge statue of solid gold and it wouldn't be a problem…

I used to be Keynesian and thought that inflation was a free tax that was also good for investment and growth. Now I understand that it leads inexorably to ruin. It creates a situation where you have…

So... this year? :-) If you agree the building is going to explode, you don’t start talking confidently about how you probably have another hour but instead leave the building.

on the contrary, the world is facing a global economic collapse the likes of which it has never seen before.

Thinking is a lot more than logic. Chess and coding are great but they're a tiny sliver on the spectrum of thought. Read to them. Childrens books when young but progress as they get older. Play…

I hitchhiked that back in 1987 when I was 19. Good times!

We really shouldn’t be talking about anything else right now

I use the term 'bien pensant' as an epithet. I think if you "chew your food" intellectually speaking, you're going to come to some surprising conclusions that will not match …

I'm shocked at the cavalier attitude I'm seeing here in these comments. There's a sense of entitlement. The US gets to put anything on its credit card that it wants at the expense of …

The US is bankrupt. Should we worry?

I'm fine with Steve. I want Amazon to write a blog post to flesh out the criticism.

Is it just me, or was it a better composition with the empty wall? It's clear that it was there to lend an indication as to the contents of the letter -- but for me, I liked it better when it was…

Very strange. One person down-voted it. Who could have done that?

20 upvotes isn't hostile, but your gray comment history indicates that HN is hostile to you . You might want to stop and think about what about your personality might cause that.