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Foster Publishing, Coin & Stamp   >  "James Turk on Banking Insolvency"

James Turk on Banking Insolvency

posted by silverbull on Dec 14th, 2007 at 9:31 am

As a follow up to the Fed's recent announcement to pump more liquidity into the money markets, James Turk explains why liquidity won't help and how it will make market conditions worse. I thought this passage was of interest:

 

The economic boom-to-bust cycle caused by bank lending and their subsequent credit contraction is not rocket science, nor a startling revelation. The last banking bust occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before that, a much deeper bust occurred in 1973-1974, and it more closely mirrors the severity of the way the present bust is developing. Here’s how Ludwig von Mises described the process nearly one-hundred years ago, making clear the inevitable destruction of fiat currency from inflation.

"The course of a progressing inflation is this: At the beginning the inflow of additional money makes the prices of some commodities and services rise; other prices rise later. The price rise affects the various commodities and services … at different dates and to a different extent. This first stage of the inflationary process may last for many years. While it lasts, the prices of many goods and services are not yet adjusted to the altered money relation. There are still people … who have not yet become aware of the fact that they are confronted with a price revolution which will finally result in a considerable rise of all prices. These people still believe that prices one day will drop. Waiting for this day, they restrict their purchases and … increase their cash holdings.

But then finally the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of the fact that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his money against "real" goods, no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter how much money he has to pay for them. Within a very short time … the things which were used as money are no longer used as media of exchange. They become scrap paper.”


And scrap bank accounts. While paper was the predominant form of currency in Mises time, today bank deposits moved around by check, plastic cards and wire transfer are a much more significant form of currency than paper.


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