Investing in foreign currencies

gozomark

The great depression was caused by cuts in public expenditure and a trade war, not by the Fed pumping in credit (which they didn't)

gozomark

the problem was a lack of credit, and a massive contraction of the money supply - the Fed did nothing about the banking crisis, and turned a recession into a depression. The problem was the gold standard which restricted the Feds ability to provide credit.

Lol_UK_2

gozomark wrote: »

The great depression was caused by cuts in public expenditure and a trade war, not by pumping in credit

A commonly held and incorrect opinion according to
Murray N Rothbards book: America's Great Depression

https://www.mises.org/rothbard/agd.pdf

gozomark

oh come on, thats a 400 page book - he says its was oversupply of credit in the 1920's - fine, thats what caused the recession, but not what turned it into a depression

its still generally accepted economic theory that it was as I stated, and certainly is by Bernanke, one of the worlds experts on the great depression

Lol_UK_2

gozomark wrote: »

the problem was a lack of credit, and a massive contraction of the money supply - the Fed did nothing about the banking crisis, and turned a recession into a depression. The problem was the gold standard which restricted the Feds ability to provide credit.

I have a quote written by a young Alan Greenspan in 1966...'The Federal Reserve created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any bank reserve shortage...it nearly destroyed the economies of the world in the process...'

Lol_UK_2

gozomark wrote: »

oh come on, thats a 400 page book - whats the summary ?

its still generallyaccepted economic theory that it was as I stated, and cetainly is by Bernanke, one of the worlds experts on the great depression

Bernanke is going to be proved to have done more harm than good- and an expert on the depression he is not!

Basically?- the book tells us that pretty much everything the US and UK government is doing right now is the same as the run up to The Great Depression...except we are in worse shape because of our huge government deficits and over a Trillion in personal debt. I know it's not a pretty sight, and I'd hate it to be true...but forewarned is forearmed as they say!

gozomark

I think its fair to say that the Austrian School view of economics is some way away from consensus - in a couple of years time it will either have been vindicated, or blown completely out of the water. Given whats being done in Europe, Japan and the US, we'd better all hope its the latter, or we are all in the deep doodoo

tradetime

Lol_UK wrote: »

I have a quote written by a young Alan Greenspan in 1966...'The Federal Reserve created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any bank reserve shortage...it nearly destroyed the economies of the world in the process...'

Interesting you'd quote him, since if we can't alter the course of current events he will likely be the individual most credited with actually acheiving that, I'd suggest he stand aside, it's his mess, the Greenspan legacy the world is trying to clear up.

tonygee_3

interesting thread,personally too many imponderables in currency speculation
might as well pick black/red on roullette
regards 'gambling/investing' ...no difference except traditional 'gambles' are short lived events whereas' investing' simply lets you gamble for longer
A horse tipster would argue he is no less skilled than a stockpicker both require plenty of luck to succeed

gozomark

gambling and investing do share alot of traits, but one difference is : gambling is a zero-sum game (for one person to win, someone else has to lose), whereas investing isn't. As far as the person involved is concerned there maybe no real difference, but there is in terms of economic consequences.

betting on horses - gambling
buying shares - investing