Debt, Finance & Money
Yesterday, the dollar traded at an "all time low." Everyone drops context when they claim, as you can find in all sorts of places, that since the creation of the Fed in 1913, the dollar has "lost 90% of its purchasing power." Oh really? Now, the only thing that can possibly mean in practical relevant terms is that average people in 1913 had the power to purchase goods and services to sustain and improve their lives in magnitudes 10 times greater than we do today. Is that the case? Or is it rather the case, perhaps, that the dollar was inflated 1000% since 1913 and the credit from that inflation has purchased industrialization, technology, and economies of scale that give you 10,000% the purchasing power of a 1913 individual? My percentages are for illustration. Hopefully you get the point. Think about it. When you secure credit, such as to buy a house, you're inflating your own net worth. But you're also leveraging it, and when you do it with some thought and cleverness, the bounty from the leverage far outweighs the inflation. It works the same way on a macro scale. I'm no particular fan of the Fed, for reasons...