Money and Power: Fiat Currency, Monetary Corruption, and the Architecture of Extraction

Posted by freedomforall 2 days, 13 hours ago to Economics
8 comments | Share | Flag

Excerpt:
"The corruption of fiat money does not end at national borders; dollar hegemony globalizes it. Because the US dollar functions as the world’s reserve currency, Federal Reserve policy becomes global monetary policy by default. Foreign states must hold dollars to stabilize trade, borrow in dollars to access capital, and absorb the consequences of US monetary decisions over which they have no control. When the Fed eases, capital floods into emerging markets, inflating bubbles and encouraging dollar-denominated debt. When the Fed tightens, currencies collapse, debts become unpayable, and crises erupt. What appears as domestic stabilization at the center manifests as devastation at the periphery.

This arrangement constitutes a form of seigniorage imperialism. The issuing state acquires real goods, labor, and assets in exchange for liabilities it can expand at will. The costs are exported through exchange-rate volatility, debt crises, and externally imposed austerity. Fiat corruption thus scales globally, transforming monetary dominance into an instrument of geopolitical power.

History offers abundant confirmation. From the credit expansion of the 1920s and the deepening of the Great Depression through intervention, to the abandonment of gold convertibility in 1971 and the explosion of debt that followed, to the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath of bailouts and consolidation, the pattern repeats. Each crisis is framed as exceptional. Each intervention becomes precedent. Each rescue increases fragility. The pandemic-era monetary expansion merely accelerated a trajectory already in motion, normalizing levels of creation once reserved for war.

From a Rothbardian perspective, such a system cannot be reformed. Monopoly over money inevitably produces abuse, not because individuals are uniquely corrupt, but because unchecked discretion always is. The problem is not mismanagement; it is structural. Fiat money—insulated from competition and constraint—transforms money from a medium of exchange into an instrument of hierarchy.

A free society cannot rest on a monetary foundation that requires ignorance to function. Constraint is not the enemy of prosperity; it is its precondition. Without it, prices lie, capital misallocates, and responsibility dissolves. Fiat money does not merely finance power. It becomes power. And when money itself is corrupted, everything built upon it follows."
SOURCE URL: https://mises.org/mises-wire/money-and-power-fiat-currency-monetary-corruption-and-architecture-extraction


Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • Posted by mccannon01 1 day, 9 hours ago
    This is definitely a mess that's been building for more than a century. I have no personal solution other than prepare for the SHTF event. I would like to see a better solution than that, but we aren't going to get it out of the bunch (uniparty) that's running things now.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ jbrenner 2 days, 11 hours ago
    I had to look up the word "seigniorage". Seigniorage is the profit a government makes from issuing currency, calculated as the difference between the face value of money (coins or banknotes) and the cost to produce it.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by CaptainKirk 10 hours, 9 minutes ago
    Yes. Imagine a simple system:
    No Fed (The Treasury USURPS it).
    We control the Fed Window (where the leverage happens).
    We get paid 1%/yr PER LEVER. Banks lever 10-20x (Creating money out of thin air to create a loan).

    This 1% would pay a 10% - 20% interest back to the Treasury. That number (M3) is much bigger than the M1 (What we create by issuing bonds).

    We could literally pay down the interest, and have profits. Enough to pay down extra principle. And get out of debt.

    IMAGINE... I think Trump understands this.

    But who loses? (The "Banksters" who keep the current X% times M3 without paying $1 in taxes).

    Don't tax the rich. No need. Just take control of the money, properly.

    Want the banks to give better CD rates. UP the Fed Window Rate to 3-5% on levers 3+...
    Suddenly banks would want fresh CD money to lever up again...

    Either that, or switch to a Currency NOBODY can inflate or counterfeit... And has a transparent worldwide blockchain to record all transactions so you can trace where government money goes, and how much of it goes there... (But the Gulch is NOT ready for that!) :-)
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by 8 hours, 36 minutes ago
      Wonder what you think about this, CK:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGLJr...
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by CaptainKirk 5 hours, 45 minutes ago
        Yes. FFA. The markets are fundamentally RIGGED. They can keep the prices down. They can see their CLIENTS stop orders. Push the asset into the stops. And buy the stop loss sales.

        Because the penalties are SO LOW, they keep doing it. Also, if the MINING Companies catch a BID, it gives the CEO some Liquid Courage to hold out for higher SPOT prices. Or sell their silver AROUND the COMEX market.

        Can't be having that. Rumor is that many mines are foregoing the Comex and selling silver for $100+ /oz directly to consumers.

        And the bankers are probably net short the miners, and have been for years.

        Notice how silver USED to behave. They would sell 1 YEAR Supply of paper silver, on a Sunday in the wee hours, and knock the silver price DOWN for months.

        But it is no longer working. It barely lasts HOURS nowadays.

        Does it make ANY Sense that CORN Futures are selling for the SAME $ they sold for 30 years ago? No! But the paper "controllers" can force it down, manipulate it, and guarantee THEY make the money.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by 9 hours, 47 minutes ago
      "(But the Gulch is NOT ready for that!)"
      It's Wall St banking cartel that isn't quite ready for that.
      When the banking cartel can profit YUGELY on volatility then that can happen, imo.
      The banking cartel (and their stealing from everyone else in the world using government edict) that is the primary obstacle.
      Their ability to hire people to murder anyone in their way that has kept all of us in slavery.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by CaptainKirk 5 hours, 35 minutes ago
        Yes. But like Scott Adams. AND our forefathers/founders. At some point. You have to draw the line in the sand and say "Not on my watch!".

        Never before in the history of the world, has the average person had the ability to step OUTSIDE the criminal Financial System, in order to protect themselves.

        Today, we have BTC. And the reason I own it (along side of G&S) is because of what is happening now. As the Dollar Falters and "Hyperinflation" starts coming our way. The metals will be so expensive NOBODY will be able to buy them.

        That's the TRAP. Because THOSE are the signs you MUST Buy them. Not for a trade, but to protect yourself.

        BTC is proof that there NEVER has to be a BANK between YOU and YOUR ASSETS/CURRENCY/MONEY.

        Having been debanked once... Trust me. People need to wake up. I don't trust banks. They take huge risks, and keep the profits and share the losses. They create the inflation and enable the government to print whatever they need.

        Imagine trusting the USD when Musk found MORE than ONE magic money printer, that basically wrote cashable checks that did not have to clear against another account. (It would be called counterfeiting if we did that).

        It takes only ONE of those printers to corrupt the USD into hyperinflation. He found Multiple.

        And the media stayed so far away from it...
        Strange...

        But the point was that the Gulch has yet to embrace that we NEED a blockchain based money system outside of the control of the bankers.

        FWIW, STRC has paid me THOUSANDS in dividends for which I OWE ZERO taxes! (In about 9-10yrs, I will start owning ONLY LTCG on the dividends I collect).

        Paid Monthly.
        This will start encroaching on the lousy bonds wall street likes to sell, and gets a piece of!
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo