Glenn Beck is a fear-mongering idiot.

[BlueHair]

Do the likes of the radio guys have any more effect on the economy than all the liberals in the mainstream media who were lamenting the economy when Bush was in office? How about Obama's comments that the economy was on the brink of collapse while he was campaigning?

No. I hate fear-mongering from any source. There is so much of it that it makes it hard to distinguish it from legitimate warnings.

[BlueHair]

Pretty much. Somehow a return to the gold standard would fix everything, even though scarcity is the only defining distinction between gold and any other fiat currency. You can't eat it, build with it, or employ it, but it has a magical intrinsic value...go figure.

The proponents of the gold standard like that it helps keep the government honest. If you want to wage war, you have to go to the people and collect some money to do it. If you want more social programs, same thing. The budget must be balanced. You can't spend what you don't have. If the government would have come to me and told me I owed $40,000 (my estimated portion for a family of four) for the stimulus package, they would have been told to suck it. Fiat currency aids crooked politicians.

It doesn't have to be gold that a currency is tied to. Gold is generally preferred because it is rare and isn't consumed. Almost all the gold ever mined is still in use. People don't destroy gold.

[cowboy]

The proponents of the gold standard like that it helps keep the government honest. If you want to wage war, you have to go to the people and collect some money to do it. If you want more social programs, same thing. The budget must be balanced. You can't spend what you don't have. If the government would have come to me and told me I owed $40,000 (my estimated portion for a family of four) for the stimulus package, they would have been told to suck it. Fiat currency aids crooked politicians.

We'll probably have to agree to disagree on this one. The government borrows to finance its excess spending, and that wouldn't change if it the gold standard were returned. Furthermore, I'll argue that a fiat currency is more stable than a gold-based currency, and it therefore promotes economic growth.

A stable currency is a currency that circulates evenly per capita. In other words, the money supply must grow with the population to avoid either inflation or deflation. Because production will not keep up with the population perpetually, deflation is a far more likely event under a gold standard system.

Deflation is death to banking, and if deflation is a real fear, borrowing stops. Leverage and lending are key components of a healthy, growing economy because they marry innovation with capital and facilitate rapid roll-out of goods, services, and technologies.

Without fiat currency, deflation becomes a real and present danger, and lending stops. If lending stops, the world economy grinds to a halt.

Amen.

[wuapinmon]

And from what school?

And HOW ARE THEY RANKED?????

You have me all wrong. I guess I'll stop trying.

[Jeff Lebowski]

You have me all wrong. I guess I'll stop trying.

Oh knock it off. We are just having some fun.

[Hallelujah]

I'm just about as conservative as they come, but even I am fed up with the Beck/Hannity/Rush fear-mongering trifecta. Let's just take Beck for now. He's on tv blathering about how nobody has confidence in the dollar, nobody will buy treasury's, and hyperinflation is coming next week. Bullshit.

I'm not saying that hyperinflation and a collapsing dollar are out of the question, but they're not in the cards anytime soon. The dollar is at a multi-year high and deflation is the worry of the day. The yield curve is flat, and commodity prices are in the crapper. China doesn't own the US, not even close, and the TARP money could have bought all Chinese-held treasurys 1 1/2 times; but if you listen to Beck they hold all 13 trillion dollars of US debt.

I'm sick of him and all of his fear-mongering friends on both ends of the political spectrum. We're not in a Depression, and we won't be unless Beck & Co. manage to talk down the economy to the point that everybody thinks we are. Perception is reality, and he ain't helping our cause.

Obama was talking down the economy. Obama uses the term castrophe (sp?) waiting to happen. All the Dem's are crying doom and gloom. Are you sure you have the cast of characters correct in your mind?

[Hallelujah]

lol, Beck is a prick. He is an alarmist. I remember a year or two ago he kept talking about how terrorists were going to take over school in several states and start killing kids. no evidence, just his own conjecture. and he peddled that shit like fact. I think I hate him worse than Hannity or Rush

Could you post a link to the school/killing kids comments by Beck?

[Hallelujah]

No. I hate fear-mongering from any source. There is so much of it that it makes it hard to distinguish it from legitimate warnings.

Listen to the prophet. He's been telling us to get our houses in order for years? Fear mongering or were they well founded? First the .com collapse and now this.

[cowboy]

Listen to the prophet. He's been telling us to get our houses in order for years? Fear mongering or were they well founded? First the .com collapse and now this.

There's a difference between telling people to be self-reliant and fiscally prudent and telling people that the economy is going to collapse.

[cowboy]

Obama was talking down the economy. Obama uses the term castrophe (sp?) waiting to happen. All the Dem's are crying doom and gloom. Are you sure you have the cast of characters correct in your mind?

Obama is equally culpable. I'm no respecter of parties when it comes to economic incompetence.

[Hallelujah]

Obama is equally culpable. I'm no respecter of parties when it comes to economic incompetence.

Equal?

[wuapinmon]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013...g-his-own-city

[Soccermom]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013...g-his-own-city

Undisclosed location. . .somewhere in Missouri perhaps?

[il Padrino Ute]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013...g-his-own-city

It's a theme park. Kind of like Epcot. Nothing to be confused about.

[Soccermom]

It's a theme park. Kind of like Epcot. Nothing to be confused about.

I didn't read the article. Just skimmed it. So it's just a theme park? LOL.