Shire Silver System

A recent article in the UK got a decent start:

In Russell Hoban's novel Riddley Walker, the descendants of nuclear holocaust survivors seek amid the rubble the key to recovering their lost civilisation. They end up believing that the answer is to re-invent the atom bomb. I was reminded of this when I read the government's new plans to save us from the credit crunch. It intends - at gobsmacking public expense - to persuade the banks to start lending again, at levels similar to those of 2007. Isn't this what caused the problem in the first place? Are insane levels of lending really the solution to a crisis caused by insane levels of lending?

Yes, I know that without money there's no business, and without business there are no jobs. I also know that most of the money in circulation is issued, through fractional reserve banking, in the form of debt. This means that you can't solve one problem (a lack of money) without causing another (a mountain of debt). There must be a better way than this.

There has been a lot of news about the state of the economy lately, and a lot more of what is considered analysis. I've been ignoring quite a lot of it, but this recent work was recommended by a friend, so I gave it a look.

The Crash Course by Chris Martenson is a longish set of videos, thankfully broken down into a couple dozen 10-20 minute blocks. It attempts to educate the viewer on the basics of the economy, the current situation, and the probable future.

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Another video explaining why Keynsians get it wrong, while Austrians get it right.

Over at the Liberty Conspiracy, Glenn Jacobs (AKA Kane from WWE) has posted an interesting article on the near future. In it he does a very good job describing the problems with non-Austrian economic models. Here's an excerpt:

There will be a local currency event in Bristol NH on Monday. Hosted by Ivy's Spice of Life and the Alternatives Expo, this event will showcase different local currency initiatives including Shire Silver. See the attached PDF file for details.

Us Shire Silver folks aren't the only ones that understand that money is a product. Don Boudreaux over at Cafe Hayek knows it to, as he so eloquently points out in his new post Good Thing We Have No 'Steel Policy'.

As is typical for a government agency, the U.S. Mint has screwed up another good idea.

In their recent press release about the "Braille coin", they crow about making a coin with Braille writing on it, implying that it will make it easier to use for blind people. Of course the writing in Braille, which merely says "Braille" is of no help whatsoever.

Video: 

This short video does a pretty good job explaining the illusory "gas price problem" and how its really a problem caused by government interference in the economy.

It also shows how the media and other so-called leaders are knowingly and complicitly lying to everyone about this.

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This is a pretty good interview with Jim Rogers. So good in fact, that you'd think it wouldn't be allowed on mainstream media.