You reminded me of my visit with my grandmother to Romania in the late '70s. Every thing new looked just as you described. The most beautiful buildings were the churches built before the communists took over.
The last chapter, "The Return of Real Money", recalls the extraordinary success of the U.S. economy after WWII. A huge depression was predicted. But government spending and government regulations were eviscerated. The gold standard and fixed exchange rates prevailed due to the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement. And then ...
"There was no new depression, though, and the historic ascent of America saved the world economy from socialism. Economic growth surged by 10 percent over two years. The civilian labor force expanded by seven million workers. Released from wartime controls, the private sector launched a ten-year boom despite tax rates on investors as high as 91 percent. Compensating for the high top rates was an effective 50 percent tax cut through the enactment of the joint return for households. Released from regulations and tax burdens and freed from wartime stresses, large manufacturing corporations emerged as spearheads of global capitalism."Gilder notes that similar policies created a huge economic boom in New Zealand in the 1980s, after a period of quasi-socialist stagnation. Ditto, Israel.
Gilder's recommendation is a return to the gold standard -- REAL MONEY -- with a blockchain infrastructure to enable gold-based micro-transactions.
u reminded me of my visit with my grandmother to Romania in the late ‘70s. Every thing new looked just as you described. The most beautiful buildings were the churches built before the communists took over.
I always called that Soviet style architecture
You reminded me of my visit with my grandmother to Romania in the late ‘70s. Every thing new looked just as you described. The most beautiful buildings were the churches built before the communists took over.
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In the early 2000’s those massive square apartment complexes still stood ugly, but the people of Romania stood free. They hung advertising banners across the fronts.
Only the older architecture looked new. In the village of Rosnov there is a row of nice looking building facing the road coming into the village. Behind that stood the “Civilized Gypsy” shanties. The front buildings were for show. The people of Romania are amazing in their resilience.
I loved the three summers, during which I spent one to two weeks, working on volunteer projects for the people.