Over the weekend, a relative gave me more than 200 German 100-mark notes issued between 1903 and 1910. You may call this "emotion based dislike of our fiat currency." It reads like a fact to me.
When issued, they were worth just under $25 -- i.e., more than an ounce of gold. You may call this "emotion based dislike of our fiat currency." It reads like a fact to me.
I was recently apprised that they are now worth between $0 and $0.07. You may call this "emotion based dislike of our fiat currency." It reads like a fact to me.
They were demonetized following the German inflation of 1923.You may call this "emotion based dislike of our fiat currency." It reads like a fact to me.
Just on the off chance you're with me so far, where does that leave us? I posted these remarks on a stock market thread, citing to a observation that Japanese are losing confidence in paper. It's reasonable to read into my insertion of this litany of facts onto this thread a suggestion that the Japanese yen will become as worthless as (at least paper) Imperial Reichsmarks. After all, before WWI, the 5-yen coin contained nearly an eighth ounce of gold (.1205 oz). While the subsequent inflation of the yen has not constituted hyperinflation, particularly over the course of nearly 90 years, I support the concern expressed by (at least some) Japanese that their currency may well be headed the way of the Imperial Reichsmark.
Is the U.S. dollar approaching the same fate. No doubt, you are far more qualified to opine on this topic than I.
People are naturally afraid of waking up from sustained euphoria. They tend to look for many clever justifications for even more boom, probably proceded by short downturn. It all depends on sustaining the euphoric psychology. Instead a boom creating euphoria, euphoria is propped up by PR and credit expansion to sustain the boom.