Bretton Woods 3
In April 2022 I addressed senior staff at the IMF in a virtual seminar.
The intention was that the IMF through its Independent Evaluation Office wanted to host a debate between Zoltan Posar, at that time Credit Suisseās money markets expert in New York, and me. Posar cried off at the last moment which left me with the mission to explain to the IMY audience why Posar was forecasting what he called Bretton Woods 3.
This seminar was the result, and despite it being two years old, it still has relevance today.
Very well executed Alasdair, that, and the fact that the interviewer didn't interrupt made it a pleasure to listen to. It could have been only last month let alone 2 years ago. Just shows how close you were to calling it. Top marksšš»šš»
Simon Gedye - 28th March
Alasdair : Fascinating- so much so that I've had to watch it 3 x over . Very much a ' Master Class ' for those with ears to hear , mind's that can fully understand and fully evaluate everything that you were essentially teaching them ( in all probability for the first time where many were possibly concerned ) , and hopefully mind's with a desire to further research the financial / monetary history that was being presented to them . Doubtless most of your IMF / IEO audience were comparative ' Youngsters ' and product's of a university system where their alleged education has had more to do with indoctrination and group think - than it has to do with ' critical thinking ' and questioning the narrative that as fed to them by their faculty ( especially if any were taught by a ' Krugmann Clone ' ..!! ) . My observation may appear somewhat un-kind and mean spirited , and I for sure hope that there were some among them who were followers of Von Mises and the ' Austrian School ' - but I wonder just how many ..?? .
My ear's pricked up near the end when ' Nicoletta ' mentioned the " Upside Down Pyramid "
of John Exter fame and I started to wonder ( hope ) how much she and her fellow participant's truly knew about John Law , his ' Bubble ' , the Livre - and of course Richard Cantillon + many other major historical financial figures from eon's ago .
I sincerely hope that a lot of them will have grasped the sense , simplicity , viability and above all the honesty of re-adopting an official Gold / Coin standard - and recognise the blindingly obvious where the future is concerned .. Namely - that never again should a financialised currency of a single nation ever be allowed to become the world's reserve currency . John Connolly's comment per -
" The Dollar's our currency - but it's your problem " ring's oh so true . No global hegemon
should ever again be in a position to weaponize their currency against everyone else . The foundations
of the " Exorbitant Privilege " were laid back in 1913 with the throttle pedal to the impending global
financial collapse being pressed to the floor i n 1971 ..etc , so why is it that the vast majority of market pundits still describe the ' Nixon Shock ' as the time from when the $ - USD stopped being backed by Gold ( due to the speculator's as reasoned by ' Tricky Dicky ' , ho - ho ) , rather than it simply being calling the straight up ' Default ' which it so plainly was ..?? .
Your illustration of how during the 1800's - 1900's over a period of 100 years or so the Ā£-Sterling
actually experienced a mild deflation courtesy of Gold over this extended period , and the much more recent fact that Oil priced in Gold is cheaper now in comparative terms than it was in the 1950's - as opposed to the wild swings ( almost all upwards ) when priced in USD - Fiat over the same time frame should have ( & did ) nailed it once & for all in favour of ' Legal Money '- Gold & nothing else .
Another shining example of a ' Macleod Tour de Force ' if there ever was one .....Bravo ....!!
It was almost certain that somebody would bring up ' BTC ' as a potential alternative to Gold - so I hope that every attendee took on board the sheer stupidity of anyone attempting to use anything as mega - volatile as ' BTC ' to back anything when assured stability is a vital pre-requisite + there's obviously the ( semi-invisible to so many ) - ' Elephant in the Room ' which is ' Tether ' the well known un-stable ' Stable Coin ' ( contradiction in terms surely ) , which appears to lack any tangible backing what so ever - and which in its operation resembles the good ship ' Q.E. ' with Captain Ben Bernanke at the helm ( showing all the skills he learnt at the knee of the Master of the Titanic ) - No ..??