Central Perk: 4 oct. 2014

sâmbătă, 4 octombrie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Shifting Debts: The Gold Standard: Both Good and Necessary

Posted: 04 Oct 2014 12:55 PM PDT

In response to Reader Question on a Credit-Based Society: Can Interest Ever Be Repaid? I received an email from reader Keith Weiner at Monetary Metals.

Keith writes

Hi Mish,

I hope all is well.

I liked your reply to the reader question. I think it boils down to one thing. With fiat money, there is no extinguisher of debt. Debts are paid using dollars, but the dollar is itself a debt. The dollar is just a bite-sized piece of the Treasury bond. Paying a debt with a debt merely shifts it around.

The debt must rise exponentially, by at least the accrued interest, and more if the government wants what passes for growth.

The Gold Standard Institute is sponsoring an event in NYC on Nov 1. I will be talking about this problem, and numerous others that plague the dollar.

Would you be willing to share the link on your site? It's for a good cause that I think is near to your heart as well. :)

Thanks so much for whatever you can do.

Best Regards,
Keith

Keith is one of the good guys. If you are in the area, the conference should be well worth attending.

Date: November 1, 2014
Time: 1:00 to 5:00pm on
Place: The 3 West Club, Midtown Manhattan
Cost: $50 (click here to register)

Conference Link: The Gold Standard: Both Good and Necessary.

You are cordially invited to join us for a presentation of ideas you won't get anywhere else. The gold standard is the monetary system of the free market—of capitalism. Advocates of the gold standard should make the clear connection from gold to freedom, and from freedom to self-interest. Advocates of freedom should understand the destruction wrought by the dollar, and it's not simply rising prices.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : Learning from the State Department

Learning from the State Department

Ambassadors do two things that are really difficult for most people within organizations:

1. They listen and send the notes up the chain. They're at the front line, and they listen to what's happening and figure out how to get the right people back home to hear what's being said.

2. They apologize. Not for things they did wrong, but for things that others did wrong.

If you work for a company that you don't own, if you interact with customers, you're a brand ambassador. The person who runs the cash register or answers the phone or makes sales calls is a brand ambassador, in the world on behalf of the amorphous brand, whatever that is.

I recently bought a few shirts from a big chain. They left the anti-theft tags on the shirts, which of course meant a drive and a hassle to go back to a different store in the chain to get them taken off.

Challenge number one is that the disrespected, overworked cashier will never be asked about what she learned from her interaction with me. There's nothing in place for information to flow.

And challenge number two is that she steadfastly refused to apologize for the hassle. It wasn't her fault, she knew, so what was there to apologize for?

We invented ambassadors because nothing can replace face to face interaction, particularly when messages travel sometimes quite slowly through complex organizations. Just like now.

This seems obvious, and it is, until you realize that organizations make two huge mistakes:

A. They don't hire brand ambassadors, they hire clerks and bureaucrats, and treat them and pay them accordingly.

and

B. They don't manage and lead brand ambassadors, don't measure and reward and create a cadre of people who can listen for the brand and speak for the brand.

Would you send the clerk on aisle 7 to speak to a head of state or vital partner on behalf of your company? Because that's what he's doing right now.