TD₿: The History of Government Monetary Intervention by Murray Rothbard
TL;DR The monetary standard we live under today was not the result of free voluntary choice, but rather a string of government interventions spanning decades.
Hey Bitcoiners,
The graphic below was making rounds on the Internet this past week. It highlights the history of the British pound and all the times the British government intervened with its currency.
The end result is the British pound has lost most of its value over the last 100 years.
Intervention is on top of everyone’s minds these days as central banks around the world are intervening in their trillion-dollar bond markets as well as their currency markets to “stabilize” things.
Both the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) have intervened in their currency markets to prop up the yen and yuan as both have been rapidly depreciating against the dollar.
These actions are stunning to behold because they are typically observed in Emerging Market economies, not Advanced Market economies like Japan and China. These major players have resorted to the EM playbooks and are now selling their FX reserves to prop up their falling local currencies.
Attempting to manipulate the exchange rate via emergency currency interventions has never been a long-term, effective solution. In fact, most interventions fail miserably as they eventually fall victim to opportunistic speculators, like when George Soros famously broke the pound in the early 1990s. These recent actions from the BOJ and PBOC will only delay the inevitable (see the pound above).
So how did we get to this point? How did we end up with major central banks around the world seemingly scrambling to plug holes as their ships take on more water?
To understand the current monetary chaos unfolding today, it’s necessary to analyze the past, specifically how our current monetary system came to be. As we look back on history, we can notice a trend of intervention whenever crises occurred. Furthermore, we can observe how each set of unsound interventions has led to more unintended problems, only to set the stage for more rounds of interventions down the road.
To better understand the history of government interventions in our monetary system, read this excerpt from Murray Rothbard's book “What Has Government Done to Our Money?” (06/15/1963).
It is only through returning to free market commodity money that we can break free of this potential future filled with more centralized control, inflation, and inequality.
The only way to do that is to remove the government from our monetary system entirely — to separate money and the State. And the only way to accomplish that is for more and more people to freely choose to store their wealth in a decentralized money that no one can control, Bitcoin.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
PS - Have you bought your ticket to Pacific Bitcoin yet!? ☀️ 🌴 If you buy tickets today, you will also receive 4 free physical issues of Bitcoin magazine!
Sign up for Swan and receive $10 in free bitcoin today.
Quote of the Day
“You want solutions? End the fed. Separate the money from the state. Invest in parallel economies. Buy bitcoin. Stop being a quitter. Don't be so fast to dismiss real solutions to our problems. We will win.” - Jordan Schachtel, Independent Journalist and Author of the Dossier
Job of the Day
Do you want to join us here at Swan? We are currently looking for a Chief Administrative Officer to help shape and oversee the systems, processes, strategy, and people necessary to underpin Swan’s operations as we enter a significant stage of growth. The CAO will work directly with our leadership team and play a crucial role in evolving Swan’s strategy and delivering against mission-critical goals.
Not your particular skillset? Check out all the Bitcoin jobs at bitcoinerjobs.com.
Featured Event
Tuesday — come to the Gilbert Bitcoin Meetup, a part of the AZ Bitcoin Network. This meetup will be hosted at Rio Rico Mexican Grill from 6:00-8:00 pm. Bitcoin beginners are welcome. Come hang out and chat Bitcoin with Bitcoiners!
Not in town for this? Check out all the Bitcoin events at bitcoinerevents.com.
Meme of the Day
