A while back, in a posting here about a meeting at the House of Commons addressed by Detlev Schlichter, at which James Delingpole was also present, I speculated that maybe Delingpole might at some point in the future choose to get stuck into the question of what has been going wrong with the world’s financial system.
So, I was delighted to encounter this recent Delingpole posting, about why the price of oil is going up. He features a video of Ron Paul saying that if you print lots and lots of money, everything goes up. Or, to put it another way, it’s not oil that is going up; it’s fiat money that is going down.
I see that Delingpole gives the Cobden Centre an appreciative mention, which will please them greatly.
Delingole, whose idea-spreading abilities I admire more and more, is a significant voice in the world. He has a huge following, which is well deserved. He takes important ideas seriously, but himself not so much, in a most engaging and yet informative way, the proof of his effectiveness being how much he gets up the noses of whatever bad guys he takes aim at.
If Delingpole could do to the world’s central banking racket what he has already done and continues to do to the world’s “climate science” racket, that might really be something.
But if we only read articles by interesting, well-informed, commentators, how will the rest earn a living? It’s just not fair!!! Someone should do something!
A slight worry I have is that he looks painfully thin, like he has some sort of medical problem. He is, judging from his TV appearance, an engaging character.
“if you print lots and lots of money, everything goes up”
It’s even worse than this: some things go up more than others. If I have this right, in general, consumer stuff for now goes up more than capital stuff for making stuff for the future, because the extra money gets lent out at low interest rates and people borrow it to start new business ventures and bid for the resources that existing business is using.
So oil today will go up. Perhaps oil companies can more easily invest in new technologies for the future, though. But on balance this distortion is a Bad Thing, for sure.
Dellingpole uses the phrase “misallocation of resources” — he is very much on Schlichter’s page.
Watch these names:
James Delingpole – UK
Ezra Levant – Canada
Andrew Bolt – Australia
Mark Steyn – US, UK, Canada, the whole damned Anglosphere
These men are the outstanding civil rights campaigners of the 21st Century, and progressives hate their guts. Truly, they do.
Levant, Bolt and Steyn have faced the progressives at their most vicious and been tempered by the fire.
And try telling a progressive that these men are at the forefront of modern civil rights activism. You haven’t seen hysteria until you have seen that.
Quite correct Cats.
On all points.
Rob Fisher….
On where the money goes…..
The classic Austrian account looks at credit-money (i.e. loans that do NOT come from real savings) going into investment goods. Then the point about “malinvestment not overinvestment” is made.
However, credit money can also go mostly into consumer goods.
After all when people (for example) buy houses and apartments to live in (with loans financed by credit money expansion) they are engaged in consumption – not investment.
I very much look forward to trying that experiment, CountingCats.