Morgan Stanley is DONE and WAMU is being Auction

[glock35ipsc]

US Mint suspends sale of 24-karat gold coins - Yahoo! News

[maat55]

I just read a book called "What Does Mr. Greenspan Really Think" by Lawrence Parks. It was published in 2001 and you would think it was written today.

It basically says that the Fed through fiat money and the central banks through fractional reserve lending made the possibility of monetary colapse ineveitable.

It is very proponent of the need to return to the Gold Standard.

I think that this book is saying that the fed is becoming the lender of last resort.

I wonder if Glenn Beck is right about storing up gold.

[Broken Arrow]

I haven't read the book, but just for conversation sake, I would have to contend that Alan Greenspan may not have directly been a proponent of the return to the Gold Standard. Perhaps the author, Lawrence Parks, based on what he has interpreted from Alan Greenspan, may believe so, but I'd be a little suprised if Alan Greenspan would agree with Mr. Parks' conclusion.

It's just that maintaining the Gold Standard is exactly part of the reason why the Great Depression was so great, because there was no real way of controlling the money supply and inflation. Contrast that with what Alan Greenspan did with 9/11 and the subsequent accounting scandals that occured right after. He pumped billions into our money supply and lowered the interest rate, effectively easing us through the crises. He wouldn't have been able to do that if we still maintain the Gold Standard.

Modern fiat currency isn't the blight that many people make it out to be. The trick is to have a proper management of the money supply to keep the economy greased and going. Poor lending practices that ran out of control is what got us to this point, NOT the fact that our currency is fiat. In fact, if we WERE to attempt to return to the gold standard NOW, in the midst of all this chaos, we are much more likely for history to indeed have repeat itself with another Great Depression.

In retrospect, the solution to our current crisis is simple: America, wake up! No more bad debts! And for heaven sake, learn to save some money!

Just my $0.02 worth.