James Rickards - The Death of Money

export of, through exchange-rate mechanism, 75, 155

Federal Reserve’s targeting of, 186–87

money illusion and, 7–8

in 1960s and 1970s, 7–8

in 1977 to 1981, 1

in 1981 to 1986, 2

in PDS framework, 183

pro-inflation (easy-money) policy of Federal Reserve (See easy-money policy of Federal Reserve)

in 2008 to present, 3, 75, 76, 77

information asymmetry, 83–88

information warfare, 44

infrastructure spending

Berlin Consensus and, 123

in China, 98–101, 107

In-Q-Tel, 34, 35

insider trading

Stewart’s trading of ImClone Systems, 25

by terrorists (See terrorist insider trading)

interest rates

bank risk taking in low-interest-rate environment, 80–81

low-interest-rate policy, of Greenspan, 76, 260

negative real rates, 183–84

zero-interest-rate policy, of Bernanke, 185, 260

internal adjustment of unit labor costs, 131

International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 295

International Monetary Fund (IMF), 12, 81, 190–214

Articles of Agreement, 199, 212–14, 235

Asian financial crisis and, 45, 120

C-20 project, 235

cluster paradigm and, 192–93, 194, 198

commitments to expand lending capacity of, 202–6

as de facto central bank, 199–207

deposit-taking function of, 201

financial transmission and, 193–94

gold dispositions by, 235–36, 277

governance reforms, implications of, 296

historical roles of, 191

lending role of, 199–201

leverage of, 201–6

management of, 194–95

special drawing rights (SDRs) issued by (See special drawing rights [SDRs])

spillover effects of national policy, 193, 194, 198

international monetary system, 1, 12, 118–21

Beijing Consensus, 118, 120–21

Bretton Woods system, 118, 208–9, 235, 290

C-20 project and IMF reforms, 235–36

collapses of, 5

debt and deflation as problems of, since 2009, 290–91

gold reserve rebalancing and potential reform of, 279–84

Washington Consensus, 118–19

Internet, 174

interstate highway system, 174–75

investment

Berlin Consensus and, 123

Bernanke’s monetary policies aimed at increasing, 86

Chinese economic growth and, 95–101, 107–110

gold as not constituting an investment, 218–19

infrastructure (See infrastructure spending)

lack of, and duration of Great Depression, 84

regime uncertainty and, 84–86

investment portfolio recommendations, 298–301

alternative funds, 299–300

cash, 300

fine art, 299

gold, 298–99

land, 299

Iran, 12, 30, 151, 152, 153, 156

cyberattacks conducted by, 60

U.S.-Iran financial war, 54–58

Iraq, 153

Ireland, 128, 200

iron rice bowl principle, 93

“Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Cyclical Investment” (Bernanke), 84, 85

ISI (Pakistani intelligence), 36–37

Israel, 156

Italy, 128

Jamaica compromise, 235–36

Japan, 82, 157–62

debt-to-GDP ratio of, 159, 259, 261

deflation in, 160–61, 260–62, 264

Federal Reserve’s easy-money policy and, 157–59

gold-to-GDP ratio of, 157, 281

IMF commitment of, 202

quantitative easing in, 160–61

secret gold acquisitions by, 273–74

Jin Dynasty, 90

Johnson, Lyndon, 7–8, 209

Jordan, 152, 153

JPMorgan Chase, 205

Kazakhstan, 151

Kelton, Stephanie, 168

Keynes, John Maynard, 7, 131, 134, 168, 207, 244

Keynesianism, 69, 124, 130–31, 193–94

Khan, Kublai, 90

Khomeini, Ayatollah, 30

Kindleberger, Charles, 84

King Dollar (sound-dollar) policy, 118, 176–77, 210, 211

Knight, Frank H., 85, 268, 269

Knight Capital computer debacle, 60, 63, 296–97

Knot, Klaas, 233

Korea, 202

Kos, Dino, 272–73

Kosovo, 136

Krugman, Paul, 117–18

on myth of Chinese growth, 94, 95, 96

myth that gold caused market panics and, 224

sticky-wage theory and, 124, 131, 134

Kuroda, Haruhiko, 161

Kuwait, 152, 153

Kyrgyzstan, 151

labor-capital factor input model of economic growth, 94–95

labor-management relations, 123–24

labor mobility, 125

Lagarde, Christine, 144, 148, 191, 192, 194–95, 198, 205, 206

land, as investment, 299

Lao Tzu, 90

Latvia, 136. See also BELLs (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)

lease arrangements, gold, 275, 284

Lehman Brothers, 77, 103, 130

Lenin, V. I., 7

leverage, 250

bank’s use of, 80, 188, 194, 196

of IMF, 201–6

paper gold transactions and, 275

Levitt, Steve, 32–33

Lew, Jack, 195, 196

Lie, David T. C., 92

Lipton, David, 194–95, 196, 198

“Liquidation of Government Debt, The” (Reinhart and Sbrancia), 183

liquidity trap, 246–47

Lisbon Treaty, 117

Lithuania. See also BELLs (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)

Long Depression, in Japan, 160

Long March, 91–92

Long-Term Capital Management bailout, 62

Louvre Accord, 1987, 119

Lowell, Francis Cabot, 6

low-interest-rate policy, of Greenspan, 76, 260

Lugar, Richard, 204, 205

Maastricht Treaty, 117, 238

McCulley, Paul, 168

Macedonia, 136

McKittrick, Thomas, 213

Mahathir, Mohamad, 45

Makin, John, 177, 244–45

malinvestment, Chinese, 96–110, 107–9

Manningham-Butler, Eliza, 37

Mao Zedong, 92

market collapse, 11–12

“Market for Lemons, The” (Akerlof), 83

markets

asset bubbles, 75–78

central planning and, 69–72, 87

collapse of, 11–12

defined, 68

information asymmetry and, 83–88

investment and, 84–86

price discovery function of, 68

regime uncertainty and, 84–87

unintended consequences of Fed’s easy-money policies, 78–83

wealth effect and, 72–75

MARKINT, 35–41

financial war and, 40–41

meeting with CIA, 37–39

military interest in, 40–41

terrorist detection and, 35–39

marks, German, 209

Marshall, Andy, 42–44, 46, 47, 63, 64

Martines, Lauro, 115

Marx, Karl, 218

Marxism, 69

Matryoshka Theory, 70

Medvedev, Dmitry, 151–52

Merchant of Venice, The (Shakespeare), 67

Merkel, Angela, 121, 127, 135, 202, 232

Merrill Lynch, 184

Mexico, 200, 233

MF Global collapse, 196

MI5, 36–37

MI6, 36–37

Ming Dynasty, 90

mirror imaging, 62

Mishkin, Frederic S., 286–88

Mitbestimmung (codetermination), 123–24

Mitterrand, François, 116

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sheikh, 154

monetarism (quantity theory of money), 168–69

money

contract theory of, 165–67, 169

defined, 165–66

fiat, 168–69

gold as, 217, 220–25

gold’s role in enforcing money contract, 169–71

quantity theory of, 168–69

quantity theory of credit, 168–69

SDRs as, 207

state theory of, 168–69

money illusion, 7–8

money printing. See easy-money policy of Federal Reserve

Monnet, Jean, 116

Montenegro, 136

Morell, Mike, 37–39

Morgan, J. P., 220

Morgan Stanley, 32–33, 262

Morocco, 152, 153

Mourdock, Richard, 205

M-Subzero, 280, 283–84

Mubarak, Hosni, 156

Mulheren, John, 18–19, 32–33

Mundell, Robert, 125

Mussolini, Benito, 294

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), 46, 63

Mutual Assured Financial Destruction, 46

“Myth of Asia’s Miracle, The” (Krugman), 94

M-Zero (M0), 280

Nakamoto, Satoshi, 254

Napoleon Bonaparte, 114