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| Different Names, Same Product. Same as Countries, in our Modern World. |
Many folk (especially Marty himself) keep returning back to Martin's 'the core economy does not hyper-inflate', which is a good observation but I really have to say I think his obsession with the United States is somewhat overdone. Although I'm influenced by my own special exposure to globalism, country boundaries are acting more like a 'brand' these days - I personally think the new core economy is the massive commerce transaction network which now spans the globe - you know, the one which allows you to use a Singapore-bank-issued credit card while you're in London from an American website to buy a product made in China and get it shipped to Australia. Having been involved in a work project recently I'm simply amazed at what's in place to allow a merchant to accept payment in virtually any currency. While I realize those networks don't necessarily constitute the big trade, the providers which make it all happen have their systems tuned and my observation is that they would function fine even with a hyper-inflationary collapse of a single node (in fact it would be really smooth because all the exchange rates would operate with split-second accuracy).
Of course, I'm no economist but I just wanted to point out what I see as a basic flaw in Armstrong's argument - if he's saying the 'The NEW CURRENCY will most like ... an electronic reserve currency whereby each nation will still retain its own currency' and 'This will eliminate the dollar as the reserve currency', then I'm scratching my head on that one because I'm left wondering what happens to all those dollar-denominated claims out there, it's my impression (under that scenario) they are subject to less demand and therefore get returned to the country where can be redeemed, reducing the purchasing power of that currency and forcing that local government to print more to maintain status quo, further devaluing that currency. Is Martin saying there would still be a debt market for the US-dollar? Is he saying that the USA will be able to still issue the new reserve country? What happens to pricing of oil? Lots of questions unanswered. If anyone has any clarifications, please let me know because I got even more confused when I read his article.
p.s. yes I realize each of those technology platforms each have their own point of distinction, my point is they are scrambling madly to remake themselves into all becoming Facebook to avoid being left behind. It's certainly a new evolutionary path, but I think it's as lazy as Microsoft copying Apple ... a false innovation.
