Convince me....

billythrilly7th said:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,232503,00.html



....that I'm wrong to believe that this is ridiculous.

How far do we need to go to make sure everyone can do everything regardless of how it inconvenicences the masses, how much it will cost, or how few a particular group of people who are unable to do something is?

Tell me I'm wrong.

The treasury is going to have to redesign the entire paper monetary system?

I just don't know where it ends.

Food labels in supermarkets with Braile?

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Wow...pretty interesting. I gotta agree with you about the 'how far are we willing to go' comment. The blind people might disagree with us though heh

The sad thing is that all this is going to do is raise prices

The old blind prospector in that episode of Kung Fu didn't have this problem, and neither does Daredevil.

Different-sized money is just our congresspeople proving they've got too much time on their hands and too little brains in their heads.

This measure is about 20 years too late, anyway. Physical currency is going the way of the dodo.

Still, the judge is a baffoon.

billythrilly7th said:

The treasury is going to have to redesign the entire paper monetary system?

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They (whoever) just need to develop a small hand-held scanner that blind people can wave across the corner of the currency with a little speaker built in that says, "Five", "Ten", etc.

Oh, wait. This device is already available:

http://www.maxiaids.com/store/prodView.asp?idstore=1&idproduct=2855

Features
• Exclusive Talking-Three in one design for your convenience and affordability
• Talking Money Identifier -Reads and Announces in a clear male voice US currency - $1, $5, $10, $20, $50,$100.
• Talking Color Identifier- Reads and announces most colors in a clear male voice
• Digital Voice Recorder- Convenient built in recorder with over two hours of storage capacity- features indexing- to quickly locate your recordings
• Lightweight and portable- easy to take with you wherever you go!


Gee, I wonder if I can come up with some other bright ideas that somebody else already came up with.

*sigh* Back to the damn perpetual motion machine.

Differentiation on notes has been going on for some time. In the rest of the world. Good luck with that catching up.

The sad thing is that all this is going to do is raise prices

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Um, no, it won't. Because they're talking about the design of money.

Yes, but then the money will cost more, don't you see?

That's what I'd do. I'd hire that guy from "Catch me if you can" and put him in charge of the treasury.

"Hey guy that DiCrapio played, we need 85 more billion dollars for our war or someone's gonna *****. Can we get that by Monday?"

"No problem, boss."

"Thanks, print yourself out some too. On the house."

"Gee, that's swell, boss!"

billythrilly7th said:

Exactly.

I don't get why we have such a debt problem when we have machines that can print as much of the stuff as we need.

Tell the Chinese we'll throw in an extra 20 billion if they keep their mouths shut and if they actually say "We've forgiven the debt of the United States as a gesture of goodwill" we'll throw in an extra 100 billion.

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A trillion if, while they're forgiving us, they include the recipe for Panda Hut's Orange Chicken.

The debts of nations are one of the main pillars of the world's economy.

Nobody wants the US to pay up. That would be a catastrophe.

Relax. It's all imaginary money, anyway.

And another off-topic tangent, this time regarding handicapped people setting their own limitations:

The customer we're picking up today is a paraplegiac who bow-hunts bears from his wheelchair.

Given what I know about bow-hunting, the American Black Bear, and the mobility of wheelchairs over uneven terrain, I have to assume the chair isn't for getting himself around; it's just a cart for his gigantic balls.

BottomlessCup said:

Relax. It's all imaginary money, anyway.

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I can buy a KFC for the equivalent of $42 in Disneyland.

BottomlessCup said:

And another off-topic tangent, this time regarding handicapped people setting their own limitations:

The customer we're picking up today is a paraplegiac who bow-hunts bears from his wheelchair.

Given what I know about bow-hunting, the American Black Bear, and the mobility of wheelchairs over uneven terrain, I have to assume the chair isn't for getting himself around; it's just a cart for his gigantic balls.

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Amen to that. Unless it's built by the guys who did the Pope-mobile or something.

billythrilly7th said:

So, let's say we owe the Chinese 500 Billion dollars.

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We don't, however. The Chinese government has invested in U.S. Securities. That invesment is what keeps their own monetary system stable.

If they could somehow "call in" those investments, how would we pay it? I'll tell you: in more U.S. Securites. Do you actually think the'd accept Yen? It's really a shame that people who actually know better run around screaming about how the U.S. government owes China all this money and China could sink the U.S. economy by demanding payment.

I still think we should go back on the gold standard. That would be cool...

robeiae said:

If they could somehow "call in" those investments, how would we pay it? I'll tell you: in more U.S. Securites. Do you actually think the'd accept Yen? It's really a shame that people who actually know better run around screaming about how the U.S. government owes China all this money and China could sink the U.S. economy by demanding payment.

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It's a good think our T-bills all have a early-withdrawal clause that includes "penalties up to and including military invasion and occupation, and transferring 90% of our foreign manufacturing to indonesia"

Yes, but then the money will cost more, don't you see?

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Curses!

If they could somehow "call in" those investments, how would we pay it? I'll tell you: in more U.S. Securites.

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Exactly. It's not quite "printing" more money, but it does increase the implied burden by increasing our debt, which makes our debt less scarce. The current account deficit (what we owe the rest of the world) is pretty darned big, but it's one of those things that isn't a problem until it is a problem. It's the kind of thing economists fret about (because they're pessimists at heart) and politicians yell about (because it's a big intractable beast that can't yell back), but it isn't necessarily going to be a real issue for a long time. In a less stable, smaller economic zone like Iceland, Hungary or Argentina, you can get destabilizing events, and a run on money, as investors get freaked out and demand all their money - it has happened and can happen to us. But the chances are remote, we're really really big and it we'd need a major crisis, and it just doesn't seem likely.

Our spending is being financed by borrowings from the Chinese, though. That isn't disputed.

(Oh, and we can't print money on the "down low," so to speak. It's a clever enough idea, though. )

What's U.S. Securities?

Like bonds or something?

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Yeah. Bonds or bills issued by the Treasury Department.

TheGaffer said:

Our spending is being financed by borrowings from the Chinese, though. That isn't disputed.

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But the missing component is rarely acknowledged: Chinese spending is being financed by public and private U.S. investment, or at least a good chunk of it is.

And yes, that's a simplification. But still pretty much correct. And though I'm sure you get this, Gaffer, I sincerely doubt most people writing stories in the press get even your point, let alone mine.

TheGaffer said:

(Oh, and we can't print money on the "down low," so to speak. It's a clever enough idea, though. )

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We could (or the CIA could) take over N. Korea's counterfeiting program...

We could use the money to finance the Iraq War.

Chinese spending is being financed by public and private U.S. investment, or at least a good chunk of it is.

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Though, they are good savers on their own. Either way, yes, I agree with you. I think it's more the casual media (TV networks) and politicos who really don't get the point, to be honest.

billythrilly7th said:

"You need more money. You print more money."

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Which is why we should all be thankful the members of the Fed aren't elected. Printing more money creates inflation; printing even more money to deal with it creates hyper-inflation. Hyper-inflation gives us instability and transaction costs that make economic activity outrageously onerous. For example, in cases of hyper-inflation, workers have had to get their paychecks twice a day, because if they waited any longer to use that money to purchase goods, it'd be useless. The effects are very ill indeed.