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What an interesting thread to find, and what an odd place to find it, though the discussion is obviously popular amongst sailors!
The "funny" thing is that "we" have known about all this, and how to avoid it, for at least two thousand years.
Cicero, circa 50 BC: "Democracy works until the electorate discovers that their vote is the key that unlocks the public purse."
The problem predates even Fannie Mae, starting with the meeting on Jekyll Island in 1908, and the passing of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes its laws." M. A. B. Rothschild.
The problem turned global in 1944 with the US dollar being made the global reserve currency at Bretton Woods.
Most people do not seem to understand that debt creates money, that money is debt, and that both are simply a way to account for faith, i.e. the faith that the debt will be repaid. Now, that will most likely not occur, or perhaps our children and grandchildren, if they so choose, will honour our debts.
To bring the discussion back to sailing, I have been thinking lately that gold bars make great ballast!
Thanks all, for the interesting discussion and graphics etc!
ben
PS: I have my personal reading list at the ready for anyone interested in becoming economically literate. It starts with "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt, a great and easy read by a Nobel Laureate.
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