From my perspective the current problem is being caused by a complete lack of regulation. Sure the Fed adjusts rates etc etc, but the market itself invests money in speculations, that are made of speculations that are made off other speculations. Its almost like a financial game of musical chairs, there's the illusion there's enough room for everyone but in the end only one person walks away with the actual money and everyone else is stuck with the debt.

I think the war has a lot to do with the actual decline of the dollar, the government has borrowed so much freaking money to fund it, I'm surprised we aren't passing around Chinese notes instead of dollar bills.

This is what trickle down economics looks like in practice, the rich are well taken care of, and everyone else is more or less screwed. The rich don't let money trickle down, that's how they got rich in the first place.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
I make my living as an artist, and part of my income comes from royalties, but I am very much opposed to current copyright and patent laws. The record industry isn't suffering because of piracy. The record industry is suffering because it is bloated, stagnant and boring.

The film makers and songwriters who are popular enough to be mass downloaded are too busy sniffing coke off a hookers ass through thousand dollar bills to give a fuck (Maddona and Lars excepted). The film makers and songwriters who are not popular enough to be downloaded would kill for the amount of exposure mass downloading would provide. This issue isn't really about the artists. It's about record execs who need a third yacht or a summer home on the French Riviera.

When the major record labels die, I will dance on their grave.

I also have a major problem with the concept that certain combinations of notes and words can be claimed as property by individuals. I have an even bigger problem with medical patents that allow drug companies to hold a monopoly on life saving drugs, allowing them to play extortionist or executioner to the misfortunate of the world. Our concept of economics is completely out of whack.

I have to respectfully disagree. Firstly, the sheer fact that major record/distributing institutions have survived is because they are an unfortunate necessity. Smaller artists simply cannot pull off a Radiohead/NiN and distribute their work single-handedly. The onerous costs and social networking involved in trans-continental product proliferation and promotion far exceed the capacity of a group of twenty-something year olds out of high school. Perhaps sometime not too far ahead in the future when high speed internet subscription reaches a certain level globally, file sharing promotion may play a pivotal role but as of now any such capacity is all too evidently dwarfed by the lucrative publicity big record companies can offer. If anything, traditional distribution companies will likely be replaced by online counterparts such as iTunes which will make previously culturally segregated media available to the world. In addition to that big record companies also act as financial lending institutions to unrealised artistic talent, usually in return for exclusivity deals and nowadays further encroaching upon merchandise and concert returns for years to come.

I think the real question should be, are record companies abusing the leverage in a predominantly oligarchic industry structure? I wholeheartedly agree that the methods being used by the RIAA and their associates are counter-productive, but I have yet to see any conclusive evidence that these measures have come about due to affluent corporate executives scouring for additional earnings.

As for medical patents, again an even more apparent necessary evil. The costs involvement in clinical research and in particular testing and safety verification are exorbitant. Extortionate, even for the mammoth pharmaceuticals industry. Were it not for the presence of patents, then nobody would undertake such an 'investment' and medical breakthroughs would stagnate.

I make my living as an artist, and part of my income comes from royalties, but I am very much opposed to current copyright and patent laws. The record industry isn't suffering because of piracy. The record industry is suffering because it is bloated, stagnant and boring.

The film makers and songwriters who are popular enough to be mass downloaded are too busy sniffing coke off a hookers ass through thousand dollar bills to give a fuck (Maddona and Lars excepted). The film makers and songwriters who are not popular enough to be downloaded would kill for the amount of exposure mass downloading would provide. This issue isn't really about the artists. It's about record execs who need a third yacht or a summer home on the French Riviera.

When the major record labels die, I will dance on their grave.

I also have a major problem with the concept that certain combinations of notes and words can be claimed as property by individuals. I have an even bigger problem with medical patents that allow drug companies to hold a monopoly on life saving drugs, allowing them to play extortionist or executioner to the misfortunate of the world. Our concept of economics is completely out of whack.

She strolled on over said, "Look here bum, I gotta forty-dollar bill says, you can't make me cuuum....you just can't do it.!"

Your mother is so fat she sat on a dollar bill and made four quarters.

How about the pollution-free, coal burning power plants they want to build, where part of the procedure is to bury the CO2??? Why bury CO2 when thousands of metric tonnes of sulphurous-acid come pouring out of the goddamn planet herself, from many many many volcanic ocean fissures? Why don't the GW pundits EVER mention the earth's own contribution to the phenom?? Because they want you to believe in a new money hole.......So the globe is warming/cooling, and the keepers want to keep the dollar bill addiction alive till the Pacific Rim pops....better chance for them to survive in control perhaps?

If $$$$ was not a factor on this planet, truth would be that much more tangible.......

Gold, silver, paper, what does it matter? You can't eat it. You can't wear it. Currency is the surrogate for barter. It's too damn inconvenient to carry a pig in your pocket to trade someone for their 10 bushels of corn. It's much easier to give them $20. We switched to paper currency when someone figured out it was a lot cheaper to make a dollar bill than it was to mint $20 dollar gold pieces. Tying the amount of paper currency to some pile of shiny metal doesn't make sense to me. But, I'll be the first to admit....I only took one economics course in college.

I wonder how many millions of dollars bill spent on this. It looks pretty elaborate! Six actors! And a green screen! Splurg!

can anyone translate this to USD? how can i pull this off with a 20 dollar bill?

http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/fract/sect16.htm

"Any Federal Reserve bank(i.e. - any bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve) may make application to the local Federal Reserve agent for such amount of the Federal Reserve notes hereinbefore provided for as it may require. Such application shall be accompanied with a tender to the local Federal Reserve agent of collateral in amount equal to the sum of the Federal Reserve notes thus applied for and issued pursuant to such application."

"Any Federal Reserve bank may at any time reduce its liability for outstanding Federal Reserve notes by depositing with the Federal Reserve agent its Federal Reserve notes, gold certificates, Special Drawing Right certificates, or lawful money of the United States(please notice how 'Federal Reserve notes' and 'lawful money of the United States' are separate)."

Yes, Congressional meetings with him - "Greenspan asks Congress to hold off on tax cutting." They didn't exactly request his presence. He went there to request something from them. What meetings are you speaking about? Here's what I've found for your search term, and it includes no time(within the first 6 pages at least) that the Congress specifically requested Greenspan's presence, only articles pertaining to his specific requests from Congress when he has chosen to meet with them. Maybe you should google it yourself before informing me to.

http://www.google.co
m/search?q=greenspan%2Fcongress&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I urge you to read Milton Friedman's book before attempting to continue with me, because most everything you've said within the last three paragraphs of your statement is directly addressed within his book, including how much power the government really has over the Fed.

You're convinced that the government makes money - why? In the Act itself, it is CLEARLY stated that Federal Reserve banks must exchange collateral for the notes they receive - do you know what that collateral usually is? In many cases, the collateral are the land deeds with enough value to cover the value of the Federal Reserve notes the member banks want - and yes, even the United States government must make that collateral.

Perhaps "lawful money of the United States" is what you are talking about when you say "the government *makes* money." In that case, I'd like to ask how many Silver, Gold, or Platinum American Eagle coins you own, and where you have used them, or how many Kennedy five dollar bills( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11110 ) you own, and where you have used them? Technically speaking, those are the only forms of "lawful money of the United States" left in circulation today, whereas the Kennedy notes, under Executive Order 11110, were backed by silver, and the American Eagle coins ARE made of the metals that back them(in high purity, valued by the troy ounce - check http://www.monex.com for more information). Please note that the value of prior silver and gold-backed notes was repealed by the Nixon Administration.

Some countries may have printed money, sure - even the Federal Reserve did, and, in the meantime they gained a good amount of land and value in other commodities because of it - as a matter of fact, if you haven't noticed, War in general is a big money-making venture, by itself. And collateral must be traded for the amount of notes that is placed into the American economy, by the Federal Reserve Act itself(as seen above). Why do you think the United States initiates so many wars?

Familiar with Carrier, the original story, the film, and the five dollar bill? Ouais!

I don't have a paper fiver on me, and I haven't been able to find a huge scan of the bill showing the excerpt clearly, but you can see where the text is placed here.

Cherish the five dollar bill while you can. It's being replaced with a five dollar coin honouring William Shatner.

An excerpt from wiki:
"The Hockey Sweater" ("Le chandail de hockey" in the original French) is a short story published in 1979 by Quebec author Roch Carrier.

Though a relatively recent story, it has become one of the best-known works of literature in Canada. It was made into a National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short in 1980, known as The Sweater, or Le Chandail. The short is often shown, in both French and English, to elementary school students, making it very well known amongst Canadian youth.

The story is widely considered an allegory for the linguistic and cultural tensions between anglophone and francophone Canadians, and an essential classic of Canadian literature. An excerpt from the story is now also commemorated in both official languages of Canada on the back of the Canadian five-dollar bill."

Any Canadian sifters familiar with this?

ok .....jury is not out on who did it, and this is just as easily accomplished with a Fifty dollar bill, a screwdriver, to reveal the name of the Antichrist, by any garden variety, obsessive-compulsive...

I love this story but here's the rest:

Part of his winnings went to taxes, part of his winnings were invested in real estate in his hometown and the rest was withdrawn from the bank as cash. His real estate deal turned out to be a fraudulent ponzi scheme that cost Larson the money. Larson then took his remaining cash and participated in a "get rich quick" scheme that involved matching a one dollar bill's serial number with a random number read out on a local radio game show that promised a $30,000 jackpot. In a sign of eccentricity and irrationality, Larson withdrew his winnings in one dollar bills in hopes of winning the contest, and upon realizing that he did not have the winning number, would place all the money back in his account and then withdraw it again the next day with a new set of ones to repeat the process all over again. Larson's wife stated that this obsession consumed him.

Approximately USD $40,000-50,000 in the remaining cash was stolen from Larson and his then-common-law wife. Larson was divorced soon after.

In 1994, Larson appeared on ABC's Good Morning America in an interview timed to the recent release of the movie Quiz Show.

Larson died of throat cancer in 1999 in Florida, while on the run from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He married three times and was survived by three children distributed throughout the marriages.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson

Doh! *watches rest of clip*

It's interesting that "In god we trust" and "One nation under god" were brought in during the 50s.

*puts on "They Live" shades and checks a dollar bill*

Hmmmm... It says "Money is your god".

http://static.flickr.com/41/85519166_23c3359137.jpg