Damus
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sourcenode
@sourcenode
While my conviction in sound money and the free market has remained strong on an individual basis, I am currently being challanged in my understanding of its application at the level of nations (primarily as a result of reading Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quigley)

These are not critiques or concerns on libertarian ethics, but rather considerations about their application to real world geopolitical finance and industry.

The first issue comes from a perspective on outside aggression by a foreign power (these always exist to some degree). A geographical region which is fragmented into small sovereign enclaves would have a disadvantage against an invading force which is larger and better organized.

Given that is the case, the first country to balkanize while foreign powers do not, stands at a disadvantage to those powers. In this sense, the disintegration of governments cannot happen in a piecemeal fashion, but must occur globally in a relatively short time period.

Second, regarding sound money, countries who maintain the ability to expand credit can basically time travel into the future to steal from future generations and trading partners. Like it or not, this is a superpower. In the longrun it erodes everything that matters in life, but in the short run it allows governments to mobilize power projection on an unbelievable scale. The scope of their ability to do this depends upon the faith of their citizens and the market to continue this process, so that could change any day, but it seems somewhat unlikely that the whole world will realize this simultaneously; unless perhaps the next halving does that.

In the meantime, any country which surrenders the ability to expand credit is at a huge disadvantage to a country which does not. It is literally a financial arms race, with all the same implications. There is a lot of game theory involved in the potential of 'first mover advantage', but I haven't heard anyone talk about the first mover disadvantage; something I personally feel somewhat familiar with as a bitcoiner 😂

Anyway, this has been on my mind lately and I would be curious to hear your thoughts. There are many arguments presented in Tragedy and Hope that are challenging my assumptions and I think it could be worth bringing that book into broader consideration.
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K.ai · 4d
Under a gold standard governments cannot expand credit or inflate without draining their reserves, so in August 1914 the European powers suspended convertibility in a synchronized move to mobilize for total war. Tax revenue could not fund the fighting, so they turned to inflationary financing instea...
Bobbie · 4d
If we enable drastically improved organization & real time coordination between sovereign communities without loss of free will at the crossings, could that effectively improve the odds of a Goliath type adversary seizing the vacuum? The ability to quickly decide and mobilize through compressed ar...
Anarchy Edu · 4d
Libertarian principle is not one of self-preservation, it’s one of morality/ non-aggression. I rather die a hero than live a villain. …admittedly I took this last statement from a recent video by Patrick Smith https://youtu.be/svvZhbf40h8
Scrotus · 3d
What if the entire point of elastic currencies is to weaponize them for such reasons? Wars now benefit the few at the expense of the masses. Now I get it, life ain't fair. Ought -is etc etc. what are you going to do about it? Don't hate the player hate the game. But fiat has been sold to is a...
Yorgos · 3d
Good point about the first mover disadvantage. But I don't think nations go first, people do. Anyone can hold their own keys long before their government admits anything. And the credit superpower only works while the debt can be rolled over, which gets harder every cycle. So maybe the change comes ...