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Press Used To Print Millions of US Banknotes Seized In Quebec

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian Royal Mounted Police report: An offset printing press used to manufacture counterfeit $20 banknotes was seized by the RCMP and US Secret Service. This significant seizure was made earlier today in the Trois-Rivières area. The authorities had been looking for this offset press for several years. A large quantity of paper was also seized by police, that could have been used by the counterfeiters to manufacture from $40-$200 million. The very high quality counterfeit notes were virtually undetectable to the naked eye. Some of the features they had were uncommon, including the type of paper used, which was especially made with a Jackson watermark and a dark vertical stripe imitating the security thread found in authentic notes."

398 comments

  1. How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

    1. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The "In God We Trust, eh?" was another tip-off.

    2. Re:How they were detected by ConstantineM · · Score: 1

      You remind me of http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

      CBC News Posted: Oct 19, 2004 6:06 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 20, 2004 6:41 AM ET

      A justice of the peace has ruled that a "no left turn" sign in Toronto is unenforceable because it is not written in both English and French.

      The ruling Monday by justice of the peace Alice Napier could result in thousands of traffic tickets being dismissed.

      Lawyer Jennifer Myers argued that a traffic sign in downtown Toronto violated the Highway Traffic Act and the French Language Services Act because it was not in both official languages.

      Napier agreed at a night court hearing Monday, and threw out a ticket issued to Myers for making an illegal left turn. Myers does not speak French.

      Daniel Brown, a law student who represented her in court, said Myers' victory could prove expensive for the city of Toronto.

      I've personally tried testing it out sometime around 2009 or 2010 -- violating illegal no-turn signs on purpose, which are still plentiful in Toronto.

      I could not succeed -- the was so much traffic during the hours where the left turns are prohibited, that stopping at a small intersection, to violate the sign, is simply impossible, since everyone will (rightfully) start honking at you in no time!

    3. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

      The "In God We Trust, eh?" was another tip-off.

      If those are the best Canadian jokes you can come up with, the American sense humour must have deteriorated even further than Hollywood's latest attempts at comedy had suggested.

    4. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Did a moose piss in your poutine this morning, or are you always such an asshole?
      If you think the world needs some better Canada jokes, then how about supplying a few yourself.

    5. Re:How they were detected by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 5, Funny

      They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

      Actually, they weren't. Which is the *real* reason why the Quebec police busted them.

    6. Re:How they were detected by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Big bad counterfeiters! 200 Mil!

      I guess they're right. The best way to illegally make money is to own a bank.

      HSBC alone, payed out 2 BILLION in just fines, for laundering drug cartel money. And were glad to do it! 2 Bil was only 5 weeks of it's annual profits. Heck, the man responsible at HSBC, Gulliver, got a personal windfall 2 Million in BONUS!

      So, if there are "BIG PENALTIES" for these Canadian operators, it's only to keep the ankle-biters off of the big banks' turf.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    7. Re:How they were detected by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 0

      In Toronto, a woman leaves a pharmacy counter, forgetting the purchase of a bottle of aspirin in her haste to catch her bus ride home.

      After boarding the bus, which was promptly on schedule, the woman realised that her purchase was missing.

      "Oh!" she exclaimed aloud, "My aspirins! My aspirins!"

      "Perhaps," offered the bus driver, "you left them on the pharmacy counter."

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    8. Re:How they were detected by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Funny

      Canada certainly DOES deserve some better jokes, however I don't think the case for new and funnier jokes should come at the expense of any of the other 50 states. North Dakota and Missouri are also candidates for better representation.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    9. Re:How they were detected by Yourself · · Score: 0

      Besides the comedy issue, there's a punctuation problem. The way I've heard it pronounced, there definitely isn't a comma (pause) before the "eh". I'm not sure there's even a space between it and the preceding word.

    10. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There'll be a pretty sick Canadian joke sitting in a Miami courtroom in a couple weeks...does he count?

    11. Re: How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BiggestCanadianJoke - RobFord
      While RobFord == Mayor
            LaughingStock - Toronto
      If Reelect(Toronto, RobFord)
            BiggestCanadianJoke - Toronto

    12. Re:How they were detected by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      Thank you Jeremiah! Next up... Maurice Bolyer - Canada's King of the Banjo!

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    13. Re:How they were detected by drkim · · Score: 3, Funny

      The final straw that gave them away was that they were trying to print $100 bills, but they came off the press as $89.95 bills.

    14. Re:How they were detected by drkim · · Score: 1

      If those are the best Canadian jokes you can come up with, the American sense humour must have deteriorated even further than Hollywood's latest attempts at comedy had suggested.

      Ah, yeah...
      That movie "Lone Survivor"..? That wasn't really suppose to be a comedy.

    15. Re:How they were detected by quenda · · Score: 1

      The final straw that gave them away was that they were trying to print $100 bills, but they came off the press as $89.95 bills.

      whereas real US bills are $121.50, with tax and service.

    16. Re:How they were detected by weilawei · · Score: 1

      This is a stupid question; I whooshed on the joke. Can someone explain it to me, please?

    17. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I have a good one...

      Canadians burnt down the Whitehouse...

      What a pack of sore losers you yanks are.

    18. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All the jokes were funny until yours.

      Can you explain how it's funny, I don't get it, must be some regional thing, eh?

    19. Re:How they were detected by davester666 · · Score: 2

      No, the Quebec police were there because there was English printing going on.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    20. Re:How they were detected by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Oh come on, it's obviously that her bus was on time.

    21. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's quantative easing for the people by the people.

    22. Re:How they were detected by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      I think the joke is that there is no joke. It's inoffensive and goes nowhere.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    23. Re:How they were detected by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Well what do you expect?
      Cash wise, comedians may be the biggest export Canada has:
      Seth Rogen
      Lorne Michaels
      Leslie Nielsen
      Phil Hartman
      Eugene Levy
      John Candy
      Mike Myers
      Jim Carrey
      Michael J. Fox
      Rick Moranis
      Norm Macdonald
      Tommy Chong
      Seth Rogen
      Martin Short
      Will Arnett
      Matthew Perry
      Dave Foley
      Howie Mandel
      Ryan Reynolds
      Joe Flaherty
      Kevin McDonald
      Tom Green
      Colin Mochrie
      to name a few...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    24. Re:How they were detected by ls671 · · Score: 1

      They probably burnt by now the replica used to film "White House Down" at the La Cité Du Cinéma in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    25. Re:How they were detected by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      And the immediate assumption that her missing medication had been forgotten, not purse-snatched.

    26. Re: How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactamundo. I'm Canuckistani and those were the first things that popped up in my tiny mind.

      Second was: The Bieberelzebub image on one side and crossed hockey sticks on t'other. Humourous, eh??

    27. Re:How they were detected by Kvasio · · Score: 1

      I remember that in 1990s the printing press was seized somewhere in central Europe, and printed bills were said to be of better quality in deatails than the original USD notes.

    28. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      however, you forgot the have a long list of people for whom they have to appologize the rest of world, including:
      Brian Adams
      Celine Dion
      Justin Bieber ...

      and this is so viral, that recently Canadian government apologized for non-canadian, Michael Bolton, as they were ashamed by the behaviour of the Bolton family in the recent episodes of GoT.

    29. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its American Justice the best money can buy, he will have no problem with a fine.

    30. Re: How they were detected by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      Is Seth Rogen so good he's on the list twice? Or is that part of the joke?

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    31. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think the world needs some better Canada jokes, then how about supplying a few yourself.

      Rob Ford...

    32. Re: How they were detected by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      He's so stoned you see HIM double!
      Actually just a bad copy and paste on my part...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    33. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it just wasn't funny and people are a little tired of the "eh" stereotype?

    34. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Just like Canada!

    35. Re:How they were detected by Robb+Swanson · · Score: 2

      Many years ago, I had taken a vacation from my home in Boston to Nova Scotia. I was sitting in a bar in Halifax, hoisting a few beers, and got to talking with the guy next to me, a Canadian from British Columbia who was also in Nova Scotia on vacation.

      I said to him, "I hear that you Canucks like to tell Newfie jokes. Do you know any good Newfie jokes?"

      This is the one he told me.

      There was this Newfie out rowing his boat singing an old Sea Shanty.

      I'se The B'y that builds the boat and
      I'se The B'y that sails her

      High above the Newfie were some Martians in their Martian hover-craft and one Martian says to the other, "I wonder what would happen if we took out half of this Newfie's brain".

      So they send down their Martian brain-sucking machine and (*slurp*) suck out half of the Newfie's brain.

      The Newfie just sings some more.

      I'se The B'y that builds the boat and
      I'se The B'y that sails her

      "Hmmm. No change", said the Martian. "I wonder what would happen if we took out the other half of his brain."

      Again, they send down their Martian brain-sucking machine and (*slurp*) suck out the other half of the Newfie's brain.

      The Newfie sings,

      Alouette, gentille alouette,
      Alouette, je te plumerai.

    36. Re:How they were detected by TheP4st · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately there is another country on the same continent that's anything but inoffensive.

      --
      "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
    37. Re:How they were detected by Kreplock · · Score: 1

      That is a running joke that the Canadians burned anything in Washington. It was a compliment of British officers and soldiers who'd just defeated Napolean that conducted the Maryland campaign, taking and burning Washington as a strategic precursor to an offensive against Baltimore. Claiming "Canada burned the whitehouse" is akin to an American claiming "we really kicked ass in the War of Spanish Succession" which happened many decades before the US existed and was accomplished by forces fielded by our British Empire forebears almost certainly with negligable (if any) personnel from the 13 colonies.

    38. Re:How they were detected by kmoser · · Score: 1

      The counterfeiters accidentally printed "$22.15" on each bill.

    39. Re: How they were detected by deppman · · Score: 1

      Do they have sort -u in Canada? Just a joke, I love Canada. I lived 2 years in Scarborough.

    40. Re: How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Justin Bieber?

    41. Re:How they were detected by klui · · Score: 1

      Strange as it seems, $2 billion is chump change. Look at JP Morgan Chase. They were fined over $20 Billion, last year. http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

      And the CEO got a raise. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/20...

    42. Re:How they were detected by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      "Lady, if your ass burns, stick it out the window and cool it off."

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    43. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember, all Canadian jokes must be checked against the First Jokesters registry, to determine if they came up with it first and will thus have to be cheated in court before the joke can be used.

    44. Re:How they were detected by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 1

      North Dakota just bought 100,000 septic tanks. Soon as they figure out how to drive them, they're going to invade Manitoba.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  2. Go after the real thieves lol by oic0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now if we could just stop our government from printing themselves money.

    1. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They don't, they sell bonds to the Fed who print the notes. Sounds like a good game though; give me your future wealth and I'll give you some funny paper. It's the modern day equivalent of exchanging colored beads for gold with the indians.

    2. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Ah, yes, and spiral back into a recession.

      Printing is bad, why? Because Weimar Germany? Because Zimbabwe? What about all the times printing money saved an economy? France and England in the 1920s. America circa 2008? And no more that I'm too lazy to lookup because, while I've studied a significant amount of economics (mostly on my own time and outside school, but also in school), I doubt you have.

      As has been recently explained in the economics blogosphere recently, printing money is _bad_ when you're supply-side constrained. It's _good_ when you're demand-side constrained. The United States is currently demand-side constrained, ego inflating the money supply is a good thing. As demand improves the Feds will ease back on currency inflation, precisely as they've been doing for the past 12 months.

    3. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Start with a dictionary - look up definitions for "Closed" and "System".

      Actually I for one support the average USA Joe being able to print his own cash - let us get USA inflation to where it fucking deserves to be.

    4. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you provide any examples of that theory having ever worked in practice?

    5. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 2, Insightful

      US in 1933, Japan right now.

    6. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 2

      It's roundabout taxation and debt relief for a government too grid locked to supply those with fiscal means.

      It has some unfortunate side effects, allowing interest rates to rise would as well though ... sure a deep enough deflationary bust can clear the US debt overhang, I'm betting fascist would come to power before it runs it's course though because it's not going to be pretty.

    7. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 0, Troll

      It steals nothing. My $100 in the bank is worth $105 after the fed increases the money supply 5%. My house goes from $200,000 to 210,000, again, matching the inflation. Nothing is lost. The only thing "lost" is from people who keep cash under the mattress.

    8. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 2

      Seriously, your money goes up to $105 if the fed increases the supply 5%?

      Are you sure your 100 is not reduced 5% due to supply/demand curves, etc?

    9. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Charliemopps · · Score: 1, Interesting

      There are far more examples of central banks doing things to hurt the economy than there are of them helping it. It would be one thing if they ONLY protected us against inflation by adjusting the interest rate/money supply, but because they are run by politics most often, they feel pressure and medal in things they certainly should not. The fed can do nothing more than add a splint, the economy must heal itself just like a broken leg. What the fed does now is similar to what "Sports medicine" does to get million dollar athletes back on the field. Yes, they may win the game tonight but what happens to them in the long run? What the US Federal reserve is doing now is horrific in its implications. The looming disaster will be far worse than what would have happened had they not intervened at all.

    10. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nope. US Fed did what is required from the start, so the recession in the US turned out to be far more shallow than in Europe (where the ECB blundered for several years). In Japan it's the contrast is even more stark - after a decade of slow stagnation and deflation (or near-deflation) they started growing almost immediately after the central bank and the government decided to be 'irresponsible'.

      Then there's China, its inflation rate skyrocketed into hyperinflation several times during the recent 30 years, yet they've had double-digit growth for about as long as that.

      Oh, and inflation primarily hurts 1%-ers because they have to actually invest their capital in risky businesses (work!) rather than sit back and enjoy risk-free rent. For a general worker a mild inflation is a plus, because it erodes the debts (mortgage!) over time.

    11. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Informative

      It steals nothing. My $100 in the bank is worth $105 after the fed increases the money supply 5%. My house goes from $200,000 to 210,000, again, matching the inflation.

      What? Inflation makes your buying power less not more. The house may go up in (numeric) value, but you $100 in the bank is worth less now since it's not worth as much in actual exchange for goods and services.

    12. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Prices go up 5%, interest/investment pays me 5%, so I lose nothing. Why are you hoarding cash under your mattress?

    13. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Nope, the number goes up roughtly in line with inflation. So money doesn't inflate, so long as you stop storing it under your mattress. Think of it as the tax on stupid and lazy. Invest it and it'll grow, not shrink.

      So long as inflation is slow and predictable, it won't make your money worth less (again, unless you store it under your mattress).

    14. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, and inflation primarily hurts 1%-ers because they have to actually invest their capital in risky businesses (work!) rather than sit back and enjoy risk-free rent. For a general worker a mild inflation is a plus, because it erodes the debts (mortgage!) over time.

      You assume that I haven't gone out of my way to minimize debts, and also assume that I never stick my money in a bank. If my money devalues at the rate my debt devalues, I owe the same value in debt, plus the effect of interest.

    15. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prices go up 5% or the value of your money goes down 5%. Take your pick (two sides, same coin). Most investments do NOT pay 5% interest (this isn't the late 90s anymore, 2% is good!). When a unit of exchange inflates, its value in purchasing power decreases. Your house is not magically "worth" more, just because of inflation alone. Anything kept as a unit of exchange needs at least the rate of inflation in interest (or final sale price) to retain value as measured by purchasing power. Good luck ensuring you get that out of a bank. Now, hard assets, you can buy it, the price inflates, and you resell it later--but very likely, if we're talking durably manufactured goods (not disposable/semi-disposable stuff), the final sale price will have paced inflation. Successful investment. Stick money in bank, get 2% interest on 5% inflation, lose value. Unsuccessful investment.

    16. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 0

      Doesn't matter for various reasons.

      1) In case of deflation most likely you simply won't have enough savings. Simply because deflation is caused by an insufficient demand because an average income is too small.
      2) Most people simply can not save enough money (several yearly incomes) to buy a house/apartment. So for the most of their lives they either have a negative net worth or live as renters.

    17. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      You're confused - it's the BANKS that 'print' money into existence.

      Commerical banks create pseudeo-money.

      When you deposit "real" money from the government or central bank in a commercial bank account the bank keeps a certain ammount of it in reseve (either by stashing it in a vault or depositing it at the central bank) and loans out the rest. But you still effectively have the money you deposited so your bank balance is psuedo-money.

      The ammount of such psuedo-money in the system is much greater than the ammount of "real money" but the government and central bank (the existance of which is ultimately at the whim of the government) control the ammount of real money and the reserve requirements placed on banks and thus indirectly control the ammount of pseudo-money the commercial banks can create.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    18. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      US CPI for 2013 = 1.5%

      Bank of america money market savings account rates 0.03% - 0.07% (depeding on how much you have in your account).
      So while you are 0.07% better off not keeping your money under the mattress it certainly is not growing at the rate of inflation.

    19. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by MickLinux · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Mod parent up, +1 Funny: Japan's qualitative Easing works?!?!??

      A lost decade, with no growth, now being stretched to TWO decades with no growth, and you call that working?

      That quantitative Easing, those bailouts, are exactly what causes the disasters. So of course they need more of it, because it is clear that they never learned their lesson.

      And yes, it appears we need another round of Tarp too. The Fed's holding of worthless promisory notes, never again to be marked to market, with no date of repayment, is now up to 4 trillion dollars.

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
    20. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I am amazed at the number of times you misspelt 'amount' in that single post.

    21. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Prices go up 5% or the value of your money goes down 5%.

      So you agree with me, and are just arguing the return on investment of banked money. Got it. Thanks for your agreement and vote of confidence.

    22. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1, Insightful

      So you agree with my argument, but disagree only on the rate of return of investment.

    23. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. I am NOT agreeing with you, but you are being intentionally dense. Does $95 = $105? No. It does not. At t=1, your money is NOT worth $105 in t=0 dollars, it's worth $105 in t=1 dollars, which is the same as $95 in t=0 dollars, a loss of $5 t=0 dollars.

      Fucking moron.

    24. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

      I should like to know more about the magical bank where you keep your money.

    25. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He did no such thing, but you really need to stop replying to posters, myself included, and trying to claim we agree with your argument when we DO NOT AGREE. Not a single word in his post supports your conclusions, except by drastic misreading, the sort common to politicians and shills. That is called being a fucking idiot.

      The previous AC made a comparison between banking your money and leaving it under a mattress, arguing that it is better to bank than leave it under a mattress, but that DOES NOT, IN ANY WAY, suggest that it is good to bank your money because interest will necessarily pace inflation. Nowhere in there did they make those logical statements, nor did they support your argument. You are assuming something which supports a different premise supports yours because you're a FUCKING ILLITERATE IDIOT. And, one who can't do basic grade school math.

      Posting AC because you're a moron on the level of the other trolls around here.

    26. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      No, i disagree with our argument. There are numerous examples of hyperinflation throughout history which can outline why.

    27. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by complete+loony · · Score: 2

      Nope. US Fed did what is required from the start, so the recession in the US turned out to be far more shallow than in Europe (where the ECB blundered for several years). In Japan it's the contrast is even more stark - after a decade of slow stagnation and deflation (or near-deflation) they started growing almost immediately after the central bank and the government decided to be 'irresponsible'.

      And yet Australia, which gave cash to tax payers instead of bank managers, did even better. But even though Australia completely avoided a technical recession, all they have done is delay the inevitable.

      When you start modelling money and debt, global economies still look very sick indeed.

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    28. Re: Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking moron

    29. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I think he is making the point that the "risk free rate" often matches the inflation rate , since fed monitors and controls both.That way they cancel out.

      On the other hand, wages sometimes also match inflation, so income increases, but debts do not.

    30. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure. Cash from the government (in form of mailed checks or tax rebates) is the most efficient way to get out of a liquidity trap quickly, it's followed by federally-funded shovel-ready projects. Obama managed to push through such a stimulus and it helped, but it was about 3 times smaller than needed. Australia did the right thing and so it had experienced next to no recession pain: https://www.google.com/publicd... On the other hand, EU did exactly the wrong thing and imposed harsh austerity and still hasn't reached the pre-crisis level.

      It's also correct that purely monetary policy can do little in case of liquidity traps - a loose monetary policy is necessary to get out of liquidity trap, but by itself it can't really affect investment and demand levels.

    31. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      Prices go up 5%, interest/investment pays me 5%, so I lose nothing. Why are you hoarding cash under your mattress?

      The value of your home is effected my the local housing market much more than the national inflation rate -- which is why we had the housing bubble screw so many people. Also, keep in mind the value of your home will be negatively impacted over time, because your house is getting older and maintenance costs will increase on it, better technology for utilities and energy efficiency in newer homes, ect.

      The bank account issue is exactly as I said it. The money left in the bank (assuming "bank" means deposit account) will be worth less dollar for dollar from inflation. The total buying power value of your account will be less, unless you're getting an interest rate that's higher than inflation from your bank (and you wont be).

    32. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by mjwx · · Score: 3, Informative

      Nope. US Fed did what is required from the start, so the recession in the US turned out to be far more shallow than in Europe (where the ECB blundered for several years). In Japan it's the contrast is even more stark - after a decade of slow stagnation and deflation (or near-deflation) they started growing almost immediately after the central bank and the government decided to be 'irresponsible'.

      And yet Australia, which gave cash to tax payers instead of bank managers, did even better. But even though Australia completely avoided a technical recession, all they have done is delay the inevitable.

      The $900 payout to people who earned less than A$90,000 didn't stop the recession in Australia. In fact nothing did. We had one, but we recovered in less than 12 months because of sensible banking regulations which meant none of our major banks needed public money. That combined with a sensible economic policy (which has remained virtually unchanged since the early 90's) and low levels of public debt meant that we rode out the GFC in a very short time.

      The $900 "stimulus" was about boosting consumer confidence, which it did for a very short time but it wasn't a real fix.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    33. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by camperdave · · Score: 1, Funny

      Spelt is a grain. Spelled is a past tense word.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    34. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 2

      Well, the recession was so short exactly because the payout helped - you can't expect such policy measures to act immediately. And no, tougher banking regulations were not the reason - Europe in general had similar regulations, yet they didn't help. Public debt also has no direct relation to recovery - Spain had very little public debt (and it was running surpluses for many years), for example.

    35. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      Then there's China, its inflation rate skyrocketed into hyperinflation several times during the recent 30 years, yet they've had double-digit growth for about as long as that.

      China's rapid economic growth began in 1978 when they began to unscrew the economy by introducing market reforms.

      China's economic miracle

      The seeds of China's rapid economic growth since the 1990s were first planted back in 1978 when the Communist Party started to introduce capitalist market principles, initially in the agricultural sector.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    36. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      And? It doesn't contradict anything I said. China still has quite high inflation levels with impressive growth.

    37. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Well, the recession was so short exactly because the payout helped - you can't expect such policy measures to act immediately. And no, tougher banking regulations were not the reason - Europe in general had similar regulations, yet they didn't help. Public debt also has no direct relation to recovery - Spain had very little public debt (and it was running surpluses for many years), for example.

      Actually it didn't help in the long term. It was a short term fix that did nothing to address the fundamental problems (which was the fact if a banker in New York farts, the markets in Australia panic). It was a short term boost to sales which doesn't do anything in the long run (I kept my $900 in the bank). The US tried doing the same three times and it didn't help them.

      Also, Europe did not have similar regulations, they may have had tougher regulations but they were the wrong regulations. Australian banks had limits about how much they could lend vs how much they had in assets as well as rules on how much they had to keep in liquid assets (again relative to how much they could lend) which made the conditions that created the sub prime crisis in the US and Europe impossible to have in Australia.

      If you don't understand this, you have no idea how the banking regulations in Australia work.

      The reason that Australia went through a brief period of recession is because our market is interdependent on other markets (most notably the US market) so when things went belly up there, it had a huge effect here. But because the same conditions weren't replicated here, nor in China we were able to recover very quickly.

      I dont disagree with Labor's stimulus package, it helped out a lot of Australians in a time of extreme uncertainty, but don't kid yourself that it had any lasting effect on the economy as a whole.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    38. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      The US tried doing the same three times and it didn't help them.

      Three times? Wrong. There was only one direct stimulus and it was much smaller (around $300). It also doesn't matter what YOU did - in general people spent the money, so it helped to restart the stalled economy.

      Also, Europe did not have similar regulations, they may have had tougher regulations but they were the wrong regulations. Australian banks had limits about how much they could lend vs how much they had in assets as well as rules on how much they had to keep in liquid assets (again relative to how much they could lend) which made the conditions that created the sub prime crisis in the US and Europe impossible to have in Australia.

      [citation needed]

      The reason that Australia went through a brief period of recession is because our market is interdependent on other markets (most notably the US market) so when things went belly up there, it had a huge effect here. But because the same conditions weren't replicated here, nor in China we were able to recover very quickly.

      Do you have any model that can explain this?

    39. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bad examples. The US Great Depression dragged on for much longer than it needed to due to money printing and other inept government policies that were supposed to "fix" the problem. Japan has had nearly 20 years of fucked economy and printing is just keeping them in the toilet and making things worse. They will not recover until they stop that shit.

    40. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are there still so many people here that don't understand inflation and why it's bad for everyone who doesn't have first access to money? Have you all been so brainwashed by the FED, government, banks and media?

      Get informed.

    41. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BWHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

      Go back to middle school and retake algebra

    42. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your rate of return will always be less than real inflation, hence the difference is stolen from you. You are only arguing the amount that is being stolen, not the fact that you are still being stolen from.

      And if you want to argue that wages will go up to match inflation, you need to realize to things:

      1. Inflation is understated, so if CPI shows 2% inflation, a 2% raise doesn't actually compensate for that.
      2. There is always a time gap between the erosion of your purchasing power due to inflation and the point at which you get a raise. Because of this gap, you are always losing to inflation.

    43. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Max+Threshold · · Score: 1
      When more money is introduced, the value of circulating currency decreases proportionally. When the Federal Reserv prints money, it's effectively a tax on held currency.

      But it's what happens next that really hurts. If the Fed prints $100, it ends up on deposit in a bank somewhere. That bank can now lend $90 to someone, who deposits it in another bank. That bank can now lend $81... etc. Less than 0.5% of the "money" in circulation was ever actually issued by the Fed; the rest was created out of thin air through fractional reserve lending. And every penny of it cuts into the real value of your savings and investments.

    44. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Fjandr · · Score: 1

      True in an absolute sense, but completely irrelevant to anyone who is not handed money equal to the inflationary percentage multiplied by their assets (which is, well, almost everyone).

      If your economy has $1,000 in assets for which there is a real demand, and 10 members each with $100 in currency notes, one or more will lose purchasing power unless each receives $10 of the printed money. Since only banks are allocated those new notes, every member of the economy loses purchasing power unless they can actively invest their money with a return rate at least equal to the inflationary rate. In the current US economy, that's a pretty small percentage of people given the average negative savings rate and the abysmal returns on invested amounts of less than 6 figures.

    45. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As is rather common in English, that word can be spelt in more than one way.

    46. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, and inflation primarily hurts 1%-ers because they have to actually invest their capital in risky businesses (work!) rather than sit back and enjoy risk-free rent. For a general worker a mild inflation is a plus, because it erodes the debts (mortgage!) over time.

      If only wages kept up, which they haven't since 2008.

    47. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So what's the solution to fractional reserve banking, if that's so bad? It's not a requirement, the requirement is that the fraction is no less than 20%, otherwise, we'd have 150% fractional banking, for every $1 you deposit, they'd lend $2.50

    48. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      5% inflation, 5% interest, money is worth the same at the end of the year. Where did you take algebra?

    49. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So you are asserting that $105 after 5% inflation will not buy what $100 would buy before? Then how much will in buy?

    50. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      You are posting as AC because you want to fit in with the other AC trolls? You are the one that agreed with me that 5% interest in 5% inflation does not reduce your buying power, then argued because you wanted me to come to a different conclusion, but that's impossible as the facts are on my side, and you agreed with my facts, you just have a non-factual opinion you wanted to push.

    51. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Your rate of return will always be less than real inflation, hence the difference is stolen from you.

      When you put it in a guaranteed account, yes. But non-guaranteed accounts will often beat inflation. I've beat inflation with my 401(k) for 20+ straight years, averaging about 10% P.A.

      There is always a time gap between the erosion of your purchasing power due to inflation and the point at which you get a raise. Because of this gap, you are always losing to inflation.

      Ah yes, the last refuge of scoundrels, you make up something I didn't say to "show" I'm wrong. I was talking solely about money saved/invested, and not wage reductions in inflationary times. That's another reason union jobs are good. Most try to benchmark inflation so that you aren't always losing.

      I guess that's the real reason Conservatives hate unions.

    52. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, a lot of us do.

    53. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So $100 in an account for a year, earning 5% is $105. At t=0, it's worth $100. At t=1, it's worth $100. So long as you invest in something that matches inflation, you aren't losing anything.

      Do you need to go back to the 3rd grade for math? Percents and interest and inflation are apparently beyond you.

    54. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Recession is not a bad thing. It is part of the natural cycle.

      A recession would be an improvement on the current state, which is a depression, despite the tale you've obviously swallowed.

    55. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      The trick is to gain assets greater than your assets. Borrow $1,000,000 and buy 4 $250,000 houses. There are some cheap ones out there now. Then, every year, you are paying 5% interest on the money, .and the houses will appreciate at 10%. Sell them in 10 years and you beat inflation, even after inflation and interest.

      Of course, to get $1,000,000 in loans, you have to already have money. But I do have enough to borrow to beat inflation. If someone inflates against me, I raise rents on my tenants. Problem solved. I'm also earning 10% per year (average over 20 years) in the market with retirement and investments. And, of course, being in the top 10% of wage earners, I pay less than 10% of my income as federal income tax (and less than 20% in total taxes, summing all property, sales, state, local and federal taxes). My tax rate should be 3x what it is, but I'm happy to use the system to my benefit. Even if the system is broken.

    56. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Yes. Someone gets it. When the rates cancel out, "inflation" doesn't directly hurt you.

    57. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by complete+loony · · Score: 1

      $900 payout + first home owners boost + NBN + solar rebate + insulation rebate + school building program.....

      Every stimulus program Labour started put money directly in tax payers pockets. All of them together had a huge impact on our economy.

      Personally I'd say the first home owners boost had the biggest long term impact as it encouraged people to buy just as our housing bubble was starting to burst. Though prices started to fall / stagnate after the boost ended, the housing market is heading upwards again. Without that boost, housing prices could have plummeted and triggered all kinds of strife through banks and investment funds that were exposed.

      The housing bubble will eventually burst though. It's just a matter of time.

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    58. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The trick is to gain assets greater than your assets.

      Translation: The trick is to be born into enough money to make large investments with large returns.

      Borrow $1,000,000 and buy 4 $250,000 houses

      Translation: I am disconnected from the financial reality of the average working-class citizen.

      Sell them in 10 years and you beat inflation, even after inflation and interest.

      Translation: Use hard assets, not soft assets, in order to beat inflation.

      Of course, to get $1,000,000 in loans, you have to already have money. But I do have enough to borrow to beat inflation.

      Translation: You need to be rich like me in order to get rich like me.

      If someone inflates against me, I raise rents on my tenants. Problem solved.

      Translation: I solve my problems by screwing over the guy who has less initial resources and is thus less able to invest and be rich like me. Profit!

      I'm also earning 10% per year (average over 20 years) in the market with retirement and investments. And, of course, being in the top 10% of wage earners, I pay less than 10% of my income as federal income tax (and less than 20% in total taxes, summing all property, sales, state, local and federal taxes). My tax rate should be 3x what it is, but I'm happy to use the system to my benefit. Even if the system is broken.

      Translation: I make WAY more money than you and I pay less in taxes than you as a function of income. I should pay 3x as much, but I'm happy to screw the next guy over, who doesn't have enough money to play games with the loopholes or make very large investments.

      Do you ever listen to yourself? Do you have ANY idea how much like a stuck up asshole, totally disconnected from the economic reality of the average citizen you sound? By your own admissions and details, you need a sizable amount of money just to play your game in the first place!

    59. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 2
      You must be fantastically smart to miss the original AC's point, and then base your rebuttal around ignoring it:

      Most investments do NOT pay 5% interest (this isn't the late 90s anymore, 2% is good!).

    60. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you really that fucking stupid?

    61. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I'm apparently so fucking stupid I can stump you with a simple question. When you have 5% inflation and 5% interest, will your money be worth more or less? Can you not figure that one out?

    62. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a lot longer than 2008 and he's forgetting banks know about this magical inflation thing too and loan accordingly so it's net nothing in reality. It's good for the thieves at the top so the myth continues.

    63. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      What's the average return rate of the stock market? It's better than inflation, and interest paid is usually less. So split the difference and say the interest is equal to inflation. In that case, what's the problem?

      The only thing people have come up with is that is close is that wages usually lag inflation, so people on wages will have wages increased after some delay. Which is completely separate from my point, which was in response to "inflation is theft". It isn't. It doesn't "steal" from you. It's a tax on liquidity. The less liquid your finances, the more likely they'll match or beat inflation.

    64. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Use hard assets, not soft assets, in order to beat inflation.

      The only correct translation in your list of "translations".

      Do you ever listen to yourself? Do you have ANY idea how much like a stuck up asshole, totally disconnected from the economic reality of the average citizen you sound? By your own admissions and details, you need a sizable amount of money just to play your game in the first place!

      Yeah, I'm a fucking millionaire. You do realize that it's something like $90k household income to make it to the top 10%? I'm a stuck up asshole, completely disconnected from the economic reality of the average person by going to school, then getting a good job in IT. Why didn't you work harder in school? Why do you hate people who learned to do their own taxes, and read the tax law and save and use the copious shitty loopholes inserted by Conservatives?

      I grew up in a single-parent household below "average" in income, so I do understand the economic reality of the average citizen. I started life "below average" and am ending it "above average". You've only experienced "below average", and apparently have great disdain for those that cross that line. Why do you think I should volunteer to pay more taxes? Did you volunteer extra taxes last year?

      You need to be rich like me in order to get rich like me.

      I'm just making more than inflation on my savings. I tell you how, and you get offended. And I started at 18, going to College with about $2000 from my parents and a "don't ask for more" speech. Was that starting rich? If you think not, then you could have all I have and more. Why don't you? Are you too lazy or too stupid? It's not easy. It requires spending less than you make, for many years. Most people have trouble doing that for two weeks. I saved 20% down for my first house on $20k per year. No reason anyone else can't do it. Yes, you can get "rich" on $20k per year. It's just hard.

    65. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by purpledinoz · · Score: 2

      Oh, and inflation primarily hurts 1%-ers

      This is absolutely false. The Fed essentially bailed out Wall Street and gifted the 1% in the range of trillions of dollars via zero interest. Have you gotten a 0% loan from the bank lately? The Fed essentially funded the stock market would rise, which the 1%'ers are piled into, enriching them even more, while pretty much none of the lower income Americans were able to participate in. What are corporations doing with their record profits? Stock buybacks. That money isn't going into hiring people.

      Inflation has been quite high in food and energy (and very high in the stock market), which hurts the 99% because they spend a larger portion of their income on food and energy. Why is food stamp usage highest on record? Why is the labour participation rate the lowest since the 70s? The economy is not well. The 1% is pretty much the only winner in the recent GDP gains.

      I'm not saying the general idea what the Fed did was bad. Just that it was implemented in a way to make the 1% even richer while taking away from the 99%. I think it would have been better if the money was distributed to the 99%, rather than gifted to the 1%.

    66. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by TheLink · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's still printing money.

      My left hand borrows money from the future and passes them to my right hand which gives you cash. What does that really look like to the rest of the world in practice?

      Or how about this, I lend 9 trillion dollars "from the future" to my friends at below market interest rates. My friends make a few millions or even billions with it and pay me back in full (can't be that hard - it's below market rates after all). So how's that not printing money? It may not be printing trillions but it's printing millions or billions.

      --
    67. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      merkins cant even master English no wonder your shit at finance and economics.

    68. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 1

      How the heck did you figure out all that? You must have my finances in front of you! Great job... not. Your parents handed you $2000. You know what mind handed me? Nothing. Federal aid? Not worth shit if your parents make anything above the poverty line, even by a little bit. I've worked shitty jobs for years, studied on my own, and am FINALLY, just FINALLY, able to put myself through college to get that piece of paper, so I don't need to work shitty low paying jobs, but now I've got loans. And, for the record, I do my own taxes, but most of those loopholes don't apply unless you have large investments, children: things I've had to avoid because I'm paying my rent and putting food on the table. You didn't START with your million dollar loan and 4 $250,000 houses.

      Maybe someday, I will find myself as comfortable as you. I've been plowing my extra money into hard assets and living on very little in the way of personal entertainment--let's get that clear. I intend to have a business someday, with those assets. But you know what? I'm STILL looking at a decade or two of busting my balls just to get it launched. Perhaps I could take out some loans to purchase a building with (to *rent* a building with, as you don't own it until it's paid)... but then I'm really on the hook. I was brought up to save, invest in hard assets (durably built tools, etc.), and not take loans all over the place. What I own, I own outright, by working my ass off, doing everything from washing dishes, to digging trenches, to building websites for chump change (no degree, but decades of experience programming now), and nothing short of someone taking it by physical force is going to change that. Yes, I can "have it all and more". But at what cost? To find myself beholden to a bank? To suggest that the average person should take out a million dollar loan is obscene, and you forget where YOU came from. If you want to offer advice, try to walk in your old shoes again.

    69. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      My tax rate should be 3x what it is, but I'm happy to use the system to my benefit. Even if the system is broken.

      Translation: I'm part of the problem.

    70. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by jcr · · Score: 1

      What about all the times printing money saved an economy?

      Like, never in human history.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    71. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spelt is also a synonym for 'spelled' in the Northern English dialect.

    72. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 1

      Just in case you feel generous, I'll take a donation to found the hackerspace. Just sayin'. Tax deductible even, since it'll be non-profit. Oh your coffers aren't that deep and you need your tenants to work for you? Right. You raised yourself up by your parents' bootstraps. (Or single parent or w/e you said.) But try doing it from absolute zero: homeless with no possessions except some shitty clothes and a backpack. Been there, done that, still working my way up. If you wonder *why* I'm pissed, you might stop to consider just how good you actually had it.

    73. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by jcr · · Score: 2

      Yes it does. It deprives you of the income you should have earned from the funds you risked by putting them in someone else's hands in exchange for interest.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    74. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Perhaps I could take out some loans to purchase a building with (to *rent* a building with, as you don't own it until it's paid)

      Maybe you should have spent more time in elementary learning English. When you are the owner of record of something, you "own" it, even if someone else has a lien on it. It's not "rent" because, so long as you fulfill the contract, they have no claim on it, and the contract has a definite end date, after which they will never have a claim on it.

      Next you'll be telling us how you can't "own" any property at all, and it's all just rented from the government.

      Yeah, with that level of understanding, I can see why it will take you so long to get your business off the ground. It probably won't get much off the ground, though.

      To suggest that the average person should take out a million dollar loan is obscene, and you forget where YOU came from.

      And you should read more. Have you never heard of the joke "how do you make a million dollars? Step 1, start with 5 million dollars..." I was making a play on that. Yes, I realize most people couldn't get a loan for $1,000,000. You need to get to about $12,000 a month income before a bank would give you that, but I've seen someone do that starting with less than you. He did it cleaning laundry. I didn't forget anything, other than how stupid people on Slashdot can be.

    75. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I vote to change the system. That you refuse to vote with me, wasting your vote, makes you the problem, not me. I haven't voted for a winning president. Ever. 20+ years of voting, and never once voted for the winner. While people like you keep causing the problem, I'll pay the smallest legal amount *you* voted for.

    76. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 1

      Maybe you should have spent more time in elementary learning English. When you are the owner of record of something, you "own" it, even if someone else has a lien on it. It's not "rent" because, so long as you fulfill the contract, they have no claim on it, and the contract has a definite end date, after which they will never have a claim on it.

      And maybe you're comfy in your secure job and have never been laid off. I'd welcome you to the rest of the world, but it's abundantly clear that you've never been part of it.

    77. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 1

      You vote. How quaint. Remind me exactly what that does again, in this country? You've got money, 20+ years of voting, surely, you know it all, but yet, you've never voted for a winner once? That means it's surely real effective, just keep blaming everyone else when it doesn't work. Keep voting for those lizards.

    78. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by weilawei · · Score: 1

      And he's completely out of touch with reality (for most people, not the 1% he claims to be part of). All that money musta fried him something good and crispy. I'd really like to have someone hand me $2k (adjusted for inflation and guesstimating age based on # of years voting, that's around $5.5k right now) to get myself off the ground as an adult, rather than being homeless to start with (get out and don't come back until you've made something of yourself!).

    79. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      I vote to change the system. That you refuse to vote with me, wasting your vote, makes you the problem, not me.

      Who says I don't want to change the system?
      Who says I refuse to vote?

      Do you have any source for these statements, or are you pulling them out of your ass?
      This is like an earlier reply to me where you accused me of "hoarding cash under [my] mattress". Completely baseless retorts.

      One who truly wants to change the system wouldn't be taking advantage of it for his own personal gain. Your actions speak louder than your words.

      You're just another "I got mine, fuck you." opportunist.

      I haven't voted for a winning president. Ever. 20+ years of voting, and never once voted for the winner.

      Would you like a gold star, Marc? You've had zero effect on the system either way, just like me. I live in a blue city in a red state. It doesn't matter who I vote for, because the electoral college says we vote for the Republican, whether he's the right person for the job or not. But I still vote every election -- so you might want to check with your source, because he sounds like a commentator on Fox News right now.

    80. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by etash · · Score: 1

      are you stupid or a troll? when a gov prints money, the amount of wealth remains the same, but the amount of paper that represents that wealth increases, thus each paper (banknote) is worth less.

    81. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Moral+Judgement · · Score: 1

      Replying to undo accidental moderation, please ignore.

    82. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That really depends on where you live: http://www.grammar-monster.com...

      I assume you're from the USA.

    83. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      misspell
      misspel/
      verb
      past tense: misspelt; past participle: misspelt

              1.
              spell (a word) incorrectly.

      Don't be a dick unless you know you're right.

    84. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

      I somehow replied to the wrong one. Seafox is right.

      Inflation is only good if you have debt since it devalues your debt. If I buy a house at $200,000 with a 30 year mortgage by year 30 the house is worth $400,000 just due to inflation and my mortgage payment at the end is essentially half of what I was paying up front.

      If I'm saving money, on the other hand, and the bank is giving me 1% interest then the interest doesn't even cover inflation, so I'm actually losing money. One of the big problems we have right now in the economy is that there's no real way to keep money liquid without it losing value.

    85. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      So then make up your mind.
      At first you said money in the bank is equal to inflation, now its your 401k?

      Probably not going to get through to you as others have tried as well, but let me just ask you TWO questions.

      1) Why did US sell bills and bonds with negative yields during the financial crisis? As you claim investments beat inflation but here you have positive inflation and negative returns?
      "The Treasury sold $15 billion in 10- year inflation-indexed notes at a record negative yield as investors sought a hedge against rising consumer prices amid speculation the Federal Reserve will add more stimulus."

      2) Why is it that almost every central planner has inflation targets and the "buttons" they push to control the markets center around inflation?

      Canada:
      The Bank of Canada aims to keep inflation at the 2 per cent midpoint of an inflation-control target range of 1 to 3 per cent.

      US
      The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent (as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, or PCE) is most consistent over the longer run with the Federal Reserve's mandate for price stability and maximum employment. Over time, a higher inflation rate would reduce the public's ability to make accurate longer-term economic and financial decisions. On the other hand, a lower inflation rate would be associated with an elevated probability of falling into deflation, which means prices and perhaps wages, on average, are falling--a phenomenon associated with very weak economic conditions. Having at least a small level of inflation makes it less likely that the economy will experience harmful deflation if economic conditions weaken. The FOMC implements monetary policy to help maintain an inflation rate of 2 percent over the medium term

    86. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      Go look at the CPI tables and figure it out..

      http://www.bls.gov/cpi/

    87. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      You're confused - it's the BANKS that 'print' money into existence.

      Where have you been?

      http://www.positivemoney.org/how-money-works/proof-that-banks-create-money/

      The government works FOR the banks.

      The banks are owned by JEWS. Hence you bow down in terror whenever anybody dares to criticise the Jew...

      I was with you up until the antisemitism. Yes, some of the owners are Jewish, but many are not. It's not about being Jewish, it's about being an ultra-wealthy sociopath.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    88. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by operagost · · Score: 1

      Sorry-- we were all confused because Slashdot told us that wanting a free market meant we had to be like Somalia.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    89. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by operagost · · Score: 1

      Oh, and inflation primarily hurts 1%-ers because they have to actually invest their capital in risky businesses (work!) rather than sit back and enjoy risk-free rent.

      Oh, my. You would like the middle class to rely on the federal government for its retirement, wouldn't you? Those IRAs, 401Ks, and pension funds are "rent", you know.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    90. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by operagost · · Score: 1

      Problem is, you can't even keep pace with inflation right now without exposing oneself to a moderate risk. In order to get a 1.5% CD, you have to deposit at least $1,000 for FOUR YEARS, or $5,000 for 2 or 3.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    91. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry-- we were all confused because Slashdot told us that wanting a free market meant we had to be like Somalia.

      Well, if you are so easily confused by a few random comments by random strangers on the Internet, maybe you should go to the Hello Kitty forums or something, and leave mature subjects like economics and politics to the adults.

    92. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

      I don't think you understand what inflation actually means. Here, let me help you with inflation for dummies:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation

      You might understand algebra, but your knowledge of even the most basic economic terms seem to be scarily absent.... You don't vote, do you? Please don't.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    93. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 2

      You're confused - it's the BANKS that 'print' money into existence.

      Commerical banks create pseudeo-money.

      When you deposit "real" money from the government or central bank in a commercial bank account the bank keeps a certain ammount of it in reseve (either by stashing it in a vault or depositing it at the central bank) and loans out the rest. But you still effectively have the money you deposited so your bank balance is psuedo-money.

      The ammount of such psuedo-money in the system is much greater than the ammount of "real money" but the government and central bank (the existance of which is ultimately at the whim of the government) control the ammount of real money and the reserve requirements placed on banks and thus indirectly control the ammount of pseudo-money the commercial banks can create.

      They all create the same money, there is no pseudo-money. When you get a loan from a bank, that bank creates the money they lend you on the spot. It does not come out of anyone's account, or even from the bank's money. It is new money, created for you based on your willingness to pay, or the real value of physical collateral you put up. The Federal Reserve does the same thing when they buy Treasury bonds. They create that money on the spot to buy the bonds and increase the money supply. So there is no "real money" there is only debt; the promise to repay. The Fed uses reserve requirements to limit the amount of money created. But it's all the same money; created out of thin air, at interest, on demand. In this way, the banking system skims off of the entire world's money supply. Quite a racket!

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    94. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by operagost · · Score: 1

      Are you trying to debunk his anecdote based on the fact you didn't get a whopping $2,000 for college?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    95. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      Why do you constantly post "so you agree with me" when people clearly do not?

      As others have said, go read what inflation is, then come back and have a conversation.

      Let me save you the trouble and copy/paste from wikipedia

      " In economics, inflation is a persistent increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services."

      Please read the second sentence multiple times until it sinks in.

    96. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not in Canada, you insensitive clod!

    97. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying the general idea what the Fed did was bad. Just that it was implemented in a way to make the 1% even richer while taking away from the 99%. I think it would have been better if the money was distributed to the 99%, rather than gifted to the 1%.

      I'll go ahead and say it was bad. Like you say, the way they went about things benefited the wealthy way way more than everyone else. The Fed bailed out their constituency, ensuring the stability (but not health) of the banking and credit industries, at the expense of the rest of society.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    98. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      No, he is just as clueless as you are.

      "risk free" rarely equals inflation and therefore they do not "cancel out".

      What is the current yield on US T-bills (considered risk free)?

      http://www.treasury.gov/resour...

      Would you look at that, the "Risk free" rates are MUCH lower then the current inflation rates are (CPI).

      A one year T-bill yield is around 0.13% while the one year CPI is 1.5%

    99. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Problem is, you can't even keep pace with inflation right now without exposing oneself to a moderate risk.

      It's still lower risk than under a free market.

      Just like how the $100 you own is worth less after inflation, that $100 you lost due to poor investments is also a smaller loss after inflation.

      Under a free market, you can win big since the value of your investment didn't inflate as much, but you can also lose big for the same reason.

      A slightly inflationary economy is more beneficial for those who work for a living than those who invest for a living, so naturally you see a divide between "the rich" (not necessary millionaires, but people with pensions and such) and the not-so-rich

      But there are other factors. One is the tax code. Another hot topic between "the rich' and not-so-rich is about how to tax income gained through investments.

    100. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by afidel · · Score: 1

      The housing bubble will eventually burst though. It's just a matter of time

      Well duh, average home prices can't exceed levels where mortgage payments exceed ~33% of after tax median income for any significant amount of time because that's what people can actually afford to pay for housing without incurring significant debt in other areas which will eventually lead to default. That's why people cheering about home prices rebounding puzzle me, I figured the best thing that could happen to the housing market would be a decade of price stagnation allowing inflation to bring average prices back to more normal and sustainable levels without putting more people under water.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    101. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      It steals nothing. My $100 in the bank is worth $105 after the fed increases the money supply 5%. My house goes from $200,000 to 210,000, again, matching the inflation. Nothing is lost. The only thing "lost" is from people who keep cash under the mattress.

      What? I think you have that backwards. When inflation occurs your money is worth less than before. Your $100 is worth $95 after 5% inflation. That's why, as you say, the mattress stuffers get screwed. The nominal value of your real estate goes up; again, because the value of the currency has gone down. This dynamic benefits the owners of things, because the actual value does not change while the nominal value increases. Those who work for a salary get screwed because salaries do not go up with inflation.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    102. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      You are the one that agreed with me that 5% interest in 5% inflation does not reduce your buying power...

      It does not, you're right. But inflation is encouraged by low interest rates, making money more attractive to borrow, thus increasing the money supply. So you will rarely see 5% interest rates on money and 5% inflation. It'd be more like .5% interest with 5% inflation. That's the whole reason inflation increases the velocity of money. It encourages spending because if one waits to spend, one will get less for their money.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    103. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      So you are asserting that $105 after 5% inflation will not buy what $100 would buy before? Then how much will in buy?

      Yes, of course it would. But you still only have $100! Inflation does not put more money in your account. So under 5% inflation, the $100 you have in the bank will buy what $95 would have bought before the inflation. So you have lost 5% of your purchasing power. You may invest your $100 to try to stay ahead of the inflation. But that also means putting your money at risk of loss. So you are forced to put your money at risk just to hold onto the value of your money.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    104. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      I'm apparently so fucking stupid I can stump you with a simple question. When you have 5% inflation and 5% interest, will your money be worth more or less? Can you not figure that one out?

      Yes, but in reality that rarely happens. Can you find any savings account these days that will yield 5%? You can't. You have to invest that money to get that type of return, and that means putting your money at risk of loss.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    105. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Prices go up 5% or the value of your money goes down 5%.

      So you agree with me, and are just arguing the return on investment of banked money. Got it. Thanks for your agreement and vote of confidence.

      Who are you, Stephen Colbert?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    106. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      No, I think he is making the point that the "risk free rate" often matches the inflation rate , since fed monitors and controls both.That way they cancel out.

      Citation please. What is this "risk free rate" and where do I look it up to see what it is?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    107. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your psuedo-money is the only one that really matters. At least 95% of my cash is kept as psuedo-money. And the money supply that has the biggest effect on the economy is pseudo-moeny. Real money hardly matters.

      But these things have names. We're talking about money supply. M0 is what you call real money. There are many ways to measure money supply and a whole terminology for talking about it. You don't sound smart using biased loaded terms for M3.

    108. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 1

      Having a massive amount of natural resources and being close to China are the main reasons that the Australian economy has done well recently.

    109. Re: Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but by similar logic, spending on infrastructure and social programs is therefore generous and altruistic which is good, because it is moral.

    110. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So, if unions were more common and the minimum wage were indexed, then there'd be no problem. Wages don't have to lag inflation, and often don't (unless you always assume you are paid in last year's dollars). Yes, wage earners are usually who is being screwed (and those on fixed incomes), but that doesn't change the fact that invested money returning inflation rate will make inflation a wash for that pile of money, and your used car will appreciate by inflation, as will your house, and other assets (even if one or more is also subject to deflation).

    111. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by rev0lt · · Score: 1

      Also, Europe did not have similar regulations, they may have had tougher regulations but they were the wrong regulations. Australian banks had limits about how much they could lend vs how much they had in assets as well as rules on how much they had to keep in liquid assets (again relative to how much they could lend) which made the conditions that created the sub prime crisis in the US and Europe impossible to have in Australia.

      This is pretty standard in EU. The crisis tightened the ratios, but they existed before, and AFAIK were quite different from the US. Keep in mind, Iceland (the actual EU country that is associated with unregulated banks, has roughly 300.000 habitants, and a PIB lower than many/most of the Fortune500 companies).

      If you don't understand this, you have no idea how the banking regulations in Australia work.

      Well, I don't, but you seem to not know how EU regulations work. And since I live in EU (lived in 2 countries, actually), and my current country is still interventioned by IMF, people are well aware of what is going on.

    112. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Among other things, a large mass of people bought not just at the top of the market, but in the years leading up to it, and were stuck with massive capital losses, basically through no fault of their own. A decline in house prices mostly benefits first-time buyers (who, at any given time, are a small part of the market, though in the long term it's dominant), and to a much lesser extent, people moving "up" in the housing market. It's negative for people moving down in the housing market, and even for people staying the same (since they have less equity to tap into if they need it).

    113. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I just find it odd that I make one statement of fact that nobody has shown to be wrong, yet receive 100 or so replies, mostly agreeing with the math, but disagreeing because they don't like the tone/implications. "Inflation is evil. Any argument that makes inflation anything other than government theft must be wrong." The government isn't "stealing" anything. The government is taxing cash.

    114. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I asserted that inflation of 5% will mean that you'll need $105 to buy what was previously $100 worth of goods. Your link agrees with me, and disagrees with you. Perhaps the issue is that you are the one without the basic knowledge to understand common terms.

    115. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      If there was no inflation, the cost of money would be lower. At least, historically, it has approached that in times of lower inflation, and increases in times of higher inflation. There may always be some margin benefiting the institutions, but they are well linked to where there isn't much margin between stable investments and inflation. That's the system. Hating the system doesn't make my math wrong.

    116. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, more confirmation I'm right. You are assuming my logic is right, then arguing about the values used for argument's sake. That's a confirmation and agreement, at least for the logic. The stock market is still out-performing inflation. So have a good mix of investments for your money, and you'll meet or beat inflation. Then what is the disagreement if your "savings" match inflation?

    117. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's the average return rate of the stock market? It's better than inflation, and interest paid is usually less. So split the difference and say the interest is equal to inflation. In that case, what's the problem?

      The problem is this is a bullshit calculation. There's no good reason to expect these things to come out at a wash. What you said was that $100 at the bank comes out at $105. Every human being is going to take $100 at the bank to mean in a liquid, guaranteed account, because that's what those words actually communicate.

      The funny thing is I agree with the original point you're trying to make -- inflation is not theft. Not only because there are safe harbours from inflation (virtually anything but currency, which is part of why low-but-positive inflation is often considered a good thing), but also because that's literally not what theft is, and people's fetish for intentionally confusing these ideas seems to be a push away from rational thinking and toward thought-terminating cliches. But your backup arguments are bizarre and lack intellectual integrity.

    118. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your argument is that "nothing is lost" due to inflation because you can do something with your money that somehow benchmarks it to that inflation. My pointing out that it is a bad thing for other reasons that the sole reason you propose is not some sort of logical fallacy, as you seem to imply.

      Back to your other claim though. You cannot find any sort of guaranteed account that will match inflation, so in order to avoid certain theft, you are forced to put your savings at risk of possible loss. Yeah, this is a great scenario, isn't it? So because it turned out okay for you, "yay inflation??" And benchmarking wages against inflation is the equivalent of treating symptoms instead of the underlying cause. It gives the illusion that it's working, but because of the delay between wage increase and inflation's effects, you still come out behind.

    119. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by TheP4st · · Score: 1

      That's the system. Hating the system doesn't make my math wrong.

      No. But the experience of nearly everyone living in meat space do prove that your math is disconnected from reality.

      --
      "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
    120. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by TheP4st · · Score: 1

      On a sidenote AK Mark. Your shilling is as painful to my brains as your site are to my eyes. Now, please excuse me while I run frantically in circles screaming "Geocities go awaaay!" while clawing my eyes i panic.

      --
      "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
    121. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      Seriously, yet another ridiculous "confirmation you are right" post?

      Re-read what you and he guy you agree with wrote.

      "When the rates cancel out, "inflation" doesn't directly hurt you."

      Did you see the "risk free" rate and "inflation" cancelling each other out? Perhpas you misunderstand the purpose a decimal place serves and think that 0.13% and 1.5% cancel each other out?

      I see now you have moved to "the market is outperforming inflation" rather then "money in the bank"?

      What do they call this here, "moving the goalposts"?

      Just do everyone a favour and read THE DEFINITION OF INFLATION!

    122. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      One last thing and its similar to what you have been told before. Please stop saying I agree with you, you have no idea about the basics of finance and I would hate to have ppl think I do and bucket me together with you.

      Just sit there in your fantasy land where "risk free rates" = "Inflation" and your moving goalposts to "prove your point".

    123. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Where did I assert "risk free" Someone else posted it, and I pointed out that he got the logic, though others have taken issue with the numbers he used.

      Where is the flaw in logic? There isn't one? You are agreeing on the logic, but taking issue with the details of the example? As much as you claim you are disagreeing by agreeing, it still looks like an agreement.

    124. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      One last thing and its similar to what you have been told before. Please stop saying I agree with you,

      Then disagree if you don't agree. Tell me how $105 after 5% inflation will not buy what $100 would before, or how 5% return won't make $100 into $105 over the same period. That is the entirity of my assertion, and you've never addressed it. You've just taken issue with where the 5% return comes from, or other things unrelated to the assertion I've made. When I return to the base assertion, you accuse me of "moving the goalposts" for not being lead down the rabbit hole you are trying to dig.

      Given the general contentious nature of Slashdot, that's the closest to an agreement I've seen. People that agree generally don't post. If you can't state a clear disagreement with it, I'll continue to take it as an agreement.

    125. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      What am I shilling? A site of a friend? I didn't build the site, or have any input into the site, but I do appear on it, as I did go on a number of the outdoor adventures with him. I gain nothing from anyone visiting the site in my sig. So I'm confused what I'm "shilling" (As generally that's a comment about advocating something in the post, not based on a sig). I haven't advocated anything in my posts that benefits anyone, other than readers who take my advice and inflation-proof their holdings.

    126. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So the return requires risk. But the math behind it is flawless (at least based on the hundreds of hate replies, without a single complaint about the math). I get a return better than inflation for the less-cash savings.

    127. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by number17 · · Score: 1

      When you get a loan from a bank, that bank creates the money they lend you on the spot. It does not come out of anyone's account, or even from the bank's money.

      When I loan you money it comes out of my pocket. When the bank loans you money they "create the money"?!? Say What?!?

    128. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So then make up your mind. At first you said money in the bank is equal to inflation, now its your 401k?

      My 401(k) is with a "bank".

      1) Why did US sell bills and bonds with negative yields during the financial crisis?

      Because some idiot would buy them? Why would anyone buy a bond with a negative yield?

      Seperately: What is a $100 bill if not a bond with no expiration with a negative yield?

      Shit like that is why I get my money out of USD cash. You can set up a ForEx trading account with as little as a few hundred dollars. Then keep your money in a low-interest account in something other than USD. And it's safe from anything the Federal Reserve does. Or, become a gold bug and buy gold certificates from private for-profit companies, and hope they aren't a ponzi. They seem to mostly be, but that doesn't stop the gold bugs.

    129. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Inflation is theft is pushed by the "taxes is theft" crowd. And the "you don't own land because Emminant Domain can take it" crowd.

    130. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Nope, The Great Depression lasted so long because of invention of lollipops. Look it up!

    131. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      You didnt write this? "Yes. Someone gets it. When the rates cancel out, "inflation" doesn't directly hurt you." You may not have "asserted" it, but you agreed and it is NOT accurate. Risk free rates are independent of inflation.

      You need to make up your mind. First you say "money in the bank", then "401k". Next you agree with someone posting about risk free rates equalling inflation now you dont?

      Lets just agree to disagree. On your side you seem to think inflation is good and you can just "cancel it away" with matching investments. This is in sharp contrast to pretty much every central bank in the world who's primary mandate is controlling inflation. You also have a lot of examples of "runaway inflation" and the disastrous consequences you can read up on (Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Zimbabwe, Poland).

      I suppose it could be due to the fact not everyone has "investments" which are growing faster then inflation and are therefore HURT by it. It could also be because many people's wages are also not tied to it and therefor they earn less year-on-year. Look at some of the tables which show "Real US income since 1960" for an example.

      I leave you with this three items to think about:
      1) If inflation is "good" and simply cancels out with investment returns, why is it so watched by the financial instituations around the world?

      2) As others have pointed out in this thread stop trying to put forward flawled logic, then stating people agree with you when they dont.

      3) In your own words, what does this sentence mean to you? "A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money."
      This is the definition of "Inflation" yet you seem to come here and argue over and over again that inflation means something else.

    132. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      You didnt write this? "Yes. Someone gets it. When the rates cancel out, "inflation" doesn't directly hurt you." You may not have "asserted" it, but you agreed and it is NOT accurate. Risk free rates are independent of inflation.

      I didn't say "risk free rate" in my post. I said "when they cancel out..." You are inferring something that isn't there, then attacking the thing I didn't say. I don't care if you call it the RFR or historical DOW return or whatever. When your return is 5% and your inflation is 5%, you do not lose money.

      If inflation is "good"

      I never said it was "good" Why are you making up so many things about what I say? If I'm so wrong, it should be able to show it, not have to make up so many strawmen to disprove.

      As others have pointed out in this thread stop trying to put forward flawled logic, then stating people agree with you when they dont.

      When they disagree with the logic, I'll stop stating they agree with me. They almost always agree with the logic and the outcome, but disagree with the example given. That's more agreement than not, and nobody has yet asserted that $105 after 5% inflation is "worse" than $100 without 5% inflation. As nobody has yet to disagree with my assertion, that's violent agreement. People instead presume my personal opinion (like you implying I think inflation is "good") and then attack that, or attack me personally for demystifying inflation.

      If you want to disagree with my $105=$105, then please do so. Anything else will be taken as agreement with that statement.

      In your own words, what does this sentence mean to you? "A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money." This is the definition of "Inflation" yet you seem to come here and argue over and over again that inflation means something else.

      I never asserted it meant anything else. Where did I? Go ahead, quote it. Don't worry, I probably won't be able to demonstrate your violent agreement with me much longer. There's a daily cap in posts, and with 100+ posts under my initial comment, and so many people asserting that my logic is flawless, but must be wrong, because they don't like their opinion of the result of the implications, which I'm challenging all the nay-sayers to find any flaw in the logic or initial assertion, I'm sure I'll hit that cap soon and be cut off for a bit.

      "A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money."

      If the fall of the purchasing power of money corresponds to the return of some stored money, is that money going to be able to buy as much after the inflation as before? Nothing I've said indicates any misunderstanding of that definition. I've had at least 10 people tell me I don't understand what inflation is, or define it for me. Yet nobody can point out any definition I've given, or how anything I've said contradicts the definitions given.

      I honestly want to understand why so many people are so uncomfortable with my assertion. Nobody has disagreed with it, but everyone has complained about it. If I had used "X" and a variable, would that have elimiated the complaints?

      You have $100 today. You put it in an account that returns X%. One year from now, X% inflation has occurred (yes, X=X). Will the money in the account buy more or less then, than last year?

      So what's the answer to that? Why is that so objectionable? People are asserting that X% return is hard? Is that really all it is? Because most complaints weren't about that.

    133. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      " because they don't like their opinion of the result of the implications, "

      what are you talking about? That your logic is flawed and yet they dont like the results?

      "If the fall of the purchasing power of money corresponds to the return of some stored money, is that money going to be able to buy as much after the inflation as before? "

      No, the purchasing power of money does NOT correspond to any return. It corresponds to what you can currently buy with said money. Your mistake is you continue to link purchase power and returns. They are not related. Again, the definitin of "money" doesnt include some auto-adjustment factor for inflation.

      Looking at the CPI tables i think current US inflation for 2013 was 1.5%. That is for the basket of goods but energy was 3.2% higher. So if your "$100" was to pay for electricity you would find it now gets you 3.2% less then it did before. Since inflation is quoted monthly does your salary increase/decrease monthly with the CPI? If not, you are suffering from inflation because your salary (not your return on investment) buys less.

      "If you want to disagree with my $105=$105, then please do so. Anything else will be taken as agreement with that statement."

      what does that mean? of course 105=105. Are you trying to say that 100 + 5% return = 100 + 5% inflation? They do not because "money" doesn't get any return. Your "salary" does not adjust up 5% just because inflation does. Inflation erodes wealth. It is also a weird thing to write, not sure why you want to force people to agree with you, or make weird assertions like this.

    134. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      No, the purchasing power of money does NOT correspond to any return.

      So $100 saved for a year at 5% return will not buy $105 in goods at the end of that period? Return of an investment has NO relation to the purchasing power?

      That sounds really stupid, and like you are trying really really hard to prove me wrong, so much so you don't even care what's being said. Care to try again?

      what does that mean? of course 105=105. Are you trying to say that 100 + 5% return = 100 + 5% inflation? They do not because "money" doesn't get any return.

      Money saved/invested does get some return. Why are you storing your cash under your mattress? If you only store your cash under your mattress, then yes, you won't get any return on it. But lots of things get return, like stocks, bonds, CDs and such. And they cost "money".

      Your "salary" does not adjust up 5% just because inflation does.

      You've never gotten, and never heard of cost-of-living adjustments?

      Inflation erodes wealth.

      Ok, so like most people, my most expensive item (the holder of "wealth") is my house. After inflation, is my house worth *more* or *less*? Oh, inflation doesn't erode wealth... Don't worry, if you keep making statements, perhaps one of them may, one day, be right.

      It is also a weird thing to write, not sure why you want to force people to agree with you, or make weird assertions like this.

      I'm happy to be proven right. I'm just waiting for someone to try. So far, it's just denials and abuse. If someone could prove me right, there have been 100+ posts in the sub thread, and nobdody has even tried (well, there was the one AC that claimed that 5% interest of $100 would leave you with $95 a year later, but no, I'm not considering that a serious try).

    135. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      The US sold $15BLN in negative yield bonds. So all those people are idiots? Perhaps you should be running a multi-billon dollar hedge fund instead of posting on slashdot?

      Do you not know the difference between money ($100 bill) and a bond? Here's a quick clue, money is considered an acceptable form of payment (legal tender) while a bond is a "promise to pay you back later" and NOT legal tender.

      Your statements defy logic. lets look at this one: "Then keep your money in a low-interest account in something other than USD. And it's safe from anything the Federal Reserve does"

      So where do you put it?
      In CAD so you can be exposed to anything the Bank of Canada bank does?
      In EUR so you can be exposed to anything the european union does?
      In CNY so you... wait, you cant do that....

      I know, by putting it in non-USD you escape inflation right?

      "Because some idiot would buy them?" - Real smart answer, and demonstrates your advanced economic knowledge.

    136. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      Here is your citation

      As i pointed out risk free rates and inflation are independent. US treasuries are generally considered "risk free" since they are denominated in USD they can always print money to avoid default. Anyhow, you can find the yields here: http://www.treasury.gov/resour...

    137. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      I find it odd that in 100 or so replies people have attempted to explain it to you but you are too dense to grasp it. The government is not taxing cash as they only indirectly control inflation. Inflation (CPI) is a basket of goods. Some the government can control, others they can not. Do the oil exporting countries get together with the US government to determine the price of oil, or is it driven by the market? When the price of oil goes up and therefor CPI goes up how exactly does the government benefit from this "tax on cash"?

    138. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      find it odd that in 100 or so replies people have attempted to explain it to you but you are too dense to grasp it.

      And what is "it"? That ROI matching inflation results in a net change in the value of the money? In which direction?

      Like I say, you don't address my assertion, but go off on some tangent. OPEC controls inflation of the USD more than the Federal reserve does? I don't agree with that, but it's irrelevant to the point that inflation isn't theft, as was asserted by the person I initially disagreed with. So, what's your stance on "inflation is theft"? since you assert that the governemnt doesn't even control it, then it can't be theft by the government, right? So you agree with me in disagreeing with the AC that asserted inflation is theft, but are so disagreeable, you must twist that agreement into an argument.

    139. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be a Republican.

    140. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Nope. Why would you think such a thing? Even the liberal orgnaizations use tax law for the most adventageous standing, why shouldn't you and I do what we can?

    141. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      When you get a loan from a bank, that bank creates the money they lend you on the spot. It does not come out of anyone's account, or even from the bank's money.

      When I loan you money it comes out of my pocket. When the bank loans you money they "create the money"?!? Say What?!?

      You got that right number17! When you promise to pay the money back, they create a promissory note. That note represents your agreement to pay, say $300,000. Well, that note is now worth $300,000! It can be put on the books opposite the $300,000 they create and put into your account.

      Read up on fractional reserve lending, and see if you can find a copy of Modern Money Mechanics. It used to be published by the Federal Reserve, and it explains how modern money works. You can find it in PDF format around the web.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    142. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Here is your citation As i pointed out risk free rates and inflation are independent. US treasuries are generally considered "risk free" since they are denominated in USD they can always print money to avoid default. Anyhow, you can find the yields here: http://www.treasury.gov/resour...

      Hey, look at that! Okay, I see what you're saying. But to AK Mark's point, the current inflation rate is estimated at 1.5% while the yield on a 1-year treasury bill is .11%. So these will not keep you ahead of current inflation unless you tie up your money for 5 years or so. Or am I doing this wrong?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    143. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by dk20 · · Score: 1

      Those are "yield curve rates" and can give you an estimation for longer term bonds (among other things).

      If you want to see the actual prices change the dropdown "Select type of Interest Rate Data"

    144. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by Max+Threshold · · Score: 1

      The required reserve is currently 10%. Make it 100%.

    145. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that have the effect of making all loans illegal? No economy functions debt-free.

  3. plastics the new paper by the+0x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    switch to australian made notes, i'd like to see them try and replicate those notes!

    1. Re:plastics the new paper by dk20 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We use polymer notes here as well (Canada). Even the lowest bill ($5) is moving from paper to plastic ;)

    2. Re:plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We now use the same kind of bill in Canada as they do in Australia.

    3. Re:plastics the new paper by spasm · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Australians license the polymer process to a lot of countries (including Canada) and an offshoot of the Australian Reserve Bank actually prints polymer notes for about 30 countries directly including Mexico.

    4. Re:plastics the new paper by mendax · · Score: 4, Informative

      switch to australian made notes, i'd like to see them try and replicate those notes!

      Yes, I've advocated the US switching to Aussie plastic ever since my first experience with it when I visited Oz in 1995. Canada is now doing it and Mexico has been using it for several years. Even the damn Romanians are using it! The polymer money has its detractors (it's slippery and doesn't fold nicely unless you put a book on the fold for a month and then you can't get the fold out) but it's pretty much damn impossible to counterfeit unless you're a government. And I suspect even the North Koreans will have trouble with it since I have no doubt the Aussies will ever license the technology to them for obvious reasons.

      --
      It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    5. Re:plastics the new paper by failedlogic · · Score: 4, Informative

      Canada makes polymer bills. The first polymer bill produced was the $100 CAD. Not too long after it was released, counterfeits were reported. This is a CBC story from May 2013. Too bad, for the longest time $100 and $50 paper bills weren't accepted at retail even if legal tender for fear it was counterfeit. Hopefully this doesn't happen with the new polymer bills.

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

    6. Re:plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The US probably wont accept OZ plastic money as it is not a "made in the USA Solution".

    7. Re:plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Brilliant! I don't see how anyone could replicate plastics!

    8. Re:plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What kind of currency turns to "mush" when washed and why did you keep washing it?

    9. Re:plastics the new paper by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      *Paper* money will survive washing machines.

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    10. Re: plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Duh... Money laundering.

    11. Re:plastics the new paper by mjwx · · Score: 1

      *Paper* money will survive washing machines.

      Technically US banknotes are made out of cloth more than paper.

      But the GP has a very good point about durability. Polymer banknotes last up to 4 times so the reserve bank (RBA) has to print fewer notes (one of the RBA's jobs is destroying old notes and replacing them with new ones).

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    12. Re: plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're doing it wrong

    13. Re:plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did not you lot invade the last country that tried switching the position of the $ as the worlds reserve currency ? Why do you hate Aussies so much?

      Is it because Australia got the crim's and you got the Puritans

    14. Re:plastics the new paper by SleazyRidr · · Score: 1

      That was one thing that scared me moving from Australia to the USA. Fortunately, despite leaving notes in pockets on more than one occasion the money did survive. I even floated down a river with money in what I thought was a watertight container, and gave them a good couple of hours soak, and they were fine once I dried them too.

    15. Re:plastics the new paper by fluffythdestroy · · Score: 1

      they wont survive the heat as the heat from a drying machine or anyone very high in temperature will stick notes together and make the note unusable... I don't know how that passed the test though...very odd

      --
      PC Gaming enthousiast that gives comments, opinions and reviews on Games. I'm just having fun with games while doing let
    16. Re:plastics the new paper by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      "anyone very high in temperature will stick notes together"

      Dude, that's some nasty fever you've got. Seriously, I'm not convinced about the dryer, but I've heard something about leaving an enveloppe on a dashboard in summer.

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    17. Re:plastics the new paper by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      Polymer banknotes last up to 4 times

      "Hey Boss, some guy off the street just paid two hundred million Austrian Marks cash for the all the VW vans in the back lot. Says it was his first car long ago. We're set for life!"
      "You checked with him to see how many times the bills were used, right?"
      "No, why?"
      "If they were used three times before, we're ruined! They only last up to four times!"

    18. Re:plastics the new paper by number17 · · Score: 1

      The polymer money has its detractors (it's slippery ...

      The slipperiness makes it harder to count as the money tents to stick together / not separate when counting. This means you should double count money that is given to others for fear of giving them extra bills.

    19. Re:plastics the new paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There has been a number of Aussie counterfeit rackets arrested. Usually they make $50 and $20 notes. This was just the first story I pulled from the web. http://www.dailytelegraph.com....

  4. How is this any different from Fed practice? by xmark · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Fed doesn't even bother with the paper - just pushes some buttons, and *magically* $4 billion pops out into the system *every day.*

    Except they call it Quantitative Easing instead of its actual name, counterfeiting. Cuz they're economists, you know.

    1. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Informative

      Fed doesn't even bother with the paper - just pushes some buttons, and *magically* $4 billion pops out into the system *every day.*

      Nonsense!

      They only create TWO billion a day.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re: How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the clarification. You start making mistakes of a couple billion a day, pretty soon you're talkin about real money.

    3. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      “Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value – zero.” (Voltaire, 1694-1778)

      http://historysquared.com/2012/06/26/fiat-currencies-trend-towards-their-intrinsic-value-often-rather-quickly/

    4. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      pushes some buttons? I would have wrote a script.

    5. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How can the person in charge of printing money be counterfeiting money when they are authorized to print more? Though most of the easing isn't in printed money anyway, right?

    6. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by QuasiSteve · · Score: 1

      Fed doesn't even bother with the paper - just pushes some buttons, and *magically* $4 billion pops out into the system *every day.*

      "The thing is, though.. this sum of money, that amount of money, is just some numbers on a computer. Sort of disappearing or re-appearing, or naughts going.. you know, It must be very tempting, at the point when you realize that, for someone to sneak up to you who goes "Just type it back in". There's no actual stuff. I mean, nothing's caught fire or exploded or sunk or anything. Just a load of wanker-bankers having made stupid bets with each other when they're drunk. No bad thing has happened - it's not like all the pigs in South America suddenly died of blight. It is.. it is just people were juggling with numbers that didn't exist and it got out of hand because they're arseholes, and they've known they're arseholes for ages..." - David Mitchell on the 2008/2009 recession.

      Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    7. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by MickLinux · · Score: 1

      Money is a COMMODITY that is used as a medium of exchange. You do realize that hand-sized pieces of paper are a valuable commodity, don't you? The day you run out, you will eat with only your right hand.

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
    8. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by benzapp · · Score: 1

      You don't seem to understand the word "counterfeit", or even money in general.

      Counterfeit = to make an imitation. In the case of money, it is an imitation of legal tender issued by a sovereignty. It is illogical to suggest that a government can counterfeit money.

      --
      I don't read or respond to AC posts
    9. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize that hand-sized pieces of paper are a valuable commodity, don't you?

      You want the handsized pieces of paper I cut out?

      Also, you could ask "Do you realize..... ?" like a normal human being and not the retarded way the last generation says it.

    10. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by weilawei · · Score: 1

      It is illogical to suggest that a government can counterfeit money.

      It is overbroad to suggest that it is illogical to suggest that a government can counterfeit money. See North Korea vs. United States. Perhaps you meant it's illogical to suggest that a government can counterfeit its own money? Even then, a government might choose to counterfeit their own money (poorly, perhaps) to discredit another nation (false flag attack). That is a contrived scenario, but meant to illustrate your comment was far too broadly stated.

    11. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the economic system we operate under. If you do not like it, then by all means convert all your capital to another currency RIGHT NOW, as they are quickly making your money worthless as you say, and GTFO of the country. Head for a place with whatever the fuck you system you prefer, and be happy. You do not need to fuck everyone else in this country cause you think you are some sort of Einstein of economics. The feds have been 'counterfeiting' for a long time now, and guess what everything was fine. The current economic hardships have very little to do with supply of money, more to do with lack of demand for manual labor.

    12. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Simple, when "the person in charge of printing money" "are authorized" they are not actually in charge, now are they ? They just have to do what someone else says they can do. (funny that, a "person" who "are" authorised ... :-) )

      Just walk the authorisation ladder back to the top, and you find the person* who does the counterfeiting**.

      * chances are you will get lost in "nobody did it, it was decided by committy" swamp though.

      ** You may give it another name, but fact is that its money not balanced by any actual property.

    13. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Why must money be balanced by property? Any property backing it is also arbitrary in value, even if there is some asserted intrinsic value.

    14. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      How can the person in charge of printing money be counterfeiting money when they are authorized to print more?

      Because it's fun to take an overly-simplistic view of a complicated situation and insinuate shenanigans so we can feel smugly superior about it, of course!

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    15. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by jcr · · Score: 1

      It is illogical to suggest that a government can counterfeit money.

      Bullshit. Governments have been counterfeiting money ever since the Romans got the bright idea to pass off bronze slugs as silver dinari, and kill anyone who refused to pretend they were honest coinage.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    16. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why must money be balanced by property?

      I take it you do recognise it must be balanced by *something* ?

      If you don't I'm willing to buy all you have, property and services, in exchange for some I-owe-you tickets (aka "money"), which I than have nothing in return for. :-)

      If you do recognise it than the only thing upto debate is if it must be balanced by actual property or labour (any other item of value I forgot ?).

      The problem is that labour is a promiss into the future and its worth upto debate (sometimes even the cause of further haggling and even disputes). Property is something which worth can be ascertained (and accepted as a payment) *now*.

    17. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      How can the person in charge of printing money be counterfeiting money when they are authorized to print more?

      Because the Federal Reserve Act is in violation of Article 1 Sections 8 and 10 of the US Constitution.

      Though most of the easing isn't in printed money anyway, right?

      At this point, the US Dollar is a digital currency, and the printed bills are just a placeholder for them. They can easily shred a million bills (and do) without reducing the money supply by $1.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    18. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoosh! Perhaps the hand sized pieces of paper are best distributed on a cardboard tube, 6" long.

    19. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Because the Federal Reserve Act is in violation of Article 1 Sections 8 and 10 of the US Constitution.

      So the government isn't allowed to outsource? That makes most anything the governemnt pays someone else to do unconstitutional. I don't think that was the intended meaning. I'd be interested if there were statements from the founders that back your assertion (no, not from the modern government-haters, I'm sure they have plenty to say on the matter).

    20. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I take it you do recognise it must be balanced by *something* ?

      If it wasn't, it would have *no* value, and thus wouldn't be used. At the very least, it's backed by the government forcing you to take it for debts, and requiring it for taxes. That was true with gold, and still is true with paper. Even if the "something" is the commitment of the government, that's still "something".

    21. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by crunchygranola · · Score: 1

      ... ever since the Romans got the bright idea to pass off bronze slugs as silver dinari, and kill anyone who refused to pretend they were honest coinage...

      -jcr

      Which of course did not actually happen.

      The drop in silver content in coins occurred gradually over the course of centuries, with periodic attempts by the government to actually boost the silver content, or set a floor for the drop. One of the key reasons for this was the inadequate supply of silver to circulate. There was a continuous drain of silver to the East (mostly India), plus inevitable losses from circulation (the coins we find today being examples of that) which were not made up by Roman silver mines. Some method of assigning an equal amount of value to a smaller amount of silver could not be avoided.

      The attempts to reform the currency and establish older levels of silver content always quickly failed, the amount of silver not being increased by decree.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
    22. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it wasn't, it would have *no* value, and thus wouldn't be used.

      ...unless forced ofcourse. Which you name in your second sentence.

      That was true with gold, and still is true with paper

      Bull. A gouverment can declare all paper money to be worthless (and in the past have done so a number of times), while stuff like gold keeps its value as its accepted all over the world, even if the imprint on those round slices of gold, silver or platinum indicating a countries valuta doesn't signify anything anymore.

      Even if the "something" is the commitment of the government, that's still "something".

      Again, bull. Its not the gouverments commitment that pays for all that funny money, its *you* that pays for it, by seeing your cash, savings and even your income devalue as there is more money to go around.

    23. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1
      Gold has value for the same reason government paper has value. People assert it does. In the case of a nuclear war, eliminating all industry and electrical generation, iron will be worth 10x gold, or more. In previous times, that's been true. The price for a rock hammer in a gold boom town was more than its weight in gold, because gold was worth something if you walked 2000 miles with it, but the iron could get you more gold.

      Again, bull. Its not the gouverments commitment that pays for all that funny money, its *you* that pays for it, by seeing your cash, savings and even your income devalue as there is more money to go around.

      My income goes up with inflation (not strictly 1:1. but close enough). My savings is not in liquid form, so it's not devaluing. My cash devalues, but I have a single $2 bill as a novelty as my only cash (though some cash equielent in liquid accounts). And anything the government pays for is me paying for it. The "government" isn't a thing, it's an extension of me (and everyone else). The government "owns" nothing. I have a 1/300,000,000 share in everything the government "owns".

    24. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gold has value for the same reason government paper has value. People assert it does.

      ... Which fully ignores the reason *why* they do.

      As you yourself mentioned, people have little choice other than to accept the gouverments valuta. They *hope* that it will keep its value. And guess what, that is where we get back to the start of our thread, the gouverment actions causing the exact opposite.

      My income goes up with inflation (not strictly 1:1. but close enough).

      May I take that as a signal that you are aware that your money devaluates ? The only thing we than need to talk about is the reasons for that devaluation.

      And as far as I'm concerned one of those reasons is adding that funny money into the heap. Unbacked by the gouverment, but defacto directly backed by *you*, even if you have no say in the matter.

      My savings is not in liquid form, so it's not devaluing

      Oh my ... You did convert your money into *property* ? Why ?! :-)

      The government "owns" nothing.

      Actually, the gouverment seems to think its the other way around, and that they own everything, including you and what you think is your private life. ... But thats a fully other debate. :-)

    25. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      May I take that as a signal that you are aware that your money devaluates ? The only thing we than need to talk about is the reasons for that devaluation.

      My money doesn't devaluate. A given amount of my money will devaluate, but the total sum of money, the portion that's "my money" doesn't devaluate.

      I figured that out at about age 12. I saved money ever since, putting myself through college with no debt (making choices like living in a non-air-conditioned dorm in south/central Texas to save money), working the whole time, two jobs every summer and winter. Saved up to buy a house, getting on the housing ladder. Paying as much interest on it as practical to get the large tax deductions. Pay as little tax as possible, earn as much as possible, spend as little as possible. Repeat every year for 30 years, and you can get to where you own enough that inflation won't hurt you either.

    26. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My money doesn't devaluate.

      So, what is that inflation-correction you mentioned a few messages back than all about ? And how can it *not* devaluate whe it gets diluted by the insertion of that funny money ?

      Yes, your *money* devaluates. That is why you, as you mentioned a few mesages back, have choosen to convert it to something less suceptible to inflation.

      And by the way: if you are a part of "the gouverment", and that gouverment backs up that printed funny money, are *you* than not infact backing it up ?

      In other words: The worth of that funny money comes, although you effectivily have no say in it, straight outof your own pocket, not outof the ones deciding the funny money to be printed. They, as you say, do not own a thing ...

      I'm sorry, but you are either stupid, (willignly) ignorant or just plain-out trolling me.

    27. Re:How is this any different from Fed practice? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      So, what is that inflation-correction you mentioned a few messages back than all about ? And how can it *not* devaluate whe it gets diluted by the insertion of that funny money ?

      When you invest your money at a return greater than inflation, $100 of yours from 5 years ago will buy less today, but $100 of yours 5 years ago will buy at least as much today as it would have back then.

      Yes, your *money* devaluates.

      So if I invest $1000 and get an amazing 20% return, my $1200 will buy less than the $1000 I started with? No? Then my *money* didn't devaluate.

      I'm sorry, but you are either stupid, (willignly) ignorant or just plain-out trolling me.

      I'm talking about the ability of a pile of money to buy stuff next year. Not the value of some fixed arbitrary amount of money. Your misunderstanding of my position doesn't make me a troll.

  5. Exactly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The pot calling kettle black. I wish we all could like FED print money instead going to work.

  6. Not in public's interest to help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why would you ever want to check your money too carefully for being fake? You can only guarantee yourself lots of hassle if it turns out to be fake.
    If only there was a digital currency that didn't have this problem... ... for everything else, there's Bitcoin.

    1. Re:Not in public's interest to help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      That's right, if you get stuck with a fake 50, you lose unless you can successfully pawn it off on a small store that doesn't check carefully.

    2. Re:Not in public's interest to help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haha, no. Fuck Bitcoin.

    3. Re: Not in public's interest to help by Oonushi · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin sucks. See stories of millions of stolen bitcoins posted here on Slashdot only weeks ago. Not that its a bad idea outright, just that bitcoin is far from a perfect implementation of a crypo currencey, and fan boys like you keep touting it like the end all be all solution. It is NOT imunne to exploitation and theft.

    4. Re: Not in public's interest to help by blocsync · · Score: 2

      Bitcoin sucks. See stories of millions of stolen bitcoins posted here on Slashdot only weeks ago. Not that its a bad idea outright, just that bitcoin is far from a perfect implementation of a crypo currencey, and fan boys like you keep touting it like the end all be all solution. It is NOT imunne to exploitation and theft.

      Are you seriously trying to blame the currency/protocol for exploitation and theft as though to imply that fiat currency is somehow immune to those things? People who have had bitcoin stolen have done so by leaving themselves vulnerable through things such as poor anti-virus, poor password practices, and general ignorance of scams. This is not a flaw in bitcoin (either the currency or the protocol), it's a lack of education for the end user. This is almost identical to putting a hundred dollar bill (fiat currency) on your front porch while you're at work and wondering what happened to it when you come home.
        I concede that bitcoin has it's downside, but exploitation and theft is something any and every currency form will always be subject to, if your using that as your anti-bitcoin basis, then your point is rather moot.

    5. Re:Not in public's interest to help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only there was a digital currency that didn't have this problem...

      What happens when (not if) someone figures out how to counterfeit them? No crime, and no one to enforce playing by the rules anyway.

    6. Re: Not in public's interest to help by lgw · · Score: 2

      I've never had money stolen out of a bank account. Of course, bitcoins will never be mainstream unless I can have a BTC-denominated savings account and credit card(at which point central banks control the BTC money supply, so why bother?).

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    7. Re: Not in public's interest to help by lxs · · Score: 1

      It isn't the fault of bitcoin's implementation that there are many overconfident clueless geeks offering financial services. Bitch and moan all you want about ev!l banksters but they have a million times more experience of dealing with the perils of online transactions than a handful of basement libertarians ever will.

    8. Re: Not in public's interest to help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never had money stolen out of a bank account. Of course, bitcoins will never be mainstream unless I can have a BTC-denominated savings account and credit card(at which point central banks control the BTC money supply, so why bother?).

      Wow, that just sounds like pure ignorance of the concepts involved. First, people have had money stolen out of bank accounts (maybe not you, but it does happen). Usually the same reasons people have bitcoin stolen (poor or easily acquired passwords). Money can be wired out rather easily. You can absolutely have a BTC "savings account" just set up a wallet for it. You can actually have as many as you'd like with no minimums, no fees, etc.... as for a credit card, who needs it? the app works just like a credit card, scan qr and send bitcoin. Also, no risk of the person you sent money to using your card number in other locations. Also, central banks couldn't control the flow of BTC, not sure where you got that idea from.

    9. Re: Not in public's interest to help by lgw · · Score: 1

      No, my bank will make me whole if I have losses due to fraud (or so they say, anyhow). Just like I like to shop with a credit card for that fraud protection.

      If banks offer BTC savings accounts, then the BTC supply is dominated by fractional-reserve banking, and the government can poke its nose in if it desires.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  7. To be fair... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    US money is basically ordinary paper, just with feces and crack on it. So not the hardest thing to counterfeit.

    1. Re:To be fair... by cheater512 · · Score: 2

      Not true!

      Getting cocaine to rub over the bills to enhance their authenticity requires hanging out in some dodgy neighbourhoods.
      That is what stops me from doing it. :P

    2. Re:To be fair... by c0lo · · Score: 1

      Not true!

      Getting cocaine to rub over the bills to enhance their authenticity requires hanging out in some dodgy neighbourhoods.
      That is what stops me from doing it. :P

      If you don't hang out in these neighborhoods, a sincere good luck in the Muhhamad/mountain dillema (avoiding them coming in and hanging you out).

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    3. Re:To be fair... by DarkOx · · Score: 2

      No it's not ordinary paper it's actually cotton cloth. Actually it's all quite interesting, visiting Crane paper in Dalton Mass is neat afternoon.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  8. Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by flyneye · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you suspect you have government printed currency, you should send it to me, flyneye.
    I will inspect it for bugs, flaws and make sure it works.
    Bulk, no problem, will pay shipping fees or postage for large amounts.
    Be safe, be sure, send your money to flyneye.

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    1. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hello,

      I am a former Nigerian Prince. I require to make you rich, but need your assistance to remove the money (£250 million) from our despotic country. I require your assistance because these monies require to be shipped out of the country. Thank you for your kind offer to ship for us with your postage. Please forward postage in the amount of £5,600 to 9800 Savage Road STE 6248, Ft. George G. Meade, MD 20755-6248, c/o Adbul Alhazred, with a self-addressed envelope to be used to ship the monies to the Untied States. I thank you again for your generous offer of support in this time of crisis.

      Sincerly,

      Abdul Alhazred

    2. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by MickLinux · · Score: 1

      Hello, I am Janet Yeltzin, the current director of the federal reserve. I require to enact quantitative Easingwhich means placing several hundred million dollars in your bank account, with a negative real interest rate, and no specific date of repayment. In exchange for this, you must make comforting noises about loaning it out to others, to stimulate the economy.please forward your bank serial numbers, and the accoount IDs into which you wish each tranche to be placed.
      In case you are wondering about the urgency of our offer, the director of Bank of America can acquaint you with his recommendations, of a most serious nature, having dealt personally with my predecessors.

      Do not forget to sign the accompanying documentation. If you wish to opt out of this most generous offer, a meeting can be arranged to convince you otherwise.

      --
      Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
    3. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by antdude · · Score: 1

      You're a bug though. :P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    4. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by flyneye · · Score: 1

      Im an eye.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    5. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by antdude · · Score: 1

      An eye of a bug. BTW, you should use an apostrophe. ;)

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    6. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you Boris' daughter? Because you should probably have used some of that money to buy him a new liver before he died.

    7. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by clm1970 · · Score: 1

      Hello,

      I am a former Nigerian Prince. I require to make you rich, but need your assistance to remove the money (£250 million) from our despotic country. I require your assistance because these monies require to be shipped out of the country. Thank you for your kind offer to ship for us with your postage. Please forward postage in the amount of £5,600 to 9800 Savage Road STE 6248, Ft. George G. Meade, MD 20755-6248, c/o Adbul Alhazred, with a self-addressed envelope to be used to ship the monies to the Untied States. I thank you again for your generous offer of support in this time of crisis.

      Sincerly,

      Abdul Alhazred

      I call shenanigans. It is not in all CAPS so you can't be a former Nigerian Prince.

    8. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by flyneye · · Score: 1

      , ?! Eye need no steenking s
      I and Eye am flyneye, flyin high am Eye.
      Eye am he and he is Eye. Put the lime in coconut , shove the bug up your butt.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    9. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by antdude · · Score: 1

      Not a comma. An apostrophe. Also, make me! :P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    10. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by flyneye · · Score: 1

      I have no apostrophes, you insensitive bastard. My browser ate them.
      Our magnifying glass will get the truth out of you.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    11. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by antdude · · Score: 1

      Prove it. :P

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    12. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      flyneye-

      I need a LARGE volume of cash checked ad certified. Your offer to pay for shipping is indeed gracious, and I accept. I will ship to you 10 truckloads of cash in small bills, but you will first need to forward $250,000 to a bank account to cover shipping and security in route. Once you make deposit of the funds we will confirm receipt and get the cash loaded for your valuable service.

      Mike Monsuhi
      Nigerian Bank of America

    13. Re:Buddy, Can You Spare a Dolla by flyneye · · Score: 1

      Not a problem, Fed Ex will deliver it to me , freight collect, since I have a long time account with them.
      Just call for pickup...

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  9. Why the Secret Service? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Canada hasn't been annexed quite yet ... I'd be curious to know why yet another American agency operating in yet another 'friendly' country? Even if they were printing American dollars, you'd think the Canadian police could handle a bust within their own borders.

    1. Re:Why the Secret Service? by jonwil · · Score: 1

      Likely the Royal Canadian Mounted Police asked the Secret Service (the experts in dealing with counterfeit US currency) for help with the raid.

  10. Where's the nerd in this? by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Couple of criminals bested by another lot of criminals.

    1. Re:Where's the nerd in this? by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 1

      An article like this brings out the economics nerds, and trading nerds.... with a healthy dose of conspiracy nutjobs.

      --
      READY.
      PRINT ""+-0
    2. Re:Where's the nerd in this? by fermion · · Score: 1
      Counterfeiting has always been a highly technical sport. The right paper, the right inks, the right pressures, the right initiation of countermeasures, all involve chemistry, physics, and application of whatever technologies are available.

      In addition, remember that one of the few scientifically sound principles that predates Galileo was a result of the detection of counterfeiting. The story goes that King Heron wanted to make a crown from a certain amount of pure gold, or a s pure as he could get. The king gave the gold to the person who wold manufacture the crown, and after a while got the crown back. The king, however, suspected that the jeweler had replaced some of the gold with counterfeit material, and asked Archimedes of Syracuse to see if he could figure out if the crown were real or counterfeit. Now, another universal principle is that any thinker worth his or her salt will do his or her best thinking while in the tube, which is what Archimedes did. When his fingers got all wrinkly, he jumped out of the tub, shouted Eureka, which means I have spent too long in the tub, and figured that all gold of equal weight should displace the same amount of water.

      I wonder why kids go to school these days if they are not going to learn anything useful.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    3. Re:Where's the nerd in this? by crunchygranola · · Score: 1

      The very rise of coinage was linked to a technical advance: the availability of the touchstone, which provides a quick non-destructive test for purity that is nominally pretty accurate (accuracy 0.5%).

      Why didn't Archimedes employ touchstone tests? Probably because it assumes the material tested is homogenous, which with the crown was a key point in question.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
  11. Are they embossed? by fred911 · · Score: 1

    The majority of counterfeit bills aren't embossed. It's one of the easiest tips offs. Ink lays on top of genuine bills making them easy to feel the difference.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re:Are they embossed? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Fancy heavy-weight offset printer, so yes. The press is what enables that difference, and this is one of those presses. Who gets to even buy these presses if quite tightly controlled. The fact that authorities spent years looking for it meant that its purchase was very carefully done and it was probably disassembled and moved after initial delivery. A difficult and expensive operation, but presumably the years it was in operation paid for it.

    2. Re:Are they embossed? by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Who gets to even buy these presses if quite tightly controlled.

      Are you talking about Canada or the USA?

      To a naive person (me), it would seem that (in the USA) controlling who can buy a printing press would fall foul of the First Amendment. Tracking I can see, but controlling? It looks like the top of a very slipperly slope, since one could find an illegal use for just about any type of press.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    3. Re:Are they embossed? by Hunter-Killer · · Score: 1

      The process is called intaglio.

    4. Re:Are they embossed? by lgw · · Score: 2

      A very special type of press is needed for a convincing fake. Good paper money is printed with an 8-color press, which are really only used to print currency and Magic cards. Dunno if the seized press used the same process, or they were just clever in some way. In any case, the secret service probably keeps track of the few presses capable of printing convincing fakes.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    5. Re:Are they embossed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who gets to even buy these presses if quite tightly controlled.

      Offset printing is a very old technology with millions of presses produced and many of those still in existence and most of them neither tracked nor otherwise unaccounted for. It would be like trying to ban guns, what do you do about all of the millions already in unregistered circulation? In both cases, that ship has long since sailed.

    6. Re:Are they embossed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strictly speaking, you don't need a GOOD press, but that would have to be made up in terms of skill, time, and increased error rate. Given sufficient skill in the art and time, you could probably counterfeit the major features people check, with household items, including the intaglio portions, along with faked security strips, fake holograms, fake red/blue fibers. Color changing ink isn't a new thing, either. It wouldn't even necessarily be expensive (in terms of a single note), but where presses come in is use by professional counterfeiters, who need to produce a large volume cheaply (an entirely different ballgame). Laserjet printed notes still get passed, ffs.

    7. Re:Are they embossed? by Artifakt · · Score: 1

      What's spooky is, if they really only printed 40 M to 200 M in bills in that time, their start up costs probably come to a significant fraction of total profits, and if they had been caught only two or three months into the operation, they could have actually taken a loss.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    8. Re:Are they embossed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To a naive person (me), it would seem that (in the USA) controlling who can buy a printing press would fall foul of the First Amendment.

      Only by a very literal judge.

      The ability to communicate your ideas does not depend on access to one particular press, and the whole point of the First Amendment is about expression, and even that is limited, which is why we have things like copyright and fraud laws.

      It looks like the top of a very slipperly slope, since one could find an illegal use for just about any type of press.

      With all the worries about a slippery slope, some people would have any law banned from existence out of such fears.

      That hasn't happened yet.

    9. Re:Are they embossed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The picture shows a Heidelberg GTO-46. Plain old school offset press.
      Just like this one:
      http://www.ebay.com/itm/HEIDEL...
      One color. So multiple passes are required for full color.
      Does not emboss.

    10. Re:Are they embossed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a decent press is $10k. well within bitcoin mining operations.

    11. Re:Are they embossed? by weilawei · · Score: 2

      Embossing alters the surface of the paper, while intaglio deposits ink on the surface. They can be used to achieve similar effects, but they are NOT the same process. One results in a non-flat surface stock, inks later used being irrelevant to the process in general, and the other results in a flat stock with a layer of ink sitting atop the flat stock.

    12. Re:Are they embossed? by dryeo · · Score: 1

      The First Amendment is just a guideline, look at the various decisions of the Supreme Court over the years. If the courts took the First seriously your country or Constitution would be much different. Even having a standing army would be next impossible as the UMC is a law passed by Congress which limits soldiers rights to talk back to officers amongst other things such as national security.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    13. Re:Are they embossed? by weilawei · · Score: 1

      This idea that our Constitutiont is "just a guideline" has led to much of this mess, with secret courts and secret laws, often in direct contravention to the text of our Highest Law of the Land in the Land Ruled By Law (supposedly). The Constitution is NOT a suggestion. It is THE LAW. Full stop, period, bar none. (except physics, which is still just a model of the *real* laws, but I digress.)

      The criminals are those who, instead of amending the Constitution by the mechanism built into it, claim an interpretation of it, and then another interpretation on top of that, until, after a serious game of Telephone, we wind up with the aforementioned secret laws and courts. If the literal meaning of the Constitution doesn't work for our society, AMEND IT.

    14. Re:Are they embossed? by dryeo · · Score: 1

      I agree which is why I said a different (meaning amended) Constitution. India for example has IIRC hundreds of amendments to its constitution. America couldn't even be bothered to do an easy one like making the Air Force constitutional.
      Part of the problem (especially here in Canada) is the fear of opening a can of worms.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    15. Re:Are they embossed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can see the color/registration test strips printed beside the image of the notes on the paper in the images. There are only 4 colors, and none of them is green, it's just plain old CMYK. I'm really surprised that they could allegedly make "indistinguishable" fakes with that.

      http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/qc/images/nouv-news/com-rel/2014/01/140131/photo3-hr.jpg

  12. It's a plot by TheRecklessWanderer · · Score: 1

    Quebec has been trying to separate from Canada for years. This is part of their master plan to print their own currency.

    --
    Mean what you say...say what you mean.
  13. Since US currency is "faith based"... by Nutria · · Score: 1

    what's wrong with the odd counterfeiter making high quality fakes, just as long as we all (not just we in the US, but everywhere that US currency is circulated) share in the mutual hallucination?

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.
      I never understood the problem.
      The government could just print a couple million less for one day, and it would offset everything.

    2. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      what's wrong with the odd counterfeiter making high quality fakes, just as long as we all (not just we in the US, but everywhere that US currency is circulated) share in the mutual hallucination?

      Nothing is wrong with it unless you want your pieces of paper to actually be considered worth anything.

    3. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the US won't take the other production of dollars as valid, thus taking the faith and credit part out of it.

      I'm willing to honor my promises. I'm not willing to honor your promises which you say are mine.

    4. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because the game is all about who gets to have the money, not how good the money is. If counterfeiting were legal, peons could print their way to financial independence, and we can't be havin' with that. Any mechanism by which large numbers of the population can escape from debt will be carefully stamped out, no matter what it is. Counterfeit printing is only one of many victims of this policy.

    5. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by DaHat · · Score: 1

      Like most of lawful killing and other acts violence, wiretapping, extortion, currency printing, and a multitude of other areas... the government has granted themselves a near monopoly on such things.

    6. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Nutria · · Score: 1

      I'm willing to honor my promises.

      Promise to do what? It's not a commodity-based currency, so it's not as if anyone will be walking up to a bank and demanding gold for their dollars.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    7. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Artifakt · · Score: 1

      The crooks printed more than a couple of million dollars worth. Still, the government could print $40 million to $200 million less in total for the year, and if they got that number near enough to what the criminals actually printed, then the crime has actually done no damage to the financial system, not contributed to inflation risk, and actually saved the US government some operating costs.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    8. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I expected a circlejerk like this since there is a story having to do with money and this is slashdot. Expectations met.

    9. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The current promise is to accept them as payment. and in some cases, compel others to do so.

    10. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by fermion · · Score: 1
      It is amazing the number of people who do not believe in free market capitalism. What many haters of the US want is a zero sum game where our purchasing power cannot increase with productivity. In this zero sum philosophy, growth can only occur with the seizing, or more efficient use of land, and the seizing of precious metal. Clearly in a world were a person can make a living by posting videos or books, i.e. creating no physical product at all, this philosophy is incompatible with a vibrant economy where everyone is expected to support themselves. In fact, mot printing money is only compatible with a control economy in which the government has to insure there is minimum capital so that the people do not get uppity.

      The innovation of the US is the realization that prosperity is not dependent on limited zero sum resources. That we do not have to have a command economy where resources are divided equally between the people, because to some extent through technology those resources are not as limited as we think. Now, the people who are afraid of economic growth, who have already achieved a standard of living and are afraid that others may achieve an equal standard, those are the people who push a zero sum economy. They are afraid of borrowing. They are afraid of expanding the money supply to match the economy. They are afraid of innovation.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    11. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the money supply and printing of it weren't controlled, then money would have no value whatsoever. You would get weird things like "what's the exchange rate of a Bob-dollar to an Earl-dollar" or "crap, Bob died, now all his dollars are worthless". Money is simply a value proxy (for goods, services, labor, whatever) - but if you had an unlimited supply of that value proxy, it wouldn't hold value.

      So damn am I happy that counterfeiting is illegal, or I'd have to be working for gold, or water, or somesuch silliness

    12. Re:Since US currency is "faith based"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How terribly narrow-minded this comment is...
      Just because you don't fully subscribe to communism, doesn't mean that you absolutely _have_ to sell your parents for spare organs once their net profit appears negative.
      Likewise, just because you think free market capitalism is inherently flawed and doesn't correspond to the nature of a human being doesn't mean that you want purchasing power to be capped by productivity, or that wealth should be a zero sum game, or any of the other nonsense you have written.

      captcha: topical

  14. Someone actually is using a printing press? by mendax · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When I first read this story I was amazed to read that someone was still using a printing press to print phony money. I thought only the North Koreans did that because their fakes are printed using the intaglio printing method, the same one used by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing to print American money. You're not going to get that from an offset press.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    1. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're not going to get that from an offset press.

      No, but you'd be surprised how many Americans don't know even the basic security features of their money. Indeed, if a bill looks and feels right at a first glance, few enough will question its authenticity and the counterfeiters rely upon this fact. It also doesn't help that the most common counterfeit detection method employed by small businesses, the currency marker pen, is easily defeated with the right sort of non-banknote paper and some dried hairspray. This is common knowledge now, at least online and among the counterfeiters, even if does still catch some of the less sophisticated fakes. As a business owner myself, I would say that the biggest tip off that a note is fake is the lack of red and blue silk threads embedded in the paper. You'd think that this would be an easy feature to replicate, but most counterfeits don't seem to have them, probably because the supply of real banknote paper is tightly controlled and silk threads must be mixed in before the paper is laid out and dried to achieve the right effect. The second biggest tip off is the watermark, although TFA states that there was some attempt made at a watermark in this case. If the watermark is missing or looks bad then the bill is probably fake, ditto for the security strip. My advice would be to check for the threads, watermark and security strip in that order instead of relying solely upon the pen, but hey it's your money.

    2. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there's not need to bother with watermarks, holograms, embedded strips.
      usa honors old style bills made in the 80's which have almost no security features.
      all you need is a good paper with colored fibers in it, good quality ink, and intaglio press.
      make your dies with laser scanning, cnc/3d printing.

    3. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not just in the States. Here in Canada the pre-polymer bills had thick golden stripes embedded in them. The fake ones don't have these stripes. Super-easy to spot right? Yet I've been given fake bills by shops, and even friends, and I've passed them back to other shops. I check when I remember, but sometimes I'm in a hurry and distracted and forget to check until too late, and I'm sure the cashiers at the shops are the same.

      Security features are useful when we're paying attention, most of the time we're not.

    4. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What incentive do people have to report a counterfeit twenty? They have to take it somewhere (burn time and fuel), turn it in (lose 20 bucks), and fill out paperwork (lose more time).

      If they don't bother to check at all, then they can still use that twenty with a clear conscience and on the right side of the law.

      It is completely one sided. Only a fool would do anything more than a cursory glance before literally passing the buck.

    5. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

      Yet nobody is going to bust the North Koreans. Defeat their military is so easy that it should be a privately funded effort. Apple or Google will have enough cash to form a private military that can annex NK within a week and turn it into a first single corporate-run nation-state.

    6. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple or Google will have enough cash to form a private military that can annex NK within a week and turn it into a first single corporate-run nation-state.

      There's no profit in nation building, at least not for those of us footing the bill, just ask the US taxpayer.

    7. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the current bills the security strips fluoresce under UV light.
      I don't know why they don't make cash drawers with black lights in them.

    8. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you count reserve troops North Korea has the largest army in the world. They have a huge supply of missiles pointed at our allies in South Korea (with the second-largest army in the world). The entire nation is like a giant military base.

      While North Korea's technology is antiquated, Global Fire Power still ranks them 29th in the world. They rank higher than Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and many other nations. What did it take for the US to invade Iraq and Afghanistan? How successful was it?

    9. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      If you count reserve troops North Korea has the largest army in the world.

      Does that include China's army? That's their fallback source of power.

    10. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      If you count reserve troops North Korea has the largest army in the world.

      Does that include China's army? That's their fallback source of power.

      I doubt China is all that interested in getting shot up over NK. They of course don't want the US to invade and be sitting on their border, and they don't want the refugees. However, they really don't care all that much about NK aside from the fact that they give the US a headache from time to time.

      China is mostly interested in the status quo. The last thing they want is NK firing off nuclear missiles, and they probably don't care for NK to even have them since if things change down the road those missiles will be far more effectively used against China than the US (half a world away, and with the technology to intercept them).

    11. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously don't give those two companies ideas.

    12. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by RoTNCoRE · · Score: 1

      The real danger is the refugee flow, which would be very destabilizing for the whole region. You do not want a war in North Korea, and NEVER trust anyone who tells you a war will be over in a matter of weeks and will change the government structure seamlessly. You should know how that went last time.

    13. Re:Someone actually is using a printing press? by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      The only way to change the government of any country seamlessly over the course of weeks is to exterminate the entire local population, and doing that in a matter of weeks is a challenge. Obviously that isn't going to happen...

  15. Its cotton cloth, not paper by Marrow · · Score: 1

    They just call it paper. The other stuff is open for discussion.

  16. undetectable to the naked eye by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And ultimately, that is all you really need to do. Fool the guy at the store counter, which isn't all that hard.

    Once it gets back to the bank and is detected, you are long gone.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Once it gets back to the bank and is detected, you are long gone.

      Hahahahahaha detected at the bank hahahahaha.

      People get counterfeit twenties out of ATMs all the time.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes because someone printing 40-200million dollars is going to pass it off by hand.

      One bill at a time.

    3. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't mean they weren't detected

    4. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People get counterfeit twenties out of ATMs all the time.

      Really? Where are you banking, First Bank of Nigeria? Every US bank branch that I've ever been in has those special currency counting machines with built in counterfeit detection. These machines are built with the benefit of inside knowledge from US Government sources concerning additional non public security features in US banknotes designed to help weed out counterfeits. You did know that those existed, right? Supposedly, this was how the North Korean super notes got caught when they started showing up in the United States, even though they were Intaglio printed and mimicked all publicly known security features with excellent accuracy. No bank puts cash into the teller drawers or the ATMs or accepts it from the public without first running it through the machines, both to count it and weed out counterfeits. Any small business owner will tell you that it's usually the bank that informs you that your deposit was short due to counterfeit notes.

    5. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by asmkm22 · · Score: 1

      Counterfeit money like this isn't used to buy a soda at a gas station. They produce it in bulk and it generally gets used overseas in currency exchanges, where they ultimately launder the fake stuff into real stuff.

      *then* they go buy a soda at a gas station.

    6. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by ragethehotey · · Score: 1

      Counterfeit money like this isn't used to buy a soda at a gas station. They produce it in bulk and it generally gets used overseas in currency exchanges, where they ultimately launder the fake stuff into real stuff.

      *then* they go buy a soda at a gas station.

      maybe this happens on a one-off basis with some extremely under the radar places, but this would be an insane method to attempt to unload any more than a hundred thousand.

      as the marginal cost for fake money is almost zero, they are likely converting into tangible goods that can be resold for clean money.

      a team could easily buy $250k worth of precious metals / high end electronics at flea markets or craigslist in a weekend in NYC

    7. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by n4djs · · Score: 1

      Actually, fake US money is easily detected by the naked eye by several methods, the easiest being the color shift inks on the numbers (when you tip the bill along the long axis, it changes color). Try it...

    8. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by asmkm22 · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but this printing press sounds like it was unloading a lot more money than that. North Korea is probably the best example of how to launder it the way I mentioned, and the risk is pretty low as long as you stay away from major countries. A few well-placed bribes and some homework into countries with poor law enforcement or corrupt officials, and you could easily turn 20 million in counterfeit bills into 10 million legit ones.

    9. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      a team could easily buy $250k worth of precious metals / high end electronics at flea markets or craigslist in a weekend in NYC

      Yeah, but could that be sustained? So you hand out $1M in $20 bills and send 10 guys out shopping for computers and cameras and junk. Now you have a warehouse full of consumer stuff in boxes. Now you have to open up an ebay store just to unload all of it, and you've made $200k. Are you going to repeat next weekend? Will the guy at the camera store get suspicious when some kid comes in every weekend to buy every camera for sale with a stack of $20s? Will the Secret Service not notice $200k/week in counterfeit currency showing up in NYC? And just how many cameras do you think you can actually sell on eBay unless you deeply discount them? If you do deeply discount them, won't that get noticed (or avoided by consumers expecting a scam)?

      This press was turning out hundreds of millions of dollars. It isn't that easy to go buying stuff with that kind of volume of cash without hiring an army of accomplices. If you hire an army of accomplices you have to give them all a cut, and some are going to be stupid and get caught.

      About the only people who do business in that kind of volume of cash are drug dealers and bankers. You really don't want to mess with the first, and I'd think the second would be smarter than to accept huge volumes of counterfeit money unless this is like oil futures where a barrel of oil gets sold 47 times while the tanker is still on its way across the Atlantic.

    10. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually most stores have banknote checking terminals these days, atleast around here. But for a criminal store clerk is not who needs to be fooled, the need to fool other criminals to buy drugs guns or whatnot with counter freight cash. Eventually it trickles down to legal economy, but that's usually far removed from the printing press.

    11. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by crunchygranola · · Score: 1

      ... It isn't that easy to go buying stuff with that kind of volume of cash without hiring an army of accomplices...

      This is basically like a drug empire. Drug empires exist because there is an army of foot-soldiers making small illegal financial transactions (sales in this case), collecting real currency in small amounts. With counterfeit currency there is also an army of foot-soldiers making small illegal financial transactions - passing of phony money for tangible assets or real currency.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
    12. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      True, and one way you could outsource is to just print a ton of money and fence it. I give you $100 in counterfeit bills, and you hand me $50 in real ones. You don't have to worry about making counterfeits, and I don't worry about how to get rid of it.

      The problem is that that press is a big expensive single point of failure. I can run a drug empire that involves lots of people cooking meth in their kitchens or whatever. If the cops bust one no big deal. On the other hand, if I had to smuggle some press that costs $10M and weighs 10 tons then if the cops grab it that puts me out of business. It sounds like these presses aren't just expensive, but they're monitored.

      Perhaps some set of circumstances allowed a counterfeiter to get their hands on one untraced, but that doesn't mean that it could be reproduced. I heard a story passed down in college about a jar of morphine that was discovered in a basement somewhere that predated the regulation of narcotics. It probably had a huge street value (commercially prepared, high purity, probably well-preserved). They ended up quietly destroying it so that they could avoid dealing with the mountain of paperwork and questions about how it got missed. However, if they sold it they might have made quite a bit of money. That doesn't mean that they could turn that into a business model - there wasn't some bottomless basement full of magical morphine jars that they could mine.

    13. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by nurb432 · · Score: 1

      On a new bill, perhaps. Not hard to fake, but yes i agree its an extra piece to replicate.

      On an old bill? Not so much, and how many people refuse the old bills? Not many, as its still legal tender.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    14. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Really? Where are you banking, First Bank of Nigeria?

      It's called Northern California. Carry your own counterfeit-detection pen.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    15. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by ragethehotey · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but could that be sustained? So you hand out $1M in $20 bills and send 10 guys out shopping for computers and cameras and junk. Now you have a warehouse full of consumer stuff in boxes. Now you have to open up an ebay store just to unload all of it, and you've made $200k. Are you going to repeat next weekend?

      one kilogram of gold that would literally fit in your pocket is worth upwards of $40,000 at current market price

      my point is that the most important thing for the criminals is actually getting away with the crime, not getting the highest value possible for the money

    16. Re:undetectable to the naked eye by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      one kilogram of gold that would literally fit in your pocket is worth upwards of $40,000 at current market price..my point is that the most important thing for the criminals is actually getting away with the crime, not getting the highest value possible for the money

      And where are they going to get a kilogram of gold? Do you walk up to the local gold bar merchant and hand them a briefcase full of counterfeit bills and hope that they won't check them carefully? There can't be that many of these merchants out there either, so once your bills start hitting the bank the Feds will know where they are coming from and will track you down, with lots of help from the gold bar merchants that you ripped off. Plus, $40k is only 400x $100 bills - I doubt they smuggled and assembled a $1M press to print $40k in currency.

      My point was that spending counterfeit money at this scale isn't easy. You can't just walk into the bank with $100M in $100 bills and tell them that you'd like to trade them for new ones.

  17. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  18. learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now if we could just stop our government from printing themselves money.

    Why?

    When interest rates are at 0%, and the politicians can't be bother inducing demand via stimulus spending/fiscal policy, the only way left to get the economy going is monetary policy. The Japanese have had 0% interest rates for decades, and have printed money a lot as well, and they've had deflation.

    In science you pick the model which makes accurate predictions. The Austrians, gold bugs, and folks from the Chicago school of thought have been yammering on about inflation for years. The Keynesians (IS-LM folks) have been saying it won't/isn't because of the circumstances we're in. Who has been right? Which model has turned out correct over the last five years?

    Of course that doesn't mean you can print money whenever you want, just in particular circumstances (which the US happens to be in):

    Running deficits and printing lots of money are inflationary and bad in economies that are constrained by limited supply; they are good things when the problem is persistently inadequate demand. Similarly, unemployment benefits probably lead to lower employment in a supply-constrained economy; they increase employment in a demand-constrained economy; and so on.

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/macroeconomic-populism-returns/

    They Keynesians have been correctly predicting things. Their model works. By this point, if you're scientifically minded you, should be dropping other models as their predictions were wrong.

    1. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're quoting Krugman? Fuck off. That guy is a menace to the economy. Are you really saying that the Keynesians have correctly been predicting a shitty economy with little hope for the future? Like they planned this whole mess?

    2. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you were truly scientifically-minded you would realize that both the Keynesian and Austrians get it right less than 30% of the time each.

    3. Re:learn proper economics please by weilawei · · Score: 1

      At least my coin flip gets it right 50% of the time. If they have negative predictive power, does that mean we can simply invert all their predictions and be right 70% of the time? snerk... ;)

    4. Re:learn proper economics please by MMC+Monster · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry that people died during the 9/11 attacks. Doesn't mean that I had any role to play in causing the attacks.

      Don't hate Krugman for making predictions when they come true. He's just following the Keynesian model and letting us know where that puts us.

      He's also one that will admit to being wrong, which is better than a lot of other economic bloggers out there.

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    5. Re:learn proper economics please by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know if being able to diagnose a disease means you know how to cure it.

      If we're all Keynesians, why aren't we all breaking windows to improve the economy? The theory is utterly stupid EVEN IN THEORY, much less in application.

      Increasing money supply doesn't magically make people want to consume, all it really does is threaten blackmail to people "stupid" enough to try to save money.

      Keynes vs Hayek rap battle:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... "Fear the Boom and Bust"
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... "Fight of the Century"

      Keynes was, like Freud, a brilliant man whose observations are seminal to our understanding of his field, but who was in many ways overwhelmingly wrong.

      I'll take Adam Smith, Frederic Bastiat, and ultimately Friedrich Hayek over JMK, thanks

      --
      -Styopa
    6. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You linked to Krugman, thus losing the argument. Krugman is a hack. And he's not even a macroeconomist.

    7. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is a better test of usefulness:
      A) Offer multiple currencies with different macroeconomic models, and see which becomes more popular
      B) Take complete control, arrest everyone who tries to issue an alternative, and then analyze what's left of the data. The organizations who decide if these analyses are good shall receive a large portion of their funding from the entity which prints money.

      Since Keynes was right all along, how are these 15 hour work weeks treating you? It's not like the majority of this growth has been devoured by the 1%, right?

    8. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These people want deflation and social collapse. They're convinced if the government falls apart they'll end up on top. What they don't realize is they'll end up on top of a pile of shit. It's better to be a peon in a healthy society than top dog of a failed one.

    9. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      False dilemma. There are many other possible outcomes.

    10. Re:learn proper economics please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is your world filled with comic book villains stressful (because there's so many) or relaxing (because they're all so transparent)?

    11. Re:learn proper economics please by Rumeal · · Score: 1

      If we're all Keynesians, why aren't we all breaking windows to improve the economy?

      Wouldn't that make for quite a bit of work for glass and vinyl companies, window manufacturers, installers, sales people, insurance claims workers, etc.? It wouldn't be very useful, compared to the option of not breaking those windows and finding something better to have those people do, but I don't see how it wouldn't improve employment opportunities. Quite a lot of people would now be working usefully if they could find someone to hire them, and quite a lot of employers would increase their employees if they had more sales.

      Increasing money supply doesn't magically make people want to consume[...]

      Really? How many people would choose to finally replace that old refrigerator if they had a sudden windfall of hundreds of dollars? How many would take the family out to a restaurant or ice cream shop if an extra $50 came their way? How many would decide to replace that car if they got a higher-paying job (or a job at all)? How many would buy/hire...? If you don't believe those numbers would be very large, I think the people you are talking with are very different from those I have met. Getting money to people may be a challenge, but their rate of spending once received is just a balance between their desire to save (or pay down debt) and their desire to spend. With so much debt incurred over past decades, we are unfortunately facing a general trend toward paying off debt when unemployment is high, rather than when times are good.

      I'll take Adam Smith, Frederic Bastiat, and ultimately Friedrich Hayek over JMK, thanks

      I don't know Bastiat, but despite the many attempts to persuade me otherwise, I fail to see how Hayek's work proscribes any action useful in our current economic situation.

    12. Re:learn proper economics please by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      "I fail to see how Hayek's work proscribes any action useful in our current economic situation."

      And this tends to be the most persistent critique of Hayek.
      "I don't like Hayek, because he doesn't tell us what to do to fix this."

      The fact is, in real life, sometimes the best course IS to do nothing, and let matters take their course. Meddling isn't always useful. In fact, sometimes doing ANYTHING is worse than doing nothing.

      I heard anecdotally that in "lost in the wilderness" situation, children often survive where adults don't, as children KNOW they're powerless to accomplish anything, so they will simply curl up and wait where they are. Adults, on the other hand, feel compelled to "do something" usually involving moving around, making them harder for rescuers to find.

      Unless you live in a Hollywood movie (or are a Keynesian, apparently), saying "well, there MUST be a solution" is not necessarily true.

      --
      -Styopa
  19. Get the name right by LinuxFan · · Score: 1

    They are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and are the equivalent of the Federal Investigation Bureau in the U.S.

    1. Re:Get the name right by dryeo · · Score: 1

      They're also my municipal and provincial police force so they're more then just the equivalent of the FBI.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  20. Where's Perry, eh? by waynemcdougall · · Score: 1

    So someone is trying to take over le Trois-Rivières area? with a counterfeitprinterantor, eh?

    Did anyone spot an ornithorynque wearing a fedora and assisting the Mounties?

    --
    Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
    1. Re:Where's Perry, eh? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      Did anyone spot an ornithorynque...

      And I thought platypus was a screwy word... I'd never seen their genus name before.

      But you should remember that no one other than two handlers and our villain knows of Perry's efforts to thwart him. So of course no one spotted him on this raid.

  21. BTC and money creation policy by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    at which point central banks control the BTC money supply, so why bother?

    In that world, someone running bitcoin running software needs to be illegal, but that law preventing uncontrolled money creation would be impossible to enforce.

    This is the biggest problem with crypto currencies IMO: money creation policy should be a political question, not a technical one.

    1. Re:BTC and money creation policy by lgw · · Score: 1

      As soon as you have BTC savings accounts, then the BTC supply is dominated by fractional-reserve banking. I don't know why people think that limiting the supply of the "physical" currency is important - it's just not.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  22. faking crypto currency by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    What happens when (not if) someone figures out how to counterfeit [a crypto currency]?

    It may be already the case, who knows?

  23. The Secret Service Grew Suspicious. . . by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

    "I mean, we can all agree that Timothy Geithner was a cartoon character, and Jack Lew looks like he fell out of a comic book, but signing the notes 'Cerebus the Aardvark' was quite a provocation," stated U.S. Government Spokesman Wile E. Coyote.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  24. Re:Intaglio? by weilawei · · Score: 2

    Intaglio does NOT engrave the NOTE. With intaglio, the PLATE is etched, and the ink deposited into the depressed/etched areas. The PAPER is then laid over it, and a roller is used to make contact between the paper and the upper surface of the ink. The paper pulls the ink away from the plate, leaving a raised layer of ink on the paper. You may perhaps be thinking of embossing or debossing, where the surface of the paper itself is altered.

  25. Whence the paper? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The paper is highly specialized. How did the obtain vast quantities of it, and from whom? Therein lies the tale.

  26. R G B threads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, US currency is an anachronism is the era of plastic banknotes,etc.

    But the killer app of US banknotes (as long as I've been alive) is the wee teeny threads of red and green (and maybe blue?) that are randomly interspersed in the paper medium.

    That is *extremely* hard to replicate. Did these quebec faux-banknotes have that? I suspect not.

    As a nightclub owner for the past 20 years, I've personally examined every $100 note that's passed thru my venue. It does take a minute to locate those threads; longer to be sure of their absence. If you verify those threads (around .6cm length, curved, on average) it's unprecedented that this individual banknote is counterfeit.

    w

  27. Re:How they were detected (1) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does a state (or country) have to do to get a laugh around here?
    Todd Akin and Claire McCaskill aren't anymore?

  28. Damn Canadians! by morgauxo · · Score: 1

    Can't you at least let one thing continue to be manufactured down here?!?!?

  29. Re:Intaglio? by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

    I did not realize there was such a thing as pedantry of counterfeiting. I stand corrected, hats off to you good sir or madam.

  30. "uttering counterfeit money"? by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

    ...indicted on a variety of charges, including possession of counterfeit money, making counterfeit money and uttering counterfeit money

    .
    Just saying the words "counterfeit money" is illegal?

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
    1. Re:"uttering counterfeit money"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Utter means to put into circulation.

    2. Re:"uttering counterfeit money"? by weilawei · · Score: 1

      Legal definitions aside (IANAL): Speech is money. War is peace. Love is hate. Ignorance is strength. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

    3. Re:"uttering counterfeit money"? by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      Legal definition of uttering is to publish, offer, or put into circulation. So saying "counterfeit money" isn't legal, but presenting a counterfeit note is. That presentation is the uttering.

  31. Of course they will. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our reserve bank and note printing arm is well known for it's ability to bribe, even the those that have unlimited supply of money.

    http://www.afr.com/p/national/probe_sought_on_new_rba_bribe_scandal_mVt5dvqtnWuNl8M4i7kmhM

  32. Whats the difference? by hackus · · Score: 1

    What is the difference if you print it in your basement and give it to your friends, or the Federal Reserve giving it to their cronies?

    Oh I know, competition is a sin.

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
  33. Wrong, wrong... wrong again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How is this marked insightful when all the points made are the exact opposite of reality?

    1. Comparing the American recovery to Europe is like asking who makes the best gourmet dinner - McDonald's or Burger King. The American recovery has been the weakest, slowest recovery of any recession in the post war era, while having the greatest Government intervention. Hmmm

    2. Japan has a 4.5% unemployment rate and among the highest standard of living in the world, can you tell me just what problem they are trying to solve?

    And they "started growing almost immediately after the central bank and the government decided to be 'irresponsible". Why is their trade deficit exploding if they are "growing" so rapidly. I will bet you any amount of money the unemployment rate rises now that QE has started in earnest in Japan.

    3. China - Its called "The low hanging (economic) fruit"

    4. "Inflation hurts 1%-ers". I just about fell off my chair laughing. Yes tell that to all the 1%-ers crying about their prime-real estate exploding in price, along with their stock portfolios. As someone working hard to become a 1%-er, I consider inflation my BEST FRIEND.

    Inflation transfers real wealth from workers, to the owners of capital. Asset and consumer prices go up, wages don't. The top 10% own ~80% of the capital stock, therefore inflation transfers wealth from the poor to the rich.

    1. Re:Wrong, wrong... wrong again... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      How is this marked insightful when all the points made are the exact opposite of reality?

      Because it fellates the power class with their woo-woo economics. He champions the ruin of local economies by calling a net transfer of wealth to Wall Street "putting the money to work" (as if local business loans by local banks was *a bad thing*) and makes the base assumption that wages keep up with inflation while ignoring massive unemployment, probably by using politically-manipulated data.

      Because, everybody knows the big banks are the ones who are hurting in this crisis! Give me a break. Obvious shill is obvious.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:Wrong, wrong... wrong again... by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      And you're proposing using poor people to feed animals, right? Or maybe return to slavery? In short, stop making strawmen.

    3. Re:Wrong, wrong... wrong again... by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      2. Japan has a 4.5% unemployment rate and among the highest standard of living in the world, can you tell me just what problem they are trying to solve?

      Slow destruction of society? Like near 2% of people completely withdrawing from life ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... )? Raw unemployment numbers don't mean much in isolation.

      3. China - Its called "The low hanging (economic) fruit"

      And it negates anything I've stated?

      And they "started growing almost immediately after the central bank and the government decided to be 'irresponsible". Why is their trade deficit exploding if they are "growing" so rapidly. I will bet you any amount of money the unemployment rate rises now that QE has started in earnest in Japan.

      Trade deficit has no direct relation to economic growth. It's perfectly possible to have a stable growth and sizable deficits.

      4. "Inflation hurts 1%-ers". I just about fell off my chair laughing. Yes tell that to all the 1%-ers crying about their prime-real estate exploding in price, along with their stock portfolios. As someone working hard to become a 1%-er, I consider inflation my BEST FRIEND.

      And?

      Inflation transfers real wealth from workers, to the owners of capital. Asset and consumer prices go up, wages don't. The top 10% own ~80% of the capital stock, therefore inflation transfers wealth from the poor to the rich.

      How? What's the mechanism?

    4. Re:Wrong, wrong... wrong again... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1


      And you're proposing using poor people to feed animals, right? Or maybe return to slavery? In short, stop making strawmen.

      The irony - it burns.

      But, if you must know, I believe people can organize much better in small units, because perfect information is a myth of conceit, and nobody can plan the economy of an entire world, or even 10% of a world without causing disastrous outcomes (though usually only for people who "don't matter").

      It's too bad we can't power the economy with hubris, though - there's plenty of that in the seats of power.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  34. US notes are garbage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nobody should accept them anymore. There are way more fake ones in circulation than anyone can even imagine. Hundreds of trillions more.

  35. The US Fed Reserve prints to bail out the banks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An earlier post had:
    "They Keynesians have been correctly predicting things. Their model works. By this point, if you're scientifically minded you, should be dropping other models as their predictions were wrong."
    That is a pathetic statement..... how many "Keynesians" correctly predicted the crash of 2008?

    All the Keynesians have done is DELAY the inevitable collapse of the USA.
    By DELAYING the collapse, it will only make the collapse worse.
    One day the Chinese will stop accepting the US Dollar..... when that happens the USA will collapse.

    The US Federal Reserve exists to give easy money and easy profits to the owners of the US Federal Reserve... the banks "own" the US Fed Reserve, not the people of the USA. Eventually their scheme will collapse, destroying the USA in the process.

  36. Mind the gap by dbIII · · Score: 1

    but don't kid yourself that it had any lasting effect on the economy as a whole

    If it avoided a lot of expensive layoffs, expensive rehiring, and "wastage" of people that decided to never work again after such a shock then it had a lasting effect on the economy. That's apparently what it was supposed to do. Whether it actually did it or whether those jobs would not have vanished without it is a matter of speculation.

    A couple of months with no sales is more than a lot of places can deal with. If there was a gap then plenty would have fallen in with no chance of getting out again.

  37. It's quite possible for a government to counterfei by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    E.g., as in the case of the North Korean government (allegedly) counterfeiting U.S. currency. Perhaps you meant to say that it is illogical for a government to counterfeit its OWN money?

  38. Copyright infringement by nbritton · · Score: 1

    Since the federal reserve is a private institution, wouldn't printing new bills be copyright infringement? Furthermore, since the copyright symbol was left off and it was commissioned by the goverment doesn't that mean it's public domain?

    What's the value of a copyleft currency? Wouldn't that be just another fiat currency like any other?

  39. What's the background here? by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 1

    I thought it was the North Koreans who were printing perfect copies of $20 bills? Now we find out it's being done in Canada? These presses aren't cheap, so who was behind this scheme? Inquiring minds want to know.

    In God We Trust, eh?

  40. Re:Intaglio? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you slipped up with your sockpuppet accounts there...

  41. The Federal Reserve prints them better by Iridium_Hack · · Score: 1

    Oh, wait. . . . . er, never mind.

  42. obligatory question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So how far are 3D printers from being capable of printing counter-freight printing presses... I would guess that might tick more people off than print-a-gun did. I would guess making print plates should be really easy these days, some computer graphics and CNC milling and hey presto - done. I would guess duplicating all the security feature processes are not that hard, just that information about the processes is not public. So if you want to tank competing nations economy just research their banknotes, post processes on piratebay - done.

  43. RCMP by wojciech8286 · · Score: 1

    Royal Canadian Mint Police :]

  44. They are called the RCMP because: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the Royal Canadian Mounted Police you insensitive clods...

  45. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Federal reserve and US Government makes fake money, so why should these guys be any different?

  46. This is Canada by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    Everything from the government is supposed to be published in english and french.

    And it is: english version, version française.

  47. Bernanke's printing press by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just as Bernanke retires, they found his printing press in Québec.

  48. Don't think of it as counterfeiting, ... by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

    ... think of it as "crowd-sourced quantitative easing".

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  49. US Secret Service in Canada? by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

    I'm really surprised that no one has mentioned this yet. Maybe I missed something, but since when does the US Secret Service have jurisdiction in Canada? I would have thought that the RCMP would have confiscated the press and turned the bills over to the Secret Service. (Btw -- I'm an American asking this...)