[falser]

For the Economics Forum I think we need a common base/glossary of knowledge among us that is accepted as common fact. There are a lot of historical details of the modern form of currency that I was unware of before reading up on these subjects and I think it would be very useful for all of us to educate oursleves on how we arrived at our current state of monetary units and economy as a whole. I think it is a fascinanting subject that deserves respect especially in the face of the current rising oil prices, regardless of where you live.

These topics have great implications as to where we could possibly be heading if Peak Oil hits as hard as we've seen recently due to Hurricane Katrina, and if oil supplies dwindle as much as we expect. Forgive me, as I've referenced WikiPedia most of the time as it is probably the best internet resource for such information.

Economic Meldowns
Black Thursday (1929)
Black Tuesday (1929)
The New Deal (1932)
Black Monday (1987)
Bretton Woods system (post-WW2 Economic reform)
Asian Financial Crisis (1997)
Russia Devalues the ruble (1998) - very interesting study on currency devaluation during economic crisis
Fiat Money Inflation in France (1790's)
Dot-Com Bubble (1998-2000)
Real Estate Bubble (in the works)
Real Estate Bubble (The Economist July 2005)

History of Modern Currencies:
United States Dollar
Euro - If you read anything here, read this as it was the most recent major economic reform in modern history, and has affected macro-economics significantly.
Japenese Yen
UK Pound Sterling
Canadian Dollar
Renminbi (Chinese Yuan)
Australian Dollar

History of Gold:
Gold
Goldbug (gold investors)
The Gold Standard

Related Topics:
Fiat Money
Fractional Reserve Banking
Inflation
Inflation (3 Types, FinancialSense.com)
Deflation
US Federal Reserve
Euro Economic & Monetary Union
Banks (links to many types of banks)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Petrodollar (US dollars earned by sale of oil)
Petroeuro (the switch to oil sold in Euros will be devastating to the US dollar)

I encourage you to contribute other worthy articles that should be included in this list. I will update this list as others post links.

[pup55]

I nominate this for a sticky.

[RdSnt]

I would highly recommend watching and thoroughly reading this site.
http://www.financialsense.com

I'd pay particular attention to Jim Puplava's material.

[Chuck]

Good initiative!

About the creation of the FED, chapter from the book “the Creature from Jekyll Island”

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/jekyll.htm (quite a freaky site, could not find other links)




Quote;

The American dollar has no intrinsic value. It is a classic example of fiat money with no limit to the quantity that can be produced. Its primary value lies in the willingness of people to accept it and, to that end, legal tender laws require them to do so.

It is true that our money is created out of nothing, but it is more accurate to say that it is based upon debt. In one sense, therefore, our money is created out of less than nothing. The entire money supply would vanish into the bank vaults and computer chips if all debts were repaid.

Under the present System, therefore, our leaders cannot allow a serious reduction in either the national or consumer debt. Charging interest on pretended loans is usury, and that has become institutionalized under the Federal Reserve System.

The Mandrake Mechanism by which the Fed converts debt into money may seem complicated at first, but it is simple if one remembers that the process is not intended to be logical but to confuse and deceive. The end product of the Mechanism is artificial expansion of the money supply, which is the root cause of the hidden tax called inflation.




Interview with G. Edward Griffin, Author of 'The Creature from Jekyll Island'

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/gedwardg ... pr04.shtml



Quote;
People knew that there was too much power in the hands of a few people, so there was a clamor for legislation which was supposed to break the grip of the money trust. And the Federal Reserve Act was offered as the solution to that problem. So, we start off with the assumption that the Federal Reserve Act was to put control of the monetary system and the banking system back into the hands of the people and to break the grip of the money trust. All right, the first thing they were trying to hide at that meeting was the fact that the Federal Reserve System was written BY the money trust. The people who attended that meeting were the epitome of the money trust. These were literally the wealthiest men in the world. When you added up the wealth which was controlled by the seven men who went to that meeting, in accordance with the estimates of the writers at that time - this is not my estimate - they estimated that these people either controlled directly or indirectly through the banking firms that they represented, approximately one-fourth of the wealth of the entire world.

[Chuck]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RdSnt', 'I')'d pay particular attention to Jim Puplava's material.

[falser]

Thanks for contributing guys. That inflation article in particular was very well written.

I read this part with a raised eyebrow:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat is missing is the precipitating event—the rogue wave that nobody expects. It is this triggering event that creates the culminating crisis that wakes the markets up from their complacency. It could be a financial mishap, an international war, a new plague or the rise of a dictator.