AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

We have talked about the Bitcoin phenomenon a couple of times here. I have said in this post, Let’s Take A Look At Bit Coin, “The reason I like the discussion about bitcoin: it is an opportunity to get people to think about what money is, how it evolved through the barter system, what is a gold standard, what is paper money, why the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on printing money is a bad thing, and could bitcoin (or some other not yet thought of idea) evolve into the medium of exchange not controlled by Government?” I would like to add that another reason I like bitcoin is because it represents the spirit of 1776. It’s the unstoppable dynamism that occurs when individuals use their inventiveness, curiosity, and thirst for freedom to get around Government planners plans. The free market is an unstoppable force that gets its way no matter what obstacles are placed in front of it. Money evolved as a market phenomenon, and bitcoin is an extension of this market driven phenomenon. If bitcoin becomes widely accepted as a medium of exchange, Government’s monopoly position in money printing will start to erode to the point where they won’t be able to debase the dollar through electronic counterfeiting, because if they do, more people will flee the dollar and move into bitcoin.

Here is a must read article titled, Why The Only Real Way To Buy Bitcoin In On The Streets, by Robert McMillian, at wired.com. Here is an excerpt from the article,

“It’s a little unexpected: The world’s pre-eminent digital currency is most safely traded face-to-face. But the Bitcoin phenomenon is itself unexpected. Bitcoins were conceived in 2009, in the warm ashes of the world financial meltdown. But they were proposed in a white paper and caught on without the backing of any central authority. In fact, the currency was a reaction against the too-big-to-fail banks that had inflated, and then abruptly paralyzed, the world’s economy.”

Individuals are gathering in what they call Buttonwood meetups.  “…Buttonwood is an allusion to the May 17, 1792 agreement, struck under a buttonwood tree at 68 Wall Street, that set down the rules for what became the New York Stock Exchange. The Yerba Buena Bitcoiners see themselves as the modern descendants of these 18th century traders….”

These people are expanding the scope of  individual liberty as a by-product of  pursuing their self-interest. Technological advances, plus individual ingenuity, have once again given the market the ability to out run the reins Government has attempted to place on it. Government will eventually find out they are holding on to reins that aren’t attached to anything, because the market has broken free and is once again galloping unimpeded on the open range.

Explore posts in the same categories: Econ. 101, Government and Politics

This entry was posted on July 30, 2013 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Econ. 101, Government and Politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Barter, Bitcoin, Buttonwood Tree, Federal Reserve, Free Market Money, Individual Liberty, Medium of exchange, Wall Street

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