The Gold Standard's Impact On The Great Depression

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1. This guy nailed it, the problem with the gold standard is it would rely on the economy staying the same size. Hence, no more money being created since the supply of gold is fixed. So say that the economy grows 10% in a year, but no more gold is mined up, that would deflate the value of money by 10%, I.E. what cost a dollar last year will now cost 90 cents. This is ok if there is no debt, but there is debt all over so it made that debt 10% more expensive. So what would have taken the sale of say 10 units at $10/unit to pay off now will take the sale of 11.1 units at $9/unit.
2. Thanks, this was very helpful for my paper.
3. The central problem with the economy in the U.S. today (from a practical viewpoint) is the very thing that makes the economy strong: specifically, Growth.  Allow me to explain.                                                              
   
   As the U.S. entered WW2, economic gowth was gaining momentum.  The combination of three factors enabled this:  the war requiring able bodied men for fighting (which left vacancies on the home front), the destruction of most industrialized facilities (factories, etc) and last but not least the end of the war which needed U.S. goods to help rebuild the countries which saw the bulk of the fighting.  After the war ended and the U.S. began to see a prosperous time economically, a symptom that is typical of vast economic growth had begun to take root: rising prices. As an economy improves, so too do the number of competitors within a given economic area. For example, suppose a person were to get involved in the healthcare industry today by producing anti-allergy medication.  That medication would have many different producers and manufacturers involved in the production process.  This would be true even if Vertical or Horizontal Integration were within the companies asset portfolio.  
   
   So what is the point? The point is that when a product or service is produced, every single entity involved between the producer and the purchaser is going to tack on an additional price.  In the example of our anti-allergy maker, the producer might need to buy the special ingredients for the capsule, then the specific compound requires certain chemicals to produce the medicine (each of which may or may not be produced by a different company) and so on.  The end result of which is that prices rise as companies within a given area rise. All in an effort to make a profit.  The problem in short is that the companies are not going to just "eat the cost", instead they will pass on those costs to the consumer.  This is the central problem today.  As the cost of business rises so too does the cost of purchasing it. 
4. Money is an abstract layer between products and services. How can you barter between a farmer and barn builder? or between newspaper and medical services? Money is a good idea to translate between your economic effort and my economic effort. It also allow for future trade, as I can promise you some tons of fish while I can invest on boats because I see there's a market for fish in the foreseen future.
   The gold standard has problematic shortcomings, but the abandon of it led to nasty economic behavior that is nothing short of corporate banking practices thievery.
5. Subscribed. I like this show presented by Cliff, and not Payne.
6. Good job keep it up, I really enjoy your videos.
7. Barter trade has many limitations for example it would hurt Investments. We need a monetary mediator ( i.e. money) to give us purchasing flexibility. This episode was amazing guys GZ!
8. As long as the countries are stable, and can enforce the relative value of their money (basically by saying it's still worth SOMETHING), and they don't print so much that the money is so worthless for it's weight that it's impractical to buy bread with it, then ya, paper money is just fine. It has a value of it's own, and if people don't accept the price set by the other party, they just walk away. (Sad thing is, few places nowadays allow haggling. So, that's really your only option.)
9. the problem with direct trade is if you have to trade up to get some stuff if you want to spealize in impotant stuff. the design of currency is just designed to shorten trade off lines and keep value light.
10. today, paper really has little meaning, most $ is simply electrons now; if we are to maintain the broken system currently used, we might as well drop quite a bit of the actual printing, as the majority of transactions are actually just electronic now anyway. That step from worthless paper to meaningless electrons is small enough; although I actually hope people start to reject the whole system, as it's a rigged game against 99% of the planet's population
11. to answer, paper currency CAN work, but it requires being properly set up (laws & regulations). The current systems of endless debt & printing money doesn't work for anyone except the elites/rich it will probably always end up being corrupted over time (even if it wasn't designed to BE corrupt from the start), so it probably isn't a good long term method 
12. today banks keep NONE of the money deposited...massive problem letting banks simply take your money to the "casino"
13. Can you explain this to Obama? If, of course, he is not to busy making fundraising for 2016. Especially the part about the availability of a product who determines its value. People should easier be allowed to go to work. 
14. Which problems with gold standard? Vladimir said there is no more gold in the Federal Reserve Building. Germany asked to get back its gold ... 
15. If we consider money to be a good with special properties that make it useful for exchange (durability, portability, etc.) then every single exchange is (technically) "direct." The second reason why money is so useful is because it allows for comparing all goods in an economy against a single unit. (In plain English, money serves as an economic measuring stick for calculating costs and benefits.) 
16. exactly. btw, you guys should check out sm stirling's emberverse series (starts with "dies the fire") and his island in the sea of time trilogy (it is kinda the inverse of the emberverse series, starts with "island in the sea of time"). he has a hard time hiding the fact that he has researched heavily, and in both series they do end up going back to direct trade for a time. they also start progressing to a credit based economy even though they both have to start from scratch.
17. We can see where you are coming from, and in today's society direct trade is probably impractical. There aren't too many people still trading clothing for crop seeds these days. 
18. Thanks guys !!
19. Money should be basic upon what you can produce.
20. I still say the gold standard is the best that way money do not get devalued. But what do I know most of the time I have a hard time balancing my own bankbook hehe :P