i still dont understand why cant US print money and give everyone $1 million

[El-blanco]

For the collapse to happen a safer asset needs to come along. What asset do you think that will be?

Cryptocurrency, once it stabilizes. Paper currency will eventually become obsolete, people are paying with their phones lol.

[Cleto_Reyes]

give a man a gun he'll rob a bank. Give a man a bank he'll rob the world.

[Amazinger]

i read it will increase inflation.. But not really understanding it.. maybe i'm too dumb.. They've been printing money called quantitative easing why not print more..

bingo!!!!!!!

[Drunken Cat]

For the collapse to happen a safer asset needs to come along. What asset do you think that will be?

Nobody knows and that's one of the $15 trillion dollar questions. It's basically the lack of ability on the part of other currencies to fill the role of the dollar that ensures its place, as much as any other factor.

I don't predict a smooth transition to a new system, with the dollar simply being replaced. I believe the collapse of the dollar basically will mean the collapse of Western society as we all know it. That underlined, bolded, italict part is very important; not the collapse, just the collapse of things as we know them.

That said, there would be a tremendous amount of disruption and it would have a huge impact on the wealth holdings of anyone holding wealth, the more so the more liquid the assets they hold.

There have been no systems for international settlement emerging, except for on a regional scale (direct trade between Russia and China for instance, and various other regional pacts to circumvent the dollar's hegemony), which is very significant as a development, but doesn't signal the emergence of anything that could compete with the dollar's dominance and position as the international reserve currency.

Also, I have to be clear, I'm in no way predicting the collapse of the US dollar. The international monetary system based on the fiat US dollar is a very flawed system, with numerous flaws that are easy to identify. That does not mean it is a system which is doomed to fail. It may hang on in its current form for 40 years, with very little change, and plug along just fine. We may all wake up tomorrow and read about some major financial catastrophe, which, as proceeding events unfold, ultimately lead to severe economic turmoil and monetary distortions, which undermine the ability of the US dollar to continue functioning as it currently does, forcing a transition to a new system.

Nobody can predict these kind of things. All you can do is consider the various possibilities and try to organize your affairs and possessions to the best of your advantage in changing circumstances.

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

Fuck hands out so much money out their its easy to get your hands on if you apply yourself and not be lazy, now thats out of the way.

Now I dont know much about econmics in that type of way where I can tell you why having more money out their in people hands will lower the value but I look at it like commodity supply and demand the less availble the higher the demand and the more the value its worth and the same hold true for the opposite.

[Drunken Cat]

For the collapse to happen a safer asset needs to come along. What asset do you think that will be?

One more thing, a currency is not really an asset in the way you mean. Sure it is an asset, in the sense that bank deposits are assets, and very liquid commodities (e.g. commodities that are very easy to sell for cash--like, well, petroleum for example) are assets. Yes, currency is an asset to the holder of that currency.

But when we talk about the role of the US dollar (or the British Pound before it, or the various attempts to us gold as the means of international settlement) we are talking about the function of a currency as an asset (store of value as well as vehicle of investment--both very significant, indeed), but critically also as a means of settlement of accounts. They still teach the bull**** in economics programs that when companies in two countries trade, one of them goes to the currency market and exchanges their currency for another, on a one-year or so contracted period.

They use this situation to illustrate the use of options in currency trading to hedge against currency fluctuations, on the premise that because the payment is made not now but at a future date, the currency options allow the purchaser to fix their rate now, eliminating risk of fluctuation.

It's all complete bull****.

When companies trade across boarders, they typically do so in US dollars.

Hell, all over the world, when people carry cash across boarders, it's common to carry US dollars (for example, you convert your Russian rubles into dollars before you leave Russia, and then buy whatever new currency you need with dollars. Dollars are more stable and much more easily converted.)

So it's not so much a question of what is poised to replace the dollar?

It's really a question of understanding all the functions of the dollar in the world today. Again, nobody can predict the future of the economy. Anyone who could would be a multi-billionaire, even if they started with $100.

[Monaco Slim]

Inflation dip****

[Drunken Cat]

Fuck hands out so much money out their its easy to get your hands on if you apply yourself and not be lazy, now thats out of the way.

Now I dont know much about econmics in that type of way where I can tell you why having more money out their in people hands will lower the value but I look at it like commodity supply and demand the less availble the higher the demand and the more the value its worth and the same hold true for the opposite.

Indeed, supply and demand is exactly the concept at play. With currency, it works in the opposite direction to commodities, so in essence money and commodities are polar opposites. If money becomes dearer (supply decreases) the value of that currency increases, which is known as 'currency appreciation'. As a result of the reduction of the money supply (these are just concepts for illustration, used in textbooks--there's no such thing as a 'money supply' in the literal sense), there is less money to go around. The price of goods therefore falls--that is you get 'deflation'. Deflation undermines basically all capitalist profits and so is incredibly damaging.

Deflation was one of the characteristics of the Great Depression, and is what Japan has been attempting to counteract through their own printing of trillions of dollars in yen for the past 25 years; it's also one of the things the Fed and Treasury have been trying to combat through interest rate manipulation, money printing, etc. for the past 8 years.

To sum up though: Currency appreciation -> Commodity deflation
Currency depreciation -> Commodity inflation

And visa-versa.

In theory commodities and currencies operate in much the same manners, just in opposite directions (and in inverse relation to one another).

[Drunken Cat]

Inflation dip****

This dude put it much more concisely than I could have, but yeah also what he said.