What's wrong with competing currencies?

[Anarchist420]

Enough people here know I'm for it and am sick of government currencies, but what the hell is wrong with competing currencies? It would make the Fed quit devaluing the dollar and it would basically give people more purchasing power. I'm going to convert some of my USD into Swiss Francs; it's the most stable currency out there.

 

[Infohawk]

This is how I imagine the website you read looks like:

 

[RabidMongoose]

That would probably be an improvement for you, dictionary.

 

[Kirby]

How about going back to the barter system? How many chickens does your mother charge?

 

[LegendKiller]

Enough people here know I'm for it and am sick of government currencies, but what the hell is wrong with competing currencies? It would make the Fed quit devaluing the dollar and it would basically give people more purchasing power. I'm going to convert some of my USD into Swiss Francs; it's the most stable currency out there.

Why do you care if the Fed devalues the currency if the currency retains PPP?

 

[Anarchist420]

Because if I save, then I don't become poorer if they don't devalue.

 

[LegendKiller]

Because if I save, then I don't become poorer if they don't devalue.

Bitch, please, you aren't even out of your parents house.

Let's pretend that you were saving your $10/wk allowance, how are you "saving"? In what financial instruments are you saving?

 

[DaveSimmons]

It would be fun driving cross-country: "We don't take no Seattle dollas here, just Alabammy bucks. Got any chickens?"

 

[LegendKiller]

It would be fun driving cross-country: "We don't take no Seattle dollas here, just Alabammy bucks. Got any chickens?"

Yeah, imagine the stupidity of having a grocery store in BFE Nebraska having to hook their checkout terminal to a up-to-the-millisecond currency conversion table. That or take out currency derivatives to lock in exchange rates. Or how about them just taking currency FX risk?

I mean, really, what fucking moron thinks this is a practical and logical idea?

Ohh wait, a libertopian does.

 

[yllus]

I've built billing software in the past, limiting it to using just two currencies: CAD and USD. The thought of adding more makes me want to weep.

Suffice it to say it'll add significant costs to each and every business out there.

 

[First]

It's dumb if you're smart. It's smart if you're dumb. That's just the short answer.

 

[LegendKiller]

I've built billing software in the past, limiting it to using just two currencies: CAD and USD. The thought of adding more makes me want to weep.

Suffice it to say it'll add significant costs to each and every business out there.

If you consider the number of transactions over the number of stores in the US, you quickly come up with the logical conclusion that it would be an impossible undertaking. There would be way too many opportunities for arbitrage, all at the expense of regular consumers. Eventually a single currency would come to dominate since almost all businesses would resort to eliminating inefficiencies and lost profit from their business. Thus, you'd get back to the same spot.

 

[ShawnD1]

Yeah, imagine the stupidity of having a grocery store in BFE Nebraska having to hook their checkout terminal to a up-to-the-millisecond currency conversion table. That or take out currency derivatives to lock in exchange rates. Or how about them just taking currency FX risk?

I mean, really, what fucking moron thinks this is a practical and logical idea?

Ohh wait, a libertopian does.

It's practical as long as you're using modern equipment. I buy US games on Steam using Canadian dollars and it does the purchase according to the exchange rate at the time of purchase.

It fails when doing simple transactions. My barber takes cash only, no credit or debit. Must use a certain type of currency. No Alabama bucks.

 

[LegendKiller]

It's practical as long as you're using modern equipment. I buy US games on Steam using Canadian dollars and it does the purchase according to the exchange rate at the time of purchase.

It fails when doing simple transactions. My barber takes cash only, no credit or debit. Must use a certain type of currency. No Alabama bucks.

So you're comparing a multi-national company (Vivendi) to about 2/3 of the transactions in this country, which are local small businesses?

It isn't practical, at all, even on the multi-national company level considering the complexity is not linear, it is geometrical. Considering this volatility directly translates into earnings impacts, whether through hedging or currency shifts, it would eat into the bottom line of even the largest and most sophisticated companies. For smaller companies they would take huge amounts of currency risk since they are very unsophisticated at that level and wouldn't have the economies of scale needed to appropriately hedge the risks.

Then you consider the fact that the vast majority of transactions take place on a credit card and, if the vendor does not want to take currency risk, they will merely demand you pay in currency X. This means that if your currency is one they accept you will have to convert it at your bank level. This also means that your bank will not take the bid/ask spread risk associated with your transaction, which will cause them to balloon out the bid/ask spreads to hedge their own risks.

So then you have your costs skyrocketing to deal with that.

Eventually the inefficiencies would result in a single currency anyway.

However, explaining practical things, like currency risk, to a libertopian is akin to explaining calculus to an infant. They simply do not have the intellectual capacity nor simple logic to understand that their viewpoints on the world are infantile and naive.

God help us if they ever get enough brain-dead idiots to follow them.

 

[ShawnD1]

So you're comparing a multi-national company (Vivendi) to about 2/3 of the transactions in this country, which are local small businesses?

lol. That's only true if you live in the middle of nowhere. The only 2 stores I ever deal with that don't accept credit card are my barber and Tim Hortons.

 

[JS80]

Enough people here know I'm for it and am sick of government currencies, but what the hell is wrong with competing currencies? It would make the Fed quit devaluing the dollar and it would basically give people more purchasing power. I'm going to convert some of my USD into Swiss Francs; it's the most stable currency out there.

Lol you think the Swiss franc is stable. What do you think they do with all their deposits? Bury it in the ground? They loan the money to even more bankrupt Europeans.

 

[sandorski]

Your Job Pays you with CitiBucks, but no one in town accepts CitiBucks. In fact, to Shop you need 5 or 6 different Currencies. So every Pay Day you're down at the Currency Exchange Bank paying Fees to convert your CitiBucks into currency you can shop with.

Ya, that's a good idea.

 

[Siddhartha]

Enough people here know I'm for it and am sick of government currencies, but what the hell is wrong with competing currencies? It would make the Fed quit devaluing the dollar and it would basically give people more purchasing power. I'm going to convert some of my USD into Swiss Francs; it's the most stable currency out there.

Why are you sick of government currencies?