This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Killing The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs

Sprott Money's picture




 

 

 

Jeff Nielson for Sprott Money

 

Most readers are familiar with the fable of “The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs”, or at very least, are familiar with the metaphor which was the moral of that fable: one should never kill a goose that lays golden eggs. Such advice seems obvious to the point of being simplistic, and yet it is wisdom which has not merely survived, but has been enshrined in the form of a fable.

 

Clearly this is advice which people needed (and need) to hear. Why is this? Because, perversely, any of our species ever fortunate enough to possess such a wondrous bird always ends up killing it. This road-to-ruin is a familiar one, and is best illustrated through providing real-world examples.

 

The cabal of Western mega-banks previously defined (through research and economic modeling) as the One Bank has several geese-that-lay-golden-eggs. But arguably none of these other fowl deliver a bounty equal to that produced through its debt-slavery: first seducing our Puppet Politicians into accumulating too much debt, and then relentlessly blood-sucking our nations via (compounding) interest payments.

 

Paradoxically, this Goose is not merely the one which delivers the greatest riches, year after year; it is the Goose upon which all of the One Bank’s other golden geese depend for their survival. Here, translating metaphor to real life is obvious. Killing the “goose” of Western bond debt (and the usurious interest payments which accompany that debt) will occur when this collection of Deadbeat Debtors defaults on these gigantic debts – like a chain of rotten dominoes.

 

 

Because the “golden eggs” laid by the One Bank’s golden geese are not made of real gold, but rather are made of paper; when the paper financial foundations of our nations collapse, most (if not all) of these other, paper geese will die alongside of ‘Mother Goose’. This process of self-destruction is made all the more fatalistically ironic when we examine how our governments allowed themselves to be so enslaved to the One Bank.

 

In Machiavellian fashion; the One Bank enslaved Western nations in debt through getting each of them to use their own Golden Goose too often – much, much too often. Astute readers will immediately be able to identify this other, metaphorical goose as the printing presses possessed by the U.S./UK/Canada and (collectively) European nations.

 

Those with a sophisticated understanding of our monetary system will already know that our (now worthless) paper currencies are literally borrowed into existence.

 

 

When our central banks “print” these currencies – in what is now primarily a virtual/electronic process – our own governments must borrow this paper from the cabal of private banks to whom we handed this monopoly.

 

The primary reason why Western governments are drowning in debt today is not (as reported in the mythology of the Corporate media) through “too much spending”, but rather it was merely the mechanism of currency-creation itself (at a grossly excessive rate) which has cumulatively buried our nations. Here irony gives way to yet more irony.

 

Why is it necessary for our governments to borrow their own, national currencies, in the first place? Because when the same cabal of bankers enticed/deceived our governments into discarding the last remnants of our gold standard; this process of borrowing money into existence was the only way to impute any value into this paper – beyond the mere decree of our governments.

 

A gold-backed currency requires no such financial chicanery. Such currency is real money, and thus (by definition) these currency-units are units of value. Fiat currencies, on the other hand, possess no similar virtue of value. Backed by nothing (directly); the intrinsic value of such scraps of paper is literally no more than that of the paper itself.

 

Thus fiat currencies require indirect backing of some nature, in order to retain quasi-legitimacy, and thus crumble-to-zero more slowly (the ultimate fate of all fiat currencies). How did the One Bank dupe our governments into creating indirect backing for all this fiat-paper? Through borrowing this currency into existence.

 

While no fiat currency can ever be a “unit of value”; our currency-units are now actually instruments of debt. By borrowing all of these trillions of dollars/euros/pounds into existence; our fiat paper currencies became units of obligation – mini “IOU’s” which derived their value from the implicit promise to make good on these units of obligation through the revenues of our public treasuries.

 

 

Indeed; it is precisely through examining this conundrum of creating and maintaining (or rather attempting to maintain) “value” in paper currencies which have no value that we see how/why all fiat-paper currencies must eventually collapse into worthlessness (i.e. hyperinflation). We can see this by merely looking at an alternate reality: one in which our governments never began this (usurious) money-creation-via-debt foisted upon us by the One Bank.

 

In such a world; we would have paper currencies which had no direct or indirect value of any kind, and where there were no limitations of any kind on the capacity of our governments to create more and more of this paper. In our present world, our own governments’ Golden Geese have debt attached to each-and-every one of the “golden eggs” which emerge from their printing presses. It is this reality which provides the only financial constraint/restraint in this process of paper-printing.

 

If our governments created too much paper too fast (which, in fact, is precisely what they eventually did); excessive money-creation would/could/must kill their Golden Geese. Imagine a world where these same governments had no constraints of any kind on how much of these paper currencies they could create. Now try to do so without shuddering.

 

 

Clearly, any government reckless enough to destroy itself simply through printing too much fiat paper (knowing there was debt attached) would print that same paper at a much more reckless rate if there were no (visible) repercussions/consequences of any kind. Indeed, this is precisely what we now see with “quantitative easing”. And as soon as one government ratcheted-up its printing press, producing infinite amounts of their own ‘free money’, other governments would follow: the monetary disease known as “competitive devaluation”.

 

Obviously, the One Bank has deliberately and maliciously accelerated our process of economic suicide via fiat currencies, being the prime beneficiary/parasite of this process of self-destruction. But what must be clearly pointed out here – to hopefully avoid replicating this suicide in the future – is that the process of suicide-via-fiat-currencies is inevitable. It is as inevitable as our own compulsion (through greed) to kill any/all geese which lay golden eggs.

 

The moral of our story is identical to the moral of the fable. Being lowly mortals; we can never be trusted to manage a financial windfall of potentially endless/infinite proportion without abusing such a privilege. The moral of “The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs” is just one of the arguments which underpins the necessity of a (hard) gold standard.

 

There is only one way for us to get off this suicide-rollercoaster of fiat currencies: avoid them completely. Is a gold standard “perfect”? No. It’s simply the only form of monetary system which we have ever been able to devise which was not/is not inherently self-destructive.

 

 

Jeff Nielson for Sprott Money

Originally posted on Sprott Money March 4th 2014

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Wed, 12/10/2014 - 19:13 | 5538438 joego1
joego1's picture

It's the goose that laid the paper egg. Mother Fiat.

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 19:11 | 5538431 falak pema
falak pema's picture

the goose that laid the golden egg is a myth. 

Like the free market. 

But like the spinning wheel of the roulette, people want to believe in it.

Zero is a number invented by a man who believed in decimals, in progress.

But it became the saviour of the Banksta cabal or the casino boss. 

How's that for the time line of turning good into evil, a trick of human psychology that crazy kings like Midas could bequeath to others : their touch (like the golden goose) ; to make their progeny richer; even more than what the Pactole could give to Croesus. Oligarchy never dies, it breeds time and again like the Lord of the flies. 

And it lives on today in the land of the gun crazy freedom fries, all based on toxic derivative pies.

What suckers we are for the men who feel that power knows no frontiers nor limits. Its all a result of the ZERO.

The irrepressible margin creator of banksta irrational exuberance.

One number so round it makes interest payment as simple as squaring the circle. 

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 21:49 | 5538954 nofluer
nofluer's picture

Zero is a number invented by a man who believed in decimals, in progress.

You can have decimals without zero.

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 19:11 | 5538428 blindman
blindman's picture

Mighty Sparrow - Capitalism Gone Mad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOWuqD77KIo
.
CAPITALISM GONE MAD
By Mighty Sparrow

You got to be a millionaire or some kind of petit-bourgeoisie
Any time you living here in this country
You got to be in skullduggery, making your money illicitly
To live like somebody in this country
It's outrageous and insane, them crazy prices in Port of Spain
And like the merchants going out dey brain
And the working man, like he only toiling in vain.

Chorus:
Where you ever hear, a television for seven thousand
Quarter million for lil piece of land
A pair of sneakers - two hundred dollars
Eighty, ninety thousand for motor cars
At last here in Trinidad, we see capitalism gone mad
It's sad and getting more bad because, doudou, capitalism gone mad!

To provide for your family today on your present salary
Is an impossibility in this country
So many bills to pay, there is no conceivable way
To save for a rainy day in this country
Avariciousness to be precise, is why every damn thing so overpriced
Big business making everybody feel
Government give them an open license to steal.

Chorus:
Would you believe me, one nylon panty is nineteen ninety
Twenty dollars for some baby milk
The cheapest jersey cost over sixty
Two hundred and change a yard for silk
It hard here in Trinidad, lord have mercy, capitalism gone mad
It's sad, things getting more bad, oh lord, capitalism gone mad!

To buy a pack of cigarette does leave you with a hole in your wallet
And money is so hard to get in this country
Necessity or luxuries, it doesn't matter what the item is
They charging anything they please in this country
Primary school books prices lewd
Is highway robbery, the price of food
All hopes and dreams elude the poor man
But politicians still expect good work attitude.

Chorus:
Just imagine this, the cheapest coffin over three thousand
Not even dying today easy
Thousands of dollars for the undertakers
So you could get a spot in the cemetery
It hard here in Trinidad, oh lord, capitalism gone mad
The gladness that once we had is gone because capitalism gone mad!

You got to have heavy contact, know how to move up in society
To make any kind of impact in this country
You got to know how to gyp the field
How to scheme and swindle properly
Perfect the art of wheel and deal in this country
I say, survival in this land isn't easy for no man
With unemployment and high inflation
Some of we go dead before the end of this recession.

Chorus:
Wey de hell is dis, a Mango Julie costing three fifty
Forty dollars for one watermelon
Half your salary for fish, meat and poultry
Time you buy greens all your money done.
It hard here in Trinidad, lord, have mercy, capitalism gone mad
It sad and getting more hard, put a hand, lord, capitalism gone mad!
.
http://guanaguanaresingsat.blogspot.com/2011/03/capitalism-gone-mad-song...

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 18:38 | 5538285 spinone
spinone's picture

Free market capitalism is the goose that laid the golden eggs.  It constantly produces value for an entire society that fosters it.  But it requires regulation of the financial system, the application of the rule of law, and the orderly unwind of failed enterprises.  When there is no regulation, no punishment of lawbreakers, and failed enterprises are propped up, free market capitalism will fail.  And it cannot exist even with all those intact, without sound money.

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 17:56 | 5538104 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Soon it will be time for "Guillotining the goose that stole the golden eggs."

An American, not US subject.

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 17:18 | 5537926 WhackoWarner
WhackoWarner's picture

http://bullionbullscanada.com/

 

Jeff has been writing for years.  Much insight, Refer to the above link for many hours of astute observation.

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 17:23 | 5537960 WhackoWarner
WhackoWarner's picture

And I have to give Mr. Neilson much credt for years and years of research/articles.  Agree or not there is a really good, impeccable opinion backed by research .  Kudos Jeff that your point of view (though watered down)  is getting some attention.

And I thank you for your many, many articles in the past.  zooey.

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 18:58 | 5538283 Manthong
Manthong's picture

But.. but.. but..

It’s the thriving, prosperous economies that gives value to fiat, ain’t it?

Er, aaaah, wait just a minute there………

 

Thu, 12/11/2014 - 03:08 | 5539555 silvermail
silvermail's picture

"http://michaelepicray.com/2014/12/10/some-monetary-basics-replay/"

It is a good example of a regular anti gold propaganda!
I read exactly the same thing 10 years ago, 20 years ago and 30 years ago.
But propaganda does not change the economic reality. Therefore, over the last 50 years, gold rose against the dollar by 50 times.
The author asks to remember that gold is a commodity?
Well, I'll ask the author to remember that any money it is primarily a commodity. Yes, yes - money - it's such a versatile  commodity, that will accept all participants of market relations.
Therefore, the author's attempt to compare gold (all-purpose goods, ie money) with copper and nickel, looks as very funny naivete.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!