Ed Huntress wrote:
wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
Dollar bills do not constitute a savings account if you're the
federal government. Even if you stick it under the mattress, all you're
doing is subtracting from and then adding to the money supply. You
aren't
actually saving something with asset value.

This must be incorrect because as soon as you transfer the dollar bills
they have undeniable asset value!

Bill

Transfer whose dollar bills, from where to where, Bill?


As soon as you transfer the dollar bills from the "government savings
account" to another spending entity (you, me, GM, or China).

There's more to it than that. If you really, really want to get into it,
I'll try to hold up my end. But it's a mind-bender.

Hint: Taking dollars, or their equivalent, out of circulation has negative
effects. You can ameliorate them. But recovering from your "amelioration"
when you give the dollars back to SS recipients causes a double-barreled
problem.

The net effect is the same as putting the excess into the general fund, only
with different timing. And the different timing raises real hell.

As I said, only if you really, really want to get into it. d8-)

Ed, All I was saying (earlier) was that I disagreed with your comment
that "if the government took dollars out of circulation that they
wouldn't be saving something of value". The money supply is significant.
You seem to have backed away from that and instead noted that it could
cause "timing problems" (and I understand your concerns). I would
merely suggest that such problems would be far less worrisome to
everyone concerned than the sort of debt issues the government faces now.

There is little point in seeing how well we both understand basic
economics. You've translated the problem to a (subjective) fiscal one
and I am more interested in economics than politics. I'm still here if
you want to keep the ball rolling.

Bill