The amount of paper compared to productive assets has skyrocketed in 30 years
Today we have graduated to plastic as in credit cards
They hardly existed 30 years ago
The amount of paper in the form of loans and bonds in relation to underlying tangible assets is much greater than 30 years ago
But we weren't content with that and allowed Wall Street to run wild churning out the most dangerous paper yet...the explosion in derivatives most especially mortgage backed securities and credit default swaps
All this paper because everyone wants something for nothing and Wall Street and the Fed found out they way to become rich is not through honest labor but to issue paper promises which are our main export these days. China sells us an LCD TV and we sell China FedGov paper (promises). The FedGov has 60+ trillions in obligations to meet and the only way it can fund them is via issuing a storm of paper. Taxes too
OK.. finished the first part and he’s starting to sound like me... talking about commodities and a global unit of measure for trade (not paper based)... so I’ll keep listening!