Zen and the Art of Moronic Cycle Maintenance

commentary by Roger Erickson

St. Louis Fed ‏@stlouisfed
In our archives, read about the Bretton Woods Agreement, which set up the IMF and World Bank

I've always wondered WHY on Earth the other allies all lobbied the US to return to an inter-gov gold std - while still in the midst of the biggest run-up in world aggregate demand ever witnessed, all fueled by the switch to fully fiat accounting methods.  Why did all those countries who had themselves abandoned the gold std, well before the war, now want to try to repeat the very past they'd abandoned for a very good reason?

And WHY on earth would the USA, of all countries, at the same time allow colonial powers to re-occupy former colonies?

Talk about snatching current AND future defeats from the jaws of total victory!

WHAT on Earth were those people at Bretton Woods thinking? And what on Earth were citizens of "democracies" thinking sending their banking lobbies to try to dictate rules for reverting future world commerce back to what electorates had just fought to be free from? Is that like sending crooks to a democracy convention? 'Bout as dumb as taking a knife to a gunfight? Or Luddites to a conference on the future?

There's only one thing worse than losing a war? Not knowing what to do with victory! This is beginning to sound strangely familiar. Didn't we go through the SAME experience before, once just after 1776, and then again after the Civil War?

Biggest scam of all time? Or just total stupidity? Both? Always? By default?

Fool us 3 times? A foolish electorate and it's options are soon parted - and deserves whatever it gets after repeatedly throwing away total victories.

How many reincarnations does it take to figure out that the cruel joke is on US?

Has even the word "reinCarneyation" been stolen, and sent to the Bank of England?  When do we attain currency-operations self-realization?  Do only Chinese Communists now understand the Zen of Currency Operations?

ps: Wasn't there a book with a similar title?  "Zen and the Art of Moronic Cycle Maintenance?" If it comes in serial installments, who are the authors? Can we just OpenSource the ongoing story, instead of leaving it to too few authors?  The current authors write like a bunch of Luddites.  Ludditezen and the art of Moronic Cycle Maintenance?