[-empyre-] entanglement

[davin heckman]

Jefff, I was reading your comments about a one world currency and was
wondering what the actual problem with it might be.

The three models I see are: multiple currencies (with one particular
currency policing its role as a hegemonic currency backed by enormous
investments in weapons), the gold standard, and the creation of a
global fiat currency.  Don't seem entirely different to me.  One
currency is the expression of a nostalgic notion of real value (gold)
on the other end is the expression of value as a self-consciously
constructed value based on a presumed closed system (global currency),
and the third seems to be transitional (multiple currencies, but one
pushed as the expression of power).  The two extreme ends of
currency--gold and global currency--both seem to me to be gestures to
create money that is fixed.  Whereas, greenbacks operate in the
nostalgic mode when you need to protect against social construction,
and they operate as socially constructed when you need to protect
against nostalgia.  At the end of the day, however, this looseness of
representation is backed first by the threat of economic warfare (see
Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) and finally by
conventional warfare (see Smedley Butler's War is a Racket).

But if people who don't have a lot of money settle and accept the
authority under which Federal Reserve Notes are issued, they can
operate as a sort of closed system.  On the other hand, people with a
lot of money and who are able to see the system for what it is...
these folks just engage in power plays.  They make things mean what
they want them to, until they meet up with someone who has more power.
 On the one hand, this is an easy way to deal with reality.  It keeps
power dispersed in some ways by ensuring that conflict will continue,
and it ensures a great deal of room for subjective maneuvering.  On
the other hand, it is prone to some of the worst forms of elitism, in
that it essentially splits society into two large classes (with,
perhaps, a small group of people who make money smuggling things
across the boundaries between essential value and constructed value.

>From a cultural studies perspective, these three ideas of money seem
to map well onto a variety of areas of knowledge.  The classical
"Humanist" (representative of the nostalgic essentialist mode) and the
"posthumanist" (representative of the global antiessentialist mode)
and then in the middle a sort of pragmatic humanism (sometimes
nostalgic, sometimes antiessentialist).  But you could map this crisis
of representation onto politics, history, language, etc.

So, my question, I suppose, is....  what do you see as the problem, if
there is any, with a global fiat currency OR a gold standard?   And,
at one point does a hegemonic state currency like the dollar become
the global currency?

Davin





>

>
> And since you brought it up, I wanted to touch upon the very real fear of a
> "one world currency." The US is systematically destroying the value of the
> dollar. That is a fact, not up for debate. All you have to do is look at
> this chart (as far as my charting service goes back)
>
> http://twitpic.com/2sjh3
>
> to see the longer term trend of our currency. The problem is that all
> countries are printing money and devaluing their currency as well. All fiat
> currencies fail in the end and the end result will be the same this time. I
> believe they will start with regional currencies (much like the Euro) in the
> America's and Asia and then eventually move to a one world currency as the
> siren call of "globalization" will be to great to avoid.
>
> Who knows, if they think they could pull it off in a year or two they may
> try to make a push for a one world currency if all their "bells and
> whistles" actually destabilize the world's financial system instead of save
> it. That may just be the excuse they're looking for to pull off their slight
> of hand. I'm very much against all this government intervention
> (manipulation) and I think this is going to end very badly. There just may
> be one more hurrah as everyone thinks everything is going to be alright now
> that the G-20 is here to save the day.
>