Plea for sanity from World Bank Chief

At last a glimmer of light appears in the dark tunnel of despair still madly under construction by the likes of Bonkers Helicopter Bernanke and his madly churning false money printing presses. The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, in Singapore has called for an anchor, such as gold, to end the wild fluctuations in global currency markets of recent years. Read the AFP report from here. This blog has advocated such a fix as the only escape from greed-driven politicians over many years, some links to our earlier suggestions: Needed a New Bretton Woods Agreement, from which I would quote this paragraph: Fixing a value for the dollar requires no international agreement, it can be accomplished by the best brains and economists from across the parties, political spectrum and diverse interests of the nation. With modern vast number crunching computing power it could be as complex and regularly reviewed as any might wish or as simple and eternal as the value of gold or the wheat yield of land. Anything is possible - anything is essential. Brown and Bretton Woods, also from August 2008 from which I would quote the following: On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning one of the lame-brained presenters , incapable of rational or logical reasoning after years of propagating New Labour's lies and spin, was trying to get his sorry apology for a brain around the reason why governments having thrown billions at the banks the latter still would not lend to one another at reasonable rates, the reason of course is clear - the bankers, being more savvy than politicians, are fully aware that such money does not exist, it is entirely a figment of Brown and other leaders imaginations, albeit lying within their power to make their fantasies seem real by the use of printing presses. While from March of that same year, just one of many down the years making the same point, I quote here in full: +++++

Tie the pound to the UK wheat yield!

I tried to post the following comment to the William Rees-Mogg column in this morning's the Times, linked here but repeat it below as it has not appeared: I date the start of these present problems back to 1971 and Nixon freeing the dollar from gold. Since that time currencies have merely moved against one another in a macabre manner apparently directed by government whim and market greed. No investor has anywhere realistic or reliable to currently protect this meaninless worth except in gold or commodities, the value of the latter being themselves doubtful due to the approaching macroeconomic slump. A Central Bank that now tied its currency to something tangible and of constant worth would attract sufficient sound investors to better weather the hurricane. Given that wheat has been the staple of the West I suggest the BoE consider fixing the pound to the value of the annual wheat yield in an acre of land in the Vale of Evesham.

posted by Martin at 12:54 PM +++++