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    The Currency Paradox
    The Currency Paradox
    The Currency Paradox
    Ebook70 pages53 minutes

    The Currency Paradox

    By James King

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    About this ebook

    Presented with no charts and almost zero math, this essay provides plain language explanations for some of the most relevant economic concepts affecting our world today. For instance, it tells why, despite being a potentially game changing innovation, Bitcoin and other “crypto-currencies” are NOT likely to disrupt the existing fiat currency system. You’ll also discover the fundamental paradox of fiat currency and why it leads to shocks in Capitalism that are impossible to resolve as well as the basics of money creation and why debt exists in every aspect of your life even if you are supposedly debt-free. The Currency Paradox also explores the true meaning of “wealth” and the psychology behind the “hate” expressed towards the rich by the less fortunate.

    Most importantly, you’ll learn why Capitalism, after centuries of creating growth and prosperity, is likely now obsolete. This essay clearly explains why we have likely reached the useful end of Capitalism and introduces a truly realistic economic system that could replace it with minimal shock, a system with the potential to completely change our world within a single generation.

    While this essay is about answers, it is also about a simple question: What’s next? By the end, you will understand exactly why it is direly important that we question the continued validity of Capitalism and whether the time has come to replace it. You may not agree with the remedy presented, but by the end of The Currency Paradox, you’ll likely have developed a greater understanding and appreciation for why the endeavor itself is worthwhile.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames King
    Release dateMay 4, 2014
    ISBN9781311759429
    The Currency Paradox
    Author

    James King

    James King is a British journalist, specialising in Film and Music. His BBC Radio 1 show James King's Movie News was nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award in 2004. He has also contributed to numerous TV shows, and was the presenter of ITV2’s The Movie Show.

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      Book preview

      The Currency Paradox - James King

      THE CURRENCY PARADOX

      JAMES KING

      Copyright 2014 James King

      Smashwords Edition

      Cover image courtesy of Tax Credits

      The Currency Paradox by James King is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

      Table of Contents

      How Do You Tackle a Big Idea?

      On Bitcoin

      The Paradox of Fiat Currency

      The Debt-Driven Economy

      The Fundamentals of Exchange

      The Wealth Psychosis

      Time (and Effort) is Money

      Better Money

      A New Idea Addresses Some Old Problems

      Not One Money, But Two

      Smarter Money

      Health is Time

      Passion > Incentives

      The World Beyond Capitalism

      The Final Frontier

      Time is Running Out

      Why It Matters

      Not the End, but the Beginning

      For Further Reading

      Connect With James King

      How Do You Tackle a Big Idea?

      It took me over two years to decide how I was going to write this. The first challenge is the topic: economics. If you’ve ever tried to read anything related to economics, you know that the subject can be so ponderous and laden with charts and mathematical formulas it feels like your brain has eaten a ten-course meal. Being a layman, I have neither the inclination nor expertise to build an empirical case. This is simply an idea, but one that I think has far reaching implications. I’ll leave it to the experts to decide.

      The second challenge is that I am not a writer by trade. I tend to be stream of consciousness when it comes to my writing; it is often very unstructured. I like to have flow in my writing, but this idea required me to think more structurally about its presentation. I didn’t want it to be didactic; I wanted something more prosaic and easy to read. In the end, I felt that writing it as an essay would be the best course. You won’t find charts in this work and only enough endnotes to support whatever facts I think I absolutely have to verify. Other than that, this is a 14,500 word thought exercise, so read at your own risk.

      On the other hand, those very knowledgeable about economics or finance may find this essay simplistic but, hopefully, not inaccurate. As I’ve stated, my interest in economics is personal rather than professional. My goal is to present information regarding a very complex topic in as simple a way as possible. That means I paint in very broad strokes, enough to accurately present my points while not distorting the facts related to the topic.

      A caveat: the insights may not be original but, hopefully, the perspective will be. It’s tough to cover things related to capitalism, currency, and the economy that haven’t been addressed before. It is my perspective on those topics that I hope you’ll appreciate.

      I decided to start this essay with my thoughts on a current technological and financial phenomenon, Bitcoin. Some people consider it the future, but I think is a waystation on the road to a better idea.

      On Bitcoin

      There’s been a lot of press recently about Bitcoin. What exactly is it? The simple answer is that it is a virtual currency. However, what makes it unique is that it is also an astounding innovation in computer protocols, akin to HTTP, SMTP, and other core Internet technologies. The Bitcoin protocol eliminates the need for a trusted third party when performing electronic payment transfers. Rather than entrusting (and paying) a third party to handle a payment transaction between two parties, Bitcoin allows two parties to transmit currency, in the form of bitcoins, to each other near instantaneously and at very little costs.

      What is exciting about Bitcoin is its speed, security, and low costs associated with payment. Its infrastructure maintains a perfect record of all transactions and has proven to be impervious to any malicious electronic attack. Proponents are excited by its potential to financially empower billions of people without access to banking resources or for whom money transfer is expensive.

      While a tremendous achievement in a technological sense, Bitcoin is highly unlikely to be effective as a currency. For the most part, the important qualities of a currency are efficiency, elasticity, and its ability to store value. How does Bitcoin measure up?

      For practical purposes, consider efficiency to mean the ease with which currency is used for payment or transferred. Is Bitcoin solving a problem related to the efficiency of modern currency? Not really. Granted, transferring Bitcoin is extremely

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