The Chicago Plan (Update to An Earlier Post)

Who should own money? What does money represent? Where does money come from? 

The Chicago Plan - a paper making the blogosphere rounds - delves into this. It's a must read.

Looks like I missed the real point of the Chicago Plan in my previous entry. Amazing what some vacation time to read will do!

Seems the real point is to have the government stop borrowing money at interest and instead issue (aka printing) their own cash at 0% interest.

This would be "good" because interest wouldn't have to be paid. The idea is that money should be a public good/policy tool/utility and taken away from the banks. Banks should be forced to keep 100% reserves - making commercial loans problematic IMO. None of this apparently matters because money is not real - just a perception.

Ahem.

All of this is part of something you are going to see A LOT of.

It's called Modern Monetary Theory.

It's the next big thing. 

And that will get its own post.

Finding Books at the Library

A nice little video that shows you how to use the library catalog to look up books, e-books, DVDs and more!

Rich Dad Poor Dad Author Files for Bankruptcy

Let me give you some more information about Robert Kiyosaki, the financial guru who wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

He's been in the news - because he had to declare for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after losing a judgement.

A judge agreed he had stiffed business partners out of millions. Not a good sign of trustworthiness or character.

Kiyosaki's system is somewhat vague. It mostly involves buying on credit, moving assets around  under shell corporations and insane amounts of leverage.

Here's a more detailed critical view here.

I recommend you follow the link and put in your time doing your research if you're thinking about following his advice.


By the way, Kiyosaki's net worth is at best $70 to $80 million. That's not really master of the universe territory.

A real master of the universe would be billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell. If you really want to know how to make money in real estate, I suggest you start by researching his career (follow the link for a typical profile). 

Do Banks Create Money? The Chicago Plan Says Yes

The Chicago Plan Revisited is an IMF paper that tackles the age old question: do banks create money? Traditional economists say no - see an exchange that lays this out here. 

However, this paper suggests that banks do, in fact, create money in a disguised way: through loans (which amount to more than the actual cash the bank has) and issuance of credit.

In effect, the banks create a great deal of the money supply in the world, leading to inflation and instability. What if that ability were regulated in order to mitigate the magnitude of booms and busts?

That's what this paper is about. 

Start Your Research Tutorial

Made a tutorial about Start Your Research - that's the central blank on the main library page that allows you to search a lot of different sources at once.

Tutorial covers keyword search ideas, limiting to a specific kind of source (like journal articles) and advanced search features like image search.

Tutorial: Best Introductions to Foreign Countries

We've written earlier about the best way to get high level economic introductions to countries. 

Let's say you need to quickly get a read on Argentina's recent economic history, look at its exports, and see which laws govern international trade.

You'd use CountryWatch, EIU, Doing Business In, or EUROPA for that.

Now we have a tutorial:

Beer, Wine and Alcohol Industry

This is the one of the biggest industries in the world. Here's how to do research (actually, the process works for many other subjects.)

Industry Trends (market size, shares, leading companies, analysis and more):

Marketline Advantage
Passport

Marketline Advantage Beer Industry Radar Chart Example:

Market Sizes and Shares:

Simply Map is a great place to get local (anywhere in US) wine and alcohol consumption patterns and compare them with national averages.

Example:

Watch the Simply Map tutorial video to find out how.