But it is important to not allow ourselves to let the details of these situations distract us from the psychological dynamics which ultimately has carried all these phenomena. This psychological dynamic allows a slightly stretching of numerous points to add up to the concrete mistakes one point can point out later as "what went wrong". And these "what went wrong then" arguments are themselves dangerous since they general are coupled with "so this time, the different thing we are doing is..." and so forth.
I am not sure what you're trying to say. The fact that money's value created by people merely believing it have value is not particularly insightful.
And I writing with the assumption that bitcoins aren't a "medium of exchange" in any meaningful way - for example, I could directly my car for something else valuablle far more easily than I could directly trade bitcoins and cars aren't a very meaningful medium of exchange today. This is the position that I believe most serious economists take, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman being on record here (not that I think this is really a left-right question).
Don't buy that assumption. For example, the majority of libertarians at Porcfest actually use bitcoin as a medium of exchange. The other money of choice are precious metals, which are beaten out by the more convenient bitcoin. BTW, how exactly can I pay my VPS with cars instead of bitcoin?
I am not sure what you're trying to say. The fact that money's value created by people merely believing it have value is not particularly insightful.
And I writing with the assumption that bitcoins aren't a "medium of exchange" in any meaningful way - for example, I could directly my car for something else valuablle far more easily than I could directly trade bitcoins and cars aren't a very meaningful medium of exchange today. This is the position that I believe most serious economists take, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman being on record here (not that I think this is really a left-right question).
Don't buy that assumption. For example, the majority of libertarians at Porcfest actually use bitcoin as a medium of exchange. The other money of choice are precious metals, which are beaten out by the more convenient bitcoin. BTW, how exactly can I pay my VPS with cars instead of bitcoin?