°All that is molten …
Quite possibly the funniest 7.30 Report story I’ve seen for a while (ok, it’s one of the very few episodes I’ve watched in years) - Greg Hoy’s report on gold, stimuli, inflationary prospects and the UK/AU Governments’ predilection for Keynes versus the PRC’s reading of Marx.
I don’t think Marx said “gold is the money of the world,” but this remark in the story is fascinating:
economists now expect in the aftermath of the global financial crisis a virulent re-emergence of inflation, inflamed by the debt fuelled stimulus spending of so many governments and unprecedented money printing by others, debasing major currencies, inflaming inflation and so interest rates, which augers well for gold. [transcript]
Fragments from the “Usura” piece:
[…] Unlike the debt that can be repaid, which in its repayment makes the future a calculable version of the present, usurious debt assumes the existence of an incalculable, unknowable - and, quite possibly inflationary - risk. […] Denunciations of the corruptive influence of money on the poor, on women and the otherly-complexioned - or, less figuratively, on those deemed not to understand or unable to adhere to the conditions of the contract, or who squander money in enjoyments when they should be virtuously working - are a moral campaign against the spread of inflated desires as much as inflationary prospects and their deflationary comedowns; in other words, the possibility that the currency itself will be debased. This is the danger of surplus becoming excessive. […]
As is routine in political-economy, the question being posed by these unnamed “economists” cited by the 7.30 Report is whether the neoKeynesian governments have (as the Leader of the Oposition remarked somewhere) the “stomach” for reform (aka discipline, austerity and the re-imposition of work). And, insofar as they might not, whether capital should take refuge - the “safe haven” noted in the above story - in the apparent bedrock of gold.
Anyway, I think the neoKeynsians are more than adept at the re-imposition of work. Indeed, historically, they have proven far better at accomplishing it than the neoLiberals, since they actually have the digestive systems required for it (in their association with unions, welfare agencies and so on).
That said, I do enjoy seeing these disputes played out as the oscillations between liquid and solid gold, the very suggestive pouring of burning metal into (normative) molds, the rush/panic toward hard materials, and so on. Makes me hot just thinking about it. All that stimulation threatening to overflow … etc.
condense
/ / (say kuhn’dens)
verb (condensed, condensing)
–verb (t) 1. to make more dense or compact; reduce the volume or compass of.
2. to reduce to another and denser form, as a gas or vapour to a liquid or solid state.
3. to compress into fewer words; abridge.
4. Optics to concentrate light; focus a ray on to a smaller space.
–verb (i) 5. to become liquid or solid, as a gas or vapour. [late Middle English, from Latin condensāre make thick]
evaporate
/ / (say uh’vapuhrayt), / / (say ee-)
verb (evaporated, evaporating)
–verb (i) 1. to turn to vapour; pass off in vapour.
2. to give off moisture.
3. to disappear; vanish; fade: as soon as his situation became clear to him, his hopes quickly evaporated.
–verb (t) 4. to convert into a gaseous state or vapour; drive off or extract in the form of vapour.
5. to extract moisture or liquid from, as by heat, so as to make dry or to reduce to a denser state: to evaporate fruit.
6. to cause to fade or disappear. [Late Latin ēvapōrātus, past participle, dispersed in vapour]
–evaporator, noun
melt
/ / (say melt)
verb (melted; melted or molten; melting)
–verb (i) 1. to become liquefied by heat, as ice, snow, butter, metal, etc.
2. (not in scientific use) to become liquid; dissolve.
3. Obsolete Colloquial to spend, especially a cheque.
4. to pass, dwindle, or fade gradually.
5. to become softened in feeling by pity, sympathy, love, or the like.
6. Archaic to fail; to faint, as the heart or soul, from fear, grief, etc.
–verb (t) 7. to reduce to a liquid state by heat; fuse.
8. to soften in feeling, as a person, the heart, etc.
–noun 9. the act or process of melting.
10. the state of being melted.
11. that which is melted.
12. a quantity melted at one time.
13. Also, milt. the spleen of an animal, especially a pig, ox, etc.
–phrase 14. melt away,
a. to pass or fade away.
b. to cause something to pass or fade away.
15. melt down, to heat (animal carcases) as in vats, usually with the object of rendering the fat to make tallow.
16. melt into, to pass, change, or blend gradually into. [Middle English melte(n), Old English meltan (verb intransitive), m(i)eltan (verb transitive)]
–melter, noun
reify
/ / (say ‘reeuhfuy)
verb (t) (reified, reifying)
to convert into or regard as a concrete thing: to reify an abstract concept. [Latin rē(s) thing + -IFY]
–reification, noun
Brett [May 29, 2009 @ 8:12 pm]
I do love dictionaries, as you know. So many surprises. Milt! Melter. And … to fail; to faint, as the heart or soul, from fear, grief …
And I was thinking of the piece you just did for Re-Public as I was writing this. Is it up yet?
s0metim3s [May 30, 2009 @ 1:05 am]