# How long will the Canadian dollar be with us ?



## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

According to David Morgan on gold seek radio Dec 26, there have been aprox 4000 fiat currencies 99.9% them have failed. The average life span has been 40 years for a fiat currency. Instead of the focus being on stocks with a little bit on bonds on the forum perhaps more focus should be on holding different currencies with some gold & silver. How long do you really think the Canadian dollar will be around for ?


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

According to wiki, the Canadian dollar is at 156 years and is the fifth most held reserve, behind the USD, Euro, Yen and pound sterling. It also accounts for 2% of all global reserves ... I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon, especially with Latin America as well as South America, not to mention the Caribbean holding it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_dollar

The US dollar is at 222 years.


Cheers


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

Thanks Electric, interesting facts

It would be interesting to know statistics such as how long currencies last after they are no longer backed by gold, as well as statistics once a currency is x amount of years old i.e., 156 yrs old, 222yrs old what is the expected life expectancy of that currency on the low side, high side & the average with & without Jubilee years every 50 years.


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## lightcycle (Mar 24, 2012)

Also, how many currencies fell by the wayside not because they were fiat currencies, but because the countries themselves were torn apart by war or political strife. A quick search turned up plenty of examples of African currencies that came and went, from Angola to Zimbabwe. These countries change names and borders every few years. Also, what about all the European currencies that converted to the Euro at the turn of the millennia. None of those failed because they were fiat.


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

Stop confusing me with facts! "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." attributed, questionably, to Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeili.


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## bouquets (Dec 1, 2013)

Hmm. If 99.9% of fiat currencies have 'failed', wouldn't that mean that the failure rate of non-fiat currencies is 100%?

How about a different statistic: what proportion of all human wealth in world history was created in economies using fiat-currencies? 90+%?


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

I think it means the .1% left are the ones currently in circulation.

The US went full fiat when Nixon closed the gold window and debt has exploded since to the point where it could never rationally be paid back, so we will have to see how long this will all last.

The wealth was created by first backing to gold to get initial confidence in the dollar system, then through the petro-dollar and commodity deals putting the US dollar everywhere and now finally through the military which is where we are today. Without a lot of persuasion, scams and planning the system, the US dollar would probably be accepted about as much as the rubble. So it is not the fiat currencies creating wealth but the people behind the system selling it to the world for right or for wrong.

China and the rest of the BRICS could create the next system first backed with gold and then down other routes as mentioned above. They can eventually get rich by using paper to buy goods as the US has done without any backing behind the paper or better yet 1 and 0's typed into a computer.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

lonewolf said:


> According to David Morgan on gold seek radio Dec 26, there have been aprox 4000 fiat currencies 99.9% them have failed. The average life span has been 40 years for a fiat currency. Instead of the focus being on stocks with a little bit on bonds on the forum perhaps more focus should be on holding different currencies with some gold & silver. How long do you really think the Canadian dollar will be around for ?


with respect, your question doesn't make a lot of sense wolfie .... under what circumstance would the canadian dollar disappear ? ... what could it or would it be replaced _by_ ?

fiat currencies change shape as they did with the euro but one fiat currency is replaced by another fiat currency

the real question should be, are we going to eliminate central banking and the consequent centralized monetary policy ? ... i don't think so 

the arguments _against_ a gold standard are compelling

arguably, the problem of recovery in europe is exacerbated by a lack of central monetary policy unlike in the usa which is now leading the recovery


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

uptoolate said:


> Stop confusing me with facts! "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." attributed, questionably, to Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeili.


 uptolate
Math is the most exact language, If you don't use statistics what else can one use for exactness besides pictures. Charts like pictures & statistics are a better form of communication then words . Words are just empty containers we put meaning into, Not everyone puts the same meaning into each word which is why statistics are good. Without statistics & or charts I would never put money on the table for speculation.


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

Sure. Required reading in one of my first year engineering courses was 'How to Lie with Statistics' first published in 1954. Obviously, most fiat currencies that ever existed are not in circulation today. Does that mean they 'failed'. Lightcycle's point is well made, how many of them failed because they were fiat currencies? The vast minority I would guess.


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

"Figures can't lie, but liars can figure"


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

How unbiased an opinion would you expect from a "Featured Guest' on a web site called RadioGoldSeek.com?

_"Approximately 4,000 paper / fiat currencies (99.9%) have failed in human history - ...."_

Wow, that sure is lots of history. Could we at least limit it to the last century, so it would have some meaning in modern economic times?

_"The average length of a fiat currenc_y is forty years;..." How many of them "failed" because the country ceased to exist in its then-current form due to revolution, warfare, conquest, etc., that had nothing to do with the soundness of the local currency system?


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

There are some very good speculators out there that are market historians i.e., Martin Armstrong had to go to museums to get data for his research so he could go back further in time. Modern economics is just part of the cycles, I would not hang my hat on its different this time & warfare, revolution, currency crisis etc will not be with us sometime in the future.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

fatcat said:


> arguably, the problem of recovery in europe is exacerbated by a lack of central monetary policy unlike in the usa which is now leading the recovery


You mean lack of a _fiscal_ policy - they already have central monetary policy.
A lot of Europe's problems are structural in nature, which cannot be addressed by monetary policy.
Fiscal policy can do a slightly better job with structural problems, but usually tax, governance, and technological changes are required to address structural issues.

Speaking of which, the US also has several structural problems with unemployment and wage growth.
The US Fed has dual mandate, unlike the ECB - an inflation target, and an unemployment target.
However, it is not working because the Fed's other policies like QE, ZIRP, and NGDP targeting has rendered the Phillips Curve ineffective.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

HaroldCrump said:


> You mean lack of a _fiscal_ policy - they already have central monetary policy.
> A lot of Europe's problems are structural in nature, which cannot be addressed by monetary policy.
> Fiscal policy can do a slightly better job with structural problems, but usually tax, governance, and technological changes are required to address structural issues.
> 
> ...


right, ok, fiscal policy and by structural problems you are referring to pension obligations, demographics and so on or are you talking the remaining issues with nationalities and borders or noth ?


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

The former - social welfare, demographics, labor laws, corporate & personal taxation, industry-specific subsidies, bailouts, regulation, energy policy, etc.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

HaroldCrump said:


> The former - social welfare, demographics, labor laws, corporate & personal taxation, industry-specific subsidies, bailouts, regulation, energy policy, etc.


right .. add in charlie hebdo (which is a symbol of the intense friction between the muslim and even eastern european immigrants and the old established majorities) and europe is a mess ... i suspect we are going to see serious political heat over top down control over all of europe and it won't be easy .. either that or a slow and ugly disintegration


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

They call it Fiat money because it depreciates like a rusty Italian car.

In the last 100 years the value of a Canadian dollar has fallen in buying power from 100 cents to between 1 and 2 cents. In other words what cost 1 or 2 cents in 1915 now costs $1.

This will go on as long as our political and economic system is based on the slick trick, the quick fix and the gimmick. 

Someone once said to Maynard Keynes "in the long run, your economic policy must prove disastrous" Keynes famously replied "in the long run we are all dead". 

This wisecrack is what passes for economic policy. Both men were right by the way. Keynesian economics did prove disastrous, and they are all dead.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

You might ask yourself whose pocket the lost 98 cents went into. This may give some clue as to why such crazy, destructive policies are so popular.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

The Canadian dollar is a shining success in depreciating so slowly. The German people saw the value of their money go to zero, three times in the first half of the twentieth century.

This is why the Germans were so leery of inflation for so long. Once bitten, twice shy. It also explains why they have been so successful. They had to work for their money not conjure it up out of thin air. You could also say it is why they are so powerful, their economic strength is real not faked up or printed up.

There are a hundreds of currencies that are now worthless and forgotten except as collector's items. A few of them have become proverbial, like not worth a Continental dollar, Confederate money, Weimar inflation.


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