Subtitle of this chapter: After thinking about it, I still have to write "Socialism"

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"How to restore the gold standard or how to replace the gold standard..."

Our Master Yuan finished speaking, turned his head and bowed to the old man Qinghuang and said, "Professor John Bates Clark, I am honored to see you here, and I am also grateful to the American Economic Society for invitation."

The first person in North America's marginal school today nodded and said politely: "Dr. Yuan, on behalf of the American Economic Society, I welcome your arrival."

Therefore, the two most important economists of the North American Marginal School were recognized by later generations to hold each other's hands.

Yuan Yanshu said gratefully: "Professor Clark, if it weren't for your care, I wouldn't have got this Phd."

"Care?" said the director of the Department of Economics in Columbia with his eyebrows, "Dr. Yuan, how can you say that you have a doctorate degree? With your Socialism, Phd. is what you deserve. The only pity is..."

He also joked: "You are not my student."

I also feel a pity about this. But can't I say that? This is too unpretentious to Professor Yulian Chandler beside me.

"Professor Clark, you are also my teacher!" Master Yuan, who looked "flattered" and said, "If I hadn't seen your "Philosophy of Wealth", I wouldn't have noticed marginalism."

"The Philosophy of Wealth: Economic Principles Newly Formulated" is a book published by Clark in 1886, reflecting some of his early views on value and utility. This book established his status as a pioneer in the North American Marginal School.

According to his original words, this book mainly talks about "the distinction between absolute utility and effective utility, and analyzes the role of society as an organic whole in the market valuation process."

"If it weren't for your "Distribution of Wealth", I would have doubts about capitalism and might have become a socialist."

The Distribution of Wealth: A Theory of Wages, Interest and Profits in 1899 was also one of Clark's important works.

This book "scientifically" shows that the distribution of income in capitalist society is "controlled by a natural law", and that both workers and capitalists have obtained the products they have created, which are fair and reasonable, and there is no exploitation.

In Clark's economic theory, capitalists and entrepreneurs are completely different. Capitalists are the owners of means of production, and their income is interest. Entrepreneurs are the organizers and leaders of enterprises, and their income is wages plus profits.

Therefore, real capitalists are just a few. Those who own means of production and personally participate in large-scale social production and earn profits should be considered entrepreneurs with capitalist attributes. Such entrepreneurs have made great contributions to society.

"In the end, I wouldn't have noticed the topic of socialism unless it were your Socialist Fairness. I would admit that my Socialism has benefited a lot from this book."

"Social Justice without Socialism" published in 1914 did not even have a Chinese version in later generations, which shows its reaction.

At that time, many intellectuals believed that the only way to achieve social fairness was socialism. For example, the famous British writer and homosexual Wilde had a famous saying: Now, we are all socialists.

But Clark disagrees with this view. He believes that capitalism can achieve social fairness, of course, not the "absolute fairness" claimed by the socialists, but a relatively fairness.

In short, he personally admitted that his most important task as an economist is to prove that capitalism has the "right to exist".

The reason is very simple. Once you become an economist in the capitalist world, you cannot hold up your bowl and eat, put down your chopsticks and scold people. You have to sing praises to capitalism. You just want to prove its rationality and advancedness.

Otherwise, you still want to become a big economist? Go and dream!

When Mr. Clark heard these words from our Master Yuan, he showed a praise (reward) and said, "Dr. Yuan, you are indeed a diligent and talented economist!"

He turned around and said to everyone, "Gentlemen, let us welcome one of our new members - Dr. Neo Yuan."

"Baoba...baoba..."

There was a sudden burst of warm applause in the room.

After the applause was a little relieved, Professor Clark turned his head and said, "Dr. Yuan, I'm sorry that your thesis defense meeting was not held as scheduled. I still have some questions to ask you..."

"I dare not, don't dare." Yuan Yan immediately waved his hand, "Professor Clark, I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to get the corrections from you and other senior economics."

The other party said naturally: "Dr. Yuan, why not just use this occasion to hold an informal Q and A. What do you think?"

Our Master Yuan may not necessarily shake his head SAY NO, so he had to nod immediately and said, "Of course."

In fact, he was invited by the American Economic Society this time. On the one hand, the economics community was very curious about the Cyris economist who has been resurrected and worked as a part-time writer.

On the other hand, some people are inevitably a little prejudiced against yellow people, while some people have read the big book "Socialism", and feel that this mature economics work is unlikely to be written by an immature young economist. John Bates Clark is also one of the latter.

However, they were all going to die, so for humanitarian reasons, Professor Clark had to forget it. Now that they are alive again, they naturally have to find an opportunity to find a way to find out.

You should know that the number one person in North America's marginalism is the chairman of Dr. Yuan's doctoral thesis defense meeting. If Dr. Yuan's level is embarrassing in the future, it is a person who reveals his eyes.

Yuan Yanshu himself understood this truth, so he dared not refuse to agree.

He looked at the indoor environment, walked to the bar and asked the waiter inside for a drink.

Then our Master Yuan turned around and smiled at everyone and said, "Gentlemen, Please..."

What exactly does "Socialism" write about? In fact, it can be seen and bought in Douban and Dangdang a hundred years later.

But who would go to see except professionals and non-professional people who are full and full?

The first volume of this book is divided into three parts: "The Superiority of Capitalist Mode of Production", "Argument on the Effectiveness of the Democratic System" and "Family Political Economy".

In the second volume, Mises... Yuan Yan suddenly turned to examine socialism itself.

First, he explained the profound meanings contained in the economic reality of Socialism.

Under this system, managers need to decide on the “distribution” of all production factors, which means not only that they have to decide how to use each piece of land, but also how to allocate “human resources”.

That is, individuals must obey the will of the central planners. Obviously, Socialism will never be a "free" system.

"Professor Davenport, Socialism is a huge autocratic consortium that issues and executes orders. This is what the so-called 'planned economy' and 'anarchism of production' means. Imagine the structure of the army and better understand the internal structure of this society."

Not only are there problems in labor supply, but capital supply is also affected. In such a country, where is the driving force for saving?

Obviously, he didn't know... he should have forgotten how much the Seris people like savings.

Secondly, another mortal enemy of Socialism is moral hazard.

The Socialism system allows decision makers of subordinate units to be irresponsible. Through the socialization of personal behavior, Socialism induces moral hazard at every level of society.

"This gentleman is more likely to act recklessly under Socialism than a society that implements a strict private property system. Because under private property, no one can share the risks for him except the actor himself."

I have to say that history proves that this is really true.

Finally, the "John Stuart Muller's weakness and compromise" mentioned above is the salary issue. (See Volume 1, Chapter 20, "Momentum")

"Sir, look, how Socialism can exert the enthusiasm of workers is indeed a problem."

After analyzing the Socialism society, our Master Yuan turned his attention to the theory of Socialism itself in the third volume.

First, he denied class struggle.

Because class struggle cannot explain the emergence and development of human beings. Violence does play an important role in the evolution of society, but whether violent conflicts are constructive is a question.

"In my opinion, this gentleman, the cooperative relationship between human beings has promoted the development of society."

Secondly, he denied the monopoly theory.

He believes that "concentration" in industry is beneficial and reduces the unit cost of production like never before. Even in order to meet the needs of the growing population, economic concentration is still necessary.

"This gentleman, like the medieval church, manipulated the power of giving grace to the believers... expelling the church and cessation of the church is as terrifying as dying from thirst and suffocation. In the socialism society, the state as an organized society will form such a monopoly, and all economic goods will be concentrated in its hands, so it can force citizens to execute its commands, and in fact it is to make individuals choose between obedience and starvation."

The final summary, Socialism = destructionism.

"In fact, Socialism is not at all the kind of thing it claims to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and more exciting world, but the destroyer of everything created by human civilization for thousands of years. It does not involve construction, because destruction is its essence."

"Socialism does not produce anything, it just enjoys what is created by the social order based on the private ownership of the means of production. Since the socialist social order can only survive in pieces of the economic order based on private ownership, every step towards socialism will inevitably destroy what already exists, thus leading to its own demise."

"As I said, human society is a spiritual phenomenon..."

"What creates history is concepts, not "material productivity", not the mystical schemas that make people confused by historical materialism. As long as we can defeat the concept of Socialism and as long as we can realize the social inevitability of private ownership of means of production, Socialism will definitely launch a stage."

"Gentlemen, and this is the historical mission of economic workers like me and you!"

"Baoba...baoba...baoba..."

Amid the thunderous applause, Yuan Yan suddenly took a sip of the drink and frowned secretly because the cup was not the juice that men should drink.

"Gentlemen, are there any questions?"

"Dr. Yuan, I have a problem." The half-bald doctor stood up and said.

"Well, Dr. Holland, please ask."

"Dr. Yuan, how will you restore the gold standard or replace the gold standard..."

"Oh, about the gold standard system..."

Our Master Yuan thought to himself, I know so badly!

The historical process from 2017 to 1921 flashed like a revolving lantern in his mind, and finally a shiny gold coin appeared.

He took a deep breath, because he was the only one in this world who knew that future history would move for GOLD...

It is after next year's Geneva meeting that central banks decided to establish a fatally flawed mixed gold standard, namely the "modern gold standard" mixed by gold, non-exchangeable paper money, and central banks, rather than the "classical gold standard" before World War I.

By the way, the Bretton Woods system can be called the "postmodern gold standard".

America has become the only country in the world that implements the "gold coin standard system", and the US dollar has officially become the anchor currency of various countries, that is, the basic reserve of foreign currencies.

Britain and France implement the "gold nugget standard system", also known as the "gold nugget standard system". Under this system, the state stores gold nuggets as reserves; the exchange relationship between various currencies and gold in circulation is restricted, and free exchange is no longer implemented, but when necessary, the gold nuggets can be exchanged with paper money to the national central bank in an unlimited manner in accordance with the prescribed restricted quantity.

Pay attention, pay attention, pay attention, the central banks of the three surplus countries in the post-war gold standard center have strong incentives to accumulate gold. The central bank's shift from foreign exchange reserves to gold reserves will reduce the world's money supply, which increases the tendency of the gold standard to tighten the currency.

Other countries implement the "gold exchange standard system". Under this system, these countries only circulate bank bonds in China. Bank bonds cannot be exchanged for gold, but can only exchange currencies of countries that implement gold nuggets or gold standard. Countries that implement gold exchange standard must maintain a fixed ratio of their currency to another country that implements gold nuggets or gold standard, and maintain the stability of their currency value by unrestricted buying and selling foreign exchange.

Well, that's all. So why would this mixed "modern gold standard" lead to the Great Depression and be out of control?

Because everyone knows Black Tuesday in 1929, but not everyone knows Black Tuesday is not scary. What is scary is the response between Britain and the United States at that time.

At this time, the Hoover administration and the Federal Reserve did a huge "stupid thing". Not only did they not lower the loan interest rate and release the confidence to rebuild markets at all levels, but instead raised the interest rate and hoped to stop foreign capital from escaping, resulting in serious deflation. In this way, even if someone wanted to save the market, they would not be able to borrow money.
To be continued...