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Topic: Some points of deflationary currency (Read 2404 times)

sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 250
August 31, 2013, 08:15:28 PM
#3
Yeah, nobody wants to save in fiat, we want to transform it into a inflation-secure asset like an apartment. Idellay we will do more, we want to make sure that we have a negative amount of fiat (a loan) and an apartment twice as large as otherwise.

Maybe, with a noninflating currency, everybody could have a rightsized apartment.
legendary
Activity: 1988
Merit: 1012
Beyond Imagination
August 31, 2013, 07:38:10 PM
#2
There are many currencies out there, pick the inflative one to spend, and pick the deflative one to save Smiley

hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 502
August 31, 2013, 02:48:27 PM
#1
The models for a deflationary currency are really not as established as inflationary, so people tend to not really understand the differences.  When the value of a unit of currency is continually rising, one of the best investments will always be buy the currency and hold. This is because the prices of everything as priced in the defationary currency will continuously drop, as opposed to always rising as in an inflationary currency. You can get more for the same unit of currency next week than you can by spending it this week. Savers get wealthier every day by doing nothing.

In an inflationary currency the opposite is true. The only way that your currency can be out there working for you is if you exchange it for something else. You must hold an asset, such as land, commodities, equities, bonds, anything that will generate an additional cash flow to at least compensate for the lost value of holding the currency. Infaltionary currency was designed to be spent, and deflationary currency is designed to be held.

Equities are not immune to this fundamental feature of a deflationary currency. If a stock costs 1 btc and the value of btc doubles, all things being equal the stock price should move to 0.5 btc. This is a simple concept that everyone should agree upon. The problem once again, is that you went nowhere. Had you held btc your wealth would have doubled. But since you are holding an asset, you gained nothing. This is fundamentally true in a deflationary currency system. You see this problem every day when people purchase asic miners, although it is magnified and masked by difficulty increases.

The deflation is like and endless juggernaut, it never stops, and the base prices of everything priced in it must by definition drop and drop and drop. Market fluctuations and speculation can mask it for a time, but in the end it is relentless as gravity and it will reign supreme in the end.

Equities can certainly counteract this effect, by the inherent creation of value by the underlying company. A company may for example cost 1btc per share, and return 0.01 btc per week. This is enough to account for a 1% per week increase in the value of btc. If you purchase this stock for 1btc, hold it for a week, get your dividend, and the value of btc increases by 1% you are exactly where you would have been if you had just held btc, because the value of the stock should have decreased in a rational market by 1%.

Rumors, announcements, FUD, competition, momentum, perception,these things can also affect price. They can cause big moves and make everything look crazy to an analyst trying to sort it out. But working steadily and continuously in the background the gravity that is deflation will eat the value from any held asset. Even an asset such as ASICminer. In infaltionary currency, any asset that is not increasing in value is dead money. In a deflationary currency, an asset that that is not decreasing in value is a win, and if it rises at all you have really really really done well.

So, in conclusion, any equity that can consistently provide dividends to the shareholder at at rate that exceeds the rate of increase in the currency is better than just buying coins and holding. If it cannot, it needs to be taken out in the yard and shot because you are losing value every day you hold it.
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