This is a fascinating way to frame the question. I don’t think energy becomes money in the traditional sense, but I do think energy is becoming one of the core settlement realities beneath money, markets, AI, defense, and industrial growth.
The investment implication is the key point: don’t try to “hold the electrons.” Own or study the systems that produce, transmit, store, refine, verify, and secure the energy and materials the next economy depends on.
In that sense, energy may not become cash — but it may become one of the most important tests of what capital is really worth.
Energy is too important to be managed by political fashion or by governments trying to decide which source should win.
Less hindering would probably do more good than another grand plan. Let markets, geography, cost, reliability, and real-world demand sort out where each source of energy makes the most sense.
That seems especially true now, when the next economy is clearly going to need more dependable energy, not less.
Aye! Right on. It makes sense that energy is going to be ever more essential and central. All forms of energy production will have their place and best utility in certain places. Solar in space perhaps. My preference is for government to stop picking winners and losers. Stop the ethanol subsidies. Stop solar subsidies. Stop subsidizing oil with aircraft carriers. Stop hindering nuclear, stop hindering clean coal. stop hindering natural gas. Dump the whole climate hysteria in the dustbin of historical examples of mob foolishness.
The convenient part of Aristotle's description of money is linked to what we are as humans and how we associate with each other to trade.
When a society has a strangling amount of coercion in its dominant ideology, the very meaning of convenience changes from something along the lines of not troublesome to "permitted", "licensed by authority".
It is interesting that I would put inverted commas around these descriptions. Shows my age and how I still view them as alien concepts.
In the US, each of us in our daily lives--particularly those running businesses of any kind--feel the stranglehold of the permit raj from various government levels, not infrequently with conflicting rules, or rules at one level that build on the rules at another level. What a waste otherwise human life and human dignity it is to have all these politically created (as opposed to naturally/spontaneously created) rules.
Energy is a terrible medium for money. It’s not at all durable and it is intangible, which makes “holding” it impossible for the average investor and therefore easier to fake, much worse than PM exchanges.
I'm not sure petroleum became money. It's a scarce commodity that happens to store energy, so it could serve, I suppose. But the deal Kissinger made did something else: it made demand for dollars — already rising — so strong that the Fed could print all the currency units it wanted while foreigners absorbed them, parking the dollars in reserves and Treasuries instead of bidding up prices at home. Absent that, prices would have risen faster than Americans would tolerate, and we might have rebelled.
It's been a good scam. The whole appeal was spending without the bill arriving. The US exports dollars that take no effort to create and gets back goods and commodities that do. The inflation still hurt us, just less than it would have otherwise. The deeper hurt is what the free money bought: wars, welfare dependency, and an ever-more-oppressive regulatory state. What should be a bankrupt government is instead a powerful one.
Counterfeiting the currency so undermines society that for millennia, it was a capital offense. Now central banks do it daily. Bummer...
I see, lol I knew there was some abuse in there somewhere. It’s the American way it seems haha.
Maybe actually energy could be used as actual money. Guess I never thought of that. I just assumed it would need to be pegged to a currency like petrodollar type arrangement or something. I would think that would be only way Gold could ever be used in a physical manner. It’s far too cumbersome and labor intensive. Especially for small transactions.
Joe-- I assume you are referring to how Bitcoin uses energy. If you read past that paragraph, you will see that I don't see how energy will or should be "money."
This is a fascinating way to frame the question. I don’t think energy becomes money in the traditional sense, but I do think energy is becoming one of the core settlement realities beneath money, markets, AI, defense, and industrial growth.
The investment implication is the key point: don’t try to “hold the electrons.” Own or study the systems that produce, transmit, store, refine, verify, and secure the energy and materials the next economy depends on.
In that sense, energy may not become cash — but it may become one of the most important tests of what capital is really worth.
I especially agree with your last point!
Energy is too important to be managed by political fashion or by governments trying to decide which source should win.
Less hindering would probably do more good than another grand plan. Let markets, geography, cost, reliability, and real-world demand sort out where each source of energy makes the most sense.
That seems especially true now, when the next economy is clearly going to need more dependable energy, not less.
Aye! Right on. It makes sense that energy is going to be ever more essential and central. All forms of energy production will have their place and best utility in certain places. Solar in space perhaps. My preference is for government to stop picking winners and losers. Stop the ethanol subsidies. Stop solar subsidies. Stop subsidizing oil with aircraft carriers. Stop hindering nuclear, stop hindering clean coal. stop hindering natural gas. Dump the whole climate hysteria in the dustbin of historical examples of mob foolishness.
The convenient part of Aristotle's description of money is linked to what we are as humans and how we associate with each other to trade.
When a society has a strangling amount of coercion in its dominant ideology, the very meaning of convenience changes from something along the lines of not troublesome to "permitted", "licensed by authority".
It is interesting that I would put inverted commas around these descriptions. Shows my age and how I still view them as alien concepts.
In the US, each of us in our daily lives--particularly those running businesses of any kind--feel the stranglehold of the permit raj from various government levels, not infrequently with conflicting rules, or rules at one level that build on the rules at another level. What a waste otherwise human life and human dignity it is to have all these politically created (as opposed to naturally/spontaneously created) rules.
Could you imagine powerful people, rich with energy, blocking the inventions of new abundant energy production:
How many Fusion Scientists have to “Disappear”???
CAN ENERGY BECOME MONEY?
OF COURSE IT CAN.
SEX POWER MONEY ENERGY
ALL ARE QUASI FUNGIBLE AND EASILY EXCHANGEABLE.
AND, TIME IS IS ALL THAT WE HAVE IN LIFE.
SINCERELY, LIAM OF KIAMS LADDER
Energy is a terrible medium for money. It’s not at all durable and it is intangible, which makes “holding” it impossible for the average investor and therefore easier to fake, much worse than PM exchanges.
Great read, makes sense. I have pondered this before.
Hasn’t the “Petrodollar” been somewhat of an example of this? Had it been used responsibly I mean.
I'm not sure petroleum became money. It's a scarce commodity that happens to store energy, so it could serve, I suppose. But the deal Kissinger made did something else: it made demand for dollars — already rising — so strong that the Fed could print all the currency units it wanted while foreigners absorbed them, parking the dollars in reserves and Treasuries instead of bidding up prices at home. Absent that, prices would have risen faster than Americans would tolerate, and we might have rebelled.
It's been a good scam. The whole appeal was spending without the bill arriving. The US exports dollars that take no effort to create and gets back goods and commodities that do. The inflation still hurt us, just less than it would have otherwise. The deeper hurt is what the free money bought: wars, welfare dependency, and an ever-more-oppressive regulatory state. What should be a bankrupt government is instead a powerful one.
Counterfeiting the currency so undermines society that for millennia, it was a capital offense. Now central banks do it daily. Bummer...
I see, lol I knew there was some abuse in there somewhere. It’s the American way it seems haha.
Maybe actually energy could be used as actual money. Guess I never thought of that. I just assumed it would need to be pegged to a currency like petrodollar type arrangement or something. I would think that would be only way Gold could ever be used in a physical manner. It’s far too cumbersome and labor intensive. Especially for small transactions.
Thanks
Excellent logic, history, and conclusion.
Bull. Wasting energy in an economy that needs it desperately is a total moronic store of value
Joe-- I assume you are referring to how Bitcoin uses energy. If you read past that paragraph, you will see that I don't see how energy will or should be "money."
Ok John . Its all just opinions but in this 1984 world who the F really knows