Skynet has crashed. This is bad. No, not bad, terrible.
The year is 2100, and Skynet is the biggest company in the world. It is the bedrock of the global economy.
Yet about a day ago, Skynet’s stock began plunging. The reason for this was simple. Shortly before the plunge began, an insider had leaked a piece of news to the press:
Skynet was working on a new kind of robot. Not the typical robot that swept homes and streets, or served food at restaurants.
This was a robot that could kill.
The public did not know what purpose this robot was to serve. Robots meant to kill had been trialled and tested before, namely in the army during the early 2070s. But as governments ceased to be able to fund wars, these robots became prehistoric objects; objects displayed in museums.
So why was the biggest company on the entire planet developing them now, almost thirty years later? There was no buyer in the present, and no buyer for the foreseeable future.
Joey walks up and down the hallway on the first floor of the Federal Reserve building. He will be seventy-two this year, and this hallway looks nothing like it did when he interned here as a teenager.
It was when he was a teenager when the then-collapse of the US dollar began. People started changing their minds on what constituted as good currency and what didn’t. Bitcoin, precious metals, and a few currencies issued by then-considered prudent governments were the victors. Currencies like the USD were the losers.
And as the USD lost its influence, year after year and day after day, the role and power of the Federal Reserve—once the most powerful financial institution on the planet—became increasingly insignificant.
This was not to say that the Federal Reserve had become useless, an institution completely of the past. For instance, the USD still circulated in many areas—albeit often backed by bitcoins—and it was up to the Reserve to determine the quantity of the USD. They could increase its supply if they wanted to, still. They could change its velocity of circulation if they wanted to, still.
But what use were these levers if the USD was not the reserve currency. if the USD was not the medium of exchange that most of the planet eventually relied on?
And so as Joey had aged from a teenager to an old man, he witnessed the dominance of the USD fade and the rise of alternative currencies. He knew better than to hate these currencies—they had their merits. But during moments like these, he cannot help himself.
He walks up the stairs and into an office at the very end of this hallway. He does not knock the door—there is no door to be knocked, it had broken down ages ago—and he stood in front of Jane. Jane is his boss.
“Jane, we need to do something. We need to revive Skynet.”
Jane sighs.
“I’m all ears, genius.”
“We revive quantitative easing from the 2020s. We do it in moderation, give the US economy a little more money, a little more of a boost. Skynet’s board should be coming out with a statement soon. Hopefully, they share news that calms the people. And hopefully, combined with the fiscal stimulus that we will be providing, Skynet revives. The global economy will revive with it.”
Jane stands up and walks towards him, meeting him eye to eye—Joey and Jane are of the same height. Then, she spits on his face.
“You call yourself an economist?” she asks, grimacing. Joey nonchalantly wipes his face with a tissue paper.
Jane continues:
“If the US dollar’s general peg with bitcoin breaks, people will realize that we’re printing money. As we saw during the 70s—such realization is disastrous. The USD’s credibility will drop even further. If anything, your dumb idea will initiate a larger collapse!”
Joey shakes his head.
“People will lose jobs. Children will quit school. Homelessness will rise. Are you seriously suggesting that we do nothing?”
Jane clenches her jaw and takes a deep breath. Joey continues:
“Are you seriously suggesting that we allow Skynet to collapse?”
You can find me on Twitter @ramwithouthorns.