something more important, such as Kleenex. Concerning this faith, the experiences of Weimar’s Germany, Carter’s America, Yeltsin’s Russia, etc., make agnostics of us all. The only thing that protects us from completely worthless money is our ability to buy and sell. We can move our stock of wealth from the imaginary value of dollars to the fictitious value of euros to the mythical value of stock shares to the illusory value of real estate, and so forth. Our freedom to not use a particular kind of money keeps the issuers of that money – honest wouldn’t be the word – somewhat moderate in their dishonesty... or it used to. Money is a symbol of value, but it’s a symbol that’s strange, shape-shifting, and hard to define. And value is something that’s personal and relative, and changes from moment to moment.
lie about the amount of a commodity that is backing its currency – the way the Stockholms Banco, Banque Royale, and Second Continental Congress did – why can’t a government lie about everything? Instead of passing a law saying one dollar equals X amount of gold, why not pass a law saying one dollar equals one dollar? This is “fiat money,” from the Latin word for “a binding edict.” And fiat money is almost the only kind of national currency left in the world. Fiat money is backed by nothing but faith that a government won’t keep printing money until we’re using it in place of
wealth of America’s oceans, fields, and forests, Spain took the gold. It was as if someone robbed a bank and stole nothing but deposit slips. Gold is not an absolutely, perfectly rational basis for a currency. But the real problem with fiduciary money – from a government standpoint – is that it’s inconvenient. A currency that can be converted into a commodity limits the amount of currency that can be printed. A government has to have at least some of the commodity or the world makes a laughingstock out of its banknotes – “not worth a Continental.” So if a government can
By permission Michael Ramirez and Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Money can’t always be valued. And value can’t always be priced.
26 | June 2017
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