To: LLCF who wrote (105131 ) 5/28/2001 1:47:55 PM From: Zeev Hed Read Replies (1) | Respond to DAK, I am not sure I want to go to these times. Europe's adoption of the Arab equivalent of a "check" signaled the end of the dark ages. Mind you, the paper check was the first attempt at increasing money supply and thus allow for growth not to be tied up just to the ability of civilization finding and extracting a singular metal. It took another three four hundred years before governments got into that business, and my guess is that the CB's have kissed good bye the "discipline" of gold some fifty plus years ago. They just never told us that this decision was irreversible, or even that that decision was indeed taken. Sovereignty by military might (you lost independence and you lost your stores of gold with it), while military might is still important, the world is changing (hopefully, but ever so slowly <g>), and it becomes less so. Now a currency is backed by the ability of each nation to tax its citizen (in other words, maybe a more palatable one, the economic "muscles" of each nation) and the amount of that money slushing around (printing presses). When the "printers" and the Taxers" no longer have the same national priorities, financial dislocations occur.
