MONEY

 

                The original store of value – money – that was placed in the ground at creation is called gold.  It has certain properties that are considered valuable as a means of exchange, and as an industrial metal (electronics for one).  Fiat currency, (cash, moola, dollars) has no intrinsic value.  It is paper that is backed by the promises of a government.  If trust in that government is lost, the value of the paper is lost.

                A great example of that can be found in the Weimar republic, in Germany.  During World War One Germany suspended the gold standard – that is the backing of its currency, the Papiermark, with gold – so that they could more easily pay for the debts it incurred in the war.  When they lost the war they began to print more and more paper money to pay those debts.  The currency continued to be devalued more and more over the next several years until, in 1923, a loaf of bread cost 200 billion marks.  The printing of money had made their currency worthless, you see.

                Likewise more recently, (and there are plenty of examples in history, believe me), Zimbabwe began printing money to pay its war debts, and that today has led to an inflation rate of over 700%.  Argentina, one of the world’s leading oil producers, has experienced hyperinflation due to the printing of money.  In Nicaragua, when I was there in 1990, the inflation rate was over 7,000 %.  I remember people going to fill up their gas tanks on Friday evenings because the stations were closed on the weekends, and by Monday the gasoline would cost just that much more.  When you went to the grocery store you had to negotiate the prices of things before you bought them – they might go up while you stood there making up your mind between bananas and mangoes.  My point is, of course, the printing of money by a sovereign government is not a good thing.

                The book I’m working on – Shelter At Home - is not a book about gold or fiat currencies, however.  It is a book about value.  When we consider what is most valuable in  our lives – health, home, family, liberty, faith, community – we understand that preserving what is of value is important to us, while other things may be lost without overdue concern.  (So ours is a reasoned and reasonable approach to preparing for an uncertain future).

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