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ID-3-2 Paper tiger. November 26th, 1985
Paper Tiger.
Once banks became reliable, they attracted greater deposits.
As the deposits grew, the amount of money that never left the
bank also grew, and with it the possibility of lending out that
money for profit.
The bank was however still limited by the amount of actual cash
or bullion it carried.
The introduction of bank notes changed all that.
Banks began to issue receipts for the gold deposited with them
and found that these receipts were themselves being used as money
between traders in the community.
The pieces of paper were simply promises that the bearer could
receive that much "real" money for the paper at the bank.
It became apparent that few of these notes were ever presented,
and those that were could be easily honoured from a small
reserve, or by further borrowing from another bank.
Thus it became possible to issue far more notes than the reserve
actually covered and to make profit from the service provided.
Since then it has really been nothing but a paper-chase.
All conventional money has become essentially valueless in
itself.
Precious metal might be considered valuable, but paper is just
paper.
All of our money is thus nothing more than a system of tickets.
If you have the right pieces of paper, you can go to the dance.
Landsman Community Services Ltd. ID-3-2 Page 1
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