This blog contains highly controversial facts and ideas derived from keen observation of the human condition as it relates specifically to money.
For the story of the where and when of coin and paper money...go to the end of this post...PLUS a special video presentation, not to be missed about the right-now distribution of money in America.
PLUS...a very cool animated feature all about some of the inside horror of historical manipulation of...money!
I am going to be pulling from a wide variety of sources for this blog, and editions of this blog...and some of them are going to be whacked out "k" for krazy...and some of the out-there brigade will be those who walk on solid gold, with feet shod in golden slippers. The kind of people who are fantastically, ludicrously RICH!
Okay, a few little factoids to get things started...the number of known billionaires on the planet:
As of 2012...according to Forbes Magazine: 1226 ... yes, that is the number of known billionaires, on the planet, as of last year: one thousand, two-hundred and twenty-six human beings that had a net worth of one or more billion dollars (USD).
I know many people who think there are a lot more billionaires...and when they hear the actual number, well, they are surprised. When you think about it, the number does seem kind of low...like there should be more billionaires...maybe a lot more. It just seems like there should be.
I have included a set of billionaire tables for you to look at. You can get a better idea of how the billionaires are distributed by how much net worth, and country of origin...that kind of thing. Of course, this blog is about fiat currency...also known as paper money...the kind of money that a country prints.
The history of paper money is fascinating. How it all works is also...fascinating. It is a bit like a magic trick: You have to be willing to suspend your disbelief for the power of paper money to work. A point to support this statement is...would you take Monopoly money as payment for your wages from your job?
No.
You would take the Monopoly money IF you were passing go, or collecting rent from a fellow player who landed on your Boardwalk property (with a hotel on it).
Money is in our heads...it is an idea, a belief system. And the countries of the world print paper money, and we believe in it...most of the time. And when we don't believe in a particular version of paper money...or start to NOT believe quite as much as we once did...strange and weird things can happen to that particular paper money.
How much money is being printed in the USA?
Well, the American government is getting ready for another round of "quantitative easement"...which is a cunning way to say, "...print a lot more paper money..." The idea is that with the extra greenbacks, the government can buy back a lot of their own Treasury Bills, and prop up the value of the US dollar. Actually, that is part of the overall idea behind quantitative easement. There is more going on...bubbling away under, behind, sort of hidden, lost in the numbing language of legal mendacious dark-side short-sighted foolishness.
What I mean is that the bill for all this paper money is going to have to be paid with someone's sweat. Work, work, work...and whatever resources can be squeezed out of a very tired Planet Earth...plus the blood, sweat and tears of the masses of the "great unwashed", the huddling masses of half-starving, vastly underpaid, struggling people of the world who earn...ha ha ha...
Millions of bills and coins trade hands each day in America, while many more are lost and destroyed. We look into how much paper currency is in circulation today and some interesting facts surrounding the U.S. Mint’s production.
The Value of Paper Currency in Circulation
The $1 bill has a life expectancy of 1.8 years. There are 9.5 billion in circulation. There are about 850 million $2 bills in circulation, with a total value of $1.7 billion. The $5 bill has a life expectancy of about 1.3 years. There are 2.2 billion in circulation, for a total value of $11 billion. The $10 bill has a life expectancy of 1.5 years. There are 1.63 billion in circulation, for a total value of $16.3 billion. The $20 bill has a life expectancy of two years.
There are 6.26 billion in circulation, for a total value of $125.1 billion. The $50 bill has a life expectancy of 4.6 years. There are 6.26 billion in circulation, for a total value of $125.1 billion. The $100 bill has a life expectancy of 7.4 years. There are 6.25 billion in circulation for a total value of $625 billion. For bills from $500 to $10,000, the life expectancy and circulation varies. The total value of these bills is $300 million. In 2008, the total value of all U.S. bills, including federal reserve notes and currency no longer being issued, was $853.2 billion.
The Composition of Currency
U.S. currency paper is composed of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. The penny is composed o 2.5 percent copper and 97.5 percent zinc. The nickel is composed of 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper.
2009 Circulating Coin Production
The number of coins that are dated 2009 is made up of 1.65 trillion pennies, 86.64 million nickels, 146 million dimes, 379.12 million quarters, 3.4 million 50-cent coins and 322.98 million $1 coins. Of the $1 coins, 271.88 million are presidential coins and 51.1 million are Native American coins. The total number of all of the coins was 2.585 trillion.
Facts About U.S. Money
Between the Fort Worth, Texas, and Washington, D.C., facilities, approximately 18 tons of ink are used per day.
During the 2008 fiscal year, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced approximately 38 million notes a day with a face value of about $629 million.
During the 2008 fiscal year, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing delivered 7.7 billion notes at an average cost of 6.4 cents per note.
OKAY, you made it this far...very cool...so here is a nice treat for you...and hang on to your truth guns...this one is for all of you who want to peel it back and take a good, long look at the...horror...and how you are being played like the suckers "they" want you to be...
Excellent quality animated presentation of the DARK-SIDE gnarly beast...definitely relevant to The Truth About Money...and HOW MONEY WORKS...click the link:
And as a bonus round, I have included a link to one of the sources for some of the information presented in this blog post:
The Value of United States Currency in Circulation:
http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/the-value-of-united-states-currency-in-circulation/#ixzz2LbFYKi2L
ONE MAN'S OPINION ON CURRENCY IN THE MODERN WORLD
BEAD STALL CUP
Here
is a good question for you:
What
is appropriate for a country to do with
the power of being able to
print paper money?
Here is what the Swiss government did with this power. In 1979, the Swiss printed enough paper money in excess of regular currency requirements, and took the excess paper money, and paid off their debt. The Swiss did this by trading their own paper money for foreign paper money, and then taking the foreign paper money and paying off their debt.
It is something that any country can do. They just have to get the moxy to do it. Canada could do it. Mr. Harper could order the Mint to print enough CND$, equal to all the debt, municipal, provincial and federal...how much is that? It is a big enough number.
I have included a chart that gives a hint as to what the number would look like...it is a bit out of date...and it does help to get your head around how much paper money could be printed by the Government of Canada.
We Canadians could then have our government buy USD$, and then pay off every penny of all of our debt...and suddenly...all that tax money that is going to pay the interest on our Canadian debt, and all the tax money going to pay for all the past deficit budget boondoggles... - - - poof! - - -....GONE!
And what would be the harm? It is a one-time fix by a country that has played Good Boy for sooooo long.
No doubt our paper money value would change. And it would bleep-up the currency speculators who prey on the edges of every countries sovereignty...so...it would cost more CND$ to import stuff into Canada. On the other side of that deal...the price of our Canadian stuff would suddenly cost less for the other countries of the world. Instantly our stuff would be more affordable, and price is King and Queen, so Canada would become very attractive a place to come and buy stuff...goods and services...and, my opinion, the difference in our new price point...would more than make up for the loss in the value of the CND$.
Such a venture requires real moxy. And I know Mr. Harper...not at all. I don't the guy. And maybe he wouldn't be up for this radical policy. It would be a game-changer, for sure, and it would rock the boats of our trading buddies...but to the average shmoe earning $1 a day, or the glorious fortune of $2 a day, this radical policy shocker would pass by without a ripple felt on the ocean of their daily lives. It just wouldn't do anything to the masses of the great unwashed...and it wouldn't mean anything to them, either. It is such a fly, abstract concept to the average Canadian citizen, let alone the sub-Saharan half-starving minion of the global trade opportunity.
I am not sniffing with versatile contempt at money or governments or trade or global stuff. Money is a very cool concept. Basically, it is a belief system. Without the belief...well, strange and whacky stuff happens, quickly. Without the belief, you won't trade the object for the paper, or your time and talent...no way, you just aren't going to take the Monopoly money for 40 hours of sweat and toil.... You have to believe in the paper I put in your hand to give me whatever it is we are trading: I get the whatever-it-is, and you get the paper money. That's how it works, right?
More later.
THAT'S GREAT...
...BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BILLIONAIRES?
WHERE DOES MONEY COME FROM?
The story of money...the creation of coins, and notes...to represent the idea of value being contained within the coin, and the notes...is an abstract concept that we do not question very often.
Until the currency in question becomes infected with doubt by the people who are using the currency in question. For example, during the American Civil War, the Confederate government of the time issued currency...and by the end of the war...the Confederate dollar was without value...you could not find anyone who would trade goods and services for such currency.
There was no belief left in the Confederate currency...it had no value...because no one believed in it anymore.
When does a currency become something that we are willing to trade goods and services for a piece of paper with numbers and images and words on it? When does a piece of paper equal 8 hours of work? Or a nice, juicy roast of beef? Or a gallon of gas?
What person in their right mind would trade their time for a piece of paper?
Or what's crazier...trading your time for not even a piece of paper...but for a "bank transfer" of your "pay cheque."
Just a bunch of electronic data being transferred from one account to another...so a bunch of 1's and 0's...open and close being the essential code used to program the software that allows you to receive payment for something.
Even so, these are nothing but ideas that you think have value. Once you stop believing in the value assigned to the idea of a currency...you won't accept the currency as payment for your time...or the goods you want to sell, so you can have some money.
Money exists because we invented it. It is an idea attached to an object.
People will do many horrible things to each other to get money.
Money becomes the way you translate value...we put value on goods and services by assigning a dollar value to those goods and services. Such and such is worth this much, but NOT this much...unless it becomes scarce, and enough people want it.
Money is a complete fantasy. It is a creature of the human imagination.
It is an idea. For money to exist, you need people. A bunny rabbit will not take money in exchange for its kidney. A sheep will not take cash for its wool. And a forest will not take a rain cheque and sell off its trees to the mill.
When you stop believing in money...oh my...can you even imagine such a day?
More about money throughout this blog...The Truth About Money: How Money Works
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