Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Dollars, Money and Legal Tender

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury

4.  Dollars, Money and Legal Tender

 

There is no subtler, or surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debase the currency.  The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which only one man in a million is able to diagnose.  ~ John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946, Economist

Dollars

 

We think that the slip of paper that says “One Dollar” (or coin, in Canada) in our wallet is actually a dollar but we are mistaken.  The one-ounce silver ingot the author has on his desk is actually a dollar.  Why?  Well, let’s see where the dollar came from ……

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?: Inflation

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury

3.  Inflation

 

You have to choose (as a voter) between trusting the natural stability of gold and the honesty and intelligence of members of the government. And with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

Supply and Demand

Supply and Demand: Who will first reach that clump of grass?

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? Tanstaafl, the Romans and Us

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury

2.  Tanstaafl, the Romans and Us

 

The question, whether one generation of men has the right to bind another, seems never to have been started …. [I believe] no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence …. The conclusion then, is, that neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Rome Pantheon

During the 1970s and early 1980s, many western countries experienced double-digit inflation.  Even Japan had double-digit inflation.  Double-digit inflation means that each year prices are rising at 10% or more.  So, for example, if a coffee cost $1.00, it would cost $1.10 the following year. Inflation this serious and far-reaching had not happened in the U.S. since the country had become a nation.  However, we have an example from Roman times of where this type of inflation occurred and we can see the trouble it caused.

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy: Money: Coins and Paper

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Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury

Money: Coins and Paper

Coin Banknotes Money

There is so much talk about money and inflation and recession in the world lately.  These important topics affect our daily lives yet it seems that few people actually know how they work, including myself.  So with a vague idea that inflation isn’t directly driven by what we’re being told in the news, I decided to learn more.  What Ever Happened To Penny Candy by Richard J. Maybury is a simple yet highly educational book on economics that will assist you in your career, business, investments and money strategy.  It will also give you tools so you don’t have to blindly rely on what others tell you.  Forewarned is forearmed.   I’ll be posting chapter by chapter and the first is: Money: Coins and Paper.

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Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

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Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations: “My fathers’ family name being Pirrup, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.”

In the mid-19th century, in a marshy area of Kent, Philip Pirrup, or Pip as he was called, lived with his crotchety, abusive sister and her husband, a loveable, yet rather simple blacksmith named Joe.  While Pip attempts to avoid his sister’s wrath, a wrath that she appears to happily cultivate, he also forms a deep attachment and friendship with Joe, who equally enjoys Pip’s company.

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