In Gold We Trust? The Future of Money in an Age of Uncertainty (Kindle Single)

Maybe innovators in the private sector will produce some entirely new form of money that is not dependent on government at all.

I think it's as clear as the nose on my face that the fiscal path we're on is simply not sustainable. And when I'm asked to describe the situation we face, to me, it's always like a cancer, and it's a cancer that truly is going to destroy this country from within." This was not some crazed right-wing extremist speaking, nor even Alan Simpson,

spending by America's Federal Government (adding in state and local governments significantly increased the total) was around 24% of national income whilst tax revenues were 15% of national income. That left a near-record peacetime budget deficit to be financed by borrowing of 9% of GDP.

With early investments in social media companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and Zynga, Fred Wilson has become one of the world's most watched angel investors. And one of the opportunities he is watching most attentively is the emerging industry of digital money.

Inflation has been an economic taboo since the 1970s but maybe not for much longer. Government and citizens alike are now much more indebted than they were at the start of the Great Depression. In such circumstances, inflation could come to seem positively desirable, especially for borrowers, as it would erode the value of their debts in real terms

"coin clipping"

It was a fear of the economic and social upheaval that might be caused by money losing its value that drove Britain to adopt "sound money" policies nearly 300 years ago. This move coincided with an unplanned switch to using gold instead of silver as the basis of money and, ultimately, to the accidental birth of the gold standard. Its &quo

Money is a technology, invented by humans as a tool to help us get things done. Throughout the ages, money's role has been to provide a readily accessible ("liquid") store of value that acts as a unit of account, to compare the value of different things, and as a medium of exchange between buyers and sellers. In the world today, the curre

when there is a mixture of 'good' coins with high silver content and 'bad' coins that have been clipped or debased circulating, the public will hoard the valuable good ones and pass on the bad ones to others.