"Rand kan rädda Zimbabwes kollapsade valuta"

SvD rubricerar enligt ovan då de skriver om Zimbabwes pajasekonomi, och även om de nu åsyftar den sydafrikanska valutan så hade det nog varit klokare att lyssna till Ayn Rand, som alltid argumenterade klokt mot fiatvaluta - alltså valuta utan annan backning än en stats hedersord; från Ayn Rand Lexicon:

“Inflation” is defined in the dictionary as “undue expansion or increase of the currency of a country, esp. by the issuing of paper money not redeemable in specie” (Random House Dictionary). It is interesting to note that the word “inflated” is defined as “distended with air or gas; swollen.”

This last is not a coincidence: in regard to social issues, “inflation” does not mean growth, enlargement or expansion, it means an “undue”—or improper or fraudulent—expansion. The expansion of a country’s currency (which, incidentally, cannot be perpetrated by private citizens, only by the government) consists in palming off, as values, a stream of paper backed by nothing but promises (or hot air) and getting actual values, the citizens’ goods or services, in return—until the country’s wealth is drained. A similar activity, in private performance, is the passing of checks on a non-existent bank account. But, in private performance, this is regarded as a crime—and most people understand why such an activity cannot last for long.

Today, people are beginning to understand that the government’s account is overdrawn, that a piece of paper is not the equivalent of a gold coin, or an automobile, or a loaf of bread—and that if you attempt to falsify monetary values, you do not achieve abundance, you merely debase the currency and go bankrupt.

Vad pengar egentligen är och vad det får för konsekvenser är alldeles för viktiga frågor för att vara okunnig om, så lägg gärna 41 minuter på filmen nedan - det är ovärderlig allmänbildning:

(Direktlänk)