What Ashlee is Reading

 Oh, boy, do I have a lot to learn. I've always fancied myself rather good with money, not that my circumstances have ever required me to be exceptionally so, but I feel I've always been good about balancing my spending, etc. But I had no idea how little I really understood money.  WWI marked the beginning of fiat currency, which was originally backed by (or redeemable into standardized amounts of) gold (or no one would want it). Since it is centrally controlled it is prone to having it's supply increased quickly compared to its stock (too easy and tempting to print more money without increasing gold supply to back it), impoverishing holders. This chapter gives examples of fiat currencies doing just that, collapsing, and ruining lives. Within only a few weeks of WWI, governments began printing money, above and beyond what their gold stores allowed. This was an incognito way (as opposed to taxation) of funding the war, which devalued people's stored wealth. If a governme...

 Ch. 2      This chapter starts with some historical examples of money and how it has worked in different cultures. Most notably, as the author indicated that it was the closest thing to how Bitcoin works, the Rai stones of the Yap people in Micronesia. The Rai stones were large limestone discs with a hole in the middle from when they were transported.  They had to be excavated and carved on a nearby island, making increasing the supply difficult, and their rarity made them beautiful and desirable. Although they came in different sizes to some extent, they were heavy ang bulky- they were not scalable across distance. This problem was solved by a different method of transferring them. The stones were left on display in a public place, and ownership was transferred by public decree. This system worked well for the Yap people for a long time, until an Irish man, David O'Keefe came along. When he couldn't entice the people to work for him (harvesting coconuts or som...