What Is the Future of Money?
Commentary
We’re at a turning point in history. This could be said of many things, but it’s certainly true of the modern monetary system. Like most transitions in life and in history, the monetary system’s transformation is occurring slowly, then suddenly, in that the changes are almost imperceptible but then, like all cataclysms, will eventually be impossible to miss.
The last time the world’s monetary system fundamentally changed was in the first half of the 20th century when, nation by nation, the world went off the gold standard and adopted fiat, i.e., government-issued, paper currencies backed by nothing more than the “faith and good credit” of the issuing government. The century-long fiat era—characterized by debt-fueled monetary growth and runaway government deficits and national debt—is almost certainly drawing to a close….