Money In Crisis

 Money and Technology in Ancient Times Et maioures et posteros vestros cogitate. __ Cornelius Tacitus Ask two economists a question, and you will get three different answers - so a popular joke goes. This is an exaggeration, but with a grain of truth: Economists often disagree with one another, perhaps because their theories are so difficult to prove or disprove. When they agree, it may happen that their proposition is disproved by other scientists. This happened to a theory that interests us here: that of the origin of money. Adam Smith, the father of classical economics, in his 1776 magnum opus An Inquiry on the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, argued that money arises spontaneously from labor specialization. In primitive societies - so his story goes - each person procured the necessary for the self and the family and no exchange took place. Procurement and consumption remained confined within the same person or small community. As soon as hunter-gatherers settled...

 Hopes and Reality of Digital Money Never mistake activity for achievement. John Wooden___ Digital monies are part of our daily life. Payment cards, smartphone apps, and online platforms have become routine ways to make payments, familiar to most of us. A minority of people but a growing one moved ahead, entering the mysterious, ethereal world of cryptocurrencies. Money, once seen and touched, pocketed and handed, now increasingly takes the form of electrons or waves travelling on air and wire at the speed of light, dispatched by a fingertip. The technological upheaval is apparent, but users are typically unaware of what happens below the surface. What has changed? Is it just the fact that payments are easier, quicker, and cleaner? Or are we losing something, together with the materiality of money? Are there pitfalls that ordinary people, even experts, fail to see? What do we need to know and understand, to stay safe in one of the things we care about the most — our money? If reade...