The longest lasting fiat currency in history is the Great British Pound. The pound dates back to 928, making it the oldest currency still in use, although it has only been a fully fledged fiat currency since 1971. Initially defined as a weight of silver, the pound became a fiat currency briefly in 1745 due […]
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Fiat currency is a type of currency that exists only by government decree. It refers to the nature of the currency being untethered to a commodity with new units being easily created at will. Legal tender is a status that a government bestows on a currency, stating that it must be accepted by merchants and
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The history of fiat currency is a history of failed experiments. Authorities have sought to utilise the flexibility it gives their finances, but have often mismanaged it and brought catastrophe. While fiat currency is the norm today, it has been less common in the past. Throughout much of human history, society has used some form
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Do all fiat currencies go to zero? History says that they do and common sense suggests that on long enough timeline the failure of every fiat currency is inevitable. Even Charlie Munger thinks so: “The safe assumption for an investor is that over the next 100 years the currency’s going to zero.” Fiat currency cannot
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The Renminbi translates to “people’s currency” and is the currency issued by the Communist Party of China. The term Renminbi refers to the name of the currency in the broad sense, while yuan is the name of one unit of currency. The Renminbi was first issued towards the end of the Republic of China in
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Fiat currency is bad for many more reasons beyond the obvious one – that it loses purchasing power due to inflation and eventually goes to zero. It has many other negative characteristics that cause economic, political and social problems. However, it is important to acknowledge the one benefit of fiat currency. Many hard money advocates
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The short answer is that fiat currency is backed by the government that issues it. The government declares the fiat currency to be legal tender and mandates that its population pay their taxes in that currency. This requirement, alongside the recognition that the currency is given by the market as a means of exchange and
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The history of U.S. currency begins with the foreign money of the colonial era and ends with the fiat standard of the post 1971 era. The Federal Reserve Notes that currently circulate as U.S. currency only became the exclusive legal tender of the United States in 1971. Before that, the United States had a number
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Fiat currency is an attractive thing for a government. They can use it to transfer wealth from the future to the present and therefore they can spend beyond their means. Taxation and borrowing have limitations, but creating new units of currency is a much easier method of government financing. Unfortunately for governments there is one
A Short History of Fiat Currency Failures: 9 Currencies That Have Collapsed Read More »
The story of the Weimar hyperinflation is a familiar one. But do you know what the rentenmark was and how it worked? Germany, like the other European powers, suspended the gold standard at the outbreak of World War One in 1914, abandoning the goldmark for the papiermark. By losing the war she suffered a greater