University of Money
A Conceptual Journey of Mind
To Access Protected Pages. Please click "password login" or
2008 and Where Do we Begin?
Let
us first crack open the money vault with some basic conceptual definitions:
Def'n Money:
A medium of exchange for goods and services". In that sense money can be anything. It could even be paper which has no intrinsic or very little value in itself; Or it could be a measure of rice, something that may lose its value over time due to spoilage; Or it could be something that holds it intrinsic value a mineral like salt or gold or something biological such as sheep or cattle.
Folks what are we talking about here, really? Money, money, money money money in the real sense of the real world really only represents energy - if you have enough of it you can even move mountains.
And if you even been to China where the population is exploding like rabbits and where buildable land is scarce then you know that even mountains won't stand a chance if there is enough energy to grind them down into oblivion. Like a machine on steroidsMoney represents pure energy and as in China we all play a big part of that energy machine. A paper machine changing and perhaps even permanently destroying the natural world. Have we all gone mad and as Joni Mitchelle says in her song, "paving paradise and putting up parking lots' but I digress.
Defn' Paper Notes:
For a long time in history gold or silver was acceptable as money. If you had any quantity of gold not only would it be cumbersome but understandably it would be unsafe to keep it if you had insecure premises. Therefore the first banks were established for the common benefit to all (for the benefit of the community [common unity]).
Anyone holding gold in a bank for safe keeping would have a certificate or paper note he could present to the bank which the back would accept in exchange to withdraw his gold. So the first paper notes certified ownership of gold or silver deposited in a community bank.
Not like it is today, it wasn't all that long ago within 3 generations that one could cash a notarized piece of paper for the real money it represented which was gold or silver in a bank! The value was never in the paper but for what it could be exchanged or turned in for! As simple as that may seem somehow in accepting pieces of paper for value we seem to have forgotten that.
Def'n "Accepted for Value"; "Holder in Due Course":
However in order to pay a debt in gold or silver is cumbersome and bulky and so eventually it was realized that it was more convenient to give the paper note or the certificate as a means of exchange. This is because the new owner of the certificate could "accept it for value" knowing full well that as the holder of the certificate - the holder in due course - he could always exchange the value written on the note for the amount of gold or silver held in the bank or alternatively he could keep it there in the bank for safe keeping.
Def'n check - a personal Paper Note
This is effectively what we do when we write a check we create a personal bank note. A check is merely a written paper note authorized by your autograph that can be presented to a bank in exchange for what is accepted as legal tender.
Sign
upLegal Tender
Legal tender: is whatever the authority, who we all have agreed governs these matters, determines to be acceptable as a means of exchange. For the benefit of everyone in a community, if paper notes are to be freely exchanged one would naturally want some central authority to vouch that these notes in fact really do have redeemable value in a bank.
Fiat money: If those paper notes that are deemed by the State legal tender cannot be exchanged at the bank for real gold or silver for the stated value on it - that money is not backed by anything of substance, it is considered "fiat" money or false money.
Accepting for value: In this second scenario, the paper has no intrinsic value. The only value it has is the value you perceive or accept it to have and as long as you accept is as having value it will be a means of exchange.
Here in lies the problem, perception is a fickle thing - what may be deemed to have value today may be deemed to have very little value tomorrow. During the current US presidential term we have witnessed how the American Dollar has lost 27% of its value against the Canadian dollar in less than 1 year! in less that one year! in less than one year! in less than 1 year folks!!!
Few realize how severe that erosion of value has been since 1911. Folks we are literally talking pennies - let me repeat it - I said pennies on the dollar! Wake up!!! from your slumber.
By staking our future in paper that represents nothing of redeemable value we are extremely vulnerable but the situation we unwittingly find our selves today is fundamentally unsound as every aspect of our lives since as we shall see it is based almost exclusively on a paper derivative world. And as we shall find out it is even more than is alluded here in this first page.
The good news is there are things we can do to protect what wealth we do have - in this paper based world - but . . .
But before we can do something we fundamentally need to understand our predicament. Like a fish in water we are so conditioned to behave in a paper derivative world that it virtually impossible to see our way out of it. With the information and links in this site you will and you will be able to take the appropriate steps to not only ensure security for ones self but also ones family. How you will be able to do that is not based on what you know - I have nothing to sell you - but on how you think. Join us to see this other side of that coin that we call money...