Rumor has it that the status quo currency of cotton money will be replaced with sticks and twigs of various sizes. I don't believe this system of trade will be adopted by the people of the world, but I have a solution. If the stick is inserted in it's bearer's ass, it shall be declared twice the value of a regular stick. For each inch inserted (excluding the first inch), the value of the stick increases exponentially.

This creates an interesting scenario for the payment of goods and services, as at first not everyone will be comfortable with handling sticks that have been inside their fellow consumer or producer's rectum. This problem is easily averted, however. The value of the stick shall have an additional multiplier factor of 2 if the payee removes the stick from the payor's ass. Otherwise, as normal protocol, the payor shall remove the stick and present it to the payee. If the payee so chooses, however, he or she may request that the payor cleanse the stick after removal. This will decrease the value of the stick by a factor of 2. For example, if one has three sticks each inserted four inches up one's ass, and a clerk removes two of them without assistance, this payment would be equivalent to eighty regular, plain sticks. As you can see, this saves a lot of sticks, and a lot of time.

Care must be taken for the stick to not become severed, as this voids the value of the stick entirely. This system is clearly superior to that of bank notes, as authenticity can almost always be assured. You may be thinking, what about those who have not an ass? And those with no arms or legs with which to remove the stick from their ass? Will proctologists become the equivalent of today's bankers? These questions and many more can and will be asked. Problems will turn into solutions. But I must ask of you, do you think the earliest civilizations thought possible the mass production and trade of metal coins? Could the Romans, at the height of their power, have imagined the debit card?

I believe, some day, the stick and it's relationship with the ass, will be what "makes the world go round".

A currency is a brand of money. Today, these are usually issued by large policital entities - most often nation states, but occasionally also unions (e.g, the euro, being issued by the European Union.)

Trading in currencies is called Foreign Exchange or FOREX. It is based on the variations of price between various currencies, and involves staggering amounts of money. How different currencies are priced against each other varies depending on the economic climate and how the international agreements about how to use currencies are at the time. Historically, there has been a number of different schemes.

For centuries, it used to be common for currencies to be backed in gold, letting the person possessing currency exchange it for gold. This became more or less universal in 1879, and lasted until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. From 1914 to 1945, currencies sort of floated depending on the whims of the issuers. Then came the Bretton Woods agreement in 1945, adding back a gold tie, but allowing countries to adjust their par rate to gold on an uniliteral basis if the IMF agreed. The next change was in 1950 - where the gold standard was replaced with dollar standard, with the USA having a fairly passive role, just trying to keep prices of tradable goods stable and allowing the access to the US capital markets open for everybody. This policy was called the Fixed-Rate Dollar Standard, and lasted until 1970, and was followed by a brief period of instability. In 1972, it was replaced with the Floating-Rate Dollar Standard, in which countries tried to keep their currency reasonably stable against the dollar in the short term, but did not commit to a stable rate of exchange over time. The US also started pursuing a more active role, not trying to keep prices of tradable goals stable. This lasted until 1984, and in 1985 was replaced with an attempt at keeping the rate between dollar and DM and the rate between dollar and yen reasonably stable as long as economic fundamentals didn't change drastically.

From 1972 and onwards, most currency rates have been floating. This means that the currency isn't based in anything but trust in the issuer. There is no fixed exchange for anything else; everything depends on the present rates in the foreign exchange market.

The main differences between a currency and a stock is that the currency is intended for use in generic barter, is often backed by a larger entity than the stock, does not pay a dividend, and does not give voting rights. A currency also usually has a negative effective rate of return due to inflation.

That which is of the now, or, power that flows (including money)

People who are hungry and have enough money in their pocket to buy one sandwich and no other money look forward to that sandwich. They value and are scared of it to some degree, for what happens when the money and then the sandwich are gone? But still, overall and right now, they are pleased it’s there (sandwich and money both).

Ben Bradlee lived a good life. It says so on the spine of the book here just out of my reach on the bookshelf. It’s a very large bookshelf. It runs across a whole wall of the parlor. Maybe 500 books, not a precise count, but that won’t be far off. There are a number of bookcases in this house. Some smaller, others bigger, but all full up. Most of these volumes I can put a memory to. Not of the books themselves (although that as well) but of when they were bought or where or why, by whom. I imagine most people can do that.

Ben Bradlee’s book was borrowed and never returned from my mother-in-law. She lived in New Hampshire when I borrowed it from her. For a while when she got sick again she came to live with us, here in this house in Maine. She spent about six months with us, living in an apartment in the barn. Perhaps that book was then in a way no longer borrowed as she was living under the same roof. But then she left and moved to Austin, Texas to live with my wife’s sister, her younger daughter. At that moment, from a moral or legal standpoint, the book was borrowed again. But then after a while we also left Maine behind and bought another house in Austin and then my mother in law died. This happened in the summer that we had come back north for a few weeks and so the book became ours. Technically it’s my wife’s and I’m sure if I bought a legal challenge for specific custody of it I wouldn’t likely win, unless it was part or fell under some wider agreement as regards all the books we own. But still if, for example, my wife and I stay together and she dies before I do then it will be something I could then leave in my own will to anyone I wanted.

When Benjamin Crowninshield “Ben” Bradlee, who was born on August 26, 1921, chose his title he must have been somewhere in his early seventies, as the book was published in October of 1995. He lived for a good amount more afterwards, dying 19 years later on October 21, 2014 at 93.

Externally and compared to most of us he had a full life, which is probably one of the markers of it being good. There is something a little smug it seems to me about self-describing your existence as good, but my feelings about this might be cultural. The English feel the Americans are too full of themselves as it is. Brash, which -to one side- is one of my favorite words. Not for its associated meaning, but just the sound and stubby shape which never ends because of the ‘sh’ at the end.

As a child I had a minor speech impediment involving the letter ‘S’ and am perhaps more sensitive to the areas of its deployment than the average person.

Although it was a separate event and happened a few years later, I was also sent to elocution lessons to tidy up my accent which at eleven was thought by my parents (mother, probably) to be too rough or working class. And although class is and was then a central part of the English fabric, I think this experience led me to being highly attuned to the differences, perceived and otherwise, between people and who was good and who was less good.

With regard to Bradlee, and while his life as written about was certainly full of color and famous people he had opinions about, I would find it far more interesting now to read 426 pages about everything that happened to him after he first put his pen down. The last segment. Of course, in a wholly secular way what I would like to read is his unfiltered Afterword. What he made of it all when it was all done. Impossible task and why the obituarists get to do their pale work.

Robards played Bradlee in the movie, but died sooner. I like Robards, but have no idea why, having never met the man. I like Bradlee despite the same shortcoming, although I did see Bradlee interviewed a number of times, so at least can guess at the character he was while playing himself not another.

Getting to the point (or at least outlining an idea or basis to give you something to hang on to or project from), it has always seemed odd or difficult or unfortunate that humans must feel deeply to learn or gain experience and then have enough time for reflection to understand certain things and even then that a large number of the most important things we learn come too late to use ourselves. But we are incapable of helping others. Not because of any unwillingingness on our part, but because of some trait that runs in almost every person; an inability to be told.

One plus one equals one and sometimes a very tiny bit.

 

Cur"ren*cy (k?r"r?n-c?), n.; pl. Currencies (-sz). [Cf. LL. currentia a current, fr. L. currens, p. pr. of currere to run. See Current.]

1.

A continued or uninterrupted course or flow like that of a sream; as, the currency of time.

[Obs.]

Ayliffe.

2.

The state or quality of being current; general acceptance or reception; a passing from person to person, or from hand to hand; circulation; as, a report has had a long or general currency; the currency of bank notes.

3.

That which is in circulation, or is given and taken as having or representing value; as, the currency of a country; a specie currency; esp., government or bank notes circulating as a substitute for metallic money.

4.

Fluency; readiness of utterance.

[Obs.]

5.

Current value; general estimation; the rate at which anything is generally valued.

He . . . takes greatness of kingdoms according to their bulk and currency, and not after intrinsic value. Bacon.

The bare name of Englishman . . . too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and ungrateful. W. Irving.

 

© Webster 1913.

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