Genius of Money Post 3: An Interview with Lynne Twist

I picked this interview because I like to do volunteer service too. During my high school life, I will do volunteer service twice a week because I think if we have the time and money, we should try our best to help those who are in need. Also, I have volunteered in the LA Food Bank and I feel that the hunger issue is a very important thing we need to solve it. Before participating in the LA Food Bank, I didn't notice that there were so many people suffer in hunger and I think the Hunger Project will be a very good platform to help them.

Lynne told us her childhood background where her religious path started after her father's death. She was very successful at school but at the same time, she was very devoted to God. She didn't want her friends to know that she was so spiritual. I know how she feels because I am a Catholic and I studied in a Catholic school before. But majority of the students are non-Catholic. They will think we are "spiritual freak", always go to church and pray. Lynne want to work hard and make her father feel proud of her.

For the last part of the interview, I need to go through it a few times to understand what she is talking about. I do agree that we should try to be happy with what we have, instead of always looking for more. We should treasure what we have got and don't take everything for granted.

Genius of Money Post

Ch.3 Trumped Money: Value and the Eye of the Beholder

This section mainly takes about the value of money. It is very hard for me to read. One of the reasons is the vocabulary very complicated; another reasons is the lack of knowledge of cohesive meaning throughout the writing. Fortunately, I understand it after lots of attempts. There are two values of the money. One is gold-backed currency, which uses gold to measure its value. Another is the “Greenback” money which is a fiat money without any measurement of its actual value. This the one we use today, the dollars. Back in the 1890s, there was a strong distrust towards bankers and government. This was the beginning of "greenbacks", a fiat currency issued to help pay for Civil War expenses and were blessed as legal tender.  At first, the government can issue fiat money without limits.  Therefore, the value of Greenback need people's consent on its values. For example, the US government issues dollar bill, which is trustworthy globally. 

People trust US government issues valuable currency, which can be used in the trade. People were assured that the bill that they got can be exchanged with an equivalent one with the same value. Then the author introduces us the idea of quantity and quality embedded in the value of the fiat currency. For the issuance and supply of currency, consumers tends to desire more quantity currency since this gives them more purchasing power, but when the currency devaluates, they will prefer qualitative currency where it supports rising value. In somehow, he also explains the metaphor “barrels” used in describing the value of money in someone’s writing. 

Ch.12 Free Market Money in a Pop Iconomy

John talks about how money can become part of the popular culture in 1960s when the post World War II made the dollar bill the most prevalent in everyone's daily experience. 

The author talks about Andy Warhol and how he created his paintings and drawings of dollar bills the same year as Milton Friedman first published Capitalism and Freedom, the seminal book that framed the rationale for our current free market economy. Friedman's theory was that an economy operating free of government control would raise everyone's standard of living.