What's it worth to ya?

Following the financial news this week, and being a hopeless nerd who actually spends precious minutes pondering such intangibles, I was thinking about how a $100 bill is just a piece of paper with the number 100 printed on it. It has value because we share a belief that that piece of paper, based solely on the belief we collectively put in it, is the equivalent of a certain amount of goods and/or services. Nothing gives it value other than our shared faith that a 100 is worth a 100. A hundred what? Dollars or pounds or yuans. But what are those things? Other pieces of paper. And faith.

What a way to run a world.

How do we determine what is worth handing over a paper with 100 written on it versus something that is only worth a piece of paper with 20 written on it.

Who invented this insanity?

At least in ancient times when coins were gold, they were gold. Gold is nice and shiny and tangible. You can touch it and it feels nice. And other people would like to have some too, so you can trade it for stuff. But paper with somebody's face on it? I don't get it. Bring back the Gold Standard!

Human beings are far too unstable and insane to be depended upon to handle this kind of abstract transaction. Yet we all do it. And we never question it. How do we determine worth? And how do we transfer our understanding of what a good or service is “worth” onto a piece of paper?

I won’t even begin to contemplate stocks and bonds. Something like $2 trillion has "disappeared" from the world economy this year. It is all about faith, isn't it? Is there anything else (maybe religion?) that can control every day of our lives, and we just accept that it can vanish.

Things shouldn't just disappear. I'm cashing in my mutual funds (whatever the hell they are) for an equal value of goats. That way, when my assets expire, I can eat them.