Money seems to have a big role in our society; you can’t do much or get far if you don’t have any.  Money is valuable in different ways, even when you don’t see it physically.  In today’s society you must have faith in the government, in the banking system, that your money is being handled with in the proper manner, if not then you would be hiding all of your money under your mattress, or around your house.  I never really have a clue what happens in the banks, and how they take care of your money.  I always just thought money was quite simple; you either have some or you don’t, that’s it.  However, by being introduced to this assignment and having it compare the Yap Fei with the US and France gold trade in 1933, and the Brazilian cruzeros all seemed somewhat similar. No one actually sees their money being transferred.  When you get paid, you don’t get a check or get paid even in cash, it’s all directly transferred to your bank account, and that you just have to trust that you got more money.

After reading through this assignment and listening about it during class, I realized that money can just be a big scam if you don’t have any faith and confidence.  The Yap never got to see that one stone that was considered the greatest above all the stones.  It was sitting somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, yet the natives still took their word.  They didn’t see the limestone but the family still got the value that it is worth.  Now looking at the Yap’s perspective, I believe that they would think our monetary system is completely out of the ordinary. While they have stones in front of their properties, we have pieces of paper that represent our wealth.

The Germans decided that they didn’t like the pathways on the island of Yap, so they marked black X’s on the stones to show that it actually belonged to the German government.  Once the pathways were formed into nice roads and highways, the Germans scrubbed off the X’s and the Yaps felt as if they had their value back. This is quite similar to what the French had asked for. In 1933, the French wanted to trade United States dollars for gold, thinking they it will be worth much more, since gold doesn’t lose its value. But they did not want to spend any more money on the shipment of the gold, so they simply asked the US if their gold can be put into a separate drawer in the federal reserve bank labeled that it belonged to the French. This shows how much trust and faith that people have for keeping someone’s wealth. By the French not actually having their gold, they know that it is in that drawer, and the Yaps not having their stone, they know that it is still their stone.

Only about twenty years ago Brazil thought it was doing its country a favor by building a new capital, but little did they know they were putting their country into an economic nightmare. In just one month, Brazil’s inflation reached 80% meaning more money was printed, and more money people were trying to spend. In NPR story about Brazil they mention how 80% inflation impacted daily spendings.  They said that one day eggs would cost $1, and the next day it would cost $1.02.  However if inflation continued, by the end of the year it would cost $1,000. This really amazed me and it got me thinking how people could live like this with the prices always rising everyday. Brazil was convinced that the government was helpless to control inflation.  But out of some miracle, Brazil had one bizarre plan that they hoped would work.  They constructed a fake currency that would trick the people of Brazil into thinking it was a new currency called “URV” unit of real value. People would still have cruzeros but everything would be listed in URV’s. The Brazilians slowly understood the concept of the URV.  It created stability within the country and it gave value to their money.

Works Cited

“The Friday Podcast: A Giant Stone Coin At The Bottom Of The Sea.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/02/15/131963928/the-friday-podcast-a-giant-stone-coin-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea&gt;.

Joffe-Walt, Chana. “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil&gt;.

Friedman, Milton. The Island of Stone Money. Stanford University: Hoover Institution, 1991. N. pag. Print.

Goldstein, Jacob, and David Kestenbaum. “The Island Of Stone Money.” NPR. NPR, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 01 Feb. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money>.