Alchemy: Paper to Money

Printing is believed to have begun in China around the year 200, in the form
of Woodblock images. The Chinese progressed to movable type, individual characters
on mini woodblocks around 1040. In 1969 laser printing was developed, creating a
revolution in printing which could be called ALCHEMY. With such printing plain
paper of little value could be converted into currency, of any value desired. That
changed the value system of entire societies. No longer were the stores of real value and wealth--labor, land, and natural resources. Wealth could now be in the form of paper assets. A huge variety of such paper assets were created and marketed. And the governments discovered that printed money could supplement tax receipts for
paying the costs of running the country, funding programs, bribing or doing favors for special interest groups such as the military-industrial complex, etc. Even wars
could be financed by paper as long as someone would buy it. There's the rub! When
the amount of debt, in relation to the nation's ability to generate wealth in the
form of GDP, was manageable there were buyers and holders of our debt instruments.
With the 2008 crash because of phony derivatives, the stimulus spending needed to get employment up must be financed by printing money, inflating the deficit and
deflating the dollar. Because Europe is in even worse shape the dollar deflation is
not as great as it might be.
So, until the populace accepts the reality that more taxes are required, and our
participation in useless wars must be ended, printed money is greasing our skids to third world status.