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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's me Josh and for this week's s

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Speaker 1: Y s K Select, I chose how Much Money Is

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Speaker 1: in the World? First aired in September two thousand thirteen.

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Speaker 1: And this is one of those topics that you kind

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Speaker 1: of wonder about ever since you're a little kid. I

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Speaker 1: know I did, and delightfully I found that as an

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Speaker 1: adult the answer was even more interesting than I had

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Speaker 1: imagined as a youngster. Youngster, that's what adults called kids,

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Speaker 1: right Well, anyway, this is one of my all time

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Speaker 1: favorite episodes. I hope you enjoy it as well. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Stuff You Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and I'm

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Speaker 1: with Charles W. Chuck Bryan. He's right here with me.

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Speaker 1: So it's stuff you should know. It's also really stuff

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Speaker 1: you should know because Jerry's here too. Oh the chairs

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Speaker 1: now here. It's fake stuff you should know. It's less

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Speaker 1: than vintage stuff you should know, got you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's not bad, it's not great. I'm sure Matt and

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Speaker 1: everyone appreciate that. Dud. I listen to this cramp Yeah, uh, Chuck, Yes,

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Speaker 1: how much money do you have on you right now? Cash,

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Speaker 1: zero dollars and zero cents. Well, that's stupid, because you

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Speaker 1: should have thirty eight in cash on you. I never

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Speaker 1: have cash. Well, you should almost never have cash. You

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Speaker 1: should have thirty eight hundred dollars in cash on you

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Speaker 1: right now. So should I, so should Jerry. Um, but

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Speaker 1: we don't. We don't. It's sad. I'd love in my pocket. Okay, Well,

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Speaker 1: let's let's explain why I just said that. Huh was

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Speaker 1: I supposed to? That's all right, I'll do it. Um,

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Speaker 1: I can do it. That's how much if you divide

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Speaker 1: up all the money between all the Americans, that's how

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Speaker 1: much we should all have. Bam, bam. So we're trying

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Speaker 1: to answer a question here, how much money is there

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Speaker 1: in the world? Um, And we'll get to that. There's

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Speaker 1: a there's actually a rough estimate out there that may

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Speaker 1: be right. But instead, first let's talk about how much

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Speaker 1: American money there is in the world. And not just

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Speaker 1: because we're American, but because it is the standard currency worldwide.

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Speaker 1: It's the closest thing to the universal currency that we have, um,

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Speaker 1: the dollar, the green back. Yeah. But um, that's not,

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Speaker 1: as I guess, um widespread as it once was. A

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Speaker 1: lot of people have abandoned the dollar UM and now

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Speaker 1: use a basket of currencies to value their currency against

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Speaker 1: very rebellious um. But still the dollar is generally what's

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Speaker 1: used to say, for oil speculation. And imagine the dollars

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Speaker 1: in that basket too though, right, maybe maybe not, It

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Speaker 1: depend on how much they hate America, gotcha? So um.

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Speaker 1: What you were talking about, though, was all the money

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Speaker 1: divided up by all the Americans coming up to thirty dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's called the M zero money supply. Of course, you

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Speaker 1: know how I read that m O the more money Supply.

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Speaker 1: I was like, what, and then I read I read

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Speaker 1: it again. I said, it can't be called the MO

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Speaker 1: money supply, and then I realized that was a zero

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Speaker 1: and not an Oh it it looks very much like

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Speaker 1: the MO money Supply. I wrote this article. I realized it,

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Speaker 1: and I never saw it like that until you just

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Speaker 1: said that. Really, Yeah, I like the MO money supply

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Speaker 1: better than the m OH. It's good, but it is

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Speaker 1: m O for a reason. There's also the M one,

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Speaker 1: M two, and there wasn't M three, which we'll get

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Speaker 1: to right. And the people who came up with this

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Speaker 1: was the federal Reserve Bank, the United States Central Bank,

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Speaker 1: the FED, right, and they like to track money. That's

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Speaker 1: one of the things they do to amuse themselves. Count yeah,

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Speaker 1: count money, um, and go to sleep on pile of

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Speaker 1: gold ingots. But the FED came up with this M

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, this more Money Supply, also known as the

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Speaker 1: M zero supply, and that is all of the bills

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Speaker 1: and coins, all of the actual hard currency that exists

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Speaker 1: in the world anywhere in US dollars. And as of

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Speaker 1: July two thirteen. Hey, that's recent. Yeah, that came to

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Speaker 1: always should say Catherine Whitbourne from The Coolest Stuff on

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Speaker 1: the Planet. She updated this. So the fact that this

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Speaker 1: is as up today as it is is thanks to her. UM.

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Speaker 1: But the the M so, the more Money Supply as

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Speaker 1: of July two thirteen is one point to trillion dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's all the cash and all the coins all over

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Speaker 1: the world of American dollars, the real dollars that you

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Speaker 1: can collect and put together you can light your cigars with, yeah,

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Speaker 1: or you can throw into a fountain. Yeah. At one

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Speaker 1: point to trillion US dollars. So that's how much money

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Speaker 1: was in the world. But and and we said also

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Speaker 1: that's thirty eight hundred for every American man, woman, and child.

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Speaker 1: All three hundred and sixteen million, six hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: eight thousand, five hundred and sixty seven Americans that were

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Speaker 1: alive in July of two thousand thirteen, each one should

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Speaker 1: have had thirty eight hundred bucks in their pocket. Because

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Speaker 1: we're not talking checking accounts, we're talking the actual currency

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Speaker 1: that people are walking around with. Since I don't have

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Speaker 1: thirty eight hundred dollars in my pocket, and I didn't

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Speaker 1: in July, you don't, Jerry, Nope, Jerry's got more. Where

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Speaker 1: is this stuff? That's a good question. I wonder how

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Speaker 1: that clock ticks, by the way, the population clock. I'd

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Speaker 1: like to see a real time like three people died,

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Speaker 1: four people born, people died, eight people born, said its wins.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if it ever does go backwards for a second.

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Speaker 1: It's got too because people are dying, but more people

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Speaker 1: are being born than people are dying. Yeah, it depends

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Speaker 1: on the country you're talking about. Yeah, that's true. Um,

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Speaker 1: I always drive by the one in Atlanta, you know,

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Speaker 1: on the population clock that's been there forever. When I

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Speaker 1: was a kid, I remember when the top two million

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Speaker 1: it was like whoa wow, and now it's whatever three

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Speaker 1: points something is it? Yeah? I mean that's metro Atlanta, right,

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Speaker 1: it's not city of Atlanta. Um, alright, so back to it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: where were we hard to track the more money? No,

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Speaker 1: we were talking about where the thirty eight hundred bucks

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Speaker 1: that should be in our pockets is? Oh well, um,

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Speaker 1: about a half to two thirds of that is overseas.

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Speaker 1: It's an overseas pockets, that's right, or overseas bank accounts

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Speaker 1: or no, no, we're not talking bank accountants. Wait, that's

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Speaker 1: just the money, that's right. Yeah. So that means that

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Speaker 1: there are people walking around overseas with cash on them

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Speaker 1: American dollar American dollars, which makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 1: And so when you start to divide the amount of money,

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Speaker 1: at one point two trillion buy a lot more than

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Speaker 1: three hundred and sixteen million people. That explains why I

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Speaker 1: have a single dollar bill on my person right now,

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Speaker 1: why I have nothing? All right? And Jerry nothing nothing man,

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Speaker 1: we're sad sex Okay, So that's just the MO money supply. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the M zero, the M one is all of the

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Speaker 1: MO money plus checking account money and other kinds of

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Speaker 1: just accounts that you can you know, track and travelers checks. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: very very liquid types of accounts. Yes, that's the M one,

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Speaker 1: Yeah supply that And it's funny that you were having

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Speaker 1: trouble wrapping your head around the fact that we were

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Speaker 1: talking about cash outside of banks for the M zero supply.

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Speaker 1: I had the same problem too, like it's hard to

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Speaker 1: think of money outside of banks in this day and age,

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Speaker 1: you could rarely have cash on hand use like debit

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Speaker 1: cards and credit cards and all that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yeah's American Express for everything. That's funny that on this

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Speaker 1: audio podcast you just held it up to your face

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Speaker 1: when you said that. Um, so that's the M one.

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Speaker 1: In June of of this year, the M one supply

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Speaker 1: was about two point five trillion, So the momentey supply

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Speaker 1: was one point two. The M one was two point five.

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Speaker 1: That's all the accounts and checking accounts, travelers checks. Then

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Speaker 1: there's the M two, which is the M one supply

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Speaker 1: plus uh money market fund, money savings accounts, and CDs

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Speaker 1: under a hundred grand, which they call small c ds

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Speaker 1: right from that's a pretty good CD. Well, c D

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Speaker 1: over a hundred grands called a jumbo. Yeah. I was

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Speaker 1: looking up jumbo right there used to be something like

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Speaker 1: four and a quarter. Some of them would be like

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Speaker 1: for like a ten year. Yeah, so you get like

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Speaker 1: twenty two grand back over now I'm sorry, five years.

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Speaker 1: So you go give a bank a hundred grand, say

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Speaker 1: keep this for five years paying me back, and they

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Speaker 1: would give you twenty two interests. So you get a

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two cran This not very long ago,

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago before the crash. You want

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Speaker 1: to know what it's at right now, for a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollar three year I believe c D a jumbo

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Speaker 1: c D, you get like one point four percent. It's

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Speaker 1: only worth your time to give a bank a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars to keep for three years. They'll give you

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Speaker 1: fourteen hundred dollars. Asinine go to the dog track with

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Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars and you leave a heroin addict crying. Um. Alright,

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Speaker 1: So the M to supply, which like I said, was

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Speaker 1: it was the M one supply plus money market fund

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Speaker 1: saving counts and those smaller CDs ten point five trillion.

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Speaker 1: That's virtually all of the American money in the world

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Speaker 1: pretty much. Because they got rid of M three basically

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Speaker 1: in two thousand six, because they said it really doesn't

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Speaker 1: tell us much to know what the larger jumbo CDs

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Speaker 1: are adding to this pile. It doesn't change things that much,

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Speaker 1: I guess. I imagine there's just not that many exactly.

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Speaker 1: So about ten point five trillion US dollars in accounts

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Speaker 1: and in cash um in holdings in the world in

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Speaker 1: about July June July of two. That's a lot of dough.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot of mula, all right, And if you

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Speaker 1: want to, yeah, it even says in't here that's it did.

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Speaker 1: And that's when I looked up. It's like who wrote this?

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Speaker 1: It was like, oops, I thought this was well done.

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Speaker 1: Well and I learned how to spell mulah. I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: Don't don't Patre, Now I'm serious. I literally thought, oh,

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Speaker 1: that's how you spell mula. How do you think you

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Speaker 1: spelled it? I don't know. M u l a no.

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Speaker 1: I just never thought of I've never seen it spelled

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Speaker 1: out m O O l a. H Uh. That's a

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Speaker 1: p standard exactly. So, um this I think we've kind

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Speaker 1: of pointed out it's tough to track money like this. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not the easiest thing. They do a pretty good

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Speaker 1: job of it that the FED does specifically because it's

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Speaker 1: just what they do and they love doing that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but it's you know, it's an estimate still, like no

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Speaker 1: one knows how much cash I have in my house,

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Speaker 1: no one asked me, no, But they know how much

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Speaker 1: was printed. They keep track of that kind of stuff,

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Speaker 1: how much is destroyed, how much in circulation um. And

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Speaker 1: you know there's bank reportings. They know how much a

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Speaker 1: bank has at the FED UM, so they have a

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Speaker 1: It's it's pretty close estimate from what I understand. The

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Speaker 1: thing is, not every country has a FED like the

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Speaker 1: FED in the US, and that makes it way harder

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Speaker 1: to say how much money is in the entire world,

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Speaker 1: not just US dollars, but all the money in the

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Speaker 1: entire world, and more difficult to control your economy. It is,

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Speaker 1: if you if you don't know how much money you have,

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Speaker 1: it's very difficult to sway your economy one way or

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Speaker 1: the right exactly. So UM Zimbabwe is a really good example,

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Speaker 1: man of why it's so hard to track a lot

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Speaker 1: of money, and also what happens when you don't track

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Speaker 1: your money, yeah, or what happens when you decide in

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Speaker 1: order to fix economic woes, let's just start printing more money,

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Speaker 1: because that's um. If you know nothing about finance and economics,

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Speaker 1: a common thing you might think is, well, they could

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Speaker 1: probably just infuse some some cash flow by printing money occasionally,

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Speaker 1: and they do occasionally. But in Zimbabwe they did it

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Speaker 1: to such an extent with a zim dollar, which I

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Speaker 1: didn't even believe that was right. It's actually called a

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Speaker 1: zim dollar. Sounds like something from a movie. Um, not

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Speaker 1: a good one exactly. Uh. They printed so much money

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Speaker 1: that they encountered hyper inflation like the world has never

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Speaker 1: seen before. Yeah, so it's ridiculous numbers. Yes, this hyper

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Speaker 1: inflation in two thousand and six, it was. It was

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Speaker 1: really bad and two thousand Zimbabwe started to or an

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Speaker 1: inflationary spiral. Um. In two thousand and six, it was

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Speaker 1: so bad that a sheet, not a roll, a sheet

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Speaker 1: of toilet paper cost four hundred and seventeen zim dollars. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: a roll of toilet paper cost a hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: five thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars. Well that's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Everybody would have gone broke. But it wasn't that the

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Speaker 1: toilet paper was very expensive. It was that the Zim

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Speaker 1: dollars had very little purchasing power, and that was because dollars,

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Speaker 1: just like any other commodity, are subject to the influences

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Speaker 1: of supply and demand, and when there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: them on the market, their value decreases. That's how the

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Speaker 1: US government has managed to stay afloat so many times

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Speaker 1: they release a bunch of money. They cause inflation so

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Speaker 1: that the debts that they owe are worth less, so

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Speaker 1: when they pay them off, it hurts the government less.

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Speaker 1: It's a really horrible thing to do to your investors,

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Speaker 1: but it's it's done. But that's the point. When you

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Speaker 1: have a lot of dollars out there, you have less

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Speaker 1: purchasing power per dollar. And that's what was going on

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Speaker 1: in Zimbabwe, and things got really out of hand because

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Speaker 1: they decided to fight this by printing more dollars. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they really got out of hand. That Some of these

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Speaker 1: stats in here are just staggering. Um, you said that

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Speaker 1: every what you didn't say you report that. Um, it

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Speaker 1: was estimated that it was equivalent to prices doubling in

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Speaker 1: stores every one point three days. Yeah, the most I

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Speaker 1: saw was every twenty four point seven hours prices. Essentially,

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Speaker 1: we're being doubled by the way of the dollar losing value. Right,

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Speaker 1: Like the kind of inflation that we're looking at right

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Speaker 1: here in America right now is like in the single

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Speaker 1: digit percentiles, and it's being kept low by the Fed

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Speaker 1: on purpose. But we're talking like doubling increase. Like the

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Speaker 1: toilet papers this much the next day is twice as much.

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Speaker 1: The next day it's three times that. And that's just

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Speaker 1: not gonna affect economy. That's gonna like, I mean, think

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Speaker 1: about it. Its toilet paper costs that much money. People

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Speaker 1: are gonna stop using toilet paper. That leads to poor sanitation,

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Speaker 1: that leads to you know, it's just a domino effect. Well,

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Speaker 1: there was a joke that the toilet paper was so

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Speaker 1: expensive of the dollar, the zim zim dollar bought such

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Speaker 1: a little toilet paper that it was actually more useful

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Speaker 1: as toilet paper than to buy toilet paper with. Ye

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Speaker 1: that's not funny, but well yeah, if you're in Zimbabwe,

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Speaker 1: is not. But the annual inflation was um estimated. Like

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Speaker 1: this was watching Zimbabwe. If you were a currency or

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Speaker 1: monetary policy economists, it was like a dream come true.

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Speaker 1: Last time something happened this bad. It was Hungary in

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Speaker 1: n I think we talked about that once. Yeah, um,

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Speaker 1: I think it was in the super Stuff Guide to

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Speaker 1: Economics or Spoken Word album. Um. But the the inflation

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Speaker 1: in Zimbabwe was estimated at five hundred and sixteen quintillion percent.

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Speaker 1: That's by the end of two thousand and eight. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's not even the highest that I've seen. Now, the

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Speaker 1: highest I saw is eighty nine point seven sex tillion percent,

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Speaker 1: which is a eighty nine point seven billion trillion percent

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Speaker 1: or eighty nine point seven ten to the twenty one

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Speaker 1: power percent. That was their annual rate of inflation, and

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Speaker 1: that was probably early two thousand nine. Yeah, yeah, because

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Speaker 1: in January two thousand nine they basically said you can

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Speaker 1: start using foreign currency again, which helps stabilizings a tiny

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Speaker 1: the tiniest bit, but it it didn't obviously work well.

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Speaker 1: It ended inflation abruptly because they abandoned these dollars. The

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Speaker 1: currency lost value so much that everybody stopped using it

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Speaker 1: and they went to the South African rand and the

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Speaker 1: US dollar. That took four months from January to April

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Speaker 1: for basically to completely abandon their money, right, So four

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Speaker 1: months in the country's money is literally useless, right, and

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Speaker 1: when they did, when they did abandon it was actually

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Speaker 1: a pretty good move. Like you couldn't carry the economy

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Speaker 1: with this money any longer because it was so value

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Speaker 1: that they're in bad shape no matter what. But at

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Speaker 1: least they that was a good move, right. And Um,

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Speaker 1: the reason it was a good move because it stopped

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Speaker 1: inflation because there weren't that many dollars and there weren't

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Speaker 1: that many rands around, which means that they were scarce,

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Speaker 1: which means again according to supply and demand, Um, they

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Speaker 1: were valuable and that hence they had purchasing power. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and um, it's really unbelievable. But it got so bad

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Speaker 1: they were printing money in larger and larger denominations because

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Speaker 1: they had to, because people couldn't carry around. You'd have

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Speaker 1: to have a suitcase full of money to buy your

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Speaker 1: toilet paper. So they ended up producing a one hundred

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Speaker 1: trillion Zimbabwean dollar note that you can now buy on

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Speaker 1: eBay for about five bucks. Yeah, that's sad. While when

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Speaker 1: it was released it was worth about thirty Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: that's actual conversion rate, Like now it's only worth something

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Speaker 1: on eBay. Yeah, there is no conversion rate, right, Um,

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Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna get one, not just to have

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Speaker 1: it do it? Yeah, okay, so what is it? Three

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Speaker 1: d trillion dollar notes? Um? But that's the fact that

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Speaker 1: the Zimbabwean government wasn't tracking their money in the first place,

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Speaker 1: and they didn't track it after they kept releasing it

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Speaker 1: again and again, and there was no buyback program. They

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Speaker 1: just said, you guys keep that. Um. They have no

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Speaker 1: idea how many Zimbabwean dollars were released just in the century,

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Speaker 1: let alone how money are out there on the market.

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Speaker 1: So that's why it's virtually impossible to track how much

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Speaker 1: money is out there in the world. But that hasn't

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Speaker 1: stopped at least one guy. Well, actually that's not true.

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Speaker 1: I talked to Katherine Whitbourne today and she was saying

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Speaker 1: that the guy gave up the most recent figures she

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Speaker 1: could find with two dozens him because he's like, forget this, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: miquet of dollar days with the z dot com. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess he gave up on a huh that was

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Speaker 1: his blog, his econ blog, and he was tracking a

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Speaker 1: hundred thirty five currencies uh in a hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: seven countries, and I guess December two, thou ten is

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Speaker 1: probably one of the last stats he has then if

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Speaker 1: that's when he quit UM in his MO money equal

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Speaker 1: to five point trillion in US dollars in circulation M

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Speaker 1: two was fifty five trillion, So fifty five trillion bucks. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's the value of all the money in the world

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Speaker 1: occurring to Mike in US dollars, the US dollar value. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but not just US dollars. That's everything, right, So there

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Speaker 1: you have it. Okay, So this would be a lot

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Speaker 1: easier to track and things like what happened in Zimbabwe

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Speaker 1: wouldn't happen. You would never have hyper inflation if we

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Speaker 1: all used a universal worldwide currency. Yeah, let's talk about that.

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Speaker 1: No less than John Maynard Keynes has suggested that, and

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Speaker 1: it's been bandied about for a long time since World

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Speaker 1: War two, well even before then. Yeah, I don't think

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Speaker 1: it's I think it was maybe closest to happening maybe

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Speaker 1: after World War two, well, which wasn't very close. You know,

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Speaker 1: there were instances of what were to the people who

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Speaker 1: were using the currency was effectively a universal currency like UM.

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Speaker 1: A lot the early imperial powers of China and Rome

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Speaker 1: used a single currency in all the lands they conquered,

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Speaker 1: which is why hordes of Roman silver coins are found

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Speaker 1: in fields in the UK still today. Um, but it's

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Speaker 1: still not technically a worldwide currency. But world War two

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Speaker 1: we came very close, right. Yeah. Let's talk about some

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Speaker 1: of the pros. I guess, um, because it's I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you look it up on the internet, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of debate still going on. Um. Some of the pros.

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Speaker 1: Speculators can't short a currency. That scenario you were talking about,

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Speaker 1: like the value and currency to pay back debts, right,

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Speaker 1: that'd be gone because it wouldn't be a commodity. There

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Speaker 1: wouldn't any other currency to exchange it against. So therefore

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Speaker 1: it's just a dollar just can be used to buy

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Speaker 1: something you can't buy and sell it itself. It would

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Speaker 1: be valueless like that. Exporters wouldn't have to worry about

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Speaker 1: price gaps. There would be no conversion fees, which would

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Speaker 1: free up money for like healthcare or whatever, I mean,

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Speaker 1: something good to spend it on. Um. Of course, I'm

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Speaker 1: just this is utopian outlook like, oh yeah, then they

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Speaker 1: could spend it on healthcare ideally, but it would free

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Speaker 1: up money. Um, it would end disputes about a currency

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Speaker 1: manipulation um like China. Um. So they're like there are

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Speaker 1: some pros. For sure, you wouldn't have to stand in

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Speaker 1: line at the combie centers and exchange your money when

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Speaker 1: you traveled, No, and um convenience you. Me and I

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Speaker 1: went to Europe this summer and it was nice to

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Speaker 1: not We just exchanged once. Yeah, that hasn't been since

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Speaker 1: the euro it's like everywhere, um, and even in places

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Speaker 1: in Croatia they still use their currency, but everybody accepts euros. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I bet they accept American dollars there too. Um. I

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Speaker 1: kind of enjoyed the different currencies. Oh yeah, it's pretty

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Speaker 1: and it's just neat. I kind of enjoyed the I mean,

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Speaker 1: I guess it was. I didn't see it as a hassle.

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Speaker 1: Maybe I was young, but I always thought it was

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Speaker 1: kind of neat, Like let me go turn in my

380
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,159
Speaker 1: francs for uh for my German dollars. Well, it just

381
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:43,560
Speaker 1: sucks to lose money buying another currency, yeah, or to

382
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,240
Speaker 1: come out ahead though, that's when you're rocking right sometimes.

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Speaker 1: But it's been a while since that happened. Well, this

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Speaker 1: was in the mid ninety nineties, so the American dollar

385
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Speaker 1: was we were doing pretty well in Eastern Europe the

386
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,479
Speaker 1: dollar was sound as the pound, but we we got

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Speaker 1: killed in England of course, as always, yeah, because your

388
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 1: pound is so awesome. Well, that was the big discrepancy

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Speaker 1: after World War Two, like when we came close to

390
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:11,399
Speaker 1: adopting universal currency, the Americans and the Brits couldn't decide

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Speaker 1: on what to value it against the pound or the dollar,

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Speaker 1: and so it just fell apart. Well, the Pew Research

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Speaker 1: Center did a poll and apparently of Americans believe that

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Speaker 1: we will have a universal currency by um But the

395
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,400
Speaker 1: article I got that from, the guy speculates that could

396
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Speaker 1: be because we're sort of programmed to think that the

397
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 1: future will be like that, because every entirely, yeah, like

398
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Speaker 1: every sci fi movie ever, it's like, you know, universal credits.

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00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:42,520
Speaker 1: It's not even like cash. So people just kind of

400
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Speaker 1: have that in the back of their minds. So there's

401
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,159
Speaker 1: a lot of like drawbacks to a universal currency as well.

402
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,440
Speaker 1: There's some clever things you can do if you are

403
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Speaker 1: in charge of your own currency and it's valued against

404
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:58,399
Speaker 1: other currencies. One of them is, if your economy is sluggish,

405
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 1: you can release a lot of your currency create inflation,

406
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 1: drive prices down in your country compared to the um

407
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Speaker 1: the buying power of a foreign currency, and attract that

408
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 1: foreign currency and get your economy kick started again. If

409
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,359
Speaker 1: you're using the same currency as all these other countries

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00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 1: that you're trading with. Sure there's not that that gap, right,

411
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,200
Speaker 1: the currency gap, But you also can't do that nice

412
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Speaker 1: little trick that's probably would have bailed out Spain and

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Speaker 1: Greece on their own had they not been trading the

414
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Speaker 1: Euro or using the Euro the last couple of years. Yeah,

415
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,359
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Um. Some pundits think that the

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Speaker 1: gold standard, if they were going to go to a

417
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 1: universal currency, it would should be based on something like

418
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,919
Speaker 1: the gold Standard again or the gold Standard period. But

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00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,159
Speaker 1: a lot of other people say, no, that's antiquated and

420
00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: just a bad idea. Yeah, potentially dangerous. I wonder how

421
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,040
Speaker 1: I would be dangerous. I don't know. We we should

422
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:05,399
Speaker 1: do one on the gold standard. I mean, they got

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Speaker 1: rid of it for a reason, so I don't know

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Speaker 1: something about going back to something that but it was

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Speaker 1: Nixon and get rid of it. So it's makes you

426
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,840
Speaker 1: think it's inherently evil getting rid of the gold standard,

427
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 1: you know, The other thing, too, is who's going to

428
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 1: run the show? Is really the big I think that's

429
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 1: probably the biggest stumbling block. It's a huge one. Is

430
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 1: it's there's got to be a universal body, an international

431
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:30,000
Speaker 1: reserve bank, central bank, that has the authority on issuing

432
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,440
Speaker 1: these things buying them back. And yeah, I mean, like

433
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: ever since the Clinton there, everybody has been nervous about

434
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But even if you're not a

435
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 1: paranoid type, you may just think that this body by

436
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: definition would be incompetent just from looking at like the

437
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: U n UN has successes. Piece keeping missions are frequently

438
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: very helpful and can add stability to a region. And

439
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: then you have things like the International Panel on Climate Change,

440
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: which releases it's um it's opinions on climate change based

441
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: on politics and diplomacy rather than science. Yeah, and you

442
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: can't if you if it's a world bank. There's too

443
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: much at stake to make mistakes. And we already have

444
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 1: a World bank. It's just not in charge of every currency.

445
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: And if it were, I mean there, it could be problematic.

446
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: It could be helpful, it could be problematic. I don't

447
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 1: really fall down on either side of this. Yeah, I

448
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 1: mean I don't know. You know how I feel about economics.

449
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 1: It's just as long as I can go buy my

450
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,400
Speaker 1: stuff and pay my mortgage. Yeah, I don't care if

451
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: it's at the end or the dollar or the or

452
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: the the community financier deaf freak frank do you care

453
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: if it's that? No, I had never heard of that.

454
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:53,360
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I thought the euro was sort of

455
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 1: the only consolidator. But um, apparently in Africa, eight West

456
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 1: African nations do share that West African CFA franc African

457
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: Financial Community. Another six Central African nations share a Central

458
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:13,400
Speaker 1: African CFA franc which is weird because they're interchangeable. Yeah,

459
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 1: two currencies that they can either one's fine. Yeah, I

460
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:18,159
Speaker 1: guess it's like when you go to Costa Rica, right,

461
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:20,199
Speaker 1: or Mexico you can use your dollars, you can use

462
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: your pass. Yeah, I guess so. But apparently from interchangeable,

463
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: I read that to me like they're valued the exact same,

464
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: which is like, why I have two different currencies that

465
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: are so similar that are the same value. Just make

466
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: one c f A franc um. And then there was

467
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about hemispheric and regional unified currencies

468
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 1: in Central America and South America, and they came very close,

469
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: but the recent troubles from the Eurozone have made a

470
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 1: lot of people back off about it. And uh, in

471
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: North America, there was going to be the North American Union,

472
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: which is Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Supposedly we're

473
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,000
Speaker 1: going to be fused together into one and it was

474
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: like yes, and Canada was like right in America was like, well,

475
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: we were going to come up with the amaro A

476
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,960
Speaker 1: M E r oh was the name of the unified currency.

477
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,680
Speaker 1: That would have been interesting. Well, it's a conspiracy theory

478
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: at least. Okay, there you go. That's how much money

479
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: is in the world. Any kind of weird. That not weird,

480
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,919
Speaker 1: but that America's sandwich between such two different countries. It is,

481
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 1: I can in Mexico. That's like, you can't get any

482
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 1: more opposite. Yeah, I guess simon people, food, economy, and

483
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: then America's right in the middle. It's kind of fitting

484
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: where the melting pot of Canada in Mexico. Yes, we

485
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: are where it all comes together. America's had in America's pants.

486
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 1: I can't remember what you've called Mexico before. Shoes m

487
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: I don't think, so let's just call it Mexico. Uh. Okay,

488
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 1: So that's how much money there is in the world.

489
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 1: If you want to read this article, you can type

490
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 1: that into the search bart how Stuff works dot com.

491
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: And since I said search part, it's time for message break.

492
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,479
Speaker 1: Uh and Chuck, what time is it? Now? It's time

493
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 1: for it is again, folks. This is when we thank

494
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: people for sweet gifts that they send us in the mail.

495
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: And I have a list of books starting with how Why,

496
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: How We Do Anything Means Everything? How Colon Why How

497
00:29:54,800 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: We Do Anything Means Everything? By Dove Seedman or dov

498
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: d o v Yeah, Dove Dove Yeah. I appreciate that

499
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: they were very nice a dovester. Do you want to

500
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 1: say one more time? No? Okay, let's see. We got

501
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: a postcard from Madagascar from Kara Levitt, Thank you very

502
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: much for that. Nice Another book by Alan Gerstel swing

503
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 1: at Colin, The Search for My Father Louis Prima. Nobody

504
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:26,760
Speaker 1: read this one, but it deserves a double um. We

505
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: got a letter with further insight into the hip hop

506
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: episode from b Boy Anti Virus. Nice yea. How's he

507
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: doing these days? It's doing great? Uh. Science Nearly Explained

508
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: by Dick Maxwell, and that is available on Amazon or

509
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 1: Kindle nice. Um. We have a postcard with a picture

510
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 1: of the pair, which you'll remember from the Torture episode

511
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 1: from the Museo de Torture from Anna Oh Nice, thank

512
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: you very much. Our buddy Roger Ma sent us to

513
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:58,840
Speaker 1: the Vampire Combat Manual and he's previously sinis the Zombie

514
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: Combat Manual and Roger's good. Do we actually finally met him?

515
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: Didn't we? I don't know did we meet him? I

516
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 1: think we met Roger at one of the comic consay taken. Yeah, okay,

517
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 1: I think you're right, hey rod. Uh. We got a

518
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: postcard from China from Carry Nice. We got another book

519
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 1: called Trunkless. It's a children's book and I don't have

520
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 1: the author here, but it's called Trunkless. I think we

521
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,040
Speaker 1: did that one before, did we? Alright? Double plug? Uh.

522
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,880
Speaker 1: We got another postcard from Bogram Airfield from Amy Lynn,

523
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: Thanks for that. We got a book called Verbifor's Feast

524
00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: Verbie Horse Feast by Christie the Word Smith and that

525
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: was sent in by Hillary Nice. Uh. We got a

526
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: postcard of a bear pooping in the woods from Van Nostrin. Thanks. Yeah,

527
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: and we should mention too. Van Nostron also sent us

528
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: his CD from his awesome band, The Bangalore's Sasquatch with

529
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: a mullet. Yes, thank you, buddy. Um. We got a

530
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: comic zine called Happy Trails Cowboy Poetry by Horace T.

531
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: Rushy Beard stash Um. We got a really cool cityscape

532
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 1: watercolor card that was designed and sent by Alex. Thanks Alex.

533
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: John Lennemeyer wrote a book called How An Average Man

534
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 1: Lived an Adventurous Life. And I haven't read that yet,

535
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 1: but I'm going to good going chuck. Yeah. Um. We

536
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: got some CDs from Rich Boswick that may or may

537
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: not have been all of them, but thank you very

538
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: much for those. Yeah, and I believe he also sent

539
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 1: us a DVD called Forgotten Detroit and a nice handwritten

540
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, inc Rendering of Ourselves? Right? Did you

541
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: see that? Yeah? Is it the same guy? I think

542
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 1: it's the same guy. Well, thank you very much big time.

543
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 1: A book called Roman Disasters by Jerry Turner, and a

544
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: book called the Life and Times of Swirly Van Coco.

545
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:55,320
Speaker 1: Stuff you should know edition. It's a comic actually from

546
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: Aaron Dunbar yes, I remember what else we have, chuck. Uh.

547
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: And then we have a bunch of music you want

548
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 1: to go through these? Uh? Colum blow Double in Disguise,

549
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 1: that's right, Ben from self evidence in his c D

550
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: s and vinyl of the record. We built a fortress

551
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 1: on short notice, so we've definitely plugged that one before.

552
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: The La La band sent us their c D Moonshine

553
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 1: Still yep. The group called Forging Reverie sent us a

554
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: CD called Motion Canvas, and that was from Derek. Eric

555
00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: Davis and Sam Gray sent us a c D table

556
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: People and some authentic Korean junk food. Burke Uh in

557
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: Graphia or in Graphia sent us download codes for his

558
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 1: c D Jazz Animals. Right. Katie Center sent us a

559
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 1: nice handwritten letter. She's doing something called the Letter Project,

560
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,719
Speaker 1: where she sends a letter to somebody who inspires her

561
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: to ask what are you pursuing in your life? And

562
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 1: do you know? How do you know when you've gotten there? Yeah? Yeah,

563
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: and we answered, did we? Yeah? I did? Oh? And

564
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 1: nice for both of us. Oh nice, thanks man, I

565
00:33:57,840 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: know what you I know what you're pursuing. I don't

566
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,040
Speaker 1: even have to do me thinking. Uh. And then we

567
00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 1: have one more vinyl and c D the shape of

568
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:12,759
Speaker 1: beats to come from bendick box us band. Yes that

569
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: is b E N D I K B A K

570
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: S A A S and should take these vinyls. There's

571
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 1: a couple over there on my desk. And thanks man.

572
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 1: You got a record player if I do and mine

573
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,480
Speaker 1: is busted. What happened to your record player? Oh it's

574
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:27,279
Speaker 1: up in the attic endword pree year or so until

575
00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: I get to go in and should just take the

576
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,279
Speaker 1: vinyl will Yeah? And we appreciate the vinyl by the way,

577
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: it's very cool. I believe Benedict backs us. Um do

578
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 1: we read his name for volunteering no donating to co

579
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,879
Speaker 1: ed Oh maybe I believe so. Yeah. Well if that's

580
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: the same person, then thanks for that doubly. So that

581
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 1: is administrative details for now. Thanks for the stuff. Yeah,

582
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 1: we're all caught up. Very nice. I know it feels good.

583
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: It didn't take like eight episodes to cover it, right. Uh.

584
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 1: If you want to send us something, you can get

585
00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:59,320
Speaker 1: in touch with us by tweeting to us at s

586
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: y SK podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot

587
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:04,719
Speaker 1: com slash stuff you should know. You can send us

588
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,799
Speaker 1: an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, and

589
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:09,479
Speaker 1: you can join us at our home on the web,

590
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: the awesome website Stuff you Should Know dot com. For

591
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how

592
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:27,160
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. M