Saturday 24 December 2011

The Edinburgh pound?

A local currency for Edinburgh?

Perhaps:

PLANS to introduce a new local currency for Edinburgh have been approved, despite concerns about forgeries.
I see that Councillor Jim Lowrie has "raised concerns about the potential for counterfeiting". I know Cllr. Lowrie, and he's right.

The problem is that any government created paper currency is counterfeit unless it's backed 100% by some real asset. Will I be able to cash in my Edinburgh pound for - let's see - part of a tram? Probably not.

We've been through this sort of thing before:

As Mises explained, a sound currency can only come into existence by winning the hearts and minds of people in the marketplace.
We really need the government to get completely out of the money business altogether. It's all explained in this book, which updates the Mises argument. All the current talk about whether an independent Scotland would use the Pound, Euro or some other statist currency misses the point entirely.

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