From: IN%"llurch@networking.stanford.edu" "Rich Graves" 22-MAR-1996 05:45:53.77
Digital cash, if people can be convinced to trust it, will be a wonderful thing because of its security, convenience, and anonymity features. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy this "corrupt currency" schtick.
While corrupt isn't quite the right word, the dollar is a politically-influencable currency. And the politicians tend to press for higher inflation and lower unemployment, because that gets them elected. The Fed has done an actually rather admirable job of standing up to the pressure (compared to how they might have behaved), but that we've got real inflation testifies to that they haven't been completely successful. Moreover, the banks that are in the Federal Reserve network have a motivation to have low interest rates for what _they_ get charged, despite this inflating the currency... thus, they've got some motivations to mismanage things. -Allen