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PBS
produced a recent TV program hosted by
Robert Cringely. Its purpose was to provide
a history of money, where it started and
where it is going. Since life, as we know
it, could not exist without a form commerce,
Electric Money fills you in on what’s
likely in the future. The web site is mostly
text without benefit of video or audio.
Visiting the whole site will take only
brief chunk of time and will leave you
with better knowledge of the world of money
before and after the effects of the computer.
If
you are part of the financial community you
won’t find much to further your professional
career at Electric Money, but your kids can
receive a quick course on why money is the
grease of commerce. The first part of the site
is a historical perspective and presents why
and how money came into existence. It explores
the forms money can take such as “wampum” which
were seashells used by Native Americans and
tobacco leaves used by early European settlers
in Virginia.
You will follow
the forms of money and discover how it is
backed by either something of intrinsic
value such as gold, or today’s system
of faith backed currency. It is only the faith
people extend to their governments that keep
the coins and paper money exchanged for goods
and services rolling along. It is that faith
that lets us exchange pieces of paper or computer
entries as if they had intrinsic value.
In 1950 credit
cards were born expanding the forms that
money can take. A businessman later
to become the founder of Diners Club was having
lunch in New York City and had neglected to
bring any cash with him. He thought how nice
it would be if he could just use a “card” that
would “credit” a merchants bank
account for the amount of his lunch. With lots
of work in getting establishments to accept
his cards in lieu of money and signing up thousands
of consumers to pay a fee for the convenience,
Diners Club became a hit. Later, banks started
to issue credit cards but it was not until
the geographically fragmented banking industry
banded together in the 1960s that credit cards
became a universal money transaction tool.
The site reveals
the recent movement toward e-commerce and “debit cards”. Credit
card like debit cards are just now gaining
wide acceptance as electronic replacements
for paper “checks”. The Internet
has also made a huge change in the trading
of stock online. With these rapid changes,
money is becoming nothing more than computers
talking to other computers.
Take a look at this site where you can learn
about how money becomes electric.
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