Tag: currency

The U.S.’ Attempt to Combat Fraudulent Currency in 1996

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It’s estimated that as much as $220,000,000 ($220 million) in counterfeit currency is circulating in the United States of America at any given time. In an effort to combat those who produce counterfeit currency, the U.S. government introduced a new form of $100.00 bills in 1996. This new currency featured the most sophisticated security features in the world including a security strip running down the left hand side of Benjamin Franklin’s portrait which is activated by ultraviolet light causing the strip to turn pink, a watermark in which Franklin’s face appears on the right hand side of the bill when held up to light, color shifting technology which changed the color of the “100” text at the bottom right hand corner of the bill which shifts from green to black when tilted, microprinting of the “100” text at the bottom left hand corner which states “USA100” and on the left hand side of Franklin’s lapel which states “The United States of America”

The Effect of Chinese Investment Capital Upon the Vancouver, Canada Housing Market

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In 2015, $1,000,000,000,000 ($1 trillion) USD left China which set a new historic record for the amount of currency exported from China within a single year. This dump of currency directly coincided with the July 2015 real estate jump of 30% – 40% of Vancouver, Canada the Greater Vancouver Area and the Fraser Valley. Many economists and financial experts working in China have correctly predicted a growing problem in which the financial bubbles that have been created in China have caused investors to become spooked and therefore cash out of these bubbles to put their income into hard assets around the world. This creates a bubble in other markets which are international, which would lead to the plausible conclusion that the Vancouver, Greater Vancouver Area, and Fraser Valley real estate markets are now bubbled in that they have taken the place of many Chinese companies valuations and debts (e.g. stocks and bonds) within the Chinese market. It is estimated that 90% of condominium sales in Vancouver are due to speculative buyers who are often offshore and never set foot in the asset they purchase yet they are paying top dollar, making home costs surge ever further for those who actually live and work in said market. Some of this activity is thought to be due to the ability to create offshore tax havens by owning property outside of one’s country of residence. Most of the condominiums built in Vancouver are single bedroom units, which act as safety deposit boxes for investors as families cannot physically fit into such tight quarters and therefore these units are designed so that the only people purchasing them will be investors and single individuals if they can afford it. It has been said that Vancouver is a manufacturing city which manufactures condominiums; the only caveat is that the exports manufactured stay put making future condominiums worth even more as there is less and less space available to build continuously with consistency. The resource of land is finite and unless buyers are willing to move further out from this hotspot economy, they will be forced to rent or live in less than acceptable living conditions, and sometimes both

City States Minting Currency and the System That Replaced This

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Throughout history, city states were permitted the legal status to design and manufacture their own unique currency which inevitably led to tens of thousands of different designs on both the fronts and backs of coins, throughout the ancient world. Surprisingly this chaotic monetary system was not an issue for commerce as each coin manufactured was approximately the same size and weight with the same amount of silver or gold smelted into it, making trade relatively straightforward as values rarely fluctuated and could be traded at their intended face value regardless of the geographic location they were manufactured in. This system eventually gave way to the modern day system developed during the 18th century in the United States of America which stated that only the government of a nation was legally permitted to mint currency, with the size and metals being utilized deemed irrelevant as the currency depended solely upon how valuable the currency was in comparison to the world market, a counter balance which is heavily influenced by the gross domestic product of both the import and export of every country involved in trade alongside many other smaller yet equally important intrinsic factors (e.g. political climate or instability)

Hyperinflation in Germany Post World War I

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The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay reparations for causing World War I which was finally paid in full in 2010. Affected countries demanded gold, manufactured goods, and other means of back payment which collapsed the German economy. To fix this economic downturn the German government borrowed money and printed enormous amounts of currency which inevitably caused and lead to hyperinflation. In 1919, ℳ4.00 papiermarks would buy a loaf of bread, but by 1923, a loaf of bread cost ℳ650,000,000 (650 million) papiermarks. The value of money deteriorated so greatly that restrooms of establishments had to post signage asking patrons to use toilet paper instead of currency as the currency was clogging the toilets and plumbing system. The economic collapse of the German state allowed Adolf Hitler to rise to power and the depression experienced by Germany effectively guaranteed the occurrence of World War II

The Advent of Coins With Ridges

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In the early age of coin currency, after coins were struck, opportunistic people would excise small pieces from the edge of the coin. After doing so over and over, these people would eventually amalgamate large quantities of silver. It was such a large problem that the British government became involved in an attempt to put an end to it. Sir Isaac Newton is credited with inventing the the ridged coin as a solution, which is why to this day coins have ridges. The British government made it law that if any of the ridges were missing from any coin, the coin was no longer constituted as legal tendered currency. This solution stopped the practice of coin excision all together