New Internationalist  Dollars And Dinars  Issue 320  new
internationalist issue 320 - January-February 2000  [image,
unknown] [image, unknown] [image, unknown] How money is valued
and who has the power to issue it are at the heart of global
economic disputes. ELLEN FRANK uncovers the meaning of money in
a rapidly globalizing economy.  'We should also take heart from
the fact that money, after all, can be whatever people decree it
to be'   Money is a public good. National governments print it
and enforce its use by making the local currency ‘legal tender’
for discharging debts, for example. But it’s this public aspect
of money that has always worried the wealthy. So long as money
is controlled by the state, the rich worry that governments will
overprint it, causing inflation and rendering accumulated wealth
valueless.  That’s why the wealthy have always sought to remove
the ability to print money from government. Money-printing can’t
be privatized, but it can be quasi-privatized, relegated to
semi-autonomous a