A Brief History of Money

American currency has undergone a few major shifts. In the last decade, we’ve seen changes to the $5, $10 and $20 bills up to $100 bills, shifting from using the classic $1 style to a purplish numbering and much larger numerals—in many instances as an attempt to keep up with current counterfeiting technology. Printed money is painstakingly constructed, both for design and in an effort to make it harder to duplicate the process. This effort starts with engraving the plates, which are used for the intaglio printing onto the linen-cotton composite bills. Each bill is stamped with a force of around 10,000 psi, which is responsible for generating the raised texture of the ink.
Classically, what we understand as dollar bills used to be referred to as bank notes. They originated as a promissory note from banks to pay the bearer in coins, but as currencies shifted and inflation began working on a global scale, they soon became currency in their own right. This is where the shift from bills being produced by the banks themselves to being produced by, in many countries, a nationally appointed ‘central bank’ took place, gradually accepting them as indicators of a nation’s currency. Currently, these bills are printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Coins go back much further, intended as a form of currency with a physical form that directly correlated to its value. This value of coins is known as their ‘melt value’, how much the coin is actually worth from a use standpoint when the metal is melted down and used for practical purposes. As inflation continued over centuries, this gradually became more and more obsolete, but coins maintain this intrinsic quality regardless.
It’s easy to lose track of spending when you aren’t handing over the coins and bills yourself. Without something physical and tangible to associate your wages and payments with, it becomes much easier to give. Keep in mind just what you’re paying with every time you use your card, regardless of where that actual, physical money may be.
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Consumer Confidence and the Housing Uptick

The why:




The what:



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Mortgage Matters: The Streamlined Modification Initiative

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In The Wake of Austerity: One month and counting.



The economy is reacting, as any economy would, to the sweeping changes, and while many economists feared that the wounds of the last few years of recession were still too fresh for the economy to handle such widespread budget reform, the U.S. has weathered the first month, though with a few distinct slowdowns in hiring. (http://econ.st/14JO6hC) Government hiring went down by about 7,000 expected for the month, alongside retail and construction/manufacturing jobs reporting significant drops in hiring rates. This coupled with the recent news that unemployment similarly fell, but fell because the eligible workforce was shrinking rather than from increased hiring from employers means the growth we’ve been seeing over the last year is going to be hitting a major speed bump. (http://n.pr/XuvQa0)




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