“All money is made up, not almost all. Anything we choose to be a medium of exchange is done by fiat, a stipulated social agreement that only works through broad acceptance. This is true whether the medium is paper, coin or even gold. Until recently, gold had few industrial uses. Yet it has been coveted for so long that term “gold standard” is a near universal metaphor for quality and stability. So we tend to think of gold as a natural standard, when in fact, there is no natural standard. It’s all in our heads.”
From a commenter at WaPo.
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