From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 14:42:53 +0800
To: llurch@networking.stanford.edu
Subject: Re: (X:x)e$ 's other use
Message-ID: <01I2STLT1O4C8ZDZ7I@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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From:	IN%"llurch@networking.stanford.edu"  "Rich Graves" 22-MAR-1996 05:45:53.77

>Digital cash, if people can be convinced to trust it, will be a wonderful 
>thing because of its security, convenience, and anonymity features. I'm 
>sorry, but I just don't buy this "corrupt currency" schtick.

	While corrupt isn't quite the right word, the dollar is a
politically-influencable currency. And the politicians tend to press for
higher inflation and lower unemployment, because that gets them elected. The
Fed has done an actually rather admirable job of standing up to the pressure
(compared to how they might have behaved), but that we've got real inflation
testifies to that they haven't been completely successful. Moreover, the
banks that are in the Federal Reserve network have a motivation to have low
interest rates for what _they_ get charged, despite this inflating the
currency... thus, they've got some motivations to mismanage things.
	-Allen