By: christina

christina — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:36:41 +0000

Ps- did you know that the word mortgage comes from french words "mort" meaning dead, and "gage" which means pledge. The word mortgage literally means: "a contract until death", and by the way did you know that the word mortuary is also derived from the same word as the word mortgage. Kinda makes you think doesn't it?

By: christina

christina — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:31:21 +0000

It's very true what the person above just said, that "people have chosen all sorts of things to be used as money". Heck, back in the olden days, people used to get paid in salt. That's where the word salary comes from- from the word salt. The term salary comes to us from sal, the Latin for salt, along with the story that Roman soldiers were often paid with salt, which at that time was both valuable and tradable. Some scholars doubt that, and suggest the term comes from the money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt.
Whatever, salary definitely comes from the Middle English salarie, from the Latin salarium, from the neuter of salarius, meaning pertaining to salt.

By: PatricktheRogue

PatricktheRogue — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:43:07 +0000

A few comments:
-Quote: "The English-speaking cities are full of flash - big, expensive cars. The streets of European cities have fewer Hummers plowing through the lanes." This may be technically true, but I have spent some years in Europe. I saw plenty of nice gadget cars careening dwon the roads. The Med-Euros don't drive big cars, but plenty of them drive nice cars, they just have a sleeker sense of style. But it is still fliashy. Have you priced a Lamborghini lately?
-As for the whole thrust of the article, I am not sure where you going with it. Are you saying that you shouldn't use money at all or just paper money? Even if you use gold, you are still just using a basically valueless subtance to represent something valuable. Money isn't worthless, paper or not, unless everyone around you agrees it is. You seem to be implying that, according to the "lessons of the centuries," one should only barter. Also, where it comes to credit problems, you are confusing the problem of taking on reasonable debt and unreasonable debt. This is simply the lesson that Ben Franklin tried to teach us all - moderation is the key to happiness. If you need a little credit to get a shop started, one that you have reasonable reason to believe will be profitable, then you should take the credit. This whole concept of giving credit and loans is what allowed small entrepreneurs to arise in the Western World, as opposed to those in Asia and Africa who had no such options. Other areas that did not have such a systems saw more of their poor people who had great ideas stay poor. And their societies never benefited from their good ideas. A little credit can benefit everyone. Of course, too much and too rashly given, credit is a very stupid idea.
-You seem to need a return to basic principles. Why do we have money? We used to barter, that worked for thousands, maybe millions of years. What advantage does using money give us? Money allows us a uniform unit of account, a widely accepted medium of exchange, and a storage of wealth. These uses only work if the currency is universally accepted. People have chosen all sorts of things to serve as money. Gold is obvious, but paper serves as well. It is not the substance itself but what it represents in the minds of its users that is important. Cheers.

Comments on: Subprime Mess Proves That Household Deficits Do Matter After All

By: christina

By: christina

By: PatricktheRogue