So you say you love money? What do you know about money other than what it can buy you?
If you plan on making money or already are, it is your obligation to learn how it shapes the economy. Know how the circulation of money affects you and how you can make it work for you.
When you watch the news, anchors and reporters speak about finance in a vernacular that is incomprehensive to business outsiders. If you are like me, you have no clue what they are talking about when they speak in their fancy jargon and you tune them out.
Well, I am tired of not knowing what they are talking about. I decided to learn all of the lingo in their reports and share what I learn with you, the reader. It is only right to learn all there is to know about money if you have plans of alot of it in the future.
I don’t plan on being retired and looking for a job to make ends meet, and you shouldn’t either.
When I originally came up with the idea to research money and write about it I didn’t know where to start.
Should I start by researching what is going on now in the stock market and find out all there is to know about sub prime mortgages, or should I just go back to the very essence of our economy and learn what Americans consider the root of all evil, the mighty dollar?
I decided that to better understand what is going on, one would best grasp the concepts by knowing the origins of money.
First off, most money does not have any value of its own. It is worth what it can buy at any given time. The history of money begins with people learning to trade the things they had for things they wanted. If one wanted an axe he or she would have to find someone who had an axe and was willing to exchange it for something.
The system is operated the same way today with one difference: now you can give the seller money in exchange for the item you want and the seller can use the money to buy something else, right then or at a later time.
As trade flourished money began to circulate more and more. Buyers and sellers on each individual transaction agreed on what was acceptable as a means of payment. They then established a system that assigned different values to coins and other durable and easily transportable items.
The term currency was then adopted as another word for money. It was used to describe anything that is actually used as a means of exchange.
The entire process of buying and selling changed when money was adopted. Buying and selling did not have to take place at the same time anymore. Sellers began accumulating money to increase their buying power, which is the basis of our economy today.
Vince Wallace is a senior broadcast journalism student from Jacksonville. Wallace is eager to reduce your toughest business issues to the lowest common denominator. E-mail your questions.