John Hathaway:What all of this adds up to, in our view, is the end game for paper currency. When dollar
convertibility ended in 1971, it became nothing more than a social contract, similar in many
ways to food stamps or air miles. As fissures in the social consensus widen, the fiscal viability
of the governments that issue paper money is threatened and public confidence, essential to the
acceptance of paper money, is at grave risk. An accelerated decline in confidence would be the
perfect recipe for hyper-inflation.
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