Paper Money Collapse

The Adam Smith Institute has a video on its blog here of a talk given by Detlev Schilichter about his latest book called Paper Money Collapse. It is a pity that about 41 minutes in the video repeats an earlier part of the talk. The first thing that struck me was how well he spoke English and the second how likely it is that his theory will come to pass. Detlev (it's shorter than Schilichter and easier to type) traced the history of paper money systems and how they all collapsed or would have done in the case of some if they had not been withdrawn. Detlev believes that we are at the end game as far as the present paper money phase is concerned. He wishes the government would voluntarily replace its paper money with gold but doubts that the government will do so. By not doing so a point will be reached he believes where people will refuse to deal in paper money anymore because through quantitative easing and easy credit it will cease to have any value at all. The consequences of paper money collapse will be devastating and worse by far than the boom and busts we have seen so far. Paper money allows governments to print more at very little cost particularly now as the greater part of it is generated electronically. Governments do this to encourage a boom but whereas booms occurred less often and the consequent recessions were shallower, booms now occur more frequently and the recessions become deeper. Mrs Merkel is right not to allow the ECB to indulge in quantitative easing but the euro will collapse anyway.