Imaginary money

[ironphoenix]

Complex numbers have a real and an imaginary part. Complex finance leads to people having real and imaginary dollars, and as metahacker eloquently expresses it, the imaginary dollars are a con game which is running out.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I'm drawing a distinction between agreed-upon value, which is 'imaginary' the way that laws are 'imaginary'*, and fictitious value, which is even less real than that -- it's invented unilaterally, and its origins are then hidden to make it appear agreed-upon. So I suppose it's a bit like that favorable house rule you made up for your poker game and then claimed you saw on TV's Greatest Stars Embarrass Themselves Playing Poker. Except somehow worth a trillion dollars.

(* they're plenty imaginary, but try breaking a few of the wrong ones...)

[zenten.livejournal.com]

But currency is the same way. I have no idea why a dollar is worth what it is. And I'm not going to have much luck convincing people that it is worth more than everyone says it is.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yes, that the agreement on value was founded on false pretenses (and therefore fell apart when reality asserted itself) is indeed a crucial distinction there.