Friday, September 11, 1998

Cash in on the millennium

Now the august Federal Reserve has joined in the year 2000 nonsense.

The Fed is commissioning an extra $50 billion in currency for the year 1999 on the assumption that many Americans will want to greet the millennium with liquid assets as well as liquid refreshments. The central bank reasons that the cautious, belt-and-suspenders crowd will want to load up currency in case the Y2K bug brings the credit-card and ATM systems to a halt.

Sociologically, the Fed is correct; mathematically, it is not because one of two things will happen: Nothing, in which case the extra cash isn't needed, or we revert to the year 1900, in which case the dollar will go a lot further because prices were so much lower back then.