The Emperor’s New Greenback
From what’s clearly a dated edition of Webster’s New World Finance and Investment Dictionary comes their definition of the term “Full faith and credit of the U.S. government”:
Refers to debt obligations that are guaranteed by the U.S. government. Government debt or other obligations are “backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.” Because the U.S. government is very strong and stable, its taxing authority can be used to ensure that the debt obligations are honored in the event of a default by the issuer.
Time for an update. With the printing presses in D.C. stamping out monopoly money 24/7, let’s nix the value of our “credit”, as it’s roughly the same quality as that of a family in the midst of missing their third consecutive mortgage payment while paying off two credit card balances with available credit from a third.
Let’s focus on the “full faith” part of the explanation. The purchases you make, every commercial transcation you see around you, and all the bills in your wallet, are, as each new stack of currency is printed, backed up by more faith and less tangible economic value than they were a few minutes ago. It’s called dilution. Like watered down booze. Same number of ounces, less potency.
Belief in the strength and constancy of our currency is becoming, in fact, a leap of faith much longer and stronger than the ones that are required to believe in resurrections, the parting of seas, vestal virgins awaiting suicide bombers, heaven, or hell, to name a leap or five.
And just as prayer becomes more fervent as potential dangers approach (ergo the expression “there are no atheists in foxholes”), so our faith in the dollar becomes more desperately devout, since considering its demise or gross devaluation is just too much for our collective nervous system to handle.
So we pray louder and faster inside the cathedral of our minds, to keep, not the devil, but the truth at bay.
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