The Wonderful Wizard of wha. . .?

Do you thrill to the deeper political implications of The Wizard of Oz? (In which the emerald city is "emerald" only because people view it through green-tinted glasses, just like . . . paper greenbacks have value only because people pretend that they have value.) Do you yearn for the days when men were men, women were women, and currency was backed by gold and silver? Well, apparently you're not alone.

The Liberty Dollar is a privately issued currency backed by gold and silver. Beat the "rigged money system" with "money you can trust." Two men in Buffalo face criminal charges when a relative tried to use Liberty Dollars to buy beer at a Buffalo Sabres hockey game. Apparently, several stores in the Buffalo area accept them!

"About 20 of my regular customers use them. They pay me with silver, and they accept silver as change," said Daniel Hyman, owner of the Red Apple convenience store on Route 78 in Strykersville. "With inflation and government deficits, I see more and more people who don't trust paper anymore. Eventually, I hope the banks will accept Liberties for deposits."

"We take it at par with dollars," said Shawn Clawges, owner of Opener's Grille, a restaurant on Seneca Street in East Aurora. "They're a pretty coin, and they're backed by silver. It's a commodity that's going up in value, unlike the U.S. dollar."

Nice. Now, I don't want to beat up too much on the idealistic, deluded people behind this idea, but how can you seriously believe that "Liberty Dollar money can never become completely worthless because it has intrinsic value. It will always be valuable." Is there anything in this world with "intrinsic value"?What's odd about using gold and silver to back currency is that their price is fundamentally based on aesthetic appeal. I mean, obviously now gold and silver have value as investments--you buy them because you are confident that others will want to buy them from you, later, probably at a higher price--but then, in that respect they're no different from greenbacks, are they? And you're right back to a "rigged money system."

Anyway, these folks do have one thing right: It really is just a big confidence game. Just try not to think about it too much.