Finance Discussion

1. People often say that the gold standard is unworkable because there is not enough gold in circulation to back up the value of all the cash assets now stored in banks. Did it matter to frontier stores that the American dollar was backed by gold? Was there a backstop holding the financial system together? Considering that local stores and home-grown banks can organically develop and create their own forms of credit, what good is a national currency, or attempts to connect financial markets beyond the immediate area?
2. Like credit at a frontier store, Bitcoin has no physical presence, but is merely a string of written characters that represent an account balance. What similar problems of the availability of cash and credit might new digital currencies such at Bitcoin solve? If money and financial instruments evolve, what kind of money is best for our society going forward?
3. Reflection – the students also should include a paragraph in the initial response in their own words, using finance terminology, reflecting on specifically what they learned from the assignment and how they think they could apply what they learned in the workplace or in everyday life.

Please also note that your answers should be written in your own words. Don’t use quotes from the case.