"Government,” observed the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, “is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper and make it worthless by applying ink.” Mises was describing the curse of inflation, the process whereby government expands a nation’s money supply and thereby erodes the value of each monetary unit—dollar, peso, pound, franc, or whatever.

(Note: This article is dedicated to the memory of Carl Watner, who died on December 8, 2020 at the age of 72. A long-time defender of individual liberty and free markets, his 1976 article in Reason magazine, “California Gold, 1849-65,” helped renew awareness and appreciation for private money in American history).