Global Economy

Gold is the universal language and has been for eons.

Irish dirt is an actual product that people can and do buy.

In fact, it is pretty clear that there is no such thing as homemade ice cream, and that we use the phrase only in the most metaphorical sense. Thank goodness. The store is just the last stop in a huge and extended process that emerged over centuries and requires the involvement of people all over the world.

The world had never seen government paper money until the colonial government of Massachusetts, 1690.

Try to find someone in present-day Vienna who is familiar with the exceptional work of the former finance minister of the Austrian monarchy.

In a wider historical perspective, the current currency war is the latest conflict in a series of acute crises of the modern international monetary system. In a world of national monetary regimes based on fiat money without physical anchors, domestic monetary instability automatically transforms into exchange-rate instability.

This world-renowned merchant seeks no fame for his business achievements.

Higher food prices set off the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and the mass protests in countries like Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, and Iran. People in these countries buy more unprocessed foods and spend a much higher percentage of their income on food, so they have been severely impoverished by Bernanke's QE2.