I was recently considering how unbacked currencies can lose value: In the old days of the gold standard, the fact that a dollar was theoretically convertible into gold kept the value of a dollar more-or-less stable. (The occasional suspension of convertibility and mining improvements notwithstanding ( Read more... )

At an individual level, money is a store of value (and that's even part of the definition). If I want to be able to get something later, a good strategy is to save some money, and then buy what I want ( Read more... )