Charles Eisenstein's "Money and the Turning of the Age" [Reality Sandwich]

[Acrylicist]

Except from Charles Eisenstein's "Money and the Turning of the Age":

Whether we declare it to end, or whether it ends of its own accord,
the story of money will bring down a lot with it. That is why the
United States won't simply default on its debt. If it did, then the
story under which the Middle East ships us its oil, Japan its
electronics, India its textiles, and China its plastic would come to
an end. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, that story cannot be
saved forever. The reasons are complex, so I'll just point you in the
right direction if you want to research it yourself. Essentially, at
some point China (and other creditor nations) will have to appreciate
its currency, replace exports with domestic demand, and raise interest
rates in order to combat disastrous inflation caused by its pumping
yuan into its economy in exchange for all the dollars flowing in from
its exporters. The result will be a run on the dollar, a global
calamity that will put an end to money as we have known it. When that
happens, our government will have only two choices: extreme austerity
measures such as those we have long perpetrated on other countries
through the IMF, or a bout of currency-destroying hyperinflation. The
latter is probably inevitable; austerity would only stave it off
temporarily. That would be the end of our current story of money, for
it would render all financial wealth (and debt) worthless.

When money evaporates as it is doing in the current cycle of debt
deflation, little changes right away in the physical world. Stacks of
currency do not go up in flames (but even if they did, that is not too
momentous a physical event). Factories do not blow up, engines do not
grind to a halt, oil wells do not dry up, people's economic skills do
not disappear. All of the materials and skills that are exchanged in
human economy, upon which we rely for food, shelter, transportation,
entertainment, and so on, still exist as before. What has disappeared
is our capacity to coordinate our activities and focus our common
efforts. We can still envision a new airport, but we can no longer
build it. The magic talisman by which the pronouncement, "An airport
shall be built here" crystallizes into material reality has lost its
power. Human hands, minds, and machinery retain all their capacities,
yet we can no longer do what we once could do. The only thing that has
changed is our perceptions.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/money_and_turning_age