“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”A long, long time ago, units of value came about because we wanted to make it easier to track debts and make trades. It turns out this was a really good idea. Not only did we get units of account, we got better mediums of exchange and stores of value too, which collectively helped make value MUCH more abundant. But there was a drawback: once value was measured and stored, the units themselves became sought after, which poisoned...

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”A long, long time ago, units of value came about because we wanted to make it easier to track debts and make trades. It turns out this was a really good idea. Not only did we get units of account, we got better mediums of exchange and stores of value too, which collectively helped make value MUCH more abundant. But there was a drawback: once value was measured and stored, the units themselves became sought after, which poisoned...