Jan 11, 2013

Travis McGee, economist

I can't recall which adventure, but in one of them Travis and Meyer have rescued a beautiful young widow from villainous clutches and recovered some of her money. They discuss how to invest it for her. (In those days it was well understood that the little gals shouldn't bother their pretty heads about such stately matters.)

Travis remarked that the portfolio should carry some equities which might ameliorate the inflation bite against the day "when a new Chevy costs $40,000." 




And we all giggled and snorted at John D. MacDonald's wild imagination and sense of the ridiculous.  I was as guilty as anyone, having in that era purchased a brand new Plymouth Volare station wagon for about $4,700. (Excuse: wife, two kids, dog, long commute, scuba tanks. I was such a damned Republican.)

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Of course the trillion dollar coin would be absolutely and precisely identical to pixie dust.  So what? What the Hell do we think that hundred-dollar bill we keep stuffed in our wallet's secret compartment represents?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, great to see the JDM story!
Second, while he wasn't so great on firearm tactics, he did write terrific stories.
thx,
gfa

Anonymous said...

Some Thoughts that I just can't suppress:

If I got a trillion dollar coin, I would take it to the grocery store, and buy a pack of gum, just to mess with the cashier.

Just because you mint the coin, doesn't mean that anyone is forced to accept it as payment.

Talk about cranking up the printing presses! Lets make the idea twice as good, and make two of those things.