Jaikaran is well aware of this inflationary episode because he discusses it in Debt Virus . But he does not address why his plan would somehow not be inflationary even though it is identical to the Continental Congress fiasco. He also displays a bizarre sense of cause and effect. This is odd because the peasants seized the Bastille and began the Revolution on July 14, 1789. Despite the crucial defects in the central thesis of Debt Virus , the book has had a significant impact on some people.
Grassroots organizations cite it as inspiration for various reform efforts.
Bo Gritz, an unofficial interstate leader of the militia movement, not only believes the Debt Virus hypothesis but views it as part of the larger international banking conspiracy. There is no danger of the Debt Virus thesis becoming an accepted idea in Congress, and certainly not among economists, but this has not limited its adverse effects. It has clearly lead many people to an erroneous interpretation of the workings of the financial system and has caused them to direct their political activist energies toward an imaginary problem. At least one benefit, however, is that it has spurred some people into political awareness who might otherwise be inert. But instead of directing their efforts toward real social, economic, and political problems,they tilt windmills.