2000 One hears much being said these days about value, valuations, undervaluation and overvaluation. Stock markets it seems have been overvalued for some time now and commodities have represented fair value for several years.
Value is what somebody is prepared to pay for something is the usual response.
Every major economic crisis comes about as a result of currencies losing their perceived value, usually quite quickly. From the Roman Empire, to the actions of the John Law-inspired Mississippi land boom, to the 1929 crash. Japan has an unresolved currency problem relating to the 1989 debacle in stocks, which itself was fueled by unlimited credit. When currencies, which represent the means of exchange for goods and services, the basis for which they introduced, become readily available, usually at a rate that is based only on the creation of debt, problems are on their way. Today, in this wonderful world of globalization, unlimited credit, instant information and global communication it seems that the world has gotten smaller.