Things That Make You Go Hmmm....

It's All About the Benjamins....Um, Maybe?

I was checking out some Internet news today when I stumbled across this head shaker, which is sure to make a few people irate in these economically challenged times.

Government can't print money properly

As I read this I couldn't help but be impressed by the utter ludicrousness of what has happened.  According to the article by Zachary Roth, the government has shut down productions of its new $100 bills, because the security measures were so high-tech that it caused the presses to print the bills improperly.  Among the problematic new staples of the $100 bill are a 3-D security strip and a color-shifting image of a bell.  While the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have both heralded these measures, additions that are 10 years in the making, it is these high-tech inclusions that have stifled the printing process.

Now, are you ready for the kicker?  One billion unusable bills have been printed, which adds up to $110 billion.  That's not only more than 10% of the entire US cash supply, but also more than the two richest people in the world combined  (although not much more, which is sad when you think about the disproportion of wealth in society....but that's another post, another time).  While there are some usable bills mixed in with the ruined ones, it'll take a mechanized system a year to sort through them.

This is where I shake my head.

As our economy sits on the heels of a ruin that the experts are now predicting might take another five years to recover from, it makes me angry to think that the one group who shouldn't be botching money is doing exactly that.  It took $120 million to print the bad bills. In a time where nearly 10% of the population is without a job.  In a time when politicians are two busy arguing over who's got the best plan to bother incorporating any.  In a time that feels about as financially promising as the early 1930s.  $120 million.  And the best part:  All the bad money gets burned.

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if I'll ever have any real faith in the government.

the Rare Poet