September 5, 2013 • 34 mins
There are few things more futile than trying to count all of the money in the world. Even many governments have no idea how much currency they have issued. But that won't stop Chuck and Josh from trying and explaining why we can't be sure how much money exists and the problems with flooding the world markets with bread.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Stuff you should Know from house stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
and I'm with Charles W Chuck, Bryan, he's right here
with me. So it's stuff you should know. It's also
really stuff you should know because Jerry's here too. Oh
(00:26):
the chairs not here. It's fake stuff you should know.
It's less than vintage stuff you should know. Got you.
I mean it's not bad. Yeah, it's not great. Yeah,
I'm sure Matt and everyone appreciate that. N listen to
this crap? Yeah, Chuck, Yes, how much money do you
(00:46):
have on you right now? Cash? Zero dollars and zero cents? Well,
that's stupid, because you should have thirty eight in cash
on you. I never have cash. Well, you should almost
never have cash. You should have thirty eight hundred dollars
in cash on you right now. So should I? So
should Jerry. Um, but we don't. We don't. It's sad
(01:10):
I in my pocket. Okay, Well, let's let's explain why
I just said that. Huh was I supposed to? That's
all right, I'll do it. Um, I can do it.
That's how much if you divide up all the money
between all the Americans. That's how much we should all have. Bam, bam.
So we're trying to answer a question here, how much
(01:33):
money is there in the world. Um, And we'll get
to that. There's a there's actually a rough estimate out
there that may be right. But instead, first let's talk
about how much American money there is in the world.
And not just because we're American, but because it is
the standard currency worldwide. It's the closest thing to the
(01:54):
universal currency that we have, um, the dollar, the green bag. Yeah,
but um, that's not, as I guess, um, widespread as
it once was. A lot of people have abandoned the dollar,
um and now use a basket of currencies to value
their currency against very rebellious Um. But still the dollar
(02:18):
is generally what's you to say for oil speculation? And
imagine the dollars in that basket too though right, maybe
maybe not, It depends on how much they hate America. So, UM,
what you were talking about though, was all the money
divided up by all the Americans coming up to thirty
eight dollars. That's called the M zero money supply. Of course,
(02:40):
you know how I read that m O. The more
money supply. I was like, what and then I read
I read it again. I said, it can't be called
the more money Supply, and then I realized that was
a zero and not an O. It uh, it looks
very much like the more money Supply. I wrote this article.
I realized it, and I never saw it like that
until you just said that. Yeah, I like the more
(03:03):
money supply better than the M O. It's good, but
it is M O for a reason. There's also the
M one, M two, and there wasn't M three, which
we'll get to, right. And the people who came up
with this was the Federal Reserve Bank, the United States
Central Bank, right, And they like to track money. That's
one of the things they do to amuse themselves. Count yeah,
count money, um, and go to sleep on piles of
(03:26):
gold ingots. But the Fed came up with this M
I'm sorry, this MO money supply, also known as the
M zero supply, and that is all of the bills
and coins, all of the actual hard currency that exists
in the world anywhere in US dollars and as of
(03:47):
July two thirteen, Hey, that's recent. Yeah, that came to
a we should say. Catherine Whitbourne from the Coolest Stuff
on the Planet update. She updated this, so the fact
that this is as up today as it is thanks
to her um but the the m so the more
money supply as of July two Thousteen is one point
(04:08):
to trillion dollars. That's all the cash and all the
coins all over the world of American dollars, the real
dollars that you can collect and put together you can
light your cigars with, yeah, or you can throw into
a fountain. Yeah. One point to trillion US dollars. So
that's how much money was in the world. But and
(04:29):
and we said, also, that's thirty eight hundred for every
American man, woman, and child, all three hundred and sixteen million,
six hundred and sixty eight thousand, five hundred and sixty
seven Americans that were alive in July of two thousand thirteen,
each one should have had thirty eight hundred bucks in
their pocket. Because we're not talking checking accounts, we're talking
in the actual currency that people are walking around with.
(04:52):
Since I don't have thirty eight hundred dollars in my
pocket and I didn't in July, you don't, Jerry, No,
Jerry's got more. Where is this stuff. That's a good question.
I wonder how that clock ticks, by the way, the
population clock. I'd like to see a real time like
three people died, four people born, people died, eight people born,
(05:13):
said its wins. I wonder if it ever does go
backwards for a second. It's got too because people are dying,
but more people are being born than people are dying. Yeah,
it depends on the country you're talking about. Yeah, that's true. Um.
I always drive by the one in Atlanta, you know,
on the population clock that's been there forever. When I
was a kid, I remember when the top two million
it was like whoa, and now it's whatever three points something,
(05:36):
is it? Yeah? I mean that's metro Atlanta, right, it's
not city of Atlanta. Um, alright, So back to it. Uh,
where were we hard to track the more money? No,
we were talking about where the thirty eight hundred bucks
that should be in our pockets is. Oh well, um,
about a half to two thirds of that is overseas.
(05:56):
It's an overseas pockets, that's right, or overseas bank account sir. No, No,
we're not talking bank accountants. That's just money, that's right. Yeah,
So that means that there are people walking around overseas
with cash on them American dollar, American dollars, which makes
a lot of sense. And so when you start to
divide the amount of money at one point two trillion
(06:18):
buy a lot more than three and sixteen million people.
That explains why I have a single dollar bill on
my person right now, why I have nothing? Right and
Jerry nothing nothing man, We're sad sex Okay, So that's
just the MO money supply. Yeah, the M zero. The
M one is all of the more money plus checking
(06:39):
account money and other kinds of just accounts that you
can you know, track and travelers checks. Yeah, very very
liquid types of accounts. Yes, that's the M one. Yeah
supply that And it's funny that you were having trouble
wrapping your head around the fact that we were talking
about cash outside of banks for the M zero supply.
I had the same problem too, like it's hard to
(07:00):
think of money outside of banks in this day and age. Yeah,
you could rarely have cash on hand us like debit
cards and credit cards and all that kind of stuff. Yeah,
American Express for everything. That's funny that on this audio
podcast you just held it up to your face and
you said that, um, so that's the M one. In
(07:22):
June of of this year, of the M one supply
was about two point five trillion, so the more money
supply was one point two. The M one was two
point five. That's all the accounts and checking accounts, travelers checks.
Then there's the M two, which is the M one
supply plus UH money market fund, money savings accounts, and
(07:44):
CDs under a hundred grand, which they call small c
d s, right comes from. That's a pretty good CD,
well CD over a hundred grants called jumbo Yeah, I
was looking up jumbo rates that used to be something
like four and a quarter. Some of them would be
like for like a ten year yeah, so you get
like twenty two grand back over now I'm sorry, five years.
(08:07):
So you go give a bank a hundred grand, say
keep this for five years paying me back, and they
would give you twenty two interests, So you get a
hundred and twenty two cryan not very long ago, a
couple of years ago before the crash. You want to
know what it's at right now. For a hundred thousand
dollar three year I believe c D, a jumbo c D,
(08:30):
you get like one point four percent it's only worth
your time to give a bank a hundred thousand dollars
to keep for three years. They'll give you fourteen hundred dollars.
As nine go to the dog track with a hundred
thousand dollars and you leave Heroin Addict crying um. Alright,
(08:52):
So the M to supply, which like I said, was
it was the M one supply plus money market fund
saving counts and those smaller CDs. Ten point five trillion.
That's virtually all of the American money in the world
pretty much, because they got rid of M three basically
in two thousand six, because they said, it really doesn't
(09:13):
tell us much to know what the larger jumbo CDs
are adding to this pile. It doesn't change things that much,
I guess. I imagine there's just not that many exactly.
So about ten point five trillion US dollars in accounts
and in cash um in holdings in the world in
about July June July two that's a lot of dough
(09:36):
to say. That's a lot of mula, right, and if
you want to, yeah, it even says here it did.
And that's when I looked up It's like who wrote this?
It was like oops. I thought this was well done.
Well and I learned how to spell mula. I didn't know.
Don't don't pitch now, I'm serious. I literally thought, oh,
that's how you spell mula. How do you think you
spelled it? I don't know m U l A No,
(09:59):
I'm just never thought of I've never seen it spelled
out m O O l A. H Uh, that's a
p standard exactly. So um this I think we've kind
(10:31):
of pointed out it's tough to track money like this. Well, yeah,
it's not the easiest thing. They do a pretty good
job of it that the FED does specifically because it's
just what they do and they love doing that. Yeah,
but it's you know, it's an estimate still, Like, no
one knows how much cash I have in my house,
no one asked me no. But they know how much
was printed, They keep track of that kind of stuff,
how much is destroyed, how much in circulation, um. And
(10:53):
you know there's bank reportings. They know how much a
bank has at the FED UM, so they have a
It's it's pretty close estimate from what I understand. The
thing is, not every country has a FED like the
FED in the US, and that makes it way harder
to say how much money is in the entire world,
(11:14):
not just US dollars, but all the money in the
entire world, and more difficult to control your economy. It
is if you if you don't know how much money
you have, it's very difficult to sway your economy one
way or the other. Right exactly. So, Um, Zimbabwe is
a really good example, man, of why it's so hard
to track a lot of money, and also what happens
(11:35):
when you don't track your money, yeah, or what happens
when you decide, in order to fix economic woes, let's
just start printing more money, because that's um. If you
know nothing about finance and economics, a common thing you
might think is, well, they could probably just infuse some
some cash flow by printing money occasionally, and they do occasionally.
(11:57):
But in Zimbabwe they did it to such an extent
with a zim dollar, which I didn't even believe that
was right. It's actually called a zim dollar. Sounds like
something from a movie. Um, not a good one exactly. Uh.
They printed so much money that they encountered hyper inflation
like the world has never seen before. Yeah, So it's ridiculous.
(12:18):
Numbers yes, this hyper inflation in two thousand and six,
it was. It was really bad, and two thousand Zimbabwe
started to enter an inflationary spiral. Um In two thousand
and six, it was so bad that a sheet, not
a roll, a sheet of toilet paper cost four hundred
and seventeen Zim dollars. Okay, yeah, a roll of toilet
(12:43):
paper cost a hundred and forty five thousand, seven hundred
and fifty dollars. Broke so quick and Zimbabwe, well, that's
the thing. Everybody would have gone broke. But it wasn't
that the toilet paper was very expensive. It was that
the Zim dollars had very little purchasing power. And that
was because dollars, just like any other commodity, are subject
(13:04):
to the influences of supply and demand, and when there's
a lot of them on the market, their value decreases.
That's how the US government has managed to stay afloat
so many times they release a bunch of money, They
cause inflation so that the debts that they owe are
worth less. So when they pay him off, it hurts
the government less. It's a really horrible thing to do
(13:24):
to your investors, but it's it's done. But that's the point.
When you have a lot of dollars out there, you
have less purchasing power per dollar. And that's what was
going on in Zimbabwe, and things got really out of
hand because they decided to fight this by printing more dollars. Yeah,
they really got out of hand. That Some of these
(13:45):
stats in here are just staggering. Um, you said that
every what you didn't say, You report that it is
estimated that it was equivalent to prices doubling in stores
every one point three days. Yeah, the most I saw
was every twenty four point seven hours. Prices. Essentially, we're
being doubled by the way of the dollar losing value, right.
(14:07):
Like the kind of inflation that we're looking at right
here in America right now is like in the single
digit percentiles, and it's being kept low by the Fed
on purpose. But we're talking like doubling increase. Like the
toilet papers this much the next day is twice as
much the next day, it's three times that. And that's
just not gonna affect economy. That's gonna like, I mean
(14:31):
think about it. Its toilet paper costs that much money.
People are gonna stop using toilet paper. That leads to
poor sanitation, that leads to you know, it's just a
domino effect. Well, there was a joke that the toilet
paper was so expensive of the dollar, the zim zim
dollar bought such a little toilet paper that it was
actually more useful as toilet paper than to buy toilet
paper with. Yeah, that's not funny, but well yeah, yeah,
(14:53):
appear in Zimbabwe is not. But the annual inflation was
um estimated. Like this was watching Zimbabwe if you were
a currency or monetary policy economists, it was like a
dream come true. Last time something happened this bad it
was Hungary in ninety six. I think we talked about that. Yeah, um,
(15:14):
I think it was in the super Stuff Guide to
Economics or spoken word album. Um. But the the inflation
in Zimbabwe was estimated at five hundred and sixteen quintillion percent.
That's by the end of two thousand eight. Okay, that's
not even the highest that I've seen. Now, the highest
(15:35):
I saw is eighty nine point seven sex tillion percent,
which is a eighty nine point seven billion trillion percent
or eighty nine point seven ten to the twenty one
power percent. That was their annual rate of inflation, and
that was probably early two thousand nine. Yeah, yeah, because
(15:55):
in January two thousand nine they basically said you can
start using four in currency again, which helps stabilizings a
tiny the tiniest bit, but it it didn't obviously work well.
It ended inflation abruptly because they abandoned these dollars. The
currency lost value so much that everybody stopped using it
(16:17):
and they went to the South African rand and the
US dollar. That took four months from January to April
for basically to completely abandon their money, right, so four
months in the country's money is literally useless. And when
they did, when they did abandon it was actually a
pretty good move, Like you couldn't carry the economy with
this money any longer because it was so value that
(16:38):
they're in bad shape no matter what. But at least
they that was a good move, right. And Um, the
reason it was a good move because it stopped inflation
because there weren't that many dollars and there weren't that
many rands around, which means that they were scarce, which
means again according to supply and demand, um, they were
valuable and that hence they had purchasing power yeah, and um,
(16:58):
it's really unbelieved doable. But it got so bad they
were printing money in larger and larger denominations because they
had to because people couldn't carry around. You'd have to
have a suitcase full of money to buy your toilet paper.
So they ended up producing a one hundred trillion Zimbabwean
dollar note that you can now buy on eBay for
about five bucks. Yeah, that's sad. While when it was
(17:22):
released it was worth about thirty Yeah, and that's actual
conversion rate, Like now it's only worth something on eBay.
What there is? Yeah, there is no conversion rate, right, Um,
I think I'm gonna get one, not just to have
it do it? Yeah, okay, so get you one to thanks.
What is it? Three hundred trillion dollar notes? Um, But
(17:47):
that's the fact that the Zimbabwean government wasn't tracking their
money in the first place, and they didn't track it
after they kept releasing it again and again. Yeah, and
there was no buy back program. They just said, you
guys keep that. Um. They have no idea how many
Zimbabwean dollars were released just in the century, let alone
(18:08):
how many are out there on the market. So that's
why it's virtually impossible to track how much money is
out there in the world. But that hasn't stopped at
least one guy. Well, actually that's not true. I talked
to Catherine Whitbourne today and she was saying that the
guy gave up the most recent figures she could find
with two dozen ten because he's like, forget this, Yeah,
miquet of dollar days with the z dot com um. Yeah,
(18:32):
I guess he gave up on a huh that was
his blog, his econ blog, and he was tracking a
hundred thirty five currencies, uh in a hundred and sixty
seven countries, and I guess December two thousand ten, it's
probably one of the last stats he has then if
that's when he quit. Um in his MO money equal
to five point trillion in US dollars in circulation M
(18:56):
two was fifty five trillion, So fifty five trillion bucks. Yeah,
that's the value of all the money in the world
occurring to Mike in US dollars, the US dollar value,
but not just US dollars. That's everything, right, So there
you have it. Okay, So this would be a lot
(19:17):
easier to track and things like what happened in Zimbabwe
wouldn't happen. You would never have hyper inflation if we
all used a universal worldwide currency. Yeah, let's talk about that.
No less than John Maynard Keynes has suggested that, and
it's been bandied about for a long time since World
(19:37):
War two, well even before then. Yeah, I don't think
it's I think it was maybe closest to happening maybe
after World War two, well, which wasn't very close. No,
there were instances of what were to the people who
were using the currency was effectively a universal currency like um,
A lot the early imperial powers of China and Rome
(20:01):
used a single currency in all the lands they conquered,
which is why hordes of Roman silver coins are found
in fields in the UK still today. Um. But it's
still not technically a worldwide currency. But world War two
we came very close, right. Yeah, let's talk about some
of the pros. I guess, um, because it's I mean,
(20:22):
if you look it up on the internet, there's a
lot of debate still going on. Um, some of the pros.
Speculators can't short a currency. That scenario you were talking about,
like the value and currency to pay back debts, right,
that'd be gone because it wouldn't be a commodity. There
wouldn't any other currency to exchange it against. So therefore
(20:44):
it's just a dollar just can be used to buy
something you can't buy and sell it itself. It would
be valueless like that. Exporters wouldn't have to worry about
price gaps. There would be no conversion fees, which would
free up money for like healthcare or whatever, I mean,
something good to spend it on. Um. Of course, I'm
(21:07):
just this is utopian outlook like, oh yeah, then they
could spend it on healthcare ideally, but it would free
up money. Um, it would in disputes about a currency manipulation, um,
like China. Um. So they're like, there are some pros
for sure. You wouldn't have to stand in line at
the cambio centers and exchange your money when you traveled. No,
(21:28):
and um convenience you mean and I went to Europe
this summer and it was nice to not we just
exchanged once. Yeah, that hadn't been since the euro It's
like everywhere, um, and even in places in Croatia they
still use their currency, but everybody accepts euros. Yeah, I
bet they accept American dollars there too. Um, I kind
(21:50):
of enjoyed the different currencies. Oh yeah, it's pretty and
it's just neat. I kind of enjoyed the I mean,
I guess it was. I didn't see it as a hassle.
Maybe I was young, but I always thought it was
kind of neat, Like, let me go turn in my
francs for uh, for my German dollars. Well, it just
sucks to lose money buying another currency, yeah, or to
come out ahead though, that's when you're rocking right sometimes.
(22:12):
But it's been a while since that happened. Well, this
was in the mid ninety nineties, so the American dollar
was we were doing pretty well in Eastern Europe. The
dollar was sound as the pound, but we got killed
in England of course, as always, because your pound is
so awesome. Well, that was the big discrepancy after World
War Two, Like when we came close to adopting universal currency,
(22:35):
the Americans and the Brits couldn't decide on what to
value it against the pound or the dollar, and so
it just fell apart. Well, the Pew Research Center did
a poll and apparently forty one of Americans believe that
we will have a universal currency by Um, but the
article I got that from, the guy speculates that could
be because we're sort of programmed to think that the
(22:58):
future will be like that, because every entirely, yeah, like
every sci fi movie ever, it's like, you know, universal credits.
It's not even like cash. So people just kind of
have that in the back of their minds. So there's
a lot of like drawbacks to a universal currency as well.
There's some clever things you can do if you are
in charge of your own currency and it's valued against
(23:20):
other currencies. One of them is, if your economy is sluggish,
you can release a lot of your currency, create inflation,
drive prices down in your country compared to the um
the buying power of a foreign currency, and attract that
(23:41):
foreign currency and get your economy kick started again. If
you're using the same currency as all these other countries
that you're training with, sure there's not that that gap, right,
the currency gap, But you also can't do that nice
little trick that's probably would have bailed out Spain and
Greece on their own had they not been trading the
(24:03):
Euro or using the Euro the last couple of years. Yeah,
that's a good point. Um, Some pundits think that the
gold standard, if they were going to go to a
universal currency, it would should be based on something like
the gold Standard again or the gold standard period. But
a lot of other people say, no, that's antiquated and
just a bad idea. Yeah, potentially dangerous. I wonder how
(24:27):
I would be dangerous. I don't know we should do
one on the gold standard. I mean they got rid
of it for a reason, so I don't know something
about going back to something that but it was Nixon
and got rid of it. So it's makes you think
it's inherently evil getting rid of the gold standard, you know. Yeah.
The other thing too, is who's going to run the show?
Is really the big I think that's probably the biggest
stumbling block. It's a huge one. Is it's there's got
(24:48):
to be a universal body, an international reserve bank, central
bank that has the authority on issuing these things buying
them back. And yeah, I mean like every since the
Clinton there, everybody has been nervous about that kind of thing.
But even if you're not a paranoid type, you may
just think that this body by definition would be incompetent
(25:12):
just from looking at like the U, n UN has successes.
Piece keeping missions are frequently very helpful and can add
stability to a region. And then you have things like
the International Panel on Climate Change, which releases its um
it's opinions on climate change based on politics and diplomacy
(25:33):
rather than science. Yeah, and you can't if you if
it's a World Bank, there's too much at stake to
make mistakes. And we already have a World Bank. It's
just not in charge of every currency. And if it were,
I mean, there could be problematic, It could be helpful,
it could be problematic. I don't really fall down on
either side of this. Yeah, I don't mean, I don't know.
(25:56):
You know how I feel about economics. It's just as
long as I can go buy my stuff and pay
my mortgage. Yeah, I don't care if it's at the
end or the dollar or the or the the community
Financier dea freak, Frank, do you care if it's that? No,
(26:16):
I had never heard of that. I didn't know. I
thought the euro was sort of the only consolidator. But um,
apparently in Africa, eight West African nations do share that
West African CFA franc African Financial Community, Another six Central
African nations share a Central African CFA franc which is
(26:37):
weird because they're interchangeable. Yeah, two currencies that they can
either one's fine. Yeah, I guess it's like when you
go to Costa Rica or Mexico, you can use your dollars,
you can use your paces. Yeah, I guess so. But
apparently from interchangeable, I read that to mean like their
valued the exact same, which is like, why I have
two different currencies that are so similar that are the
same value. Just make one c F a franc. Yeah,
(26:59):
that's good. Um. And then there was a lot of
talk about hemispheric and regional unified currencies in Central America
and South America, and they came very close, but the
recent troubles from the Eurozone have made a lot of
people back off about it. And in North America there
was going to be the North American Union, which is Canada, Mexico,
(27:23):
and the United States. Supposedly we're going to be fused
together into one. It was like yes, and Canada was
like right. America was like, well, we were going to
come up with the amaro a m E r oh
was the name of the unified currency that would have
been interesting. Well, it's a conspiracy theory. At least, there
(27:45):
you go. That's how much money is in the world.
Any kind of weird. That not weird, but that America
sandwich between such two different countries. It is like Canada Mexico.
That's like, you can't get any more opposite. Yeah, I
guess I'm at people, food economy, and then America's right
in the middle. It's kind of fitting where the melting
(28:08):
pot of Canada in Mexico. We are where it all
comes together. America's had in America's pants. I can't remember
what you've called Mexico before shoes m I don't think,
so let's just call it Mexico. Uh, okay, So that's
how much money there is in the world. If you
want to read this article, you can type that into
the search bar at how stuff Works dot com. And
(28:29):
since I said search part, it's time for message brick
(28:51):
uh and Chuck, what time is it now? It's time
for it again, folks. This is when we thank people
for sweet gifts that they send us in the mail.
And I have a list of books starting with how
(29:13):
Why How We Do Anything Means Everything? How Colin Why
How We Do Anything Means Everything? By dove seedman as
or do d o v yeah do do yeah. I
appreciate that very nice a dovester. Do you want to
(29:33):
say one more time? Okay, let's see. We got a
postcard from Madagascar from Cara Levitt. Thank you very much
for that. Nice. Another book by Alan Gerstel swing at Colin,
The Search for My Father Louis Prima. Nobody read this one,
but it deserves a double Um. We got a letter
(29:53):
with further insight into the hip hop episode from b
Boy Anti virus. Nice. How's he doing these doing? Great? Uh?
Science nearly explained by Dick Maxwell, and that is available
on Amazon or Kindle nice. Um. We have a postcard
with a picture of the pair which you'll remember from
the torture episode from the Museo de Torture from Anna
(30:17):
Oh nice, thank you very much. Our buddy Roger Ma
sent us to the Vampire Combat Manual and he's previously
sinis the Zombie Combat Manual and Roger's good dude. We
actually finally met him, didn't we. I don't know did
we meet him. I think we met Roger at one
of the comic cons. Okay, second, yeah, okay, I think
you're right, hey Ron. Uh. We got a postcard from
(30:40):
China from Carry Nice. We got another book called Trunkless.
It's a children's book and I don't have the author here,
but it's called Trunkless. I think we did that one before,
did we? Alright? Double plug? Uh. We got another postcard
from Bogram Airfield from Amy Lynn, thanks for that. We
get a book called Verbifor's Feast for a Horse Feast
(31:02):
by Christie the Word Smith and that was sent in
by Hillary Nice. Uh. We got a postcard of a
bear pooping in the woods from Van Nostrin. Thanks Van Nostran. Yeah,
and we should mention to Van Nostron also sent us
his CD from his awesome band, The Bangalore's Sasquatch with
a mullet. Yes, thank you, buddy. Um. We got a
comic zine called Happy Trails Cowboy Poetry by horse t
(31:26):
Rushy Beard stash Um. We got a really cool cityscape
watercolor card that was designed and sent by Alex, Thanks Alex.
John Lennemeyer wrote a book called How an Average Man
Lived an Adventurous Life and I haven't read that yet,
but I'm going to good going, Chuck. Yeah. Um, We've
(31:47):
got some CDs from Rich Bosick that may or may
not have been all of them, but thank you very
much for those. Yeah, and I believe he also sent
us a DVD called Forgotten Detroit and a nice handwritten
I'm sorry, inc rendering of ourselves? Right? Did you see that? Yeah?
Is it the same guy? I think it's the same guy. Well,
(32:08):
thank you very much big time. Rich. A book called
Roman Disasters by Jerry Turner, and a book called the
Life and Times of Swirly Van Coco stuff you should
know edition. It's a comic actually from Aaron Dunbar. Yes,
I remember what else we have, chuck uh. And then
we have a bunch of music you want to go
through these? Uh? Column blow double in disguise. That's right,
(32:32):
Ben from self evidence in his c d s and
vinyl of the record we built a fortress on short notice.
We definitely plugged that one before the La La band
sent us their CD Moonshine Still yep. The group called
Forging Reverie cent U s a CD called Motion Canvas,
and that was from Derek. Eric Davis and Sam Gray
sent us a c D Table People and some authentic
(32:54):
Korean junk food burke Uh. In graphia and Graphia send
us download codes for his c D Jazz Animals, Right,
Katie Center, send us a nice handwritten letter. She's doing
something called the Letter Project, where she sends a letter
to somebody who inspires her to ask what are you
pursuing in your life? And do you know? How do
(33:16):
you know when you've gotten there? Yeah? And we answered,
did we? Yeah? I did for both of us. Oh nice,
thanks man, I know what you I know what you're pursuing.
I don't even have to do anythinking. Uh. And then
we have one more vinyl and c D the shape
of Beach to come from Ben Dick box Us band. Yes,
(33:38):
that is b N D I K B A K
S A A S. And she takes these finals. There's
a couple over there on my desk. And thanks man.
You got a record player? I do, and mine is busted.
What happened to your record player? Oh? It's up in
the attic endword per year or so until I get
to go in. You should just take the vital I will. Yeah,
And we appreciate the vinyl. By the way, it's very cool.
I believe Benedict backs us um. Did we read his
(34:01):
name for volunteering, no donating to co ED I believe.
So yeah, well that's the same person then, thanks for
that doubly. So that is administrative details for now. Thanks
for the stuff. Yeah, we're all caught up. Very nice.
I know it feels good. It didn't take like eight
episodes to cover at all. Uh. If you want to
(34:21):
send us something, you can get in touch with us
by tweeting to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff
you Should Know. You can send us an email to
Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, and you can join
us at our home on the web, the awesome website
Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this
(34:44):
and thousands of other topics. Does it how Stuff Works
dot com
Welcome to Stuff you should Know from house stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
and I'm with Charles W Chuck, Bryan, he's right here
with me. So it's stuff you should know. It's also
really stuff you should know because Jerry's here too. Oh
(00:26):
the chairs not here. It's fake stuff you should know.
It's less than vintage stuff you should know. Got you.
I mean it's not bad. Yeah, it's not great. Yeah,
I'm sure Matt and everyone appreciate that. N listen to
this crap? Yeah, Chuck, Yes, how much money do you
(00:46):
have on you right now? Cash? Zero dollars and zero cents? Well,
that's stupid, because you should have thirty eight in cash
on you. I never have cash. Well, you should almost
never have cash. You should have thirty eight hundred dollars
in cash on you right now. So should I? So
should Jerry. Um, but we don't. We don't. It's sad
(01:10):
I in my pocket. Okay, Well, let's let's explain why
I just said that. Huh was I supposed to? That's
all right, I'll do it. Um, I can do it.
That's how much if you divide up all the money
between all the Americans. That's how much we should all have. Bam, bam.
So we're trying to answer a question here, how much
(01:33):
money is there in the world. Um, And we'll get
to that. There's a there's actually a rough estimate out
there that may be right. But instead, first let's talk
about how much American money there is in the world.
And not just because we're American, but because it is
the standard currency worldwide. It's the closest thing to the
(01:54):
universal currency that we have, um, the dollar, the green bag. Yeah,
but um, that's not, as I guess, um, widespread as
it once was. A lot of people have abandoned the dollar,
um and now use a basket of currencies to value
their currency against very rebellious Um. But still the dollar
(02:18):
is generally what's you to say for oil speculation? And
imagine the dollars in that basket too though right, maybe
maybe not, It depends on how much they hate America. So, UM,
what you were talking about though, was all the money
divided up by all the Americans coming up to thirty
eight dollars. That's called the M zero money supply. Of course,
(02:40):
you know how I read that m O. The more
money supply. I was like, what and then I read
I read it again. I said, it can't be called
the more money Supply, and then I realized that was
a zero and not an O. It uh, it looks
very much like the more money Supply. I wrote this article.
I realized it, and I never saw it like that
until you just said that. Yeah, I like the more
(03:03):
money supply better than the M O. It's good, but
it is M O for a reason. There's also the
M one, M two, and there wasn't M three, which
we'll get to, right. And the people who came up
with this was the Federal Reserve Bank, the United States
Central Bank, right, And they like to track money. That's
one of the things they do to amuse themselves. Count yeah,
count money, um, and go to sleep on piles of
(03:26):
gold ingots. But the Fed came up with this M
I'm sorry, this MO money supply, also known as the
M zero supply, and that is all of the bills
and coins, all of the actual hard currency that exists
in the world anywhere in US dollars and as of
(03:47):
July two thirteen, Hey, that's recent. Yeah, that came to
a we should say. Catherine Whitbourne from the Coolest Stuff
on the Planet update. She updated this, so the fact
that this is as up today as it is thanks
to her um but the the m so the more
money supply as of July two Thousteen is one point
(04:08):
to trillion dollars. That's all the cash and all the
coins all over the world of American dollars, the real
dollars that you can collect and put together you can
light your cigars with, yeah, or you can throw into
a fountain. Yeah. One point to trillion US dollars. So
that's how much money was in the world. But and
(04:29):
and we said, also, that's thirty eight hundred for every
American man, woman, and child, all three hundred and sixteen million,
six hundred and sixty eight thousand, five hundred and sixty
seven Americans that were alive in July of two thousand thirteen,
each one should have had thirty eight hundred bucks in
their pocket. Because we're not talking checking accounts, we're talking
in the actual currency that people are walking around with.
(04:52):
Since I don't have thirty eight hundred dollars in my
pocket and I didn't in July, you don't, Jerry, No,
Jerry's got more. Where is this stuff. That's a good question.
I wonder how that clock ticks, by the way, the
population clock. I'd like to see a real time like
three people died, four people born, people died, eight people born,
(05:13):
said its wins. I wonder if it ever does go
backwards for a second. It's got too because people are dying,
but more people are being born than people are dying. Yeah,
it depends on the country you're talking about. Yeah, that's true. Um.
I always drive by the one in Atlanta, you know,
on the population clock that's been there forever. When I
was a kid, I remember when the top two million
it was like whoa, and now it's whatever three points something,
(05:36):
is it? Yeah? I mean that's metro Atlanta, right, it's
not city of Atlanta. Um, alright, So back to it. Uh,
where were we hard to track the more money? No,
we were talking about where the thirty eight hundred bucks
that should be in our pockets is. Oh well, um,
about a half to two thirds of that is overseas.
(05:56):
It's an overseas pockets, that's right, or overseas bank account sir. No, No,
we're not talking bank accountants. That's just money, that's right. Yeah,
So that means that there are people walking around overseas
with cash on them American dollar, American dollars, which makes
a lot of sense. And so when you start to
divide the amount of money at one point two trillion
(06:18):
buy a lot more than three and sixteen million people.
That explains why I have a single dollar bill on
my person right now, why I have nothing? Right and
Jerry nothing nothing man, We're sad sex Okay, So that's
just the MO money supply. Yeah, the M zero. The
M one is all of the more money plus checking
(06:39):
account money and other kinds of just accounts that you
can you know, track and travelers checks. Yeah, very very
liquid types of accounts. Yes, that's the M one. Yeah
supply that And it's funny that you were having trouble
wrapping your head around the fact that we were talking
about cash outside of banks for the M zero supply.
I had the same problem too, like it's hard to
(07:00):
think of money outside of banks in this day and age. Yeah,
you could rarely have cash on hand us like debit
cards and credit cards and all that kind of stuff. Yeah,
American Express for everything. That's funny that on this audio
podcast you just held it up to your face and
you said that, um, so that's the M one. In
(07:22):
June of of this year, of the M one supply
was about two point five trillion, so the more money
supply was one point two. The M one was two
point five. That's all the accounts and checking accounts, travelers checks.
Then there's the M two, which is the M one
supply plus UH money market fund, money savings accounts, and
(07:44):
CDs under a hundred grand, which they call small c
d s, right comes from. That's a pretty good CD,
well CD over a hundred grants called jumbo Yeah, I
was looking up jumbo rates that used to be something
like four and a quarter. Some of them would be
like for like a ten year yeah, so you get
like twenty two grand back over now I'm sorry, five years.
(08:07):
So you go give a bank a hundred grand, say
keep this for five years paying me back, and they
would give you twenty two interests, So you get a
hundred and twenty two cryan not very long ago, a
couple of years ago before the crash. You want to
know what it's at right now. For a hundred thousand
dollar three year I believe c D, a jumbo c D,
(08:30):
you get like one point four percent it's only worth
your time to give a bank a hundred thousand dollars
to keep for three years. They'll give you fourteen hundred dollars.
As nine go to the dog track with a hundred
thousand dollars and you leave Heroin Addict crying um. Alright,
(08:52):
So the M to supply, which like I said, was
it was the M one supply plus money market fund
saving counts and those smaller CDs. Ten point five trillion.
That's virtually all of the American money in the world
pretty much, because they got rid of M three basically
in two thousand six, because they said, it really doesn't
(09:13):
tell us much to know what the larger jumbo CDs
are adding to this pile. It doesn't change things that much,
I guess. I imagine there's just not that many exactly.
So about ten point five trillion US dollars in accounts
and in cash um in holdings in the world in
about July June July two that's a lot of dough
(09:36):
to say. That's a lot of mula, right, and if
you want to, yeah, it even says here it did.
And that's when I looked up It's like who wrote this?
It was like oops. I thought this was well done.
Well and I learned how to spell mula. I didn't know.
Don't don't pitch now, I'm serious. I literally thought, oh,
that's how you spell mula. How do you think you
spelled it? I don't know m U l A No,
(09:59):
I'm just never thought of I've never seen it spelled
out m O O l A. H Uh, that's a
p standard exactly. So um this I think we've kind
(10:31):
of pointed out it's tough to track money like this. Well, yeah,
it's not the easiest thing. They do a pretty good
job of it that the FED does specifically because it's
just what they do and they love doing that. Yeah,
but it's you know, it's an estimate still, Like, no
one knows how much cash I have in my house,
no one asked me no. But they know how much
was printed, They keep track of that kind of stuff,
how much is destroyed, how much in circulation, um. And
(10:53):
you know there's bank reportings. They know how much a
bank has at the FED UM, so they have a
It's it's pretty close estimate from what I understand. The
thing is, not every country has a FED like the
FED in the US, and that makes it way harder
to say how much money is in the entire world,
(11:14):
not just US dollars, but all the money in the
entire world, and more difficult to control your economy. It
is if you if you don't know how much money
you have, it's very difficult to sway your economy one
way or the other. Right exactly. So, Um, Zimbabwe is
a really good example, man, of why it's so hard
to track a lot of money, and also what happens
(11:35):
when you don't track your money, yeah, or what happens
when you decide, in order to fix economic woes, let's
just start printing more money, because that's um. If you
know nothing about finance and economics, a common thing you
might think is, well, they could probably just infuse some
some cash flow by printing money occasionally, and they do occasionally.
(11:57):
But in Zimbabwe they did it to such an extent
with a zim dollar, which I didn't even believe that
was right. It's actually called a zim dollar. Sounds like
something from a movie. Um, not a good one exactly. Uh.
They printed so much money that they encountered hyper inflation
like the world has never seen before. Yeah, So it's ridiculous.
(12:18):
Numbers yes, this hyper inflation in two thousand and six,
it was. It was really bad, and two thousand Zimbabwe
started to enter an inflationary spiral. Um In two thousand
and six, it was so bad that a sheet, not
a roll, a sheet of toilet paper cost four hundred
and seventeen Zim dollars. Okay, yeah, a roll of toilet
(12:43):
paper cost a hundred and forty five thousand, seven hundred
and fifty dollars. Broke so quick and Zimbabwe, well, that's
the thing. Everybody would have gone broke. But it wasn't
that the toilet paper was very expensive. It was that
the Zim dollars had very little purchasing power. And that
was because dollars, just like any other commodity, are subject
(13:04):
to the influences of supply and demand, and when there's
a lot of them on the market, their value decreases.
That's how the US government has managed to stay afloat
so many times they release a bunch of money, They
cause inflation so that the debts that they owe are
worth less. So when they pay him off, it hurts
the government less. It's a really horrible thing to do
(13:24):
to your investors, but it's it's done. But that's the point.
When you have a lot of dollars out there, you
have less purchasing power per dollar. And that's what was
going on in Zimbabwe, and things got really out of
hand because they decided to fight this by printing more dollars. Yeah,
they really got out of hand. That Some of these
(13:45):
stats in here are just staggering. Um, you said that
every what you didn't say, You report that it is
estimated that it was equivalent to prices doubling in stores
every one point three days. Yeah, the most I saw
was every twenty four point seven hours. Prices. Essentially, we're
being doubled by the way of the dollar losing value, right.
(14:07):
Like the kind of inflation that we're looking at right
here in America right now is like in the single
digit percentiles, and it's being kept low by the Fed
on purpose. But we're talking like doubling increase. Like the
toilet papers this much the next day is twice as
much the next day, it's three times that. And that's
just not gonna affect economy. That's gonna like, I mean
(14:31):
think about it. Its toilet paper costs that much money.
People are gonna stop using toilet paper. That leads to
poor sanitation, that leads to you know, it's just a
domino effect. Well, there was a joke that the toilet
paper was so expensive of the dollar, the zim zim
dollar bought such a little toilet paper that it was
actually more useful as toilet paper than to buy toilet
paper with. Yeah, that's not funny, but well yeah, yeah,
(14:53):
appear in Zimbabwe is not. But the annual inflation was
um estimated. Like this was watching Zimbabwe if you were
a currency or monetary policy economists, it was like a
dream come true. Last time something happened this bad it
was Hungary in ninety six. I think we talked about that. Yeah, um,
(15:14):
I think it was in the super Stuff Guide to
Economics or spoken word album. Um. But the the inflation
in Zimbabwe was estimated at five hundred and sixteen quintillion percent.
That's by the end of two thousand eight. Okay, that's
not even the highest that I've seen. Now, the highest
(15:35):
I saw is eighty nine point seven sex tillion percent,
which is a eighty nine point seven billion trillion percent
or eighty nine point seven ten to the twenty one
power percent. That was their annual rate of inflation, and
that was probably early two thousand nine. Yeah, yeah, because
(15:55):
in January two thousand nine they basically said you can
start using four in currency again, which helps stabilizings a
tiny the tiniest bit, but it it didn't obviously work well.
It ended inflation abruptly because they abandoned these dollars. The
currency lost value so much that everybody stopped using it
(16:17):
and they went to the South African rand and the
US dollar. That took four months from January to April
for basically to completely abandon their money, right, so four
months in the country's money is literally useless. And when
they did, when they did abandon it was actually a
pretty good move, Like you couldn't carry the economy with
this money any longer because it was so value that
(16:38):
they're in bad shape no matter what. But at least
they that was a good move, right. And Um, the
reason it was a good move because it stopped inflation
because there weren't that many dollars and there weren't that
many rands around, which means that they were scarce, which
means again according to supply and demand, um, they were
valuable and that hence they had purchasing power yeah, and um,
(16:58):
it's really unbelieved doable. But it got so bad they
were printing money in larger and larger denominations because they
had to because people couldn't carry around. You'd have to
have a suitcase full of money to buy your toilet paper.
So they ended up producing a one hundred trillion Zimbabwean
dollar note that you can now buy on eBay for
about five bucks. Yeah, that's sad. While when it was
(17:22):
released it was worth about thirty Yeah, and that's actual
conversion rate, Like now it's only worth something on eBay.
What there is? Yeah, there is no conversion rate, right, Um,
I think I'm gonna get one, not just to have
it do it? Yeah, okay, so get you one to thanks.
What is it? Three hundred trillion dollar notes? Um, But
(17:47):
that's the fact that the Zimbabwean government wasn't tracking their
money in the first place, and they didn't track it
after they kept releasing it again and again. Yeah, and
there was no buy back program. They just said, you
guys keep that. Um. They have no idea how many
Zimbabwean dollars were released just in the century, let alone
(18:08):
how many are out there on the market. So that's
why it's virtually impossible to track how much money is
out there in the world. But that hasn't stopped at
least one guy. Well, actually that's not true. I talked
to Catherine Whitbourne today and she was saying that the
guy gave up the most recent figures she could find
with two dozen ten because he's like, forget this, Yeah,
miquet of dollar days with the z dot com um. Yeah,
(18:32):
I guess he gave up on a huh that was
his blog, his econ blog, and he was tracking a
hundred thirty five currencies, uh in a hundred and sixty
seven countries, and I guess December two thousand ten, it's
probably one of the last stats he has then if
that's when he quit. Um in his MO money equal
to five point trillion in US dollars in circulation M
(18:56):
two was fifty five trillion, So fifty five trillion bucks. Yeah,
that's the value of all the money in the world
occurring to Mike in US dollars, the US dollar value,
but not just US dollars. That's everything, right, So there
you have it. Okay, So this would be a lot
(19:17):
easier to track and things like what happened in Zimbabwe
wouldn't happen. You would never have hyper inflation if we
all used a universal worldwide currency. Yeah, let's talk about that.
No less than John Maynard Keynes has suggested that, and
it's been bandied about for a long time since World
(19:37):
War two, well even before then. Yeah, I don't think
it's I think it was maybe closest to happening maybe
after World War two, well, which wasn't very close. No,
there were instances of what were to the people who
were using the currency was effectively a universal currency like um,
A lot the early imperial powers of China and Rome
(20:01):
used a single currency in all the lands they conquered,
which is why hordes of Roman silver coins are found
in fields in the UK still today. Um. But it's
still not technically a worldwide currency. But world War two
we came very close, right. Yeah, let's talk about some
of the pros. I guess, um, because it's I mean,
(20:22):
if you look it up on the internet, there's a
lot of debate still going on. Um, some of the pros.
Speculators can't short a currency. That scenario you were talking about,
like the value and currency to pay back debts, right,
that'd be gone because it wouldn't be a commodity. There
wouldn't any other currency to exchange it against. So therefore
(20:44):
it's just a dollar just can be used to buy
something you can't buy and sell it itself. It would
be valueless like that. Exporters wouldn't have to worry about
price gaps. There would be no conversion fees, which would
free up money for like healthcare or whatever, I mean,
something good to spend it on. Um. Of course, I'm
(21:07):
just this is utopian outlook like, oh yeah, then they
could spend it on healthcare ideally, but it would free
up money. Um, it would in disputes about a currency manipulation, um,
like China. Um. So they're like, there are some pros
for sure. You wouldn't have to stand in line at
the cambio centers and exchange your money when you traveled. No,
(21:28):
and um convenience you mean and I went to Europe
this summer and it was nice to not we just
exchanged once. Yeah, that hadn't been since the euro It's
like everywhere, um, and even in places in Croatia they
still use their currency, but everybody accepts euros. Yeah, I
bet they accept American dollars there too. Um, I kind
(21:50):
of enjoyed the different currencies. Oh yeah, it's pretty and
it's just neat. I kind of enjoyed the I mean,
I guess it was. I didn't see it as a hassle.
Maybe I was young, but I always thought it was
kind of neat, Like, let me go turn in my
francs for uh, for my German dollars. Well, it just
sucks to lose money buying another currency, yeah, or to
come out ahead though, that's when you're rocking right sometimes.
(22:12):
But it's been a while since that happened. Well, this
was in the mid ninety nineties, so the American dollar
was we were doing pretty well in Eastern Europe. The
dollar was sound as the pound, but we got killed
in England of course, as always, because your pound is
so awesome. Well, that was the big discrepancy after World
War Two, Like when we came close to adopting universal currency,
(22:35):
the Americans and the Brits couldn't decide on what to
value it against the pound or the dollar, and so
it just fell apart. Well, the Pew Research Center did
a poll and apparently forty one of Americans believe that
we will have a universal currency by Um, but the
article I got that from, the guy speculates that could
be because we're sort of programmed to think that the
(22:58):
future will be like that, because every entirely, yeah, like
every sci fi movie ever, it's like, you know, universal credits.
It's not even like cash. So people just kind of
have that in the back of their minds. So there's
a lot of like drawbacks to a universal currency as well.
There's some clever things you can do if you are
in charge of your own currency and it's valued against
(23:20):
other currencies. One of them is, if your economy is sluggish,
you can release a lot of your currency, create inflation,
drive prices down in your country compared to the um
the buying power of a foreign currency, and attract that
(23:41):
foreign currency and get your economy kick started again. If
you're using the same currency as all these other countries
that you're training with, sure there's not that that gap, right,
the currency gap, But you also can't do that nice
little trick that's probably would have bailed out Spain and
Greece on their own had they not been trading the
(24:03):
Euro or using the Euro the last couple of years. Yeah,
that's a good point. Um, Some pundits think that the
gold standard, if they were going to go to a
universal currency, it would should be based on something like
the gold Standard again or the gold standard period. But
a lot of other people say, no, that's antiquated and
just a bad idea. Yeah, potentially dangerous. I wonder how
(24:27):
I would be dangerous. I don't know we should do
one on the gold standard. I mean they got rid
of it for a reason, so I don't know something
about going back to something that but it was Nixon
and got rid of it. So it's makes you think
it's inherently evil getting rid of the gold standard, you know. Yeah.
The other thing too, is who's going to run the show?
Is really the big I think that's probably the biggest
stumbling block. It's a huge one. Is it's there's got
(24:48):
to be a universal body, an international reserve bank, central
bank that has the authority on issuing these things buying
them back. And yeah, I mean like every since the
Clinton there, everybody has been nervous about that kind of thing.
But even if you're not a paranoid type, you may
just think that this body by definition would be incompetent
(25:12):
just from looking at like the U, n UN has successes.
Piece keeping missions are frequently very helpful and can add
stability to a region. And then you have things like
the International Panel on Climate Change, which releases its um
it's opinions on climate change based on politics and diplomacy
(25:33):
rather than science. Yeah, and you can't if you if
it's a World Bank, there's too much at stake to
make mistakes. And we already have a World Bank. It's
just not in charge of every currency. And if it were,
I mean, there could be problematic, It could be helpful,
it could be problematic. I don't really fall down on
either side of this. Yeah, I don't mean, I don't know.
(25:56):
You know how I feel about economics. It's just as
long as I can go buy my stuff and pay
my mortgage. Yeah, I don't care if it's at the
end or the dollar or the or the the community
Financier dea freak, Frank, do you care if it's that? No,
(26:16):
I had never heard of that. I didn't know. I
thought the euro was sort of the only consolidator. But um,
apparently in Africa, eight West African nations do share that
West African CFA franc African Financial Community, Another six Central
African nations share a Central African CFA franc which is
(26:37):
weird because they're interchangeable. Yeah, two currencies that they can
either one's fine. Yeah, I guess it's like when you
go to Costa Rica or Mexico, you can use your dollars,
you can use your paces. Yeah, I guess so. But
apparently from interchangeable, I read that to mean like their
valued the exact same, which is like, why I have
two different currencies that are so similar that are the
same value. Just make one c F a franc. Yeah,
(26:59):
that's good. Um. And then there was a lot of
talk about hemispheric and regional unified currencies in Central America
and South America, and they came very close, but the
recent troubles from the Eurozone have made a lot of
people back off about it. And in North America there
was going to be the North American Union, which is Canada, Mexico,
(27:23):
and the United States. Supposedly we're going to be fused
together into one. It was like yes, and Canada was
like right. America was like, well, we were going to
come up with the amaro a m E r oh
was the name of the unified currency that would have
been interesting. Well, it's a conspiracy theory. At least, there
(27:45):
you go. That's how much money is in the world.
Any kind of weird. That not weird, but that America
sandwich between such two different countries. It is like Canada Mexico.
That's like, you can't get any more opposite. Yeah, I
guess I'm at people, food economy, and then America's right
in the middle. It's kind of fitting where the melting
(28:08):
pot of Canada in Mexico. We are where it all
comes together. America's had in America's pants. I can't remember
what you've called Mexico before shoes m I don't think,
so let's just call it Mexico. Uh, okay, So that's
how much money there is in the world. If you
want to read this article, you can type that into
the search bar at how stuff Works dot com. And
(28:29):
since I said search part, it's time for message brick
(28:51):
uh and Chuck, what time is it now? It's time
for it again, folks. This is when we thank people
for sweet gifts that they send us in the mail.
And I have a list of books starting with how
(29:13):
Why How We Do Anything Means Everything? How Colin Why
How We Do Anything Means Everything? By dove seedman as
or do d o v yeah do do yeah. I
appreciate that very nice a dovester. Do you want to
(29:33):
say one more time? Okay, let's see. We got a
postcard from Madagascar from Cara Levitt. Thank you very much
for that. Nice. Another book by Alan Gerstel swing at Colin,
The Search for My Father Louis Prima. Nobody read this one,
but it deserves a double Um. We got a letter
(29:53):
with further insight into the hip hop episode from b
Boy Anti virus. Nice. How's he doing these doing? Great? Uh?
Science nearly explained by Dick Maxwell, and that is available
on Amazon or Kindle nice. Um. We have a postcard
with a picture of the pair which you'll remember from
the torture episode from the Museo de Torture from Anna
(30:17):
Oh nice, thank you very much. Our buddy Roger Ma
sent us to the Vampire Combat Manual and he's previously
sinis the Zombie Combat Manual and Roger's good dude. We
actually finally met him, didn't we. I don't know did
we meet him. I think we met Roger at one
of the comic cons. Okay, second, yeah, okay, I think
you're right, hey Ron. Uh. We got a postcard from
(30:40):
China from Carry Nice. We got another book called Trunkless.
It's a children's book and I don't have the author here,
but it's called Trunkless. I think we did that one before,
did we? Alright? Double plug? Uh. We got another postcard
from Bogram Airfield from Amy Lynn, thanks for that. We
get a book called Verbifor's Feast for a Horse Feast
(31:02):
by Christie the Word Smith and that was sent in
by Hillary Nice. Uh. We got a postcard of a
bear pooping in the woods from Van Nostrin. Thanks Van Nostran. Yeah,
and we should mention to Van Nostron also sent us
his CD from his awesome band, The Bangalore's Sasquatch with
a mullet. Yes, thank you, buddy. Um. We got a
comic zine called Happy Trails Cowboy Poetry by horse t
(31:26):
Rushy Beard stash Um. We got a really cool cityscape
watercolor card that was designed and sent by Alex, Thanks Alex.
John Lennemeyer wrote a book called How an Average Man
Lived an Adventurous Life and I haven't read that yet,
but I'm going to good going, Chuck. Yeah. Um, We've
(31:47):
got some CDs from Rich Bosick that may or may
not have been all of them, but thank you very
much for those. Yeah, and I believe he also sent
us a DVD called Forgotten Detroit and a nice handwritten
I'm sorry, inc rendering of ourselves? Right? Did you see that? Yeah?
Is it the same guy? I think it's the same guy. Well,
(32:08):
thank you very much big time. Rich. A book called
Roman Disasters by Jerry Turner, and a book called the
Life and Times of Swirly Van Coco stuff you should
know edition. It's a comic actually from Aaron Dunbar. Yes,
I remember what else we have, chuck uh. And then
we have a bunch of music you want to go
through these? Uh? Column blow double in disguise. That's right,
(32:32):
Ben from self evidence in his c d s and
vinyl of the record we built a fortress on short notice.
We definitely plugged that one before the La La band
sent us their CD Moonshine Still yep. The group called
Forging Reverie cent U s a CD called Motion Canvas,
and that was from Derek. Eric Davis and Sam Gray
sent us a c D Table People and some authentic
(32:54):
Korean junk food burke Uh. In graphia and Graphia send
us download codes for his c D Jazz Animals, Right,
Katie Center, send us a nice handwritten letter. She's doing
something called the Letter Project, where she sends a letter
to somebody who inspires her to ask what are you
pursuing in your life? And do you know? How do
(33:16):
you know when you've gotten there? Yeah? And we answered,
did we? Yeah? I did for both of us. Oh nice,
thanks man, I know what you I know what you're pursuing.
I don't even have to do anythinking. Uh. And then
we have one more vinyl and c D the shape
of Beach to come from Ben Dick box Us band. Yes,
(33:38):
that is b N D I K B A K
S A A S. And she takes these finals. There's
a couple over there on my desk. And thanks man.
You got a record player? I do, and mine is busted.
What happened to your record player? Oh? It's up in
the attic endword per year or so until I get
to go in. You should just take the vital I will. Yeah,
And we appreciate the vinyl. By the way, it's very cool.
I believe Benedict backs us um. Did we read his
(34:01):
name for volunteering, no donating to co ED I believe.
So yeah, well that's the same person then, thanks for
that doubly. So that is administrative details for now. Thanks
for the stuff. Yeah, we're all caught up. Very nice.
I know it feels good. It didn't take like eight
episodes to cover at all. Uh. If you want to
(34:21):
send us something, you can get in touch with us
by tweeting to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff
you Should Know. You can send us an email to
Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, and you can join
us at our home on the web, the awesome website
Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this
(34:44):
and thousands of other topics. Does it how Stuff Works
dot com
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Josh Clark
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