Money Is Weird

Economics, money, business.

Money Is Weird
Zimbabwe printed a $100 trillion banknote — and it barely bought groceries
Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe hit a pace in 2008 where prices doubled every couple of days.
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Money Is Weird
This island paid with car-sized stones — and never even moved them
Residents of the Pacific island of Yap used giant stone discs as currency, without ever physically moving them after a deal.
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Money Is Weird
During the Great Depression, farmers dumped milk in ditches while people starved
In 1930s America, farmers destroyed food surpluses to prop up crashed prices, even as hunger spread through cities.
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Money Is Weird
Billions of dollars in bitcoin are gone forever — and no one can get them back
Estimates suggest around 20% of all mined bitcoin sits in wallets nobody can access anymore.
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Money Is Weird
Monopoly was originally built to make people hate capitalism
The 1904 forerunner of Monopoly, "The Landlord's Game," was designed to show players how destructive it is when ownership piles up in one set of hands.
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Money Is Weird
The world's most expensive painting cost more than some countries' entire annual budget
"Salvator Mundi," attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, sold at auction for over $450 million.
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Money Is Weird
The word "dollar" comes from a tiny Czech town, not from America
The word "dollar" traces back to the "Joachimsthaler" — a silver coin minted in the 16th century in Jáchymov, in what is now the Czech Republic.
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Money Is Weird
In one country, banknotes are so filthy they literally fall apart in your pocket
In Somalia, the local shilling notes are so worn out and so rarely replaced that many people prefer mobile money for everyday transactions instead.
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Money Is Weird
A single tulip bulb once cost more than a house in Amsterdam
In the 1630s in the Netherlands, prices for rare tulip varieties shot up so high that a single bulb could be worth more than a townhouse.
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Money Is Weird
It costs the US government more to make a penny than a penny is worth
For years, minting an American penny (1 cent) has cost the US government more than its face value.
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Money Is Weird
In parts of Papua New Guinea, people still pay with strings of shells
The traditional shell currency known as tabu still functions alongside official state money, including for paying dowries.
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Money Is Weird
The highest-denomination banknote in history had twenty-one zeros
Postwar Hungary printed a banknote worth 100 quintillion pengő — the highest denomination ever to enter legal circulation.
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Money Is Weird
At one point, toilet paper was cheaper than printing a banknote of the same value
During Venezuela's hyperinflation crisis, the cost of the paper and printing for a banknote sometimes exceeded the value it represented.
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Money Is Weird
The world's oldest still-running bank opened long before Columbus set sail
The Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has operated continuously since 1472, more than twenty years before the discovery of America.
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Money Is Weird
Paper money existed in China centuries before Europe's first banknote
China's Song dynasty introduced official paper currency back in the 11th century — Europe didn't catch up for several hundred years.
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Money Is Weird
People will pay more for furniture they assembled themselves than for the identical piece, pre-built
A phenomenon known as the "IKEA effect" shows that putting our own labor into a product makes us value it higher than its actual market worth.
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Money Is Weird
Your brain reads $199.99 as closer to $100 than to $200
The "left-digit effect" makes people judge a price mainly by its first digit, tuning out the rest of the number.
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Money Is Weird
Americans forgot to cash in savings bonds worth billions of dollars
Billions of dollars in US savings bonds sit unclaimed because owners lost the paperwork or simply forgot they existed.
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Money Is Weird
In WWII prisoner-of-war camps, cigarettes functioned as a real currency
An economist who was himself a prisoner of war described how a full price system based on cigarettes spontaneously emerged among inmates.
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Money Is Weird
Some stock trades close faster than the human eye can blink
High-frequency algorithmic trading (HFT) opens and closes trades in fractions of a millisecond, with no human involved in the moment itself.
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Money Is Weird
Before Nokia made phones, it made paper, rubber boots, and cables
Over more than a century, the Finnish conglomerate Nokia moved through the paper, rubber, and electrical cable industries — long before it ever touched telecom.
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Money Is Weird
In Sweden, some churches and even beggars only take card payments
Sweden has moved so far away from cash that even street collections and church offering plates come equipped with card readers.
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Money Is Weird

Zimbabwe printed a $100 trillion banknote — and it barely bought groceries

This island paid with car-sized stones — and never even moved them

During the Great Depression, farmers dumped milk in ditches while people starved

Billions of dollars in bitcoin are gone forever — and no one can get them back

Monopoly was originally built to make people hate capitalism

The world's most expensive painting cost more than some countries' entire annual budget

The word "dollar" comes from a tiny Czech town, not from America

In one country, banknotes are so filthy they literally fall apart in your pocket

A single tulip bulb once cost more than a house in Amsterdam

It costs the US government more to make a penny than a penny is worth

In parts of Papua New Guinea, people still pay with strings of shells

The highest-denomination banknote in history had twenty-one zeros

At one point, toilet paper was cheaper than printing a banknote of the same value

The world's oldest still-running bank opened long before Columbus set sail

Paper money existed in China centuries before Europe's first banknote

People will pay more for furniture they assembled themselves than for the identical piece, pre-built

Your brain reads $199.99 as closer to $100 than to $200

Americans forgot to cash in savings bonds worth billions of dollars

In WWII prisoner-of-war camps, cigarettes functioned as a real currency

Some stock trades close faster than the human eye can blink

Before Nokia made phones, it made paper, rubber boots, and cables

In Sweden, some churches and even beggars only take card payments

Money Is Weird

Zimbabwe printed a $100 trillion banknote — and it barely bought groceries

This island paid with car-sized stones — and never even moved them

During the Great Depression, farmers dumped milk in ditches while people starved

Billions of dollars in bitcoin are gone forever — and no one can get them back

Monopoly was originally built to make people hate capitalism

The world's most expensive painting cost more than some countries' entire annual budget

The word "dollar" comes from a tiny Czech town, not from America

In one country, banknotes are so filthy they literally fall apart in your pocket

A single tulip bulb once cost more than a house in Amsterdam

It costs the US government more to make a penny than a penny is worth

In parts of Papua New Guinea, people still pay with strings of shells

The highest-denomination banknote in history had twenty-one zeros

At one point, toilet paper was cheaper than printing a banknote of the same value

The world's oldest still-running bank opened long before Columbus set sail

Paper money existed in China centuries before Europe's first banknote

People will pay more for furniture they assembled themselves than for the identical piece, pre-built

Your brain reads $199.99 as closer to $100 than to $200

Americans forgot to cash in savings bonds worth billions of dollars

In WWII prisoner-of-war camps, cigarettes functioned as a real currency

Some stock trades close faster than the human eye can blink

Before Nokia made phones, it made paper, rubber boots, and cables

In Sweden, some churches and even beggars only take card payments