I've always had doubts about economists understanding of how technology influences and changes the world and the society over time, and consequently also its financial and monetary realities.
Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book 'A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money', which is discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece: http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilde rs-new-information-theory-of-money I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established economic theory. Personally I'm particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a fixed amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially this could be an important feature if the value of human work drops to zero through automation and the value of products and services falls drastically for the same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or some similarly designed crypto currency a winner. Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not guaranteed to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation technology. A refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more future-proof, although, as Kurzweil writes: "I have concerns about the validity of bitcoin's mining algorithm, and the extent to which this can ultimately be algorithmically subverted." Mats <http://www.animpossibleinvention.com> www.animpossibleinvention.com
