New BerkShares note

[Shadrok]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070619/lf_nm/usa_economy_berkshares_dc

Reminds me of the late 1700's when every state made their own currency. Of course that was during the Articles of Confederation when there were more disputes between states and no National currency.

[Netami]

Just got done reading the artcle when I saw the thread. I didn't know states couldn't make their own currency, and that this was an example of one doing so in a small area. Notes of credit, eh... I'll have to create some in my image and hand it out to children.

[Valynth]

It's perfectly legal to print your own money so long as they reflect to you and not the country.  After all, what exactly do you think stocks are?  Stocks are nothing more than money printed by a corporation that says "you own this much of the corporation" just as the U.S. dollar says "you have an ability to get this much goods."

[superluser]

After all, what exactly do you think stocks are?  Stocks are nothing more than money printed by a corporation that says "you own this much of the corporation" just as the U.S. dollar says "you have an ability to get this much goods."

That's actually not true.  Stocks are very different.  They're securities regulated by the SEC and cannot, in general, be directly exchanged for goods and services.

Never having owned stock, I can't say for sure, but I think shares are tied to a specific person (which is how they send information about shareholders meetings to you), and in order to transfer your share to someone else, you need to go through a broker.

It's a complicated issue, but there are many differences between stocks and money.  I think a better analogy would be corporate bonds, which I think are a part of M4--but those are still tied to a specific person and are not liquid assets.