Comprehension

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

Please read the following paragraph ( to make it easier for you to find my relative sentences I number each sentence):
(1) But the attitude toward money has, of course, changed. (2) Excepting pocket money, cash of any kind is now rarely used; money as a tangible commodity has largely been replaced by credit. (3) A deficit economy, accompanied by huge expansion, has led us to think of money as product of the creative imagination. (4) The banker no longer offers us a safe: he offers us a service in which the most valuable element is the creativity for the invention of large numbers.

I don't understand (3) and the second part of (4). Could you please kindly explain them to me?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

[Tdol]

Number 3 is beyond me. 4 suggests that the role of banker has changed from a custodian of valuables to someone who is involved in generating money for their clients.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by jiang

Dear teachers,

Please read the following paragraph ( to make it easier for you to find my relative sentences I number each sentence):
(1) But the attitude toward money has, of course, changed. (2) Excepting pocket money, cash of any kind is now rarely used; money as a tangible commodity has largely been replaced by credit. (3) A deficit economy, accompanied by huge expansion, has led us to think of money as product of the creative imagination. (4) The banker no longer offers us a safe: he offers us a service in which the most valuable element is the creativity for the invention of large numbers.

I don't understand (3) and the second part of (4). Could you please kindly explain them to me?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

My sense of #3 is that there really is no rational basis for money. In a deficit economy, the government borrows money from its citizens to pay for things that it does for citizens. As an economy expands, a government prints more money, beacuse the money is backed by the entire size of the economy (GDP). So you have a government borrowing money to buy goods and services (which expands the economy); then it prints money because the economy has grown. It seems to work, but it doesn't seem terribly grounded in reality.

[jiang]

Thank you very much for your explanation. Now I see what No.4 means.
If Number 3 is beyond you, then it is of course beyond me. This makes me feel a little better.

Jiang

Originally Posted by tdol

Number 3 is beyond me. 4 suggests that the role of banker has changed from a custodian of valuables to someone who is involved in generating money for their clients.

[jiang]

Thank you very much for your explanation. So 'large numbers' means 'large sum of money'. Is that right?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

My sense of #3 is that there really is no rational basis for money. In a deficit economy, the government borrows money from its citizens to pay for things that it does for citizens. As an economy expands, a government prints more money, beacuse the money is backed by the entire size of the economy (GDP). So you have a government borrowing money to buy goods and services (which expands the economy); then it prints money because the economy has grown. It seems to work, but it doesn't seem terribly grounded in reality.

[Tdol]

Large numbers refers to the amounts of money, imo.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by jiang

Thank you very much for your explanation. So 'large numbers' means 'large sum of money'. Is that right?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

You're welcome.

Yes, as TDOL said -- money. :wink: