Track 11

Unit 10

Economics

The evolution of money

Page 98

Talk about the topic

Parts A and B

I think all the different concepts involved our needs. It’s fun to play around with the different ideas behind it all.

Yeah, yeah, it’s kind of cool to think that we’re seeing money’s latest evolution. Like she said, we’ve gone from cows to gold, to paper and now, electronic money.

Yeah, well, actually based on my recent like, I like to make a case for going back to cows.

Why?

Oh, my credit card number got stolen sometime last weekend and now I have all these crazy charges on my account.

What happened? Did you lose your card or something?

No, I mean and actually it never left my purse but somehow somebody got a hold of the account number and the password and they bought, you know, online jewelry and these really expensive boots in Berlin and then CDs in London.

How did you find this out?

Actually, the credit card company called me. You know, they wanted to verify some of the charges. They thought it was suspicious that there were charges made in the US and Germany and England, all in the same day.

Well, well, it’s good that they found it so fast, though.

Yeah.

So did you have to pay for anything?

No, fortunately the credit card company’s covering it all. I mean that’s their policy when there’s theft or fraud. But the whole episode’s just kind of bummed me out, you know? I mean, I think I’m just gonna stick to cash right now. I don’t really trust electronic money.

I don’t blame you but cash is risky, too. You know, you could get rubbed.

Thank you for the comforting thought.

Yeah, what are you trying to do to her?

That’s scary though, about the credit card numbers.

I know you.

And to think that you had the thing the whole time.