I think you're ignoring the larger "currency" and focusing on "fiat currency". When people traded in gold (or Native Americans traded wampum, etc) it was certa

I think you're ignoring the larger "currency" and focusing on "fiat currency". When people traded in gold (or Native Americans traded wampum, etc) it was certainly never destroyed! And there was no one in particular who would necessarily trade it for something specific, so it was not an IOU. The book sounds great, and I loved his other book The Democracy Project. I will have to check it out. But just because debt came first, and fiat currencies have always been based on debt, does not mean that all currencies have to be or have been.