Krugman's essay is about the US. There's never been a particularly equitable money system in modern times, the last 200 years or so. In the US, the gold standa

Krugman's essay is about the US. There's never been a particularly equitable money system in modern times, the last 200 years or so. In the US, the gold standard was replaced by the fractional reserve system. I'm not opposed to fractional reserve on its face but since the US system is mostly owned and run by private interests, it's opened a wider door for the more truculent and petulant oligarchs to excel at rising to the top of the food chain. I'm no fan of the gold standard either. It seems that whatever a money system is based on, people will move heaven and Earth to acquire that thing. Under the gold standard, entire nations were wiped out in order for "explorers" to acquire gold. In our debt based fractional reserve system, people will ruin themselves to acquire debt. A monetary system based on a gram of protein might see a world with a surplus of food but I'm merely speculating.