“All right, I surrender,” he said, which no one believed for a moment.
Judy the Elder gave her husband one more severe look then spoke again. “Your father’s subcommittee recommended to the cabinet that they declare that money on deposit in the bank and the credit union is still there, that debts owed to people or institutions inside the Ring of Fire are still valid, but debts or accounts in places left up-time are gone. Just common sense, but some people argued about it. Some wanted accounts in other banks honored. Sort of transferred to the local bank. Others wanted all debts to the bank erased.”
Fletcher grimaced. “Well… pretty much—except there’s still a big argument about mortgages. People who owe their mortgage to the local bank are raising a fuss because they think they’re being discriminated against. They think the out-of-area mortgages should be assumed by the new government. Truth to tell, they’ve got a point—and Lord knows the government could use the money.”
Judy the Elder plowed on. “Leave that aside, for the moment. Right now, wages paid by the city government or the emergency committee are being kept the same as they were before the Ring of Fire. Dan Frost is still paid the same. The coal miners are getting paid according to their pre-Ring of Fire contract, as are the people at the power plant. The difference is that now the emergency committee, which is receiving the income from coal sales and electric bills, is paying them. As will whatever government follows it. Unless it divests itself of the businesses. What that does is provide a stable point in the money supply which, hopefully, will help keep the money from increasing or decreasing in value too quickly, but no one wants wage and price freezes to last any longer or be any more widespread than absolutely necessary. So the owner of the grocery store sets the prices at the grocery store, with suggestions by the emergency committee. Now back to your question, how much is a dollar worth? If you’re talking about paying the electric bill, or the house payment, it’s worth exactly what it was worth before the Ring of Fire. If you’re talking about buying groceries, it’s fairly close to what it was before. For a Barbie doll, it’s worth a lot less, because no one is making Barbie dolls any more, and the down-timers are buying them up. So take care of your Barbies, they are going to be worth a lot one day.”
“Ah, but the down-timers don’t have any money,” Fletcher put in with a grin. “At least, not American money. So right now, everyone is trying to figure out how much of our money their money is worth, and vici verci. Which is where the Federal Reserve Fair…” Fletcher paused, casting an overdone look of meek submission at his wife. “Ah, the bank comes in.”
“Oh, go ahead Fletcher,” Judy the Elder put in, with an equally overdone, long-suffering sigh. “You won’t be satisfied till you’ve run those poor fairies into the ground.”
“Not at all. I’m very fond of the Federal Reserve Fairies. They do the kind of magic we need done.” He smiled cheerfully at his daughters. “The thing about the Fed Fairies is they hate it when prices go up too fast. It makes them very sad, and they wave their magic wands, and make the bank have less money. Then the bank charges more interest when it loans out what money it does have. What makes the Fed Fairies really happy, is when prices stay the same, or go down. When that happens, they can’t help themselves, they just have to wave their magic wands to make more money. As a matter of fact, they look into their crystal balls to see what the prices will be like months or even years in the future, and wave their magic wands in response to what they see. At least they did before the Ring of Fire. I think the crystal ball must have gotten bumped or something cuz the predictions we’re hearing at the subcommittee meetings are bouncing all over the place. So one of the things we’re working on is trying to determine the ‘real’ value of all the goods and services within the Ring of Fire, measured in up-time money, so we can help the Fed Fairies figure out which way to wave their wands.”