“[T]he Revolutionary War had been an expensive affair. Congress, in order to fund the war, had resorted to vast amounts of paper money. The results were a staggering debt and runaway inflation. The phrase, ‘not worth a Continental,’ was more than a slogan. It reflected the distressed state of currency and finance during and after the Revolution. Attempts to combat the evils of paper money, debt and inflation by fixing prices and passing laws declaring paper money legal tender proved futile.”
–From W. Kirk Wood, Nullification: A Constitutional History, 1776-1833, p. 30, discussing the American economy in 1781.
This is also our likely future.
