(1 vote)
This year we will "celebrate" the birth of the modern legal tender laws. These laws gave governments that enacted them the power to print paper notes that had to be accepted in payment the same as a specific weight of gold or silver. They were a contributing factor in the outbreak of World War I and a root cause of the Great Depression and the current world financial crisis.
Here is an article on the topic by one of my favorite authors, Professor Antal E. Fekete:
http://www.professorfekete.com/articles/AEFForgottenAnniversary.pdf
You can read more of his writings at:
http://www.professorfekete.com