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Judge Shoots Down "Bitcoin Isn't Money" Argument In Silk Road Trial
An anonymous reader writes in with the latest in the case against the alleged creator of the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. The government and legal community may still be arguing over whether bitcoin can be defined as "money." But the judge presiding over the landmark Silk Road drug case has declared that it's at least close enough to get you locked up for money laundering. In a ruling released Wednesday, Judge Katherine Forrest denied a motion by Ross Ulbricht, the 30-year-old alleged creator of the Silk Road billion-dollar online drug bazaar, to dismiss all criminal charges against him. Those charges include narcotics trafficking conspiracy, money laundering, and hacking conspiracy charges, as well as a "continuing criminal enterprise" charge that's better known as the "kingpin" statute used to prosecute criminal gang and cartel leaders.
Really. One would have to be extremely dense, or have lived in a cave for the last 30 years to not make the connection that Bitcoin is still a financial tool. Bitcoin's primary purpose is to traffic/launder money and goods. But it's not just bitcoin, it's also all those various game time cards you can buy at 7-11.
The judge dismisses the 'bitcoin is not money' portion based of a ruling that the IRS and Fed Reserve do not have the authority to define what 'money' is. (both having defined bitcoin as 'property' and not 'money') Which is all fine and good, but the US Marshal has already ruled bitcoin as property since they disposed of the seized bitcoin through a property sale. There are very particular and different rules governing the disposal of money and property. One would think the US Marshals office actions would be the statute defining action.
Step 1 Start drug related business!
Step 2 Profit!
Step 3 Go to jail!
Optional Step Avoid prison rape!
Monopoly money is also money. But it is not legal tender. But then again, if a judge says so...
a "continuing criminal enterprise" charge that's better known as the "kingpin" statute used to prosecute criminal gang and cartel leaders.
Given the billion's of $US that various banks have been fined recently, for things like evading US taxes and money laundering for Syria, Iraq, and Somalia, isn't it about time that the legal system give the same treatment to bankers committing these crimes?
Why do they get to pay fines that don't have any real effect? Just look how their stock always go up after they announce a deal. If any individual ever gets fired it's always the low level person who takes the hit, and they all end up going to work for someone else and never face any real problems.
Oh, I just remembered: bribes/campaign contributions along with the revolving door and juicy high paying jobs for former regulators. To bad drug dealers can't have a revolving door with law enforcement.
Why is Snark Required?
So Russians money is not money? No other country has money because congress is the only people that can make money? Of course the contitution does NOT say that only congress has that ability, just that they are able to coin money.
Article 1, section 8 ....
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; ....
Now if you can tell me where in that line it says that ONLY congress is able to make money I will bow down to your constitutional knowledge.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
Bitcoin's primary purpose is to traffic/launder money and goods.
I was going to say something about people who are financial tools themselves...
However, I guess you're right. I want to be responsible for my money, and I want to be able to use it freely, without government snooping. If that makes me a money launderer, so be it. It's like those politically organized pirates that simply want to use a free Internet, rather than rape and pillage.
Bitcoin isn't even particularly anonymous. If you want to launder your coins, you need to trust a third party, which kind of ruins the point of a decentralized/free currency. There are much better cryptocurrencies out there for anonymous purposes.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Judge Shoots Down "Bitcoin Isn't Money" Argument In Silk Road Trial
The argument may still be valid in a Vulcan court, though.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
It's called the Dormant Minting Clause. But you probably haven't heard of it...
Since we are supposed to report the value of barter transactions to the IRS at tax time, I don't think one (in the US, anyway) can ever argue in court that something used as a proxy for value cannot be treated as "money".
Method of processing duck feet
The Constitution does not say this. It states that the Federal Goverment can issue and regulate money but not that it has a moneopoly. In fact, for the majority of US history private money was very common. i.e. Bank notes issued by private banks. It was not until the Civil War that goverment money was common and IIRC not until the early 1900 when private bank notes becaome uncommon.
Its not *money*, its just simple bartering. in this case for objects that people agree on is valuable ( like pez dispensers, game tokens, or Gold Pressed Latinum ) Now, can trading in illegal/stolen items get you put in jail, sure. But its not *money* laundering. ( i think the correct term in most areas would be 'criminal conversion' )
Much like 'piracy is theft', while it may be illegal to do so, its still not *theft* because the term is used.
This perversion of terms and concepts is dangerous. It only leads to more loosely defined terms of illegality and more people subject to the governments wrath.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What makes someone a money launderer is how they employ tricks to eliminate any trace between the money exchanged in an illegal transaction and how it is being officially accounted for.
In very much the same way as a specific brand of laundry detergent is used as a currency in illegal transactions.
In the case of encryption key schemes such as bitcoin, the thing that gave it traction was how the silk road functioned through a wink and a nod, with peers agreeing that to conduct their illegal business they first exchanged their money for crypto keys, conducted the business by giving the crypto keys in exchange for illegal goods and services, and then exchanged the crypto keys for real money. The only purpose behind this scheme was to eliminate the paper trail between the money and the illegal transaction.
That's what makes it a money laundering scheme. Because its primary use is to launder money.
It's awkward to transfer electronically.
Because it does not exists... There is a Dormant Commerce Clause, but no Minting Clause..
When you cant win, ad hominem.
Seriously is it that hard to keep the utter bullshit out of the summary. The ruling made no such suggestion that bitcoin was money or close enough. She ruled you can convert bitcoin to money, the same way you can convert a bag of cow shit. In other words she ruled that bartering goods doesn't get around money laundering rules as the goods have value.
But what about that ATM slot on the front of my computer?
It's called humor, but you're apparently too square to have heard of that either.
I think you meant to say is "Bitcoin ISN'T US Currency". It still has value and used in the trade of goods and commodities. It is a local currency (aka community currency).
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
It's called the Dormant Mining Clause. But you probably haven't heard of it...
FTFY
Then why do they call Bitcoin an electronic currency? Heck, even the name contains the word "coin." You can't have it one way when facing a judge for a certain lawsuit, and then switch it to something else when a different lawsuit or legislation rears it's head.
Do you know what else is a "financial tool?" The dollar. It can be used to traffic/launder money & goods too.
As you know, it is hard to tell if someone is being sincere or in jest on the internet so people generally do things to give hints, which you did not..
When you cant win, ad hominem.
Come on, it was constructed for the purpose of exchanging illegal goods and services.
Sort of like the wave-particle duality
They're in the back, you moron.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
But what about that ATM slot on the front of my computer?
Uh... I put that there. And, hey - thanks for all the money!
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
illegal/anonymous/no difference
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913. After that, privately issued Bank Notes pretty much vanished.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
These bitcoins probably weren't intended to stay as bitcoins forever.
The flow probably looks like this : buyer uses USD to buy BTC, buyer transfers BTC to seller, seller sells BTC to get USD. That's pretty much the definition of money laundering.
I want to be responsible for my money, and I want to be able to use it freely, without government snooping.
Use cash - it's like bitcoin but it can't be tracked across the Internet.
Of course, if you take cash from some people and then give it to other people, well then you must be a criminal.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I am a fan of putting a tilda after non serious comment, but it was a pretty obvious joke.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Of course, if you take cash from some people and then give it to other people, well then you must be a criminal.
If you know where you stand as middle man in a criminal transaction - such as a money laundering scheme - you most certainly are a criminal yourself.
also if you're pulling out tens of thousands of dollars of cash out of the bank, that gets flagged as suspicious. or cashing extremely large checks. or doing business in straight cash transactions for large(ish, relative to individual use) sums...
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
of course it is used for that. all new technology is embraced by the criminal element first. High risk, High reward = huge incentive to employ whatever it takes not to get caught, and make more money, coupled with tons of disposable income to spend on the newest technologies. The internet itself was a den of thieves and pornographers at first, the positive uses outweighed the negatives though .. as we can see now. Cell phones, pagers, ... GPS guided mini submarines ... all used for crime primarily from early adopters.
You know what is used for money laundering more than any other technology? The US dollar. You know who launders it? Bank of America , etc. Drug cartels, Iran , etc ... Big bangs are complicit for BILLIONS.
So what if bitcoin is in part used for laundering. It is not a money laundering scheme. Its not even a sceheme at all , it is a network. it is a protocol. how can that be a scheme? was TCP/IP a scheme?
Bitcoin is used for much more than laundering. and eventually it will primarily (if not already) be used for legitimate transactions. ..bitcoin is looking pretty good to you right now. Especially since your government restricted transferring your money into other currencies.
I mean , heck its a better currency than most countries have right now. FOr example if you live in venezuela, and are facing 30% inflation a year watching you saving evaporate overnight
Its looking pretty good for africans right now too who have been using digital currencies for years, now they can use a global digital currency instead of a localized one.
I accept bitcoin on my retail website, and I have seen about an 18% rise in sales because of it. I think this will drop a bit as competitors start to accept it as well, but I am serving an untapped market at the moment. It is being used for commerce. not just money laundering. and It will continue to shift towards more and more legitamate uses as time goes on, because it has advantages over other payment methods, and the weaknesses are being solved.
Money laundering is any use of cash which the government deems in a particular case to be connected with a criminal enterprise. This includes simple possession of cash, independent of its use in any transaction.
When get get cash from an ATM, the bank associates your name with the unique ID on every bill. Since banks are tightly-regulated institutions, you can bet that they pass all their logs directly to "higher ups". When you buy something at a stire, at the end of the day, the first thing any retailer does is deposit all their bills in a bank, which again scans the unique numbers on every bill, and this data is probably again passes right on up to those who have an interest in tracking you. In rare cases, a bill may change hands a couple times before ending up in the hands of a retailer, but modern data mining techniques can trivially follow two or three hops, and I assure you that there is absolutely no way the NSA would simply pass up having full access to such a valuable trail of information. So, in other words, cash is no panacea of anonymity. With cash, not every transaction is logged as explicitly as with BitCoins, but at least someone has to do a little bit of work to attach your real name to your transactions.
It is absolutely money.
Actually It is a network, comprised of a protocol, infrastructure, and money.
It is a self propelling network, that creates through its very existence and operation, the very money that incentivises its continued existence and expansion.
Quite interesting really. People have had a hard time defining what it is because it is not just one thing, it is a new concept really. but part of it IS money!
But bitcoin is money, it is a store of value that can be transferred as a payment to other parties. It is money.
It is not trade or barter, you are not trading a potato for a carrot, it does not have value to the end user other than as a store of value to be used as payment for goods or services, or a store of wealth. Therefore it is money.
You clearly don't understand Bitcoin (as your description of it so eloquently conveys) if you think its primary purpose is to launder money.
That's like saying an automobile's primary purpose is to crash into things. Surely it could be used for such a purpose, but that is obviously not its primary purpose.
You also contradicted your own argument with your wonderful reference to laundry detergent. Is laundry detergent's primary purpose laundering money?
You also seem to be insinuating the Silk Road created Bitcoin, though I really hope that's not the case.
Bitcoin is very similar to an online version of cash except there is a public record of all transactions. It's funny since cash is also used to launder money frequently. Which must be its primary purpose.
Paranoid delusional much?
"a person hosted a website." The guy was hiring hit men and actively involved in the drug trade.
I've heard the exact same thing. The serial numbers are tracked at some level. I always assumed it was at the banks, but if it happens locally or at the central bank level I don't know.
that would be both friggin expensive and mainly useless. usual hop is way more than 3 between bank runs..
cash works just fine. you still have to launder it to use it though so that the irs/neighbours don't bust you for having money you shouldn't have...
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Now if you can tell me where in that line it says that ONLY congress is able to make money I will bow down to your constitutional knowledge.
Fair enough.
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
You can. of course, use foreign currencies to make ordinary purchases in the US, but no one is obliged to accept them, and you will likely be surcharged over and above the exchange rate posted at a bank.
Objection. Will stipulate that its primary purpose is to traffic. But I call mega-bullshit on its primary or even secondary purpose being to launder, though there might be a way one could use Bitcoin for that.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I went to college with Ross (UTD was a special place).
I never knew him personally, but we have several mutual friends. When he was arrested, my Facebook was flooded with tons of posts asking WTF happened. I search his Facebook profile, and we have so many friends listed in common.
I think Ross is the closest I've come to knowing a celebrity.
You clearly don't understand Bitcoin (as your description of it so eloquently conveys) if you think its primary purpose is to launder money.
He didn't say that (just as the primary purpose of laundry detergent isn't to launder money, it's to wash clothes. LTR). He said the reason Silk Road used it is to launder money. There's a difference.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
God, then pay cash. You act as if YOUR legal financial dealings are important. Unless you're buying anthrax, massive amounts of coke, or guns with serial numbers filed off than chances are your dealings are about as interesting to the government as my pissing schedule is to you.
Wouldn't they just add it to their accounts instead?
But instead they auctioned bitcoins, as an object. Now they claim they're money. All in the same case.
The Constitution does not say this. It states that the Federal Goverment can issue and regulate money but not that it has a moneopoly. In fact, for the majority of US history private money was very common. i.e. Bank notes issued by private banks.
with predictably disastrous results:
There were significant problems with this system, in which money often wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. In theory, a bank note derived its value from its ability to be redeemed for gold or silver at the issuing bank, but what banks could live up to that promise? Those that were poorly capitalized went to great lengths to ensure that their notes weren't redeemed. For example, the Union Bank of Tennessee issued notes only redeemable in New Orleans.
In this unpredictable environment, spending a dollar required some serious thinking. A wallet might have three, five or a dozen different bank notes -- a bull's head staring back at you from a Bull's Head Bank note, or a Marine Bank bill illustrated with ships -- not to mention foreign coins from around the world and personal checks, which also circulated as money. Most bank notes traded at a discount based on the reputation of the bank and how far the note was from where it originated.
A shop owner had even more variables to consider. When a consumer opened his wallet to pay, the proprietor turned to his local edition of ''Bicknellâ(TM)s Counterfeit Detector and Bank Note Reporter,'' or to ''Van Court's Counterfeit Detector and Bank Note List.''
Thumbing through a counterfeit detector, the store owner would try to assess the value of the bank notes at hand. He took a hard look at the person handing over the bills, judging value based on the person's race, class, dress, comportment and reputation.
Counterfeiters exploited this feature of the system, and passed themselves in addition to their notes, dressing and acting as proper ladies and gentlemen. And with so many bank notes from so many banks, counterfeiters flourished. Some simply invented whole banks. Others erased the name of a failed bank and replaced it with that of a reputable one.
Of course, as 19th-century observers frequently noted, a poorly capitalized bank that printed notes it couldn't redeem was, in the end, little different from a counterfeiting operation.
When Banks Were Able to Print Their Own Money, Literally
Bitcoin is money when the government wants it to be so they can take it from you or accuse you of money laundering. Bitcoin is not money when the government doesn't want it to be such as if you want to use it to pay taxes.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Wrong tool for the job. If you want to know what money is, look for dictionaries, not laws.
I suggest when you evaluate your "what is money?" answerering-tool, that you at least test it with some easy cases. Try running "Are Euros money?" through it, for example. Try giving it some story problems and see what happens:
At least shake the trivial bugs out and see if your system gets confused by irrelevancies.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
If you want to launder your coins, you need to trust a third party, which kind of ruins the point of a decentralized/free currency.
CoinJoin
article headline is stupid...
ruling that something can be stolen does not prove it is "money"
anything of value that can be owned can be stolen (in monetary terms)
"money" is a dumb word to use as a milestone
BTC's problem is that it is not accepted as payment for things like taxes, mortgage payments, car payments...it's not accepted currency....it's a hobby currency
when you can pay your mortgage or taxes with BTC then it is "money"
Thank you Dave Raggett
"Money's" history has largely been one of property. It was gold, it was silver, it was in general immutable, you could warp it, stamp it, it was inherently worth whatever it was. The mark of the coin, provided sovereign trust that the "money" was the quantity and purity that you would expect.
This moved largely to a representation of something of value. Which would work so long as the banker or sovereign would create the right quantity of representation. This resulted in bubbles and bank runs when it wasn't done right. But it was essentiality tied to this immutable stuff. A gold standard. This has historically always failed...
Today money is the creation of debt. The commodity becomes the work that is created in society, and that debt is paid in money. Which then is used to create economy. This separates money from property, and it becomes more responsible for simply economy, the swirl of debt. The big key is that bankers and politicians are kept separate. The bankers attempt to keep it right as that is where the long term value is for them, and if they get it wrong, if it falls apart, the bankers have essentially nothing, and nothing is happening. The politicians through the power of central power get to impose a very special attribute to money. It can, and has to be accepted, for all debts public and private. This is a very important distinction that separates modern money from property based money. The value store in property based money is intrinsic. The value store in modern money becomes a balance of supply to work or debt. One of the big problems of this is when pooling becomes supra-economic and becomes a source of political power. This was severely limited before, it was extremely difficult for an individual to become this rich. It is much easier in this system. As it happens the economically powerful persuade for themselves to pool more of the wealth so that they have more power. Interestingly enough, this helps prevent inflation, and maybe actually keep the economy running, but it skews political power. This was supposed to be solved by confiscatory means of the government which then simply destroys the money as a fulfillment of self debt. But, this is precisely what the eco-political class works to overcome.
Bitcoin, is more akin to commodity. It has no special governmental blessing, protection, or edict. It can't be forced to be used for paying of debt. However, the value of it isn't intrinsic, for it isn't a thing. It is attributes of a thing. It is a tulip bulb. This allows for specialized movement and tracking, but it really isn't money. However, if wealth is created in the process, then it looks like money for a wealth tracking agency of a government, and it looks like wealth when converted back into money, no matter how many steps. If the process of conversion from money, into assets or economy, and then back into money for the purpose of obscuring the source and path of the original money, THAT is money laundering. And if the scheme tends to have that as an inherent purpose, the scheme itself can be declared illegal. This has happened a lot with insurance, banking, strip clubs, car washes. You see a ton of it sensationalized in the Sopranos. A very important place where this has been enforced, but received a lot of different views, though clear in the charging and investigation papers, was online poker. The money laundering claim doesn't require bit coin to be money. And if the entire scheme seems to be largely leverageable for laundering, and little other purpose it can be shut down for that reason. If the scheme is largely used to defraud regular unsuspecting public in can be shut down, not just for theft, but the scheme itself. Barry Madoff, Fulltilt, AB/UB are current examples. Bitcoin and crypto currency of sorts may very well find that same fate.
So, pay with Quarters instead.
this technique really is only effective against $50+ denominations. everything lower get spent out as change, or cash back, or loaded into the ATM (The ATM in our store doesn't scan the bills)
Oh yea, they do... http://www.wheresgeorge.com/
Actually, the serial numbers are generally NOT tracked much beyond being used by the Federal Reserve to verify a bill is valid and properly monetized. Not that a bank couldn't, which is why the rumors are running about the tin foil hat lobby. If you really care or think they do this, just get cash back on your purchases or cash a check at the bank.. No way they can track that.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
You also contradicted your own argument with your wonderful reference to laundry detergent. Is laundry detergent's primary purpose laundering money?
Just be sure when laundering your money to use cold water and avoid machine drying. Some currencies might actually shrink in the heat of the dryer.
> Did they sell how to books on mass murdering as many people in a mall/school?
Yes
In very much the same way as a specific brand of laundry detergent is used as a currency in illegal transactions.
Except that doesn't happen. A 100 ounce bottle of Tide weighs about 7 lbs and sells for $10. Your friendly neighborhood drug dealer would need a fucking U-Haul to carry away the detergent equivalent of one afternoon's sales.
It's a dumb urban legend that isn't even remotely plausible.
Silk Road didn't use Bitcoin to launder money, Silk Road used Bitcoin to transfer money and a tumbler - a series of transactions meant to disguise the "border" transactions between Silk Road and the rest of Bitcoin economy by blending into the crowd - to launder it.
Except it was not really even proper money laundering, since it didn't invent a legal source for the Bitcoins being withdrawn from the system. That would had required a cover firm, a suspiciously succesful gambling site or something.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
When get get cash from an ATM, the bank associates your name with the unique ID on every bill.
No, they don't. Not even the $100 bills. My mother ran a credit union for over a decade, if the gov't tried to foist that kind of overhead on the country's credit unions you would have heard the banshee wails all the way to McMurdo Station. Whether Chase, BoA or one of the other major money laundries does for some bizarre reason it's voluntary, not a requirement.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Unless you're a former Treasury Secretary who goes to work for CitiCorps money laundering, er, 'private banking' division, or the head of the New York Stock Exchange who can go to Colombia and offer the NYSE's services to the FARC. Then you're just a shining example of the values of a Business Administration degree.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
you're trolling...but I want to respond for posterity as it is theoretically possible that someone could be misled by your response.
***IN EUROPE YOU CAN***
and you can take that money and exchange it for dollars **anywhere they exchange money**
you're attempt at finding fault in my conclusion is completely invalid...no official monetary issuing body accepts BTC
again...when I can pay my taxes and mortgage with BTC it is "money" until then it is a hobby currency
Thank you Dave Raggett
ok, I'm just clarifying what the GGP said
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Bitcoin's primary purpose is to traffic/launder money and goods.
Are you serious? I think you're the one that needs to learn to read.
Bitcoin's primary purpose is to traffic/launder money and goods.
He didn't say that (just as the primary purpose of laundry detergent isn't to launder money, it's to wash clothes. LTR). He said the reason Silk Road used it is to launder money. There's a difference.
I love people who argue blatantly false things on the internet.
First of all, money is a 'monetary' dreamt up term by the powers that be which in value could amount to anything in the eyes of the controller. In other words, "money is not currency and currency is not money."
Bitcoin is merely a medium of exchange unlike money which is a medium of mass enslavement.
Money is not currency and currency is not money.
Money is a monetary term and simply a placeholder for an imaginary number which is why the FEDs can print out endless amounts of money.
Yeah but bitcoin isn't money in any sense of the word or definition...
This article represents poor journalism.
However some presidents actively fought against the private ownership of a nations currency such as Thomas Jefferson and the last of which was JFK.
Sadly, none of them had the tools nor power to circumvent these evil institutions and now we must all suffer at the hands of pure greed until the world revolts...Which probably won't happen within our life times but who knows?
In case you haven't noticed but nobody uses a tilde to signify tone or emotion on the net. Such things are usually signified by a forward slash or an asterisk encapsulation. EG /sincere or *laughs*
Word to the wise: Never Make Assumptions!
Your 'obvious joke' is perhaps only obvious to those who are attuned to your form of humor unless given some form of symbolic direction that is widely accepted by all....
Of course bitcoin is a form of laundering. But then again, monetarism is a form of financial enslavement by a central entity which of course is the exact opposite of what bitcoin is since it's completely decentralized among other things. All in all, this argument of whether or not bitcoin is 'money' is moot given the fact that it is under no centralized control...That and money is not a currency given the fact that it's simply an imaginary number invented by those in control of a nations debt. However, bitcoin can be called a currency since it embodies the very definition of what a currency actually is: a medium of exchange. While money on the other hand is a form of debt....Take a look at any dollar and it will read it is a form of debt rather than a medium of exchange no thanks to centralized banks taking control of our nation at the turn of the 19th century. Just remember, money is not currency and currency is not money.
You do realize that the word 'money' is a monetary term meaning 'financial illusion' - right?
See: Monetarism