Just for the record:
The Heraclites who designed and signed the coin above may or may not have been the same Heraclites who penned immortal verse. We know him by the famous misquote of his work: "You can never step in the same river twice."
He did not say that. He said: "The River is the same when you step in it and when you do not step in it. Just as you are and your are not."
Infinitely more interesting as a dialectic, no?
It's interesting too that now we simplify his work down to a bite sized, meaningless slogan: "Everything is in flux." This misunderstanding strips it of the dignity of reflection it required - and was routinely accorded - back when it was written.
It is the same simplification, the same undignified disdain, we accord to every complexity. Especially those having to do with money. Everyone these days is either a Socialist or a Free Market Guy. Everybody is for Personal Responsibility or for Social Compassion. Everyone is against excessive Debt and for Healthy Leverage. Everyone is a Conservative or a Liberal. And in the absence of dialectic, none of those things have any meaning at all. Which makes solving complex problems all but impossible.
All of which is to say, if you think our economic problems will be solved any time soon. you might want to reconsider.
And trade those paper bills in your wallet for some real money.
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