The Illusion of Modern Money by Bill Bonner originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning.

FORBES: The Illusion Of Modern Money

The illusion of easy money has turned a few heads on the subcontinent.

FORBES: What bubble?

Worse, with consumer prices sticky in concert with commodity prices that are most sensitive to dollar-price movements, the beneficiaries of the money illusion tend to be the hard, unproductive assets of yesterday (think housing, art, rare stamps, and oil) that are least vulnerable to currency weakness, and which in fact do best when the unit of account is devalued.

FORBES: Price Stability Is An Economically Dangerous Fad

In pursuance of the illusion that money can remove hard budget constraints, we moved from order to disorder.

WSJ: Manuel Hinds: The Case Against Floating Currencies

The oil money creates an illusion of development, but not jobs.

ECONOMIST: A small country grows drunk on oil wealth

Looked at through the prism of today, the dollar lacks a golden anchor, and the result is a money illusion that distorts the real price of everything.

FORBES: Price Stability Is An Economically Dangerous Fad

The money illusion gave the appearance of economic growth, and Nixon won re-election in a landslide in 1972.

FORBES: Magazine Article

These private agreements enable the money management industry to maintain the illusion of respectability it enjoys.

FORBES: Hidden Crimes; Too Many Secrets: How Money Managers Hide Illegalities From Investors (August 1, 2000)

Investing has sunk to this: People are willing to pay a big premium for the privilege of getting their own money back, after fat fees, without interest apparently because it gives them the illusion of earning a high yield.

WSJ: The Intelligent Investor: Yields So High, They Can't Be for Real