Economic/Financial Do-Over

The other day after the stock market took another plunge south, I got to thinking about the world economy.  This is huge for me, because typically I couldn't care less about this stuff, I feel I have enough to worry about with my own little economics/finances.  The steam was bellowing out of my ears, as I was deeply contemplating this whole economic crisis the world is in.

Trust me when I say this, I am probably one of the most ignorant people walking the face of the earth when it comes to "economics".  I get the general "gist" of things but the details are "boring" and I've pretty much have left this "concept" up to those who are more passionate about such things.  I'm starting to find out that this is all a huge mistake - me not being more aware or passionate about such matters.  I'm coming to believe that there are no "economic experts", because if there were "experts" everything would be "right" in our world, economically speaking.  Right???

I thought I heard the other day that the major downturn in the "market" was a result of Greece.  Yes, I heard Greece and I was completely knocked off my feet by this.  Greece???  Little 'ole Greece is what set the market plummeting last week.  Did I dream this???  Did I hear this correctly???  You'd think it should have been Russia, China, Japan, or the United States - no it was Greece!

So then the wheels in the brain started cranking, and into high gear I might add.  I remember in my college economics class or maybe it was my finance class it doesn't matter where - but I remember hearing something along the lines that money is just a piece of paper or metal coins that some people apparently put a value to and said they are backing it up by another tangible item such as "gold".  So who said "gold" has value in the first place?  If you really think about it, some arbitrary individual or individuals determined to take some arbitrary tangible item and say it backs up our "monetary" system.  So this standard was set and all the values of each country's "monies" were set and so on and so forth.  Okay, maybe I'm simplifying this a lot - but you get the general idea behind this.

Given all this "arbitary-ness" to the "value of money", why can't we just start all over?  Why can't we just agree upon a new "standard of arbitary-ness" and call a do-over?  I think that would solve all our economical and financial problems and everyone can rest easy.

Ahhhh, if only it could be that simple.

As an aside, I did look up a few things to "test" my knowledge - I was right that it was Greece (default issue) and money is backed by gold.  Wahoo, I'm smarter than I thought.