Private Money: Everything Old is New Again

It’s hard to pick up a newsmagazine or financial paper these days without reading about one of the new forms of electronic money. Although the business case for stored-value cards and cybermoney has not been proven in this country, media coverage has been lavish. Nearly all the stories, however, neglect one important fact: High-tech payments systems are best defined as a form of private money, something that has existed for centuries.