The 500,000 mark.

Sometime earlier today, when I wasn't looking, we reached the 500,000 mark, that is we had our 500,000th unique visitor to the blog. They win absolutely nothing but intellectual enlightenment. (Okay, I'm kidding, sort of.)

Of course in honor of that event we reproduce the front of an actual 500,000 mark, that poor inflated currency from the Weimer Republic days of Germany. As Ludwig von Mises noted, only government can take two valuable commodities like paper and ink and combine them to produce something totally worthless. That is useful to remember when gasoline prices shock us.

Just remember oil is sold in units of US dollars. When you see the price of oil going up it may mean that the oil has become more valuable. Or it could just mean that the currency involved has become less valuable.