Paul Krugman: The Antisocial Network

Bitcoin’s wild ride may not have been the biggest business story of the past few weeks, but it was
surely the most entertaining. Over the course of less than two weeks the price of the “digital
currency” more than tripled. Then it fell more than 50 percent in a few hours. Suddenly, it felt as if
we were back in the dot-com era.

The economic significance of this roller coaster was basically nil. But the furor over bitcoin was a
useful lesson in the ways people misunderstand money — and in particular how they are misled by
the desire to divorce the value of money from the society it serves.