Future of Money

There's just no nice way to say it: You're stupid with your money. You may fancy yourself a shrewd investor, but if you have normal human instincts—if you stand up and cheer at sporting events, if you follow the crowd toward the exit at the theater—then you have the instincts that make investors alternate between delirious greed and inconsolable fear. Like most of your peers, you are wired to buy high and sell low, and that's why Richard Peterson is about to become one very rich psychiatrist.

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Once upon a time, when banks observed the gold standard, every dollar was backed by an equal amount of metal. Put simply, your money was in the vault. But now cash is all most people ever get to hold, and as the dollar goes digital, the only tangible vestige of your wealth will soon be the computer that keeps track of it. So where is your money today?

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In the United States alone, there's at least $70 million in fake currency floating around. Fortunately as the technology counterfeiters use improves, so does that of the bills. Color-changing ink, special polymers and holographs are just some of the innovative technologies incorporated into today's banknotes. In 2007, the International Association of Currency Affairs picked the best new counterfeiting technologies and tactics.

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