"In 1640, Winthrop tells how the merchants came and drained off the people's cash. That he should not have understood the case is not strange, but from the experience of two centuries and a half, and the teachings of science, any better than to repeat the same theory, is astonishing." William G. Sumner, "A History of American Currency" (1874), p. 8.

We are legitimately insane.

Bitcoin fixes (part of) this.