Excursus: Blessing and curse of the compound interest effect
Excursus: Blessing and curse of the compound interest effect using the Josephspfennig as an example
Why this is so can be illustrated by the example of the Joseph p enny (also called the Jesus penny): Suppose that Jesus' father had invested a silver penny for his son at his birth, with an annual interest rate of 5% (comparable to a federal bond). Let us further assume that this is connected with the inheritable right to have the deposit - i.e. the silver penny - including accrued interest and compound interest paid out in physical silver at any time. If a descendant of Jesus had had the fortune accumulated up to then paid out to him in 1466, he would have received a lump of silver the size of the globe; if, on the other hand, he had done this only in the year 2000, it would already have been 200 billion globes.[2] Of course, one or two currency reforms, revolutions, wars or natural disasters would actually have occurred per century. While most would then hardly own anything, the descendants of Jesus would at least still own their silver penny, had they not given it to a bank, but put it under their famous pillow. Gold, like silver, is money that has an intrinsic value, is not subject to inflation and is indestructible. For paper money, on the other hand, according to.
