What the Chinese Government Really Wants
“Seigniorage” is not our official word of the day — try to find that yourself — but it’s definitely a term you need to know to follow the next installment of our discussion with Sean Ring. It refers to the profit a country makes by minting its own currency. Take a modern U.S. quarter, for example. It starts out as a lump of copper and nickel worth around 6 cents. Then Uncle Sam stamps it, and it’s suddenly worth 25 cents. The U.S. government essentially makes 19 cents on every quarter it creates.