Author: yablog

What is it about maps that draws our attention? Each of my kids has one in their bedroom, and my husband wallpapered a giant world map in the kitchen. At mealtime, we often refer to it and talk about the exotic places we’d like to visit. It seems every time we look over the peninsulas and mountain ranges, we see a new city or lake we had not yet discovered.

I recently noticed that argent, the French word for “money,” was hidden in the name of Argentina in South America. I only knew this because I took a little French in school. I wondered, is Argentina named after money? This awakened my curiosity about other names on the map.

This discovery coincided with my general alarm over the GameStop stock scandal. Money, in all its forms, was on my mind. If you don’t know the details of that event, it suffices to say that some regular people figured out a way to make the stock market system work in their favor. By using their wits, they were actually going win big and make a lot of money. When the market ringleaders realized that wealthy investors were about to lose a lot of money, they changed the rules and slammed the door on the regular folks.

These inside operators pulled back a corner of the veil that hides the world’s monetary control and showed us, perhaps for the first time, that the system is rigged. Even their media stooges couldn’t figure out how to cover it up.