Fiat Current Sea: Maritime Money

Our currency is like current in the sea

The stream ebbs and flows, directed by the banks on either side

The river-banks control the current; but the money-banks control the currency

This is why our ‘cash flow’ is a ‘liquid asset‘

‘Liquidity’ is literally available current-sea

Water is a metaphor for money

We use marine and aquatic vernacular to generically describe financial terms every day without even realizing it.

When we make a lot of money, we make barrels of it. But if we are broke, we’re in deep. We’re drowning in a sea of debt. Or maybe we’re in hot water. 

Our bank accounts have dried up. But the economy can be tough, and we’re often just trying to stay afloat or keep our heads above water. 

(above) The Black River Bank of Watertown, New York was established in 1844 and ran until 1864 when it became the First National Bank of Watertown -obsoletecurrency

When someone spends too much money too fast, they’re told: “money goes through your hands like water.”  And when we’re out of money, we are underwater. We’re washed up, even if we pool our resources together, we’re insolvent.  But sometimes a friend may bail us out, like our government has done with banks and businesses in the past.

“We could say the government spend like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors, because the sailors are spending their own money.”

-Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the USA & originator of ‘trickle down economics’.

If you want to sell your car, you put it up for sale(sail?). If we purchase a car we might get it at fleet pricing at the dealership to gain ownership. If we buy it online, it’s cheaper to pick it up than to have it shipped as cargo.

If someone offers a loan at an extremely high interest rate, they’re called a loan shark.

If you handle stocks illegitimately, we use the term slush fund.  In fact, even the word stock is an early 15th Century marine term meaning “framework on which a boat was constructed”.

In poker terms, a whale is a lousy player who has a lot of money.  When he sits at the table he’s basically just pouring money down the drain, but the sharks love it.

If money doesn’t have a fixed exchange rate, it’s a called a floating currency.

The analogies between water and money are probably as numerous as the ocean is deep.

We might even be able to say we run water when we draw a bath, since we make a withdraw on a bank run.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, since water is also representative of human anatomy, our court system, law, and who knows what else.

Can you think of any more current-sea and maritime money connections ? If you can, let me know in the comments.