For most of Wonks Anonymous teaching career, and up to the present, economists knew that there were far more dollars in circulation in the world economy than we were able to account for. The world economy absorbed far more cash - that would be Federal Reserve notes - than would be required for legal cash transactions in the US.

We knew that US citizens were not hoarding these dollars - savings rates were just too low for that - and we figured that someone was using them, either in the gray economy at home or abroad. Wonks Anonymous always thought that they were distributed throughout the world, used as a stable means of exchange and store of value.

Now Carter Dougherty tells us in Economix that Euros are vanishing. He thinks that this indicates that Europeans no longer trust banks and the Euros are going into the proverbial mattress.

Wonks Anonymous thinks that the Euros are going to Eastern Europe, Russia and, perhaps, as far as the Middle East and China. Because the European Central Bank has maintained tight money at all costs the Euro may become the new dollar.

Worse things could happen. If we can't sell them pieces of green paper then we will actually have to make things. This would be good for our national character. Meanwhile, if dollars are cheap, then the things that we produce are cheap and selling them stuff is that much easier.