Hot Money

Leafing through my file of "that looks interesting..." articles last night, I found this piece from the Smithsonian Magazine on the efforts of U.S. mint employees to save their building and the $300 million in its vaults during the 1906 earthquake and fire. It's good old-fashioned heroism, mostly, told straight and without much analysis of the way the disaster exposed the strange fragility of the California economy. Without those millions in bullion girding against the ruination of the quake and fire, the state's (and perhaps the nation's) economy might have collapsed. (Make sure to see the photos of the gorgeous "Old Mint" building, the "Granite Lady," which is now slated to become the home of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society.