>>>>>>http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/18/business/fed.php
>>>>>>
>>>>>>"...a tactic that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>how much more money can we print?
>>>>>
>>>>>Depends on how much would Disney Corp charge for image of Mickey Mouse on the $2384 bill (hey, got to adjust for inflation!).
>>>>>
>>>>>They're printing funny money ever since they declared that gold base isn't needed anymore. BTW, what happened with the Fort Knox gold - who was the last guy to see it? The crew of Goldfinger?
>>>>
>>>>Why isn't the U.S. receiving payment for the use of the term 'dollar' to denote the standard currency? We had it first. Seems like a copyright issue to me...hey maybe we can pay off the debt! :o) Oh wait a minute, 'dollar' existed in Scotland and even England before that so perhaps they would end up with the monies....hmmmm, better scratch that idea..... :o)
>>>
>>>The name dollar is derived from the dutch "Daalder" which was a dutch coin. So I guess the dutch hold the copyright :) You can send the payments for the use of the word dollar to my personal bank account :) ?
>>
>>During a visit to Innsbruck in Austria some years ago I was told that the word Dollar was derived from the german word Thal which means valley. In the old days people had to pay a tax or a toll to pass the valley in which Innsbruck is. What they had to pay was called a Thal Steuer or something like that. This Thal Steuer was quickly shortened into Thaler.
>
>Thaler got the name from Joachim Thal in Bohemia where first silver coinage started in 15th century.
>Disclosure: I cannot verify it in Wikipedia right now.

According to Wikipedia the name is from a mine in Joachimsthal, but I don't think anyone is 100% sure about the origin. So I guess everyone wants some credit (pun intended).