How Printing Fake Money Helped People Manage Their Cash
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Before we get into the episode, it's almost time to wrap up the year, and our sister podcast, WSJ's Take on the Week, wants to take on your questions. Whatever you've been wondering about the economy, companies, stocks, bonds, or markets in general, WSJ's Take on the Week wants to know. Send a note or a voice memo recording to takeontheweek at wsj.com or leave a voicemail at 212-416-3489. Your question may be included in their special end-of-the-year episode. Here's your Money Briefing for Tuesday, December 12th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. We often talk about money, real money, how to manage it, how to make more of it. But what if your actual job was to make fake money and you were surrounded by piles of it?
How would it impact your feelings about cash?
Just accumulating money in and of itself is probably not a great goal. The people I talked to were saying that you should start looking at money as a tool. It's something that you'd want to have a plan for using to make you happier if you're thinking about what to do next.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Joe Pinsker after the break.
What can fake money teach us about managing the real thing?
How did prop-money businesses get started and who buys fake cash?
Wall Street Journal personal finance reporter Joe Pinsker spoke to owners of companies in the very real business of producing fake currency. So Joe, what is this fake money used for?
The companies that I talk to, they're primarily producing fake cash for television and film productions. So they're making money essentially as a prop. And one of the businesses that I was in touch with, they've made money that has appeared on screen in a Fast and Furious movie and TV shows like Billions.
Is it just entertainment companies that make use of this money?
That's sort of the main part of these companies' businesses. But the funny thing is that they said there are all sorts of other types of customers who end up reaching out to them. One of them said that they end up selling prop money to banks for training purposes.
What productions and shows use prop money like the Fast and Furious and Billions?
Another said that everyday people actually kind of like to buy fake cash just to put on their desk as a sort of inspiration for success. There really are a lot of uses out there.
How do they alter the details on the fake money so it still looks real when we see it on TV or in a movie?
This is an important feature. These businesses want to be careful and make sure that their money isn't regarded as counterfeit currency. So they make some tweaks to visual details. For instance, they change the portraits of the founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin. His face is slightly different. And they will also put on text that says for motion picture use only.
How do prop shops alter portraits and text so fake money looks real on screen?
Things that would distinguish it from real money if somebody's holding it in their hand and looking at it, but that might not be noticed on screen.
These companies produced literally piles of fake cash. How have they noticed the effect just the sight of that amount of fake cash has on people?
Yeah, this was one thing that I was really interested in when I was working on this story, because I think a lot about the effect that money has on people. And I thought that these people would have such an interesting insight into that effect. Probably the best person to answer that is a guy named RJ Rappaport from Atlanta. He has a prop company and they make a lot of fake money for movies and TV shows. And he said that in his offices, they have a room that workers call the money room. It's basically 20 feet of shelving with money in all sorts of forms. He's listed out stacks, bundles, cubes, rolls, all sorts of things. And he said that uniformly, the reaction that people have when they walk in is they burst out laughing.
It's just an overwhelming, emotional, joyful, sort of hilarious reaction.
It's almost like something out of a gangster movie.
What is the emotional impact of walking into a room full of prop cash?
Yeah, it's something that we don't encounter in real life very often, and all this prop money ends up looking so realistic at a distance that it's surreal.
How do these business owners you spoke with say the fake cash influences the way that they see real money?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–1:39
2
How did prop-money businesses get started and who buys fake cash?
1:39–2:27
3
What productions and shows use prop money like the Fast and Furious and Billions?
2:27–3:06
4
How do prop shops alter portraits and text so fake money looks real on screen?
3:06–4:15
5
What is the emotional impact of walking into a room full of prop cash?
4:15–5:49
6
How does constant exposure to fake money change how owners view real cash?
5:49–6:44
7
How do prop-money makers use fake cash as a physical budgeting tool?
6:44–7:33
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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