A closer look
Trying to explain economics is boring, so a rogue engineer built a computer out of perspex tanks, sluices, and colored water to literally visualize liquid assets. The 1949 MONIAC was an analog computer designed by Bill Phillips to model the British economy. By pumping water through a complex series of tubes representing taxes, savings, and investments, economists could literally watch the economy drain or overflow. Central banking was finally reduced to its purest form: desperately trying to plug a leaky pipe.
