If JourneyMan wanted to, he could become the wealthiest man on earth. Here's how:
He spontaneously jumps back to the 1970's, and while he's there, opens an account with a couple of dollars. Then returns to 2007, closes it out, and buys old currency with the few bucks he made. The next time he's in the past, he reinvests that old currency in the same account. See the idea here?
Every time he puts X money in the past, it grows to Y in the present. Then he converts it to old currency to get Z, which he reinvests in the past. Z grows to Y', which he converts to Z', and reinvests. He just keeps getting more and more money!
If he found a bank that never notices the date of the currency, things would be a lot simpler. He invests in the past $2. Returns to present, claims $10. Reinvests, returns, claims $50, then $250, then $1250, then $6250, and so on and so forth. After just 10 trips, he'd be a millionaire. After 14, a billionaire, and after 18 he'd be the world's first trillionaire. Ka-ching!!
But of course, there are numerous flaws with this plan that would make it unfeasible for the JourneyMan we all know. But not...for Bill Gates! If this post made you wonder, please think about becoming a subscriber to my RSS feed.