At this rate, there is no need to remove stipends

500 L$ / week will be meaningless if this pace keeps up.

Your point? LL never promised the lindens would have a certian value.

You are assuming that it will hit 500:1. Currency movement is not governed by real-world physics so you can't assume a "pace." Currencies respond to downward (selling) pressure and upward (buying) pressure and it slows down then just fluctuates in a small range when a balance is reached between the two.

And a trading value HAS NOTHING TO DO with the value of the currency itself. Currencies values are determined by what you can aquire with them. So that is STRICTLY determined by how much in-world goods/services you can purchase. And since september when the Exchange rate was 250$L/$usd to now with it at 325$L/$usd the price of purchasing clothing, mechs, textures, houses and everything else has remained fairly constant. That means there IS NO INFLATION OR DEFLATION in the value of the $L.

The Lindex is equivilant to a stock market. A stock price DOES NOT determine the success of a company and its only TRUE benifit to a company is its INITIAL offering as a company goes public and the purchase prices are turned into immediate company revenue as people buy in. The success of a company, on the other hand, IS what determines the stock price.

So after factoring out the 'whin of the seller' issues where everyone wants to post a 1$L better sale price to ensure THEIR $L sells first, the only thing that is gonna determine the final stable value will be how much the residents of the world consider a virtual currency to be worth.

Many people have already increased their prices because of the classifieds. Lawrence Linden and his "costs are minimal" is just a sign how little he knows what's going on.