The fun Elon Musk has with Dogecoin shows us the irrationality of value

Most things have value because they are useful. Other things are valuable nonetheless – but those values have no easy reference point, writes Hamish McRae

Elon Musk guest-presented the ‘Saturday Night Live’ this week (AFP via Getty Images)

Central bankers detest them, billionaires joke about them – and the rest of us fret when and how the game will end.

The great debate about cryptocurrencies has taken a new twist in the past few days. Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, warned that they had no intrinsic value and holders should be prepared to lose all their money.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Elon Musk joked on Saturday Night Live (SNL) about Dogecoin as a Mother’s Day gift, whereupon the price promptly fell by nearly 30 per cent, though it did recover a bit while the show was being aired.