as good as money

For those of you who remember the movie Dumb & Dumber, this current economic crisis calls to mind a particular scene:
audio version (WAV)
Nicholas Andre: Where’s all the money?
Lloyd: That’s as good as money sir, those are IOUs. Go ahead and add it up every cents accounted for. Look, see this that’s a car, 275 thou might want to hang on to that one.