That's interesting.

I wonder how much gold the US government still has. Three or four years ago, the History Channel ran three independent documentaries back-to-back about Fort Knox. All concluded that most or all of the gold in Fort Knox had been pilfered by politicians many years ago. In other words, the military may be guarding an empty vault.

Other countries stored their gold there, as well, but almost all have repatriated it over the past 20 years. That indicates that other countries are losing confidence in the stability of the USA.

Even the alleged periodic audits may be fraudulent. For one, they are only partial audits. Imagine what would happen if the world found out that even one-third of the gold the US Mint claims to have does not exist. The world would go off the dollar standard in a heartbeat, and the dollar would likely collapse.

US Mint Releases New Fort Knox "Audit Documentation": First Critical Observations

The Biggest Government Lie in History?

This is suspicious.

US Government Lost 7 Fort Knox Gold Audit Reports

 

Oh the over use and misuse of the word "could". Anything could happen. "Could" is the favorate word of anyone with an agenda. They use the word "could" then they cherry pick facts to support their "could" event.

This is what conmen do.

It is a face that there has never been enough gold in circulation for the common man to have money.

Many of us collect PM mostly silver then gold and even a few gems as a hobby/SHTF backstop. If it ever comes to the place where we must use our PMs it will be more barter than money.

 

My two cents...

A lot of things could happen. The future is a hard thing to predict.

When people start talking about stuff like this they are often trying to sell something. The US could bring back the gold standard but I seriously doubt it.

Actually that's okay by me. I own PMs, mostly silver but some gold too. That could work out to my benefit, you just never know.

 

Sure, "could" is a key. But it's worthwhile to pay attention to the thoughts and speechifying of certain people in the world of money. People of the iMF and the BIS have a lot of influence. It seems to me as I read of the statements and decisions of the "Big Boys" that many are scared spitless about the future. When people who have far more access to information than I have are nervous, I really try to pay attention.

 

Lot of fake gold out there. Then there are tungsten bars with a gold wrapper - have the marks of a real bar but are counterfeit.

 

I agree. I only use one local PM dealer.

I do not know about the high weeds of faking gold. I do know there are various methods of testing, specific gravity being one. Given gold is seldom pure I am not sure I would trust myself absent some experience.

I probably should do some known testing just to establish a gage R&R.

Like most thing I will likely put it off until too late.

 

Given the incredible amounts of unrepayable debts around the whole world ...

Regardless of where you stand on the gold standard, this sentence should be a concern to all.

 

I do agree. I have little or no debt. The only reason I say little is because I use a credit card rather than a debit card. I pay the credit card online several times a month. There are advantages.

I try not to invest in companies that depend on other's debt or have a lot of debt.

I do not expect that all debts will be defaulted on so I do not expect the system will fail because of debt. Much, I will not say most, debt is asset backed. The lenders will become the owners.

In fact there are way to lend to increase one's security position.

All that said I still agree with you.

 

I wrote this in the spring of 2008..

It's the Economy Stupid.

Many events are possible, but the extraordinary event happening world wide right now is the melt down of the dollar based economy. After decades of rapid economic expansion, George Bush's New World Order and Bill Clinton's Crony Capitalism, we now must face the consequences. The world wide experiment with free trade, debt based fiat currencies, and misdirected funding of non viable technologies has failed.

It is unclear when and if the folks who directed this failure will recognize and respond to these events, or if they will continue to peruse these policies to the bitter end, but the rest of us live in the real world. In the real world the gig is up, the bill is due, and the greatest world wide economic depression of all time is now howling at our door.

 

SFAIK, the most likely tungsten with a coating of gold are the multi-ounce bars.

Fake US gold coins are easily spotted, given some homework beforehand. I once had a guy offer me an AU double eagle. "I got this from my grandfather." After checking it with my 16X lens, I grinned and commented, "And he got it at the Beirut branch of the Philadelphia mint." No US coin's die had any pin-prick-sized hole in the surface which left tiny "blems" on the coin. So, I bought it for 10% under spot and sold it not long after for spot.

(Under Lebanese law, you can mint any coin you want to, so long as the gold or silver content matches the legal original coin. A favorite was the $2-1/2 Indian gold coin because of the rather high numismatic premium--which are readily identified by a knowledgeable person; the tails of the head-dress' feathers are too close to the rim of the coin.)

 

So basically you’re saying it’s ok to buy counterfeits, just know what you’re doing.

 

Gold as Money?

By law, it is.
But no one has been following law since 1933.

There's not enough gold to run a country, let alone a world, on "gold backed" money.

WORLD SUPPLY OF GOLD (EST) = 6 BILLION OUNCES ($120 Billion in lawful money)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
186,700 tonnes of gold exists above ground, as of 2015.
1 metric tonne = 32150.7 troy ounces
World supply of gold (est) = 6,002,535,690 ounces.

If coined, pursuant to the Coinage Act of 1792, all the world’s gold computes to
approximately
$120,050,713,800 dollars.
Divide by 7+ billion people computes to approximately $17.15 per capita.

What exactly was lent to CONgress to rack up a 20+ trillion dollar debt?
Oh, you cannot ask that question, because of section 4, 14th amendment, USCON, prohibiting anyone from challenging the validity of the public debt.
> OMG <
America, you’ve been punked.

 

Gold as Money?
By law, it is.

Prove this statement.

 

No, I told the buyer why the price was spot, with no premium. Remember, it was an ounce of real gold, by Lebanese law.

But there is a reason to have a good lens (like my 16X) if you're going to mess around in the world of coins.

All sorts of interesting trivia. E.g., if you ever see a US 1$ gold coin that's slightly crimped, it's because back in the day, somebody bit down on it to see if it were real.

Crookedness from fifty years ago: Take two Krugerrands. Machine them to make a hollow coin--which is filled with lead. Heavy enough to fool the ignorant or overly-trusting.

I once saw a Trade Dollar machined from two coins. Perfect fit. Inside was a spring-loaded over-center hinge. The secret compartment could be used to carry secret messages written on (for example) cigarette paper.

I got into gun show tables in the '60s, with coins as well. Added gold in '73. Thirty years of reasonable profit and a lot of fun. Nowadays I mostly sit back and watch.

 

Soundbite version via definitions:

REAL MONEY - Money which has real metallic, intrinsic value as distinguished from paper currency, checks and drafts.
- - - Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Ed. p. 1264

LAWFUL MONEY - "The terms 'lawful money' and 'lawful money of the United States' shall be construed to mean gold or silver coin of the United States..."
Title 12 United States Code, Sec. 152.

MONEY - In usual and ordinary acceptation it means coins and paper currency used as a circulating medium of exchange, and does not embrace notes, bonds, evidences of debt, or other personal or real estate. Lane v. Railey, 280 Ky. 319, 133 S.W. 2d 74, 79, 81.
- - - Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Ed. p. 1005

NOTE - An instrument containing an express and absolute promise of signer (i.e. maker) to pay to a specified person or order, or bearer, a definite sum of money at a specified time. An instrument that is a promise to pay other than a certificate of deposit. U.C.C. 3-104(2)(d)
- - - Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Ed. p. 1060

[A Federal Reserve NOTE (dollar bill) is NOT money, by law)]

FIAT MONEY. Paper currency not backed by gold or silver.
- - - Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Ed. P.623

TENDER - An offer of money ... Legal tender is that kind of coin, money, or circulating medium which the law compels a creditor to accept in payment of his debt, when tendered by the debtor in the right amount.
- - - Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Ed. p. 1467

[Note: FRNs are legal tender on the obligated party of those notes - the Federal government. . . AND the 320 million enumerated socialists.]

"Federal reserve notes are legal tender in absence of objection thereto."
MacLeod v. Hoover (1925) 159 La 244, 105 So. 305

All duly enumerated American socialists cannot object to the tender of the notes that THEY are obligated parties to. (thanks to FICA)

Recapping:

• Lawful money = gold / silver coin (aka real money)
• Money = lawful money or currency (i.e., certificates which are receipts for real money in the vault)
• Notes are not money, by law, nor are they “fiat” because they’re debt (negative value until redeemed)
• Unlike “fiat”, the obligated parties on the notes may be held liable by the creditor upon foreclosure (US gubmint repudiated redeeming their notes in House Joint Resolution 192, June 1933, and again, in the Gold Reserve Act of 1934).

In plain Inglitch, all enumerated "contributors" via FICA are "human resources" pledged as collateral on the fraudulent public debt. As long as millions of Americans consent, the Ship of State can keep floundering about, kiting bad checks at our expense.

DO NOT BELIEVE ME.
GO READ THE LAW YOURSELF.
Declaration of Independence
US Constitution 1787
Coinage Act of 1792
Federal Reserve Act of 1913
Title 12 USC Sec. 411

 

How we were robbed by FDR and the socialists

The Great Gold Robbery of 1933 - Thomas E. Woods, Jr. - Mises Daily
http://mises.org/daily/3056

A key piece of legislation in this story is the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which Congress passed on March 9 without having read it and after only the most trivial debate. House Minority Leader Bertrand H. Snell (R-NY) generously conceded that it was "entirely out of the ordinary" to pass legislation that "is not even in print at the time it is offered." He urged his colleagues to pass it all the same.

It gave the Secretary of the Treasury the power to require all individuals and corporations to hand over all their gold coin, gold bullion, or gold certificates if in his judgment "such action is necessary to protect the currency system of the United States."
​

. . . .
Enact a law that no one had read?!
Sound familiar?
. . . .
Gave the Secretary of Treasury the power to require everyone to give their money to the agent of the creditor.

HAND OVER ALL THE GOLD - or else!
.... to protect the currency system?
There’s no such thing as a currency system in the USCON.
. . . .
P.S. - The "U.S. Governor" of the World Bank and IMF is none other than the Secretary of Treasury, who was granted preapproved powers, by the State of Emergency declared by "Saint" Roosevelt, America's premier communist. After FDR and his cronies 'liberated' all the lawful gold money from 'free' Americans, they criminalized the possession of gold money by 'free' Americans. (More fun - Title 22 USC Sec. 286(a) states that the U.S. governor shall NOT be paid by the U.S. government.)

And if you sign a 'signature card' wherein you AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE RULES OF THE BANK, you've consented to be governed by the Sec'y of Treasury / U.S. governor.

 

And yet....

 

I must tell you of all the people that believe gold is money that I know none are rich. One couple went from bing comfortably retired to losing their home to foreclosure and living in an apartment.

I am sure JP Morgan said many things to make himself rich. Which of those he actually believed none of us will know.

I do know gold is not money.

 

I think there's a confusion of meaning, when it comes to MONEY.

After reading the law, I tend to refer to that which is LAWFUL MONEY as money. The rest is merely a circulating medium of exchange to facilitate trade when barter is insufficient. That's what most of us call "money" or "currency" or "circulating medium" or "counterfeit fractional coin."

In terms of U.S. law, only gold and silver coin PAY DEBT. In fact, it's one of the reasons why you file title deeds with ridiculous claims like "for $1 in hand, seller conveys title to buyer..." when everyone knows that the actual selling price was far higher. So why the subterfuge? See 7th amendment. The value in controversy has to exceed TWENTY DOLLARS before it comes under the rules of the common law. Buy a house and file a legal document with the government that you only paid $1 and BAM, you're excluded from the rules of the common law. Which is exactly what "they" want, since dollars have not circulated since 1933.

Next time you buy a "big ticket" item, see if you can get a bill of sale wherein it states you paid 21 silver dollars and "other valuable consideration." You can then challenge any claim against your property under the rules of the common law, not the 'emergency rules' of the current bankrupted People's Democratic Socialist Republic. You may also qualify for protection under the anti-peonage laws of your state.

But I digress.

MONEY IS NOT REAL. Money is an abstraction to facilitate trade of reality - the marketplace of goods and services. NO amount of wealth can fill an empty marketplace. And unless a people are trained to want money / wealth they will not trade for it. Ironically, sophisticated money mad people consider folk who aren't "seeking money" to be primitives and uncivilized.

PROSPERITY is based on prodigious production of surplus usable goods and services, equitably traded and enjoyed.

There is no correlation between the amount and value of money tokens and the marketplace. Though eCONomists like to believe otherwise, there is none. If you suddenly doubled the availability of goods and services, the money supply would not double. IN fact, under current debt-credit, you can't increase the token supply without deficit spending (see: Title 12 USC Sec. 411).

Likewise if suddenly everyone had 22 billion billion quatloos, were equally wealthy, so that no one "needed" money, the system would collapse because without an imposed NEED for money, who would bother to trade their labor or property for MORE?

The sum and value of gold bullion has no correlation with the marketplace. Any change in one does not affect the other. However, due to population doubling every 40-50 years, the amount of bullion per capita has shrunken dramatically in the past 200 years.

Money mad people believe that money has intrinsic value independent of the marketplace. And we're trained to ascribe a value proportionality to all things in terms of money. To illustrate, NASA reported an asteroid "worth 4 quadrillion dollars." Well, first off, there's not enough gold bullion to coin 4 quadrillion dollars, and second, if that was dollar bills, CONgress would first have to be 4 quadrillion dollars in debt to authorize their printing. HUH? What?

You have to be utterly money mad to accept such statements without question.

In reality, there is an asteroid that has minerals that if traded, at the same rate as terrestrial ones, would appear to have such a value. But in practice, totally insane.

Proof?
Have the world's billionaires form a consortium to go mine that asteroid. Have them march to the biggest bank on the planet and ask to borrow 1 quadrillion dollars, at 10% interest (generous!).
The bank cannot lend them such a sum.
THE.MONEY.DOES.NOT.EXIST.

Who has the power to create money?
Under American law, CONgress can only 'coin money' (stamp bullion). It cannot CREATE bullion. Dollar bills are IOUs (debt) denominated in dollars and have a minus value until redeemed.

Did you know that American people have the power to create money - as in a medium of exchange to facilitate trade when barter is insufficient?
The humble COUPON (small print : cash value = 1/20 cent) denominated in goods / and / or / services is a legal money token, and not subject to an excise tax because it is a RIGHT to emit and use.

If you're a corn farmer and issue a coupon "pay to the bearer on demand one bushel of corn," and trade if for groceries, etc, you've just engaged in a transaction OUTSIDE of government control (and the bankster's grip).
If you're a laborer and issue a coupon "pay to the bearer on demand four hours of general labor" and trade it for groceries, you've just eliminated the need for socialism / public charity.
If you're a businessman opening a new restaurant and issue a coupon "pay to the bearer on demand one meal," and trade it for supplies, labor, etc, you've just bypassed the need to borrow credit, at usury, from the bank.
And such a private promissory note system avoids the problems of scarce funny munny, usury, speculation as well as other corruption. Everything available in the marketplace can be bartered or bought with private money - no need to fight for a bigger piece of the pie (scarce money).

LIBERTY MONEY is one of the endowed rights of the people that "they" fervently hope you never, ever start to use.


Imagine all those small towns and villages that are "cash starved" having lost industries or factories that could revive if only they realized how to facilitate trade without using "funny munny."
[Legal tender is that which the law compels a creditor to accept in lieu of lawful money. However one can certainly come to an agreement with a creditor using other mediums of exchange.]

 

In terms of U.S. law, only gold and silver coin PAY DEBT.

Wrong only the states can make gold and silver payment for debts. “No State shall…Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;” The rest of what is money is for Congress to determine. Therefore that statement is completely false. Congress has said our money will be called and denominated in dollar. Congress gets to change that and congress gets to say what legal money it.

In fact, it's one of the reasons why you file title deeds with ridiculous claims like "for $1 in hand, seller conveys title to buyer..." when everyone knows that the actual selling price was far higher. So why the subterfuge?

The reason for the $1 has to do with contract law and the exchange of consideration. This is why often to give a love one something the documents filed says for $1 one gives a house. This is all about contract law and has nothing to do with what is money.

See 7th amendment. The value in controversy has to exceed TWENTY DOLLARS before it comes under the rules of the common law. Buy a house and file a legal document with the government that you only paid $1 and BAM, you're excluded from the rules of the common law. Which is exactly what "they" want, since dollars have not circulated since 1933.

Wrong again the 7th amendment states: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

It is your jury protection in both criminal and civil matters. It keeps government appointed judges from taking your property. It says and means noting regarding what is money.

MONEY IS NOT REAL. Money is an abstraction to facilitate trade of reality - the marketplace of goods and services.
Likewise if suddenly everyone had 22 billion billion quatloos, were equally wealthy, so that no one "needed" money, the system would collapse because without an imposed NEED for money, who would bother to trade their labor or property for MORE?...

Money is anything generally accepted as a mode of exchange for goods and services. The tögrög is money in Mongolia. It is not in the US. On-the-other-hand the US dollar is quite generally accepted in Mexico. One can almost always get a better bargain offering to pay in US dollars in Mexico. So there the US dollar is either money or a barter exchange I could argue either way. I would not argue the US dollar is legal money in Mexico.

The sum and value of gold bullion has no correlation with the marketplace. Any change in one does not affect the other. However, due to population doubling every 40-50 years, the amount of bullion per capita has shrunken dramatically in the past 200 years.

That is right. Gold is a commodity. It is finite. There has never been enough gold for the common man to have money. Gold has often been used as money and has always failed because its intrinsic value always rapidly exceeds it value as money. GOLD IS NO MONEY!

Money mad people believe that money has intrinsic value independent of the marketplace. And we're trained to ascribe a value proportionality to all things in terms of money. To illustrate, NASA reported an asteroid "worth 4 quadrillion dollars." Well, first off, there's not enough gold bullion to coin 4 quadrillion dollars, and second, if that was dollar bills, CONgress would first have to be 4 quadrillion dollars in debt to authorize their printing. HUH? What?

You have to be utterly money mad to accept such statements without question.

In reality, there is an asteroid that has minerals that if traded, at the same rate as terrestrial ones, would appear to have such a value. But in practice, totally insane.

Proof?
Have the world's billionaires form a consortium to go mine that asteroid. Have them march to the biggest bank on the planet and ask to borrow 1 quadrillion dollars, at 10% interest (generous!).
The bank cannot lend them such a sum.
THE.MONEY.DOES.NOT.EXIST.

The only thing that proves is gold is a valuable commodity that those investing in the venture will, if successful, be worth more than the capital invested and the variable cost of retrieving that gold. That is no different from those mining and panning for gold here on earth.

Who has the power to create money?

In the USA, Congress has the legal authority. It takes general acceptance for what is legally created to be money.

Under American law, CONgress can only 'coin money' (stamp bullion). It cannot CREATE bullion. Dollar bills are IOUs (debt) denominated in dollars and have a minus value until redeemed.

Article I, Section 8, there is “Congress shall have Power…to coin Money…” The Constitution does not say Congress cannot create other from of money. The fact is paper [actually cloth you could say cotton fiver paper I suppose] is for convince. You have every legal right to exchange all your cotton fiver money for coins. (Unfortunately to my dismay we have no right to demand it be exchanged for the coins we want like fifty-cent and current dollar coins. I have investigated this argued this, etc. The fact is banks are not required to keep or get the coinage of our choice. A few banks do keep some.) No one would want to carry in their pocket $100 around in current US coinage. When I can I get fifty-cent pieces and dollars just to mess with young cashiers. I will not put more than $10 in my pockets at a time because the weight is uncomfortable.

Did you know that American people have the power to create money - as in a medium of exchange to facilitate trade when barter is insufficient?

Yes, in fact when we were on the gold standard government coined money was in short supply. Merchants would stamp out their own “coppers” to give as change. These became generally acceptable as money within the general area of the merchant. They were money they were not legal tender. They were not accepted as payment of taxes, etc.

One reason we got off the gold standard was because there was not enough money supply for farmers to sell their crops. Gold limited the circulation of money. Gold was too valuable intrinsically to increase that supply. Debts could not be paid if prices were deflated. That combination is why so many family farms lost their land during the gold standard.

You have bought into the con. The Paul cult has taken a hodgepodge of facts and woven them into a myth. If you will study the history of money or just the US history of money then you will understand money.

Gold and silver are valuable commodities because they are finite in supply relative to their use value. They have and can be used as money. They are not in and of themselves money.

 

Seems to me there had to be a reason for Congress to consider silver and gold as money, and write up specifications for coinage.

Aha! Look up the origin of "Not worth a Continental!" The Continental paper money became near-worthless, like the D-Mark of the 1920s. So, make "money" something of intrinsic value. Basically, a plan for long-term stability of the buying power of money. It worked pretty well, overall, from 1792 into the WW I-WW II era. Sure, the Civil War and a few panics were messy, but those were a small percentage of the years.

To me, it doesn't really matter. Whatever medium of exchange makes sellers happy is fine by me. In this pre-SHTF world, I'm happy to go along with Palmetto Tree about PMs being commodities. Post-SHTF? My bet is that intrinsics will win out after things settle down.

 

Before Christ was crucified there was not enough gold in circulation for the common man to have money.

 

It is such BS!

All that matter is something is defined as a unit of measure. Everything else in the world wide economy can float and be valued relative to the unit. For instance, everyone knows computer technology has improved geometrically. So, computing power in 1969 was perhaps 1M times more expensive - relative to the unit - compared to the computing power in 2019.

Historically, commodities, such as silver are more stable. Somewhere between 15-18 less than the unit over a wide time range, i.e., centuries. Efforts were made to peg one commodity to another but there is really no point to it.

The main thing is money's vital property is a store of value. In that, an ounce of silver in Jesus day is an ounce of silver today. What it buys today is much more because of economic progress, technology, good and services. For instance, 30 pieces of silver, the going rate for slaves for centuries, a life time of work is not even a week's wages as measured in today's highly inflationary FRN's.

 

Gold as a commodity

Gold is also valued as a commodity.

You can barter with it.

You can exchange it for currency and where in the world at the going exchange rate.

The only time it loses all value, is when you have to swim with it.

 

CIRCULAR DEFINITIONS

DOLLAR - The money unit employed in the United States of the value of one hundred cents, or of any combination of coins totalling 100 cents.
- - - Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th ed., p.483

CENT - A coin of the United States, the least in value of those now minted. It is the hundredth part of a dollar.
- - - Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th ed., p.224
Perhaps this is why folks are so confused under the emergency rules?

COUNTERFEITING

Coinage Act of 1792, SEC. 19.
“And be it further enacted, That if any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint shall be DEBASED or made worse as to the proportion of fine gold or fine silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or value than the same ought to be pursuant to the directions of this act, through the default or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, and if any of the said officers or persons shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offences, shall be deemed guilty of felony, AND SHALL SUFFER DEATH.”
​

Of course, the current slate of “public servants” are not at risk of capital punishment for their felonies, having changed the law when they began counterfeiting fractional coin.

18 U.S.C. § 485 : US Code - Section 485: Coins or bars
“Whoever falsely makes, forges, or counterfeits any coin or bar in resemblance or similitude of any coin of a denomination higher than 5 CENTS or any gold or silver bar coined or stamped at any mint or assay office of the United States, or in resemblance or similitude of any foreign gold or silver coin current in the United States or in actual use and circulation as money within the United States; or Whoever passes, utters, publishes, sells, possesses, or brings into the United States any false, forged, or counterfeit coin or bar, knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeit, with intent to defraud any body politic or corporate, or any person, or attempts the commission of any offense described in this paragraph - Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than FIFTEEN YEARS, or both.”
​

Does this explain why the "golden dollar" does not contain more metal than 5 copper pennies of the pre-bankruptcy past?

The Golden Dollar Coin Featuring Sacagawea - United States Mint
https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/sacagawea-golden-dollar
The "golden" dollar= 8.1 grams in weight, 88.5% copper
{7.1685 gms. copper}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(United_States_coin)
Pennies issued before 1982: 3.11 grams of copper

5 x 3.11 gms = 15.55 gms. of copper (in five cents)

THE NEW "GOLDEN DOLLAR" CON (ahem) COIN IS A "BIG PENNY"!
(Ironically, that’s close to the buying power of a current “dollar bill” versus a real dollar in 1910.)

When the FOXES guard the hen house, the HENS are on the menu.

 

Gold has never failed as money. Obviously, you are ignoring the lesson from Isaiah and the theft from PM alternative, fraudulent FRN.

Everyone knows that if we use our home printer to make copies of $100 FRN that is fraud. It is fraud no matter who does it, even the Federal Reserve.

 

Backing our currency with something tangible is smart. Gold, I think, is not the right substance. Lithium or platinum maybe. Just a thought.......

 

What the standard unit is does not matter. Gold happens to have the longest and most successful track record.

What’s important is the standard has a <store of value>. So, bread would not be a good standard because it is prone to deteriorate. Elements, like gold, silver or Lithium or platinum endure and meet other criteria, like divisibility.

Just out of curiosity, why do you nominate Lithium or platinum?

 

 

I never heard of gold ever having failed as money. Governments have failed in their monetary policy; Roman times just like today.

When government income is less than its spending, you either reduce the amount of goodie in the coins in order to increase the money supply, or you keystroke more money into existence. Either way it's deficit spending and you eventually go broke. But it ain't the fault of the gold or silver. Absent the booty of war or confiscation, the amount of gold available to Rome was limited--but the demand for money was not.

 

Gold failed as money because it prevents the money supply from increasing.

Suppose there is a island with 100 couples and they use gold as money. The gold supply is 100 ounces. This 100 ounces of gold is an adequate money supply for the 100 couples even after they have children and each couple has two to four children. In short order after the the children start to turn 18 they are now an island with 200 couples. Now the 100 ounce gold money supply is not adequate because the demand for all thing has doubed and more as they have children and younger brothers and sisters become of age there is not enough money to conduct trade. Before long the couple number is 300. The original 100 begin to die but the population continues to grow replacing those that die and adding more and more. Soon that 100 ounce gold supply of money must now support 400 couples and still growing. What was once a trading economy of 100 couple with each producing what they did best, most must devote their time to subsistence survival. Their economy cannot grow because there is not enough gold money to support economic activity. The only solution if the island sticks with gold is to devalue the gold content of the money. The gold as money fails.

It alway as in every country.

 

Interesting article https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/gold-africa-poison/ concerning gold mining in Ghana and how it is poisoning the miners.

“We needed money.”

Since Ngoha started prospecting in the early 2000s, more and more people like him have helped Ghana grow into Africa’s biggest gold producer. Across the continent and beyond, millions have turned to the trade. Few are deterred by the risks.

Ngoha’s friends and family members started to sicken and die, but he told himself this had nothing to do with the amount of dust they’d been breathing in or the toxins – including mercury and nitric acid – they used to extract the gold.

Worth a read. In some places gold is not only money, it is death.

 

Ah, semantics. The banker sees my backhoe as an asset; I see it as a tool with which I can build a septic system. The pawnshop sees my rifle as an asset; I see it as a tool via which I can eat venison.

Apologies for the digression; it's just another character flaw.

 

Assets are things of value. Tool are devices for carrying out a function. Tools have value of function. All assets my not be tools but all tools are assets. Semantics the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.

Just being logical.

 

The national debt was paid off in 1835. Post-WW II, it was paid way down from its wartime high.

Sort of irrelevant, though. Today's big problem is the amount of debt in all public sectors as well as the private sector. And then figure in things like retirement accounts which did not exist--or not to any extent--in the WW II era.

And in the past we did not have the unfunded mandates that we have now. Medicare, e.g. The U.S. government does not operate under GAAP as corporations are required to do.

For that matter, consider the unanticipated numbers of Boomers and the effect on SS--plus the increased age of recipients.

 

The U.S. government does not operate under GAAP as corporations are required to do.

Governments never have. I doubt they ever will.