Replies

Anyone who thinks we should switch to a gold standard, take a look at a gold price chart for the past two or three years. Last November, the price of gold was at $1,627/ounce. In March, gold was up to $2,050/ounce. Last week, the price of gold had dropped back down to $1,821/ounce. That is some serious volatility.

A gold standard just fixes the price of gold. The price of everything else would go up or down depending on the price of gold. If the price of gold went up, the value of the dollar would also go up and we would have deflation in the price of everything else. If the price of gold went down, the value of the dollar would also go down and we would have inflation in the price of everything else.

Now consider the fact that China and Russia are two of the three largest gold producing countries in the world and can flood or cut off the gold market anytime they want to cause gold prices to crash or skyrocket. I really don't think it would be a good idea to give China and Russia that much control over the value of US currency.

Personally I like the wheat standard.

It is something that is actually useful and we make a lot of it.

Gold vanishes and we can get by. If wheat goes away..... well, have you ever seen the movie "No Blade of Grass"?