[Enchante]

"Gaddafi wanted to introduce and only trade in the African gold Dinar – a move which would have thrown the world economy into chaos."

I'm no economist but this sounds like an idiotic statement. Certainly the world economy would not be affected at all by what Libya alone did with currency. Does the writer mean chaos if all of the African nations somehow adopted the "African gold Dinar"???? Don't think it will happen, but that too would have little to no effect on the world economy. Anyway, it wasn't going to happen just because Gadaffi wanted it. Maybe the writer means to suggest that the "African gold Dinar" would be adopted by OPEC.... that is also extremely unlikely, and still would not throw the world economy into "chaos"....

No, this sounds like careless journalistic b.s. hype.

[Ohioan]

You are correct. Money, whether dollars, pounds, euros or gold coins functions as a Medium of Exchange, which will constantly fluctuate in relation to the fluctuations of those things--goods, services, other currencies time, etc..--for which it is exchanged. The benefit of gold, as such, is that it is not so easy for politicians to control that fluctuation for ulterior purposes.