[DeaconBenjamin2]

PING

[ikka]

Can I ask, what amount of “private hoards” represent the use of gold in electronics manufacturing?

[brityank]

Monetary events started to spin out of control in 1965, culminating in the default on the international gold obligations of the United States of America six years later in August,1971.

The central problem is the actual maintenance of the parity. The U.S. Treasury is under obligation, in effect, to assure that on the world’s markets 35 dollar means the same value as one ounce of gold. Thereby the value of the dollar is anchored to the solid rock of a fixed quantity of gold.

That was the main problem that could have been readily fixed. Instead of 1oz. Gold = $35.00, forcing the Treasury to redeem $$$ to maintain the price-point -- they should have set the ratio in reverse $1.00 = ¹/₃₅^th of 1oz. Gold, and let the market price fluctuate. The price of Gold would still have risen but taken the Dollar along with it, and thereby retained its value as a monetized currency.

Too many thieves in high places.

[ccmay]

If you really think we are headed for days like the fall of the Roman empire, you'd be a lot better off putting your money in guns, ammunition, and hand tools. All the Roman gold hoards tell me is that they didn't do a damn bit of good for their owners while they were alive.

I think the gold bugs are liars and mountebanks and swindlers.

-ccm

[SunkenCiv]

Here’s a *really weird coincidence*...

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr021506.htm

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GoldStandard.html

“Between 1946 and 1971 countries operated under the Bretton Woods system. Under this further modification of the gold standard, most countries settled their international balances in U.S. dollars, but the U.S. government promised to redeem other central banks’ holdings of dollars for gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. However, persistent U.S. balance-of-payments deficits steadily reduced U.S. gold reserves, reducing confidence in the ability of the United States to redeem its currency in gold. Finally, on August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced that the United States would no longer redeem currency for gold. This was the final step in abandoning the gold standard.”