[steveegg]

While I understand the human desire to have something "real" (i.e. physical) backing the money system, the gold standard provides nothing more than an illusion of security. Indeed, a gold standard is more arbitrary, as it depends solely on the amount of holdings by a particular country (which is not necessarily based on the strength of that country's economy and political system), while the current system takes those strengths into account.

That is not, however, saying that the current system is anywhere near perfect. George Soros is Exhibit A in that (using factors that really shouldn't enter the currency equation to short the dollar). Then again, he could have done much the same thing if the gold standard had existed.

[Moonman62]

Nice post. A gold standard gives the politicians an extra way to game the system, just as they did in the late 60's and early 70's under the Bretton Woods gold standard.