[farmguy]

In fact, unless the U.S. dollar is first made partially convertible to gold - anywhere between 5 and 10 per cent of its market value would probably suffice as a minimum sensibile or smallest secured percentage - confidence in the dollar and in the U.S. economy as a whole will continue to dissipate. With further accelerating job losses and probably social unrest next.

The question is: What does 10% convertibility to gold mean? If that is supposed to mean that you could get a dimes worth of gold for every dollar you have, just exactly how much gold is that?

Dollars are fully convertible to gold at today's rate of 1/1344 ounce of gold per dollar. If the idea is to set an official price for gold, that's fine but if that price is less than the current market price, foreigners will just exchange their dollars for any gold that we (the government) may possess.

[FightThePower!]

I doubt the government has the gold they say they have. It has probably been stolen by the Federal Reserve or given to the IMF.