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Are you thinking that, in order to have a gold-back currency, everyone’s currency would have to be in gold coin?

If so, that isn’t how it works. It would be awkward to switch back to a gold-backed currency, but it would certainly be possible. All you need is to determine the amount of gold you have and then adjust costs in the economy according to the gold you have (fractions of percentages of the gold) and then set the value of the currency to match both. From that point on, changes to cost in the economy and the value of money MUST be in accordance to the supply of that gold. This is why nations that had a gold-backed currency typically had a “slow” but very steady GDP growth of 3% per year. That is about the only amount of new gold that can be added to the supply.

But I think the point is being missed. I’m no “gold bug,” but I do think the value of the currency needs to be attached to something. Right now, none of the major nations have currency tied to anything. What is the value of the dollar based on? Manufacturing? Good credit? We have none of that. Right now we are living on the momentum of the past, which is rapidly slowing, and the fact that the USD is the world’s reserve currency, which Russia, China, and India are actively trying to remove. Once they do that, the US dollar, given the debt the US government has taken on and must pay off with interest, the US dollar is rapidly approaching worthlessness.

——I do think the value of the currency needs to be attached to something.——

The lesson learned was that attachment to gold, a single commodity was ineffective in a global economy with so many variables. The result is that we de facto have many standards.

As we type, the variation relative to several of these standards can be measured in continuous real time. The variation of the relative value of the currencies has become smaller than the variation with the commodities subject to market variation.

To get a picture of reality, the variation between gold and the $$ indicates a decreasing value for the $. The variation between gold and silver is not clearly understood but there appears to be movement towards the historic norm of 20:1 or so.

Until the massive outstanding global debt is absorbed, the variation or relative decrease of currency to gold et al will continue. For convenience, forget et al and keep an eye on gold. Gold is a reliable standard.