Not trying to depart off the primary subject of the forum, after I wanted to offer some insight to my thoughts on the vids and their content.. If this is to be moved, I do understand.
The death of the USD has been raging since the EU got started and gold was taken off the the standard since Bretton wood's Act in '41... There has been plenty of opportunities for the USD to fail. Very simply, it has not. The world has proven it needs the USD. The vids make great entertainment.
A gold standard acts as a limit on economic growth. As an economy's ability to produce goods and services expands and grows, then so should its money supply. Because a gold standard requires that currency be supported in the commodity, then the lack of that commodity reduces the ability of that economy to produce more capital and grow. This is a great negative to any economy and it's growth. Furthermore, while many gov'ts banking system's fail due to poor decision making practices, this does not justify moving to a gold standard or using gold as a basis for currency valuation.
Free markets determine real value to a country's currency. Given a reasonable, rational capital system not constrained by a commodity standard, then you will have a market that will set it's own standard of value. We have seen this as recently as the failure of Greece and other issues with Spain, France (75% tax rate on 1 Million + income), and others. Would having gold as the basis of value have helped these economies? I don't think so. Infact, in my opinion, it would have covered up the real issues and given false valuation impressions.
We are seeing Free Markets give real value to the EURO, as there are definitely great weaknesses in their economy. However, it is all cyclic in nature as each currency will go through strong/weak cycles over time. For now, the USD is strong and as I expect, will get stronger throughout 2015. However.. there will be a period where the USD will experience strong weakness and he EURO will be the go-to currency. As the USD strengthens and the EURO weakens, if gold was being used as a basis of currency value, this would stagnate USD GDP growth and result in lower basis of expansion for the US economy.
And while the constant writing of additional monetary debt also is a great negative to ANY economy, and can destroy a banking system, the USD strength is founded on an increasingly more global perspective of financial security which does require more diligence in making qualitative decisions which affect the economy.
Economists believe that having gold as a standard would would mean that monetary policy could no longer be used to keep an economy stable.
A gold standard means that the money supply would be determined by the gold supply and hence monetary policy could no longer be used to stabilize the economy, and while this may prevent certain types of financial repression, it will limit the ability of a currency to find true value based on Free Market forces, as it would be based on the actual supply of the commodity and the ability for the various mining companies to produce. I would hate to think that our currency would be determined by a potential miner's strike.
Our banking system is not perfect. The policies may be flawed. But the supply/demand processes of natural market forces, historically, have far outweighed the pro/cons of the having a gold supply.
The world is becoming more inter-dependent of currency valuations and the monetary decisions which affect each currency. Having gold as a standard, in my opinion would destroy and inhibit that interdependence. It would become a free-for-all on the acquisition of gold.. and many countries would be hurt because they could not afford the high prices.
I could continue with many more reasons making this a great thesis for debate. But for now, I offer the above..
Continue to use CSS and you will make your own gold.
Cheers
BT
