Gold is no solution

[pathtofreedom]

Gold's small quantities make booms and busts even easier to engineer.
There is only about 9 trillion dollars worth of gold the price would have to double or triple for there to be nearly enough of it.
Gold is not inherently free market money either it has often been minted by sovereigns and government. To the small extent we have a market in currency people use hours based systems which are paper money or they use virtual currencies like bitcoin.
Gold itself can still be manipulated through tungsten and coin clipping.
Fractional Reserve Banking is still possible under a gold based system the practice was invented under one.

 

[Seraphim]

Which is why virtually none of us advocate a gold standard.

Free market money is the solution - it just so happens that the anchor for free market money has always been gold and that is likely not ever going to change.

Gov't gold standard is just another fiat edict.

 

[thoughtomator]

The ocean is the ultimate solution.

 

[dannno]

Why would you want more gold on the earth? That just means you have to carry more weight around to carry around the same store of value.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Which is why virtually none of us advocate a gold standard.

Free market money is the solution - it just so happens that the anchor for free market money has always been gold and that is likely not ever going to change.

Gov't gold standard is just another fiat edict.

Thread winner.

 

[pathtofreedom]

Which is why virtually none of us advocate a gold standard.

Free market money is the solution - it just so happens that the anchor for free market money has always been gold and that is likely not ever going to change.

Gov't gold standard is just another fiat edict.

Nonsense the free market doesn't produce gold money it produces credit. Gold money come from sovereigns. The

 

[erowe1]

Fine. Don't use gold. Just don't meddle with other people who want to.

 

[Acala]

Gold's small quantities make booms and busts even easier to engineer.
There is only about 9 trillion dollars worth of gold the price would have to double or triple for there to be nearly enough of it.
Gold is not inherently free market money either it has often been minted by sovereigns and government. To the small extent we have a market in currency people use hours based systems which are paper money or they use virtual currencies like bitcoin.
Gold itself can still be manipulated through tungsten and coin clipping.
Fractional Reserve Banking is still possible under a gold based system the practice was invented under one.

You should use whatever money the government tells you to use because government can be trusted to safeguard its value and has your best interests at heart.

 

[Seraphim]

Sovereigns, the basis of which is the individual, are the primary actors within a market place. Free or not.

What is credit? It is money with a time preference attached to it. Both the time preference and the preferred form of money used to back the credit (collateral) are SUBJECTIVE.

My first post is dead on.

Nonsense the free market doesn't produce gold money it produces credit. Gold money come from sovereigns. The

 

[Seraphim]

Some people just want to push their subjective preferences on others....for ze greta good!

Fine. Don't use gold. Just don't meddle with other people who want to.

 

[pathtofreedom]

Someone disagreeing with you and pointing out flaws in your ideas is not the same as advocating force.

 

[Acala]

Some people just want to push their subjective preferences on others....for ze greta good!

Funny how nobody in all of histroy ever had to be forced to use gold as money.

 

[Crystallas]

Gold is a solution.

A solution. Not THE solution. True free markets don't have one currency, but different currencies that fulfill different purposes. Precious metals have many attributes to each, but downfalls that can be solved with other methods and commodities.

 

[Dr.3D]

Gold's small quantities make booms and busts even easier to engineer.

That is usually done on paper. Paper gold is much easier to manipulate.

There is only about 9 trillion dollars worth of gold the price would have to double or triple for there to be nearly enough of it.

There is no reason to need more of it. Just make each ounce worth more and people wouldn't have to carry around as much of it.

Gold is not inherently free market money either it has often been minted by sovereigns and government. To the small extent we have a market in currency people use hours based systems which are paper money or they use virtual currencies like bitcoin.

Paper has been printed by sovereigns too.... but I'll take the gold over the paper any day.

Gold itself can still be manipulated through tungsten and coin clipping.

Just like paper can be printed. It's just that people will find a way to cheat if they can.

Fractional Reserve Banking is still possible under a gold based system the practice was invented under one.

Don't need a gold based system. We need a system of just weights and measures and the people decide how much a certain weight in metal is worth.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Gold's small quantities make booms and busts even easier to engineer.
There is only about 9 trillion dollars worth of gold the price would have to double or triple for there to be nearly enough of it.
Gold is not inherently free market money either it has often been minted by sovereigns and government. To the small extent we have a market in currency people use hours based systems which are paper money or they use virtual currencies like bitcoin.
Gold itself can still be manipulated through tungsten and coin clipping.
Fractional Reserve Banking is still possible under a gold based system the practice was invented under one.

Wrong.


There Is No Shortage Of Gold by Hans Sennholz

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/feat...rtage-of-gold/

"Declining prices do not call for contravening central bank maneuvers that hopefully stabilize prices.Actually, whether the given stock of money is large or small, it renders the desired exchange service. The popular notion that an increase in the stock of money is socially and economically beneficial and desirable is one of the great fallacies of our time. It has lived on throughout the centuries, embraced by kings and presidents, politicians and businessmen. It has shattered numerous currencies, inflicted incalculable harm, and caused social and political upheavals. It springs forth, again and again, no matter how often economists may refute it."

 

[Mini-Me]

The value of gold changes with supply and demand, and if it were used as currency, it would be in far greater demand and a whole heck of a lot more valuable than it is today. In other words, there's no issue with there "not being enough gold" in the world to match the value of an entire body of currency. There is also enough gold on Earth for practically divisible amounts to be held and used by each individual as currency. It's not exactly optimal, in the sense that "grocery item amounts" would have to be so small to be even more easily counterfeited...but the market may very-well address this with something similar to a bimetallic standard, in combination with electronic debit and certificates of deposit (etc.) making the inconvenience of physical currency less important (except the debit amounts would always be in terms of the market's real currency, e.g. gold, and banks would take physical delivery to match them).

The only real obstacle gold faces as the market's best choice of money is that it's pretty easy to counterfeit with tungsten (due to nearly equal density). However, when gold becomes a more common currency again, I believe the potential counterfeiting problem will likely be mitigated by commodity appliances that measure things like the electrical conductivity of gold (or partially gold) coins in tandem with mass...much like counterfeit paper money is addressed at McDonald's by certain kinds of markers. Silver is a decent form of money too, but its increasing value/demand when used as money would start to rule out industrial uses, and there might still be uses that silver matches better than any other metal.

In short though, the most important quality for a money to have is for its supply to be as stable as possible...and impossible to easily manipulate. Gold is nowhere near perfect, but its physical stability, chemical stability, difficulty to reproduce, and relative rarity (compare to grains of sand, which are so common that their supply is virtually unlimited) have always made it the market's favorite choice. It would be nice to find something better, but no other medium of exchange invented or discovered by humans has yet matched the long-term predictability and security of gold in terms of genuine supply.

 

[erowe1]

Someone disagreeing with you and pointing out flaws in your ideas is not the same as advocating force.

So, if other people want to use Gold as currency, you don't think the state should interfere with them?

 

[pathtofreedom]

So, if other people want to use Gold as currency, you don't think the state should interfere with them?

No I don't think the state should interfere if people want to use gold.

 

[cubical]

Gold's small quantities make booms and busts even easier to engineer.
There is only about 9 trillion dollars worth of gold the price would have to double or triple for there to be nearly enough of it.
Gold is not inherently free market money either it has often been minted by sovereigns and government. To the small extent we have a market in currency people use hours based systems which are paper money or they use virtual currencies like bitcoin.
Gold itself can still be manipulated through tungsten and coin clipping.
Fractional Reserve Banking is still possible under a gold based system the practice was invented under one.

Exactly, which is why it will happen. But 2 or 3 times is far too low imo.

 

[oyarde]

Gold's small quantities make booms and busts even easier to engineer.
There is only about 9 trillion dollars worth of gold the price would have to double or triple for there to be nearly enough of it.
Gold is not inherently free market money either it has often been minted by sovereigns and government. To the small extent we have a market in currency people use hours based systems which are paper money or they use virtual currencies like bitcoin.
Gold itself can still be manipulated through tungsten and coin clipping.
Fractional Reserve Banking is still possible under a gold based system the practice was invented under one.

I am not certain , give me a few of your gold coins so I may clip them and experiment with this theory.