Should the world go back to silver / gold standard?

[Superboy]

These days, money isn't paper anymore. It's just a number in a computer bank account, all thanks to invention of digital computer in the 1940s. Number is infinite. That makes money infinite. Money is measured in the billions, trillions these days. Soon, due to inflation, money be in the quadrillions, quintillions. Silver and gold are finite. That would make money finite rather than infinite.

 

[livingdead]

why should total amount of money be a finite number..what if we exhaust all gold and silver, no room to create money?

 

[Superboy]

why should money be finite.

Because infinity doesn't make sense - Aristotle

Does infinity exist? | plus.maths.org

 

[livingdead]

Because infinity doesn't make sense - Aristotle

Does infinity exist? | plus.maths.org

i like it.. ignore aristotle..

 

[Superboy]

To be clear, if the universe is infinite, the of course silver and gold would also be infinite. But on Earth silver and gold are finite.

 

[AbidM]

In short, No you cant, African leader M.Gaddafi intial plan was to have africa under one currency just like the EU and it's standard be the gold standard, but America opposed it, because it doesn't benefit the oil backed dollar. This is why M.Gaddafi of libya died. It's all about America apparently.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

What's so special about gold? Just because people think it is pretty and shiny doesn't mean it is intrinsically worth something.

May as well use pretty seashells.

 

[alaungphaya]

This seems to be a recurring theme lately.

 

[Kolaps]

Our economy is quite good because we print the money...

It sound unfair, but we get the benefit of almost free money.

Despite it's US who get the free money and we pay it with inflation,

But there are indirect benefit too.

 

[Arya Desa]

Yes, India would be the country in the world! We have 1/2 the world's physical gold.

 

[sree45]

Why Gold and Silver? Why not soil?

 

[Zerozen]

Why Gold and Silver? Why not soil?

Gold and silver is an old store value, soil is not. However, soil or land I should say is a great investment and it works for you if you capitalize it.

 

[Sahasranama]

What's so special about gold? Just because people think it is pretty and shiny doesn't mean it is intrinsically worth something.

May as well use pretty seashells.

That is because the worlds first economic superpower used gold and silver as the standard and the rest of the world just followed that system till US made OIL the standard.

BTW the worlds first economic superpower was "India".

Till date in India, GOLD continues to be the standard for all practical purposes.

 

[temujin]

These days, money isn't paper anymore. It's just a number in a computer bank account, all thanks to invention of digital computer in the 1940s. Number is infinite. That makes money infinite. Money is measured in the billions, trillions these days. Soon, due to inflation, money be in the quadrillions, quintillions. Silver and gold are finite. That would make money finite rather than infinite.

A tempting notion but disastrous in practice as demonstrated by the UK's brief attempt to return to the gold standard in the 20s. To summarise, in fiat/debt based economies, where much of growth and economic activity is derived from creation of credit through fractional reserve lending, limiting the scope of money supply through adoption of a gold standard would lead to massive credit destruction, hyper deflation, loss of economic activity/employment and impoverishment of the entire population which would make the 20s crash feel like a stroll in the park. The best case scenario for Western economies currently grappling with similar deflationary pressures resulting from structural imbalances and overindebtness would be a prolonged period of stagnation to allow wages to fall and debts to be paid down/ written off through quantitative easing etc, whilst the global economy rebalances in favour of the more productive economies in the Eastern hemisphere...

@LeveragedBuyout

 

[Sahasranama]

A tempting notion but disastrous in practice as demonstrated by the UK's brief attempt to return to the gold standard in the 20s. To summarise, in fiat/debt based economies, where much of growth and economic activity is derived from creation of credit through fractional reserve lending, limiting the scope of money supply through adoption of a gold standard would lead to massive credit destruction, hyper deflation, loss of economic activity/employment and impoverishment of the entire population which would make the 20s crash feel like a stroll in the park. The best case scenario for Western economies currently grappling with similar deflationary pressures resulting from structural imbalances and overindebtness would be a prolonged period of stagnation to allow wages to fall and debts to be paid down/ written off through quantitative easing etc, whilst the global economy rebalances in favour of the more productive economies in the Eastern hemisphere...

@LeveragedBuyout

Yes it would ruin western economies since economic policies will be then be base on something tangible like gold rather than non tangibles like Military Power. But it would be a great equalizer and make the whole system FAIR. Something western economies do not want.