Posted On: August 22, 2007, 2:54 pm CDT

Posted By: A. RIGHT-THE SAGA CONTINUES

At this point, you probably don't have much choice but to use Federal Reserve currency/coins (which I hope everyone knows is a private business? that's not even close to being a controversial statement). However, it is ("is" should be italicized) possible to have currency that's backed by something of value; "our" current money is backed by nothing but political hot air (is there anything else that comes out of a politician's mouth?). There is something called the Liberty dollar that's backed by warehoused silver-I have a feeling that if/when the inflation rate on Federal Reserve notes reaches Weimar Republic-like levels, you'll find more Dunkin Donut shopowners willing to accept gold coins or Liberty dollars, or pre-1964 silver coins (which were 100% silver) or whatever else has real value.

Until 1913, the dollar was 100% backed by precious metals; and guess what? Prices stayed stable and even declined in some areas. From 1913 till 1971, it was partially backed by metals. Then Nixon "closed the gold window" and there has been a wee bit of inflation since then (which is why interest rates reached as high as 18% in the early '80's).

It's personal choice: people can put their faith in pieces of paper (yeah, yeah, I know-the currency doesn't actually have any paper in it but only cotton fibers) with really cool numbers and pictures on it, which is backed by political promises (i.e., nothing or worse than nothing) or in things of real value. All those who put their faith in politicians, please line up over here for a close-out sale on some great pieces of Florida swamp land.

Incidentally, as far as "wire some gold bullion" which I assume is supposed to be a smart comment, the electronic gold purveyors do (again, "do" in italics) have debit cards that work just like other debit cards. With an electronic gold debit card, you're wiring ownership in real gold for your Dunkin Donuts stuff. With a debit card that draws on Federal Reserve notes, you're wiring the government's "full faith and credit," which we all know is priceless (that's a sarcastic remark)