Government is the only entity that can take perfectly good paper and make it worthless by putting ink on it.

I would say, that since the Federal Reserve is printing money, it is in fact, un-constitutional.

The value placed on a given unit of gold for purposes of trade for other goods and services is as artificial as the value placed on a given denomination of paper money.

Its all just an agreement to swap goods and services at a rate of exchange of something....as long as all agree what that something is and the rate of exchange, then it works. What backs up the US currency is the productivity of the country that give others confidence that they will be able to redeem the currency for other "stuff".

The days of...."oh, its yellow and pretty and scarce...it must be worth a lot" went the way of wompam.

Are you really arguing that we go back to the gold standard? LOL

There isn't enough gold in the world to back all the currency that is needed by 300 million people.

Gold....$907 as I type this...up $8.....

Point of fact, Nixon stopped the exchange of US dollars for gold. FDR stopped the circulation of gold coins and paper money backed by gold. The US was never on a silver standard -- William Jennings Brian to the contrary. The exchange of silver certificates for silver was stopped in the 1960s. The silver in coins was limited to 1/2 dollars and dollars in the 1960s at a rescued level from the old "coin silver" level of 90% silver to something like 50% silver. All silver was eliminated from circulating coins in the 1970s.