QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, My spouse insists that I write to thanks for making me spend money on shares slightly than gold. We break up the cash, and my spouse invested within the Dow together with your 2015 ECM flip, and I saved the gold. She beat me on the Dow because it closed in 2023, up about 250%. After studying your enter into historical past, am I appropriate that this argument of fiat forex is inaccurate? It looks as if civilizations have risen and fallen, regardless of the cash system on the time. May you elaborate on whether or not that is true or false?
Disenchanted goldbug.
ANSWER: Not many males would admit their wives beat them in investments. Many issues have been used for cash, from bronze and clam shells to emergency paper forex. Those that insist that one way or the other gold is the one factor that’s cash have no idea their historical past, and within the course of, they’ve been misled significantly, which truly prevents them from seeing the true downside. Bitcoin shouldn’t be cash nor a medium of alternate as a result of not everybody will settle for it. A medium of alternate must be one thing that everybody accepts.
There’s a frequent theme that runs via ALL types of cash, and it has NOTHING to do with what’s getting used because the medium of alternate.
If we’re goal, even steel has assorted. Bronze was priceless as a result of it might be used to make a software or a weapon – therefore the Bronze Age. It was first utilized in an ingot type. Nonetheless, it was forged within the form of an earlier type of cash – sheepskins. Thus, the story of Jason is in the hunt for the golden fleece.
The Romans forged bronze into ingots, and the worth was equal to 1 head of cattle. The primary cash of Rome are additionally bronze, starting with simply lumps after which taking the standardized weight and form. In Turkey, they started with what was often known as electrum, which was a pure alloy combination of gold and silver discovered within the riverbeds.
The official first cash have been struck in Lydia, modern-day Turkey. This was the primary “fiat” cash because it was declared a normal worth by the king, who utilized the picture of a lion. This was his badge, certifying its worth and weight.
For instance, there was a steel that was second to gold, which was actually simply brass. Orichalcum was the legendary steel of Atlantis, whose buildings have been stated to have been clad on this uncommon steel that seemed just like gold. Orichalcum was mined in Atlantis in historical instances, however by the point of Plato, this steel was unknown. Orichalcum was a legend by Plato’s time when he talked about it in his story of Atlantis within the Critas of Plato. Critias (460–403 BC) says that Orichalcum had been thought-about second solely to gold in worth and had been discovered and mined in lots of elements of
Nero additionally experimented with issuing the standard bronze coinage in Orichalcum (brass). As a way to render the Dupondius distinguishable from its half-denomination, Roman As a radiate crown was added to this denomination, leaving the standard laurel wreath fashion portrait for the Roman As. The Dupondius reform prevailed till the top of Dupondius’s common points, whereas the experiment in brass died out following Hadrian (117-138AD).
A gold normal is not going to resolve the issue as a result of it’s NOT what’s getting used as cash however the system. If governments issued platinum cash and claimed these are price $100,000 every, that can be fiat, the place the federal government decrees the worth. This frequent thread that runs via every little thing is the trustworthiness of the federal government. So long as now we have socialism, the place politicians promise issues, they are going to at all times create more cash to perform that. DEBT = MONEY that pays curiosity. Individuals additionally level to the Fed and overlook the truth that it’s Congress that creates the cash by issuing debt that can be utilized as an asset in a mortgage.
Gold is not going to resolve the issue. We want political reform FIRST after which fear about constraining authorities thereafter.
