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I have searched [and] I can’t find if any country is still on a gold standard. I have searched both ATS and the wider web and though there is tons and tons of info about the gold standard and how the US used to be on it etc. I can not find if any country still is on the gold standard. Any help with reference would be great help. This is just out of curiosity since I want to look at the history of said countries still on the gold standard. Plus on the more paranoid conspiracy side of things if there are no countries left on a gold standard then perhaps the central bankers have won a huge battle.
reply to post by sadchild01
in Switzerland , 70% of currency is backed by precious metals
Originally posted by donwhite
BS!
Originally posted by OBE1
Originally posted by donwhite
BS!
Currently, there are no countries operating on a Gold Standard. The Swiss requirement of 40% currency backing was reduced to 25% in 1998 - similar to the gradual debasement of the US Gold Cover Clause.
The CHF statutory link to Gold was abolished altogether by constitutional amendment in 1999. The Gold Cover Clause was eventually abandoned under Nixon - by act of congress in 1968.
Swiss Narrowly Vote to Drop Gold Standard
The Gold Cover Clause
GL
There are no modern day examples for us to explore to see how a gold standard works in today’s globalized economy. For all those of us who say bring back the gold standard we need a pilot program or example to show its superiority over fiat.
So what do we do from here? where do we go to prove that a gold standard works better, there are no modern day examples.
1) There is not enough gold, silver, platinum or other precious metals to go around. To run a world wide economy with nearly 7 billion people and a $30 trillion annual gross product requires MORE money that specie would or could provide.
]post by Desolate Cancer
You can start with the CIA World Factbook. It has very good short takes on every nations economy. Most of all, you are here, now, while it is actually happening every day!
1) There is not enough gold, silver, platinum or other precious metals to go around. To run a world wide economy with nearly 7 billion people and a $30 trillion annual gross product requires MORE money that specie would or could provide.
That's not the reason. Like most people, you think a country on a gold standard needs to have as much gold to back up every bit of money in the economy!! Nonsense. Strictly speaking, a country on a gold standard doesn't need ANY physical gold though a 5% reserve would be nice.
CIA factbook??? Oh yeah - you can trust them.
Originally posted by donwhite
reply to post by MakeSpeedLimit45
1) There is not enough gold, silver, platinum or other precious metals to go around. To run a world wide economy with nearly 7 billion people and a $30 trillion annual gross product requires MORE money that specie would or could provide.
That's not the reason. Like most people, you think a country on a gold standard needs to have as much gold to back up every bit of money in the economy!! Nonsense. Strictly speaking, a country on a gold standard doesn't need ANY physical gold though a 5% reserve would be nice.
Now I'm curious.
How can you say you are on the gold standard when you have no gold? Are you sure your name is not Bernie Madoff?
To me, a gold standard means you have gold (or silver or platinum) in sufficient quantities to guarantee anyone the exchange of paper money for specie anytime. The US, holding the largest gold reserve in the world, tried that but it failed. And Nixon’s friends got rich! We tried to hold the price at $35 an oz, but when it was disconnected from our currency, the price spiraled to $800 an oz before falling back to $300-$400 for years.
[edit on 3/14/2009 by donwhite]
Well why would someone artificially try to keep the price of gold down? I mean part of the gold standard would be that gold would rise in accordance with economic progression and lower with recessions and big bounties of it being found and mined.
The middle East countries, are discussing going on a currency for all of them, backed by gold ..................... beginning, next year ........... that is probably one of the reasons the Saudis, just bought 3.5 billion worth of it, a couple of months ago. WHY? are they keeping it DOWN? EASY ......................
Because the U.S. has to "pretend" our money is valuable right now ....... otherwise people would lose "faith" in the dollar and T-bills, and if gold started going up up up .............. then people would make a "flight" to metals. The U.S. DOES NOT WANT THAT! They want to keep pretending our dollar has LOTS of value .......... so, they suppress the gold price!
Originally posted by donwhite
It sure seems as if the Mint doesn't want to go into the market to bid real metal up to meet public demand.
Additionally, as a result of the recent numismatic product portfolio analysis, fractional sizes of American Eagle Gold Uncirculated Coins will no longer be produced.
Hi Don. They can't go into the open market. The US Mint buys directly form US refineries - required by law to mint PM mined within the US. The fractional sizes are super-popular with investors looking to gain a lower cost exposure to Gold.
Originally posted by donwhite
reply to post by OBE1
Hi Don. They can't go into the open market. The US Mint buys directly form US refineries - required by law to mint PM mined within the US. The fractional sizes are super-popular with investors looking to gain a lower cost exposure to Gold.
Mr OBE1, are you taking Mr Mike Zielinski, editor of the Gold and Silver Blog to task?