The banking system is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind and it has to stop. The glorified cartel of the Federal Reserve system needs to be broken once and for all and the bankers behind it and their puppets need to brought to justice and we need to return to a gold/silver standard.

Bimetallism.

Do it.

Iceland was the only country to ever make banking reform to what you described then they proceed to jail the bankers and nationalize the banks.

Money doesn't necessarily need to be backed by anything other than labor, goods and resources but it's only fair for everyone if there is a sound monetary policy and baking system.

Even sharia banking is a lot more sound than the mainstream banking which IMF is pushing.

Thats interesting Bronyheart, I'm gonna look into that

I actually want to agree with you khaine that money doesn't necessarily need to be backed by gold specifically but I need to do a little more research on the subject.  For money to hold value it must be accepted as value to the person you're giving it to.  If we had gold and silver coins to represent effort in terms of labor and goods instead of money made of useless paper I do believe it would hold far more weight and be a more reliable form of exchange

but I really need to think about that a bit more.  im not even completely sure if what im saying makes sense lol

Check out how Hitler restabilized the mark within few short years when the money was worse than zimbabwe at the time and people were using them as woodfire and toilet paper.

Gold and silver are just as useless and there had been times in history when stones, sticks , rocks , shellfish or even bronze being used as currency.Having a gold standard doesn't actually mean anything despite what some austrian economists like ron paul claims.

The problem with paper money is the temptation for governments to manipulate the volume for unethical purposes and lack of regulation for banks, even nationalizing all banks might not be such a bad idea.

Well I wouldn't necessarily call gold and silver just as useless as any of those. I believe they are in far limited quantity (they can't just be made or picked up off the ground anywhere) and they are viewed as precious metals.  And when I say they are viewed as precious metals I mean that if they are used as a form of currency they will actually be worth what goods or services you will be exchanging to others because they are precious and people want them.

So I mean technically you're right.  They're really just rocks you can't do a whole lot with, but through history people have almost universally seen them as precious and beautiful so they do hold some value to many.  Certainly more  than paper at any rate.  I mean dollar bills may collapse and hold no value, but I don't think a time will ever come where a farmer wouldn't be willing to trade you some food for some gold.  At least if he wasn't short on food anyway.

Actually since gold and silver are relatively rare a gold/silver standard would be useful because it would serve as a check to how much money can be printed which would limit the amount of inflation making hyperinflationary depressions like Weimar Republic Germany or modern day Zimbabwe much less likely. That is not to say the banks still couldn't pull some funny business as there is a great deal of evidence that the great depression was engineered by the banks and this was before we abadoned the gold standard. But it would at the very least make it harder for them to pull said funny business and make it less damaging.

They are precious because people think they are, gold and silver aren't really that useful and humans just like shiny things.

If the economy and government collapse, I think that weapons and ammunition will be worth lot more than gold&silver and ammunition could even become the mainstream currency.Criminals want them to rob stuff and good guys want to use em for self defense.

If guns weren't an option then I rather have a mixed bag of currencies and some self sufficiency equipment as well food supplies that could last a decade or so without decomposing or harming people who eat them.

If these get really bad weapons and ammo could very well be more valuable than gold and silver, luckily it is not too late to reverse things before they actually do get that bad.

thats a really interesting idea khaine i must admit...  Weapons and ammunition used as currency.  But if that were to happen I think maybe currency would change form depending on the time.  I mean in times of peace people aren't going to need so much ammunition, and as such they wouldn't need to keep buying it and increasing their supply.  

in those times I think commodities like gold and silver would make for better tools of exchange because people always want more gold.  Even if its just because it's shiny and just to show off, but people only need 1 or maybe 2 guns, a good supply of ammo and a knife

But I dunno, I guess people could show off guns and ammunition too so...  Hard to say.  In the end if we don't collectively accept paper money it really does become about bartering.  Have a mixed bag of stuff because you never know whats going to be useful to people or what theyll want.

The thing is, you have no idea how much the gold/silver supply is and people would raise/lower prices based on tv 'news' and whoever controls the media and banks could manipulate public perception on the supply.

Do you think that it's a coincidence for the prices of gold to skyrocket?

People put up bogus estimates of gold/silder and oil reserves all the time to manipulate prices and all that really determine their prices is public perception which are easily manipulated.

I've actually lived through a hyperinflation period tho the people here didn't have guns when it happened.

Gold and silver prices are skyrocketing because the value of the dollar is plummeting and more and more people are realizing that and are putting their money into hard assets such as gold and silver which is increasing the demand for them exponentially. Yes public perceptions can be manipulated that is true but gold and silver have been considered valuable commodities for thousands of years and the only way that will change is if the doomsday scenario of weapons and ammo being considered more valuable than gold and silver were to occur.

They will always be useful for personal investment but as an monentary system imposed by government, it doesn't really matter because that's not what drives an economy.That's why the idea behind classical mercentalism was abandoned in favor of free markets.

I'm still alive today because I had gold bars during the hyperinflation

That is true, but the price will also come down to the individual and whether they want gold and silver at all.  The fact is everyone is taking a risk when they accept useless items for useful ones, even if they're pretty, and people know this.  Prices in a free system will fluctuate depending on both what is considered a good deal by most and by what an individual believes their good/service is worth in terms of the currency theyve accepted.

the prices of gold and silver would not be completely and objectively decided by the news and public perception

You're assuming that all the investments that banks make are bad. Although if the banks do lose a crapload of money, then we're pretty much fucked lol

A free market cannot exist without a sound monetary system and I believe the check and balance a gold/silver stand would give to the money supply would make the market much freer than it is now as it would put a halt to much of the banker scams of printing money out of thin air and fractional reserve banking where banks are allowed to loan out significantly more money than they actually have on deposit. The only other solution I have heard that makes sense is Ron Pauls suggestion that we have competing currencies but I think we are a long way off from this and a gold/silver standard may be a decent transitionary period to a system like that.

here's a simple example:

Some rich bankers bought out all the goods in an area under a gold currency system and they hoard items for the sole purpose of giving the perception that there has been a massive increase in gold supply, they have the media bought out to report the news the way they want em to.

There would be panic and people will hoard goods then they will want a lot more gold for their goods

I could write a more detailed example of how prices could be manipulated under a gold backed or gold currency system by people with bigger capital and control of the media

Think it won't happen? it already did in the past

Gold standard or even mixed with silver isn't a completely bad idea but they're not immune to manipulation and the invisible hand does not solve everything as there are too many variables.

I am not saying prices cannot be manipulated under a gold standard, much of that manipulation is what lead to the great depression but it is a lot harder to manipulate prices under such a system than it is under a pure fiat standard. An interest tidbit is that the original book that the Wizard of Oz movie was based on actually criticized this kind of manipulation and was a key inspiration for the Greenback Movement which was a movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that pushed for a pure fiat money standard but one very different from the one we have today.

In their standard all money would be printed interest free by the treasury department with no central banks involved. Of course such a system would lead to similar inflation problems as all fiat currencies do but it would not be nearly as bad as the current system. I am not saying a gold standard would be perfect but one problem we would not have would probably not have would be inflation, even during the great depression this was not a problem. I am not saying everything was ginger peachy back then but it is a lot easier to get out of a deflationary depression than an inflationary depression.

That's true Rainbow Dash and I'm not saying that's necessarily the case and what will happen.  I'm just saying that if you knowingly give money to a bank that says they'll invest your money and that they may either lose it or gain a little for you, then it is only logical that you should lose it for taking that risk.  Such a bank is more of an investment firm that a place solely to protect your money

You should be taking a gamble knowing that the bank is taking a gamble. You may make money and you may lose money. But it doesn't work like that.  Instead they will print more money to pay you back, and when they do that to cover their bad investments they're really splitting the loss between everyone who does business with that bank.  

It only doesn't seem so noticeable because the value of the dollar is an illusion that may not catch up to the years of bad decision making so fast - and that's because it's true value is determined by what people think its worth rather than what it actually is worth.

Heh, you're quite right, which is exactly why breking the Golden Standart (I have no idea how do you guys call it there - this is how we call it in Europe, it basically means that there is fixed gold:cash ratio which the bank allows you to use in both ways (u pay dollar, u get one gram o' gold, you bring one gram o' gold, you get a dollar) was one of the dumbest things American government ever made. As long as there is the golden standart, banks are trusthworthy and currency is stable and strong...

Pretty much all people who know about this store their money elsewhere.

Gold is a good way to store cash, not because it is pretty, but because it somehow has this aura of value around it - it has been accepted as a valuable thing for thousands of years, and therefore human beings sense it as one even nowadays... And therefore, it's value drops only rarely.

There are other valuables ofc. But not many are as stable as gold... Buildings and land may change their price drastically (say that some kind of crysis (which can and was already once caused by banks xD) throws a load of cheap houses on the market. Your houses will drop in price drastically)...

Funny thing, I've read somewhere that best valuable to store your cash in for case of fall of civilisation is alcohol xD It does not get bad with age, it concentrates relatively high value in small space compared to flour etc. and people will always want to escape from their problems...

Glad to see somepony with economical knowledge around here.

I think any free monetary system is going to require significant attention by the people under the system to monitor what is going on and not be taken advantage of.  Its true that you might be taken advantage of, but that is simply the downfall of freedom and it is your responsibility to yourself to be aware of whats going on.

Is a deflationary depression truly easier to get out of than an inflationary depression? that would depend on many factor and it's not always true

is inflation a bad thing? not always unless it's hyperinflation

Hitler fixed hyperinflation and created 97% employment but why couldn't american government fix unemployment and dropping living standards? it has to do more with lobbyist and corruption along with the lying media then manipulation of statistics to show lower unemployment rate

The lobbyist will suck you dry no matter what monetary system you use and it was the main reason that the banking regulations were removed which enabled the bankers to cause economic meltdown.

The corruption(lobbying) causes unemployment which contributes to reduced production of goods&services and thus making the fiat money less valuable.

There could be reforms to minimize lobbying power but it will be impossible to get rid.