Jeff Weisberg on Fri, 26 Apr 2002 09:58:34 -0400 |
| > The gold standard went away because it was *way* too difficult to do | > business efficiently when the price of gold fluctuated drastically | > on a regular basis. It caused tides of inflation and deflation that | > moved much faster than anything we're used to. | | When the USA was on the gold standard, it was not possible for the price | of gold to fluctuate in terms of dollars, because the definition of the | dollar was in terms of gold. Ever hear of a 20 dollar gold coin? Before | they began eliminating the gold standard, one could walk into virtually | any bank and exchange between gold and paper dollars at a fixed rate. I | believe it was 20 USD per ounce. on a gold standard, the price of gold in terms of dollars is fixed. on a gold standard, the price of cheesy-poofs in terms of dollars is not fixed, and its price will fluctuate (possibly drastically) based on the gold supply. (ie. the discovery of a new gold mine will cause inflation (the price of cheesy-poofs goes up), the closing of a mine will cause deflation (the price of cheesy-poofs goes down)). --jeff ______________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements-http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mail/listinfo/plug
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