The Gold Standard Gets Another Look

Re: conservative_librarian, -- One problem with using precious metals as backing for currency, is that one outworking of this is significant investment in the exploration/mining of said metals.-- This has nothing to do with the properties they hold as money. Even if new gold and silvwer became impossible to obtain, that does not preclude either from helping in indirect exchanges. I understand where you're coming from: You're affraid of deflation. This is probably because you think deflation is simply "lowering of prices" but in fact deflation is the correction that happens after a period of INflation. Lower prices due to increases in demand for mone (e.g. gold) is not detrimental to an economy, only to an inflationista.