It’s an unfortunate historical anomaly that people think about the paper in their wallets as money. The dollar is, technically, a currency. A currency is a government substitute for money. But gold is money.
Now, why do I say that?
Historically, many things have been used as money. Cattle have been used as money in many societies, including Roman society. That’s where we get the word “pecuniary” from: the Latin word for a single head of cattle is pecus. Salt has been used as money, also in ancient Rome, and that’s where the word “salary” comes from; the Latin for salt is sal (or salis). The North American Indians used seashells. So, money is simply a medium of exchange and a store of value. Continue reading
Herbert Hoover was worth $4 million in 1914 as a mining engineer and mine owner. This was before World War I, when the dollar bought 25 times more than it does today. He was good at what he did in the private sector.
I wonder why this is never mentioned in history classes in the US.
Researching economic publications on the first century of the 
After the Roaring Twenties, a decade of partying, lavish living and social and cultural change, Americans thought the rising stock market and good times would last forever.
Government data indicate that the U.S. remains far from winning the longest war in its history: the war on poverty.
The most perfect monetary system humans have yet created was the world gold standard system of the late 19th century, roughly 1870-1914. We dont have to hypothesize too much about what a new world gold standard system could look like. We can just look at what has already been done.
