Money

If you really want to learn about money, there is an excellent conspiracy theory book entitled "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin.  BTW, conspiracy theory is his phrase not mine.

None the less, it is an excellent narrative on money, how it came about and a full explanation of it.

I say all this to preface some questions.

First, is Gold valuable?  Well, it has worth in terms of currencies. As I type the value of gold is $1,768.00 US dollars per ounce.  But does gold in and of itself have any intrinsic value?  You can ask the same question about anything. The answer is no.  NOTHING has value except the value someone else places on it.  I can make up thousands of examples and so can you.  My car is only worth whatever someone else is willing to pay me for it or some institution is willing to loan me some currency using the car as collateral.

The intrinsic value of gold is and always has beenl based on  it's scarcity.  It is said that if you took ALL of the gold that has ever been mined and refined, it would NOT fill two Olympic sized swimming pools (164' X 25'; 88,000 cu.ft.).  That's amazing, right?

So, now another bit of information. A few years ago, maybe two or three, the Saudis suggested using something other than the US dollar as the currency  to value a barrel of oil.  That is their way of saying let's see if we can make something other than the US dollar the "reserve currency" of the planet.

Next bit of information.  It is arguably agreed that the planet has reached "Peak oil production".  That means that we have discovered, produced, and refined as much petroleum as we ever will.  From this day forward there will never be as much oil as there was yesterday and every drop we pump out of the ground is gone forever and never will be replaced.

What the hell does this have to do with money?!  If oil becomes so rare why not make it the value of gold.  Good question.  Same for water, bread, food in general, air, etc. ad infinitum.

Today, as you would read in the book, currency is referred to as "fiat".  That is to say if has no real, tangible value, save what a person gives it or a government decrees it to be.

The above was all preface to prepare you for the article below.

http://www.economist.com/node/21564236?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/pe/downwiththeprice

The planet has become a very intertwined place.  I suggest that if you are really interested you should investigate what the world might be like without ANY oil or more realistically with just a small amount of oil.