Backing the US Dollar with Silver: Is it Possible Today?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by calcol, Apr 23, 2020.

  1. halfcent1793

    halfcent1793 Well-Known Member

    Good discussion of why the notion of gold or silver standards is stupid in this day and age. Gold and silver are commodities, just like pork bellies or soybeans. They are worth only what someone else will pay for them. They haven't been "money" for a long time.

    I once suggested in print that the US back its currency with belly fat. That way, we'd be the richest nation in the world.

    (for the benefit of the irony-challenged, that was an attempt at humor)
     
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  3. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Exactly you start just running the price up on yourself if you're to much of the market
     
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  4. Cachecoins

    Cachecoins Historia Moneta

    No, nor should we... We back our money with the sum total wealth and resources of the nation. Silver or gold would just be an artificial measure of control, as artificial as any other. A control that can be ignored like any other.

    Gold and silver were used as mediums of exchange in the past because they had little practical value save for decoration. Today they do have practical value.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2020
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  5. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    I once moved the U.S. Treasury market....bought like $900 MM of agency bonds right about 2:58 PM. :D
     
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  6. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    It's a tautological fact of economics that all countries in a global financial system will not run trade deficits of exactly zero.

    As long as the growth in debt does not exceed the growth of nominal GDP, you will be OK.
     
  7. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    Lol, that should be the lead line on the resume "I'm so powerful I can move the market"
     
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  8. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    Nah, that's just a big enough move right before 3 PM that folks I sold the agency bonds too probably hedged by selling Treasuries.

    Do it enough times that close to 3 PM and you might get a call from SIFMA or the SEC ! :D
     
  9. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    What you don't want to meet new people and make new friends with some phone calls? :p
     
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  10. TheFinn

    TheFinn Well-Known Member

    I guess that now we are not OK.
     
  11. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

  12. QuintupleSovereign

    QuintupleSovereign Well-Known Member

    The question isn't whether it's possible but whether it's desirable. Are you willing to condemn the economy to widespread deflation?
     
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  13. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

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  14. chascat

    chascat Well-Known Member

    If that were to occur, the World pop. would need to also show a negative birth rate compared to the present. It may very well be in the cards that in order to save the planet, things may be going in a positive direction right now. A gradual, but steady deflation could happen.
     
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  15. EyeAppealingCoins

    EyeAppealingCoins Well-Known Member

    When it takes 15-20 of those federal reserve notes for one Morgan silver dollar that previously was nominally equivalent, people would begin to realize that they were duped into worthless fiat money. The government will never do it!

    Also, can someone tell me whether $24 trillion dollars in silver even exists? That national debt is supposedly backed by real money. You cannot back it by fiat currency but everyone else's money by precious metal.
     
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  16. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    U.S. currency is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.

    You don't need something from the Periodic Table to back it up.
     
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  17. Cachecoins

    Cachecoins Historia Moneta

    Quick question, what other uses were there for silver and gold when the Morgan dollar, and gold and silver coins in general, were in use?
     
  18. longarm

    longarm Well-Known Member

    While I'm sure your mommy is really proud of you, what's that got to do with silver?
     
  19. longarm

    longarm Well-Known Member

    If the stages of the rise and fall of great nations seem to be:
    The Age of Pioneers (outburst)
    The Age of Conquests
    The Age of Commerce
    The Age of Affluence
    The Age of Intellect
    The Age of Decadence.
    You have to wonder at what Age are we as a country and if we could have even gotten to where we are if we didn't have real money, gold/silver during our earlier Ages.
    By the way, Decadence is marked by:
    Defensiveness
    Pessimism
    Materialism
    Frivolity
    An influx of foreigners
    The Welfare State
    A weakening of religion.
    Decadence is due to:
    Too long a period of wealth and power
    Selfishness
    Love of money (see my comment above)
    The loss of a sense of duty.
     
  20. GoldFinger1969

    GoldFinger1969 Well-Known Member

    We were talking about the feasibility of having metals back the dollar...which isn't necessary because our fixed-income markets are the deepest and most liquid in the world.....and I was talking about moving large sums in and out of those markets at the close of business which is something you can't do if you want to use another country as the Reserve Currency.
     
  21. calcol

    calcol Supporter! Supporter

    Mostly, jewelry and tableware. Silver was used heavily in photography and radiography for over a century. However, in the first half of the 20th century, gold and especially silver had industrial uses. Main industrial use then, as now, was electronics. Other uses were and are various chemical processes and pharmacology.

    Cal
     
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