JKA; "gold bugs" who bought gold 3 or 4 years ago when it was $500 an ounce can now easily sell it for around $1400 an ounce. YES, as a commodity, that is fair to have that much gain; you are taking your chances in the marketplace as we all should. If Gold were declared by the government to be "money", and that happened, that's usurious unearned income, for as the goldbugs say, they are all for "stabile money", which that is NOT. Stabile commodities beat out gold everytime for me, except for some jewelry and electronic uses. Let the Chinese buy it ALL at 100k/oz and we'll pay off our national debt ! Then, maybe there's a slim chance that Ron Paul or a follow-on like Kucinich with his HR6550 (!) or Bernie may do something that matters to get rid of BAD fiat once and for all for humanity. My leaning for loosely based GNP fiat is above; objections?

Poor Ben Franklin, he knew that paper was the way to prosperity with faith in the country it's only asset of "tender"...but it worked before the Revolution as colonial scrip, which the British declared invalid and illegal, replacing it with gold backed pounds sterling...which had to be "loaned" to the country to start it's new bank (sound familiar Hamilton?... the Brits still own the bank of NY today ! ) and after with the Continental, which only fell out of favor due to the British counterfeiting it out of favor. A fiat loosely based on the GNP is what I would favor, as not only would loans be more easily made by the government, with NO national debt as they would "own" the fiat and put it into circulation...under strict rules, also involving the states with rights of nullification to keep Washington in line to guard against people like helicopter Ben, etc., but also to keep the valuation of the basket of goods upon which such a fiat dollar was based in proper relation to all the areas of the country and their contributions to the GNP basket. Gold is simply a good personal hedge for expatriating...not really an American move, unless you maintain a home here as well ! With a GNP dollar, as the country does better, with proper laws, regulations, and incentives (not as now), the value of it's dollar goes up and up as production drives it's value so... like in China, where engineers run the economy, not lawyers ! The redemption of fiat for gold is one of the most archaic forms of "'monetization" known and puts faith in the wrong place...it should NOT be the money itself, but the goods and services it represents which are produced as items of "wealth". The idea of gold as wealth is a commodity idea left over from before the industrial revolution, and which today cannot possibly hope to track the GNP of a successful modern economy... but it is desireable, pretty, and accepted abroad... a good investment....as a commodity please ! ( I'll take the second home in sunny Spain instead of a pile of gold if I decide to setup my vacation home abroad thankyou...as those "goldbugs" count their pieces at home, just dreaming instead ) .