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In gold we trust?

By Michael Tomlinson - posted Tuesday, 1 May 2012


4. Immorality – 'fiat currency schemes are immoral because the primary thing that makes them acceptable is coercion.'

5. Central planning- fiat currencies are maintained and managed by central government authorities that cannot by their nature make correct decision about the quantity or price of money needed for a given economic situation.

6. Price instability – fiat currencies cannot achieve stable prices for the same reason.

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7. Economic volatility – fiat currencies magnify economic volatility because they become increasingly decoupled from 'physical economic activity in the objective world'.

8. Currency debasement – governments inevitably keep increasing the supply of money, thus debasing its value.

9. Wealth redistribution – arbitrarily increasing the quantity of money in circulation redistributes purchasing power away from the majority of savers and workers.

10. Concentration of wealth – over time, fiat currency schemes cause wealth and property to accrue to those who control them ( a variation of argument 9)

11. Moral hazard – the small groups who enjoy a monopoly of economic power in fiat currency schemes inevitably abuse that power

12. Corruption and cronyism – these flourish for the same reason.

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13. Confidence failure – fiat currencies depend on trust, not objective value, and confidence in them inevitably fails as they are debased

14. Counterparty risk – this is a variant of argument 13, based on the idea that the trust between governments, central banks and individuals is broken by currency debasement.

15. Transaction settlement – transactions based on fiat currency do not exchange value for value, and the party that receives currency in exchange for goods and services is at risk.

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About the Author

Dr Michael Tomlinson is a higher education governance and quality consultant, with a background in university management and regulatory agencies. He is also chairing the Human Research Ethics Committee at the National Institute of Integrative Medicine.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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