So is it settled in everyone’s mind that the gold (or commodities) standard is evil insanity?

Because for decades I’ve had these bookmarks, see. They’re pieces of paper from the Weimar Republic. One of them, I seem to recall, has a face value of 43 billion Reichmarks. Payable to the holder on demand.

Payable in what?

We all agree that the dollar bills in our pockets are worth something. But what are they worth? What is the intrinsic value of a piece of paper printed with fancy ink and little presidential portraits?

It’s worth whatever we agree it’s worth, right here, right now. And we could - it’s happened in the past, it could happen again tomorrow - we could all wake up one fine day to find we’ve changed our collective mind. Or the world has. The Chinese, say.

Fiat currency may be the best system, I’m not smart enough to know. But the mass illusion of value could evaporate much faster than it was built up.

And yes, I’m playing advocatus diaboli here.