re: #1 Kragar

So much for the gold standard.

I spotted the wonderful XKCD chart, a couple of years back, which had relative proportions of all the money we talk about all the time.

The amount of gold in the world is so tiny, compared to the amount of money, that I do not see how a “gold standard” could be maintained. There’s not even enough gold, ever, anywhere, to properly represent one year of GDP in the American economy. It’s like $9T, and that is it.

So mention this to a goldbug and it’s hilarious. Stand back and watch every sternly-declared principle of theirs fall apart under the relentless weight of reality. No, dumbucks, it is not possible to standardize your economy on gold when your yearly economic activity is almost one and a half times the value of all the gold ever mined anywhere.

Also, funny, is that it won’t be long at all before gold can simply be printed. Diamonds already are easily synthesized and I expect despite all the whining and tearing of hair of the DeBeers cartel, that in another decade you will be able to make a snappy diamond ring with nothing more than a printer and a 3-d model in a computer.

Back to whatever this is about: I don’t expect bitcoin to yet take over for real money. Wait until there’s a giant collapse and millions of dollars disappear. Who will be responsible?