Black Gold

Every once in a while I get involved in a discussion with folks around here in which someone will bring up the subject of the "gold standard". They'll mention how good it was in the years when the dollar was pegged to gold, and they'll point out how (in their consider opinion, experts in economics as all those people are:-) the US would be much better off if it would just stabilize its currency to gold again.
I've thought all along that this was a somewhat ridiculous argument -- it is only made, of course, when the value of gold is high and that of the dollar lower, relatively speaking: and it gives immense power to those countries which hold gold reserves (which over the years has included many countries the US has problems with!)

And I've thought for years that gold (AU) was the wrong choice. For decades now, oil has been the international currency, and we are finally seeing what happens when you have a dual nightmare (by US standards): oil is skyrocketing, and the dollar is plummeting.

How would the world be different now if the dollar was still pegged to gold?
And then imagine the privations that the country would be suffering if the dollar were pegged to gold, or worse, to oil! Of course, since I don't have a degree in economics, I'll leave the speculations to those who do.

Yours, imagining worse,
N.