The attraction and virtues of gold are that governments can't roll it off or create it with the stroke of a pen. It imposes some monetary discipline by affording a safeguard, a store of value which may escape looting, debasement and other types of spoilation.
That is why the people of the East, with centuries of experience of rascality by rulers, bandits and other depredators on human welfare, hoard a few pieces of gold against the days of pillage and spoilation. That is why the supposedly enlightened peoples of the West have to tie their money systems in some way to a real commodity, acquired by expensive and ugly outlay of human toil.
And it is precisely because governments in our time have grossly debauched the currency that they now hope to cover up the distortions by manipulating the price of gold. George Schwartz, "Really Cheap Money" The Sunday Times London
November 13, 1960
[edit on 7-4-2010 by seataka]
