Quoted:
Quoted: The US currency was doomed when it left the gold standard, pretty simply.
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Not at all. The dollar is not a true fiat currency because it went from being backed by gold to being backed by oil. That is why this potential petrodollar to petroeuro transition is so important.
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Still not the whole picture really.
The big problem with the dollar is that it's a debt instrument.
Debt as legal tender in payment of debt.
The gold standard failed because an essentially unlimited supply of credit collided with a limited supply of money (Gold) We now call that period the great depression.
Bretton woods failed for the same reason.
The oil standard will fail for the same reason.
(Answering several points made by different posters here)
There can be no successful "backing" for a fiat currency under a central banking system such as we have.
As for economics being a valid reason for war, perhaps it is, but it's pretty difficult to argue a moral rationale for using military action to force other nations to support our economy.
That is, by the way, essentially what the Roman empire did, and it didn't work out so well for them.
I'm sure there were libertarians in Rome too, saying much what we're saying today, that the direction they were going would eventually lead them to ruin, and for centuries they were mocked, but eventually they were proven right.
Debt money, loaned into existence at interest, creates debt that cannot be repaid, as the debt incurred is greater than the money created once interest begins to accrue, so the debt burden in the economy must continue to grow, faster and faster, forever.
It's a great engine for growth, no doubt, but not all growth is good,sometimes growth is cancer.
A system requiring continuous, exponential growth operating in a finite environment= Just a matter of time before something bad happens.
If we'd listened to them 30 years ago we'd be better off, the problems were managable then.