Gold Standard   Today, April 2008, there are no currencies in any country backed by gold.  Everything is based on faith -- on belief in those who control the monetary system.  

Why is Gold Standard important?

Desribe a single individual doing what the government does with borrowing money.  

Borrow, never pay back  borrow more  never pay back   with phony checks  -- checks with nothing in the bank account to cover the checks.   Everbody else pays the bill.  

What if two people did that?  would that be ok?   what about ten, or a hundred, or a million?   when does such behavior become ethical, moral, proper?  

Two kind of currency  --  

A monetary system is based of something tangible such as gold and silver  -- this is called a gold standard.     Governments cannot manipulate the economy by inserting fake dollars into the economy and not pay back the loan.    If they did, the public would simply demand gold and the government would have to comply.   Their paper dollars would become challenged.   The fake money would have to be withdrawn.   

A monetary system based on belief, faith and promises.   This type of economy is open to manipulation by the money interests.   

For example , when the Federal Reserve lowers it's prime interest rate, this decrease the value of the dollar.  One result is that exports decrease in value. (become cheaper.)   More foreigners buy American goods and services.  (More exports)        Imports increase in value (cost more)  Americans buy fewer foreign goods and services.  (Fewer imports) 

A second result is that borrowers can pay back their loans with cheaper dollars  (with deflated dollars)  (with dollars that have lost purchasing power.)   

A third result is called inflation which is another way of saying the value of the dollar has gone down in relation to other currencies and in relation to goods and services that those dollars can buy.  (everything costs more.)

Growth Rate is a measure of the change in the amount of goods and services produced in a given periods of time.

Concentrations of Power:

Another huge advantage of the New Corporate world is that it weaken the concentrations of power