blancw@microsoft.com writes:

I understand this much: there is some gold and other actual metal located in a vault, sitting there as a symbolic standard of wealth, worth, value. Everyone stakes a claim to it, and they exchange that claim to others in substitution for something else (dog, rifle, gas in the car, baby-sitting). These claims can circulate as fast as a computer can calcualte & transfer them, and that is all that circulates while the standard continues to sit in the vault, not being used for anything by anybody. As long as you hold a claim to this lump of stuff, you're Somebody - a force to contend with in the Market Place.

Didn't Nixon take the U.S. off of the gold standard? G.C.G. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Geoffrey C. Grabow | "What we demand are rigidly defined | | Oyster Bay, New York | areas of doubt and uncertainty!" | | | -------------------- | | grabow_geoffrey@tandem.com | Clipper, SkipJack & Digital Telephony | | | JUST SAY NO!!! | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | PGP fingerprint = C9 95 0F C4 E9 DD 8E 73 DD 99 4E F5 EB 7A B6 1D | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~