WarrenS This has been an eye-opener for me.  I had long thought that we *had* to have a Federal Reserve in order to balance the money supply with total goods & services being produced. I'm beginning to change my mind ...  it's not clear that the Fed is actually capable of measuring goods and services, and even if they were, it's just been too tempting for them to pursue political agendas (both domestic and global) with their control over our currency.

Grams of gold (worth about $57 each today) or grams of silver (worth about $1 each today) would make interesting competition for the paper dollar.   

 dleeper47  WarrenS Could a private entity coin money and create another form of exchangeable currency? (Like $1 silver slugs with a picture of Reagan's face on the obverse and the statue of liberty on the reverse?)

 WesternFreePress Sure! It's quite legal to do right now. Bartering is not illegal. If someone wants to barter a one-ounce round of silver for, say, ten gallons of gasoline there's nothing to stop them as long as both parties agree to the exchange. The critical thing is that a tool of barter may not be denominated in U.S. Dollars.

 WarrenS So essentially, that's what these gold and silver companies are doing . . . sort of. They're not actually saying, "Here is an alternate form of currency that we should start using now." Rather, they're prognosticating currency collapse later, IOW, "Hold these, just in case." But has anyone tried to get a parallel form of currency to catch on in the here and now? (Not counting the scrips that arose during the depression.)

 WarrenS  WesternFreePress  I presume that a transaction that would have been taxed if it were made in dollars must still be taxed if it is made in gold or silver (or even chickens), no?  And that would include salaries.  For an occasional barter transaction, I assume the govt isn't interested, but if the volume were to grow, state and federal taxing authorities would surely want their cut.

One day, though, we might have Amex accounts denominated in grams of silver or grams of gold?  

A dilemma:  I think I'd like to be *paid* in gold or silver, but I'd like to *pay* in paper dollars.  I'm not sure how that conflict works out ... 

 dleeper47 True about taxes. In most states commercial transactions (and in some states even private transactions) are taxable. That applies to barter as well as conventional transactions. The Emperors will have their due. And, they only take U.S. Dollars.

 WarrenS Thanks, Warren, please do. Far and wide!