Exactly. We've been here before. People refuse to learn from history. The gold standard has failed repeatedly and caused all kinds of problems, including wars,

Exactly. We've been here before. People refuse to learn from history. The gold standard has failed repeatedly and caused all kinds of problems, including wars, throughout history. Industrialized societies eventually realized that your currency should be backed by your industrial activity. "Industrial activity" used to be measured by manufacturing output, but in the 80's countries such as the United States, who was losing manufacturing to Japan at the time, redefined "industrial activity" to include services, especially financial services. I'm not arguing there aren't issues with these definitions and how they're applied, however they're all preferable to precious metals.