> Doing it at the rate you can mine gold isn't really any more sensible than doing it at the rate the Fed decides to. Ah, but you're making the false assumptio

> Doing it at the rate you can mine gold isn't really any more sensible than doing it at the rate the Fed decides to. Ah, but you're making the false assumption that somebody needs to make this decision, from the top down. But the real alternative is a free market in money itself. All it really requires is the repeal of legal tender laws and the ability to enforce the settlement of contracts in whatever currency the parties agree to. No need to abolish the Fed or end government-backed currency. Just force them to compete on even footing with anyone else who thinks they can do better. Monopoly is bad for consumers, and it always leads to abuse. And you don't need monopoly to have interoperability -- especially given our digital technology. While government currencies would likely continue to enjoy certain benefits (like being acceptable for taxes, and being used to settle civil damages), there's no reason that large swaths of the economy couldn't operate under entirely different currency terms, and trade back and forth across currency regimes through freely moving exchange markets.