Quote from: Bigeyeone on January 03, 2014, 02:09:27 PM

Quote from: Misesian on January 03, 2014, 01:52:43 PM

Quote from: Lethn on January 03, 2014, 11:23:02 AM

Quote from: Bitcoin Oz on January 03, 2014, 11:00:37 AM

USD is really backed by guns.

The most realistic viewpoint I've seen, the only reason the USD has lasted so long is because of America's firepower, people have been too scared to stand up to them so they accept the U.S Dollar or face destruction, until Bitcoin came along of course.

Well actually the US dollar used to be linked to gold that's why countries and people were willing to accept it as the world reserve currency, you used to be able to get 1 ounce for 35 dollars I think, then the US started running perpetual deficits and people started wising up to the fact there's no way the US had enough gold to pay back the debt that it owed for running the deficits and that's when Nixon delinked the dollar to gold in '71. Since then we've been inflating bubble after bubble so the USD in it's current form hasn't been around for that long

The USD has been de facto off the gold standard since 1938, ever since the gold reserve act, this is when the gold standard was suspended except for foreign exchange, when foreign central banks tried to exchange their USD for gold that is when the gold standard was officially buried by Nixon in 71, but it was already dead since 1938, because ever since 1938 no US citizen could exchange their USD for gold, only foreign central banks could in theory until they really tried to do it during the vietnam war.

Yes but being linked to gold still gives the USD value, as soon as it was delinked in '71 thats when we got all that lovely inflation