OldBanister writes: "The true, and accurate, definition of "money", is that "money" is the sum total of all outstanding promises of repayment in an economy."

When you attempt to describe "money" as the "sum total of all outstanding promises of repayment", then that is the very definition of "debt" or, as J.P. Morgan put it "credit".

If you - or a country - own and hold physical gold, there is NO counter-party risk. You're not holding anybody's "promise to repay". In wartime, a "promise to repay" depends upon YOU winning the war - surviving intact to service the debt. Uncertain, at best.

When the next BIG war happens - and it will, soon I fear - then all of the carrots, and aluminum ingots and horses you may have will buy virtually nothing in terms of international trade.

Whoever holds the gold, will make the rules. And - sadly for us, since we sold ALL of our gold - the Chinese & Russians will be making the new rules.

I don't think that we're going to like that very much...