Maybe some gold leaf would reassure me
There isn’t much that is as good as gold. Right now, the big casino to the south of us has had a run of bad dice, and all of a sudden there’s a big problem looming for the rest of us. I go to work, I receive my “proof of deposit” and due to the unscrupulous actions of a few, my effort is suddenly worth less to the world around me. Enough to bring on a bout of depression, I tell you.
The “world” used to keep a gold standard. In well-guarded vaults, piles of bullion stood as a virtual guarantee against all the fancy paper that countries printed. You might play with the day-to-day value, but when it came time to settle up and go home, only the strong-armed survived. Gold is heavy stuff. And then, if I can believe Wiki, the president known as “the Crook” decided to drop the idea.
We’ve seen some heady times on the Exchange since then. Lots of virtual billionaires, rolling in the virtual gold of their paper holdings. And now, the wheels at the back of the cart are ready to fall off. Everybody hold on, because you suddenly aren’t as rich as you once were. I am not an economist, although I know one, but it seems that those gold bars gave a certain lustre to this whole monetary thingy.
Now, in the final days of our election fever, the man who would be king president chief poobah has realized that all is not well in the land. He’s even mentioned in a public way that his plan is to carry on as if our monetary system had no flaws; as if we have no reason to worry. I’m not exactly reassured. Maybe if his plan came with a little bit of gold leaf, it might help.
