If the US dollar continues to decline, then gold prices will reflect that by moving higher.

Gary, thanks for your comment. To clarify: The original money credited to the government in exchange for the Treasury Securities (a government IOU, promise to pay) is strictly new money that is created out of thin air. It is 'monetizing the debt' at the point of origin. It does not come from money or assets already in the system. My hypothetical example in the article was meant to relate the issue on a more familiar level as well as illustrate the absurdity of the Fed/Treasury transaction. However, even on a retail basis - whatever collateral is provided by the borrower - the loan proceeds advanced are a creation of new money, too. All loans made by banks are 'new money' that is then added to the system. That is only possible due to our system of fractional-reserve banking. Our money today is mostly credit. The 'dollar' balances in the system are over-leveraged and under-collateralized.

Of course.

Good article with common sense concern about housing and capital expansion. Fed has a dilemna of their own making. Artificially-contrived low interest rates fostered 'drug' -induced highs in economic activity that were unsustainable. But there is always a price to pay in the form of withdrawl symptoms. We may be on the verge of experiencing those symptoms/effects in the extreme, regardless of the Fed's efforts or intentions.

And, yet, we still operate financially within the context of a fractional-reserve banking system. Hence, any reserve requirement less than 100 percent is implicit of excess reserves. And derivatives are a huge subset of the system which continues to re-leverage the same money over and over again, even after any initial reserve requirements are met. The threat of a credit implosion grows exponentially regardless of the Fed's tinkering and eventually there will be a forced de-leveraging. 'When' is anybody's guess.

Good article!

There are two primary reasons for silver's price surge in the 1970s.

1)Silver mining production lagged consumption for nearly two full decades during the 1950s-60s. During that period, the U.S. Treasury sold silver regularly from its hoard of nearly two billion ounces. This action kept the market price for silver suppressed. By 1970 nearly all of the silver was gone and the Treasury had to stop its sales. Thus, the price of silver was freed to find a presumably higher level that would eventually balance

consumption and production.

2) The United States suspended all convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold in 1971. Those who were prescient enough to recognize the ongoing threat of further U.S. dollar depreciation, purchased gold and silver based on their historic roles as money.

The Hunt family's involvement simply added to these two forces and likely sent silver prices far beyond any reasonably sustainable level at the time. (From an average price of $1.60 to a high of $49.50 in January 1980 represents a three thousand percent increase.)

Nice to know that not everyone is ill with 'gold fever'.

Excellent article!