American disequilibria have no doubt reached such an extreme point that when the adjustment does come, it will inevitably be fierce. There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved. The world's present economic and monetary situation is largely caused by distortions in monetary policies wherein the fiat monetary system allowed certain countries to dramatically increase money supplies and bank credit. Let us hope the world's monetary authorities have the wisdom to make the radical changes necessary to reform the monetary system to ensure long term free market economic growth.
Gold inherently protects the individual against the destruction of currency values.
In a true gold standard expenditure for destructive government programs would be limited. In that sense gold is a uniquely libertarian form of money. I do not hesitate to say it in order to make people clearly realize what is at stake here - to the creation of money by counterfeiters, so rightly condemned by law. Y2K is a monster variable of uncertainty. The stock market hates uncertainty.