The_Dunedan

You mean like the U.S. Gov't is doing right now, attempting to pay off our astronomical debts to the Chinese and various Euro-American banking and industrial combines?


This was a situation which would never have occurred if fractional-reserve banking hadn't permitted the drastic overprinting of the Mark. If the Mark had been held to a standard, it could not have been inflated by overprinting. That's the whole point behind actually backing your money with something finite, like precious metals: if the money is required to actually be redeemable in something, it cannot exceed the supply of that "something" and inflation is prevented or at very least radically slowed.

Fiat currencies, and the inflation they always bring, have been responsible for the downfall of more than one great ruler or empire. The Mongol rulers of China eventually went broke after they imposed the use of unbacked paper money, and the infamous Assignats which immidiately preceeded the French Revolution are thought by many to have been the final nail in the Bourbon coffin. Everything which came after was just sparks to the fuse; the Assignats became worthless after only a few years at best (weeks in some places) because they were hugely overprinted in an effort to raise money and pay down the debts France had incurred in wars abroad and splendour at home.