50. Will gold ever come back as money?
It is doubtful that gold will ever return as money. Over time, money has evolved into an accounting system, in which the money itself no longer has to have any intrinsic value. Its intrinsic value lies in the productive capacity of the society that uses the currency and the government's guarantee that the currency should be accepted by everyone and used as a means of paying taxes.
The success of unbacked fiat money is evidenced by the fact that no country in the world today uses a gold standard or any other form of peg between gold and money. According to the former chief executive of the US central bank Alan Greenspan, the return to a gold standard is Nowhere to be seen on the horizon And there are few people today who advocate a return to such a money system.
Despite this, gold has always been, and probably will continue to be, a valuable commodity. In a world of floating currencies and fluctuating exchange rates, physical gold retains value. Gold is possession, while money is a claim on possession (debt).
