Is gold a hard currency?
Gold is the only currency with intrinsic value and as such qualifies as a hard currency. Gold has a track record measured in millenia. In contrast, the current U.S. dollar experiment only dates back to 1971, when Nixon de-linked the U.S. dollar from gold and converted it fully to a modern fiat currency, solely backed by the “faith” of the U.S. government. Central banks have the power to “inflate” in their attempt to spur economic growth. Murray Rothbard, who was the dean of the Austrian School of Economic and Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, alleges that central banks, rather than smoothing economic cycles, make economic cycles more extreme. Amongst others, Rothbard shows that the Great Depression would have been shorter and less severe had there not been government intervention through ill-conceived monetary and government policies.
