Re: Information requested: US finance capital? which fraction ofthe bo

Therefore, the
>actual value of the currency in terms of relevant goods and
>services people actually want ultimately has nothing to do
>with the "standard" so manipulated. This is, of course, the
>same problem that governments now have with diminishing the
>stocks of gold held idle in government vaults. Try to sell
>it and the price will fall to some intolerably low price and
>the gold mining industry will collapse.

Could you please explain further the above? I understood what came before
this, but could not understand this concluding statement.

only way such a choice would continue to be meaningful would
>be if the monetary authority and all other government
>agencies were forbidden from buying any of the commodity
>thereby leaving control of the supply of money as the only
>available mechanism for maintaining the value of the
>currency in terms of the standard.

When you say control of the supply of money does money mean the currency or
the standard?   

If the commodity backs the currency or if the commodity is the currency
does this not mean that the government has to own it? And to own it, must
it not "buy" it. 

I agree with your conclusion: A better choice of
>standard, even with its difficulty of frequent measurement,
>is an index based on a meaningful basket of goods and
>services such as that used for the CPI. 

Roz