<<“Fortunately credibility in your eyes is completely unimportant” Wrong Credibility is vital – this is the whole point. Fiat currencies are rapidly losing it. A quick example One US $ in the beginning of the century is I believe now worth about 75 cents. >>
Even if credibility is vital, you are not the arbiter of what's credible. As I said, credibility in your eyes is completely unimportant. And just because the US$ has lost some of its value doesn't mean it's lost credibility.

<<One Oz of Gold – valued in US$ is up very considerably>>
Yes. So are many shares. But prices can go down as well as up.

<<Gold valued as ‘value for exchange purposes’ has probably remained about level. >>
And that's because we're not relying on it. Were we to rely on it, its short supply would create problems.

<<...the Gold system... “ caused the Great Depression! We have to never ever do anything that idiotic again”. It is inevitable that we return to a ‘money’ system that is not run at the whim of central bankers who are too frightened to penalize financial transgressors>>
The central bankers don't run it at a whim, they follow their government's instructions. And what currency is used does not make it easier or harder to penalise financial transgressors, which is generally not part of the role of the central bank anyway.

<<Credit should only be created when it is for genuine increases in infrastructure/assets>>
As long as credit can be repaid, why should banks care what it's used for? And who decides what's a genuine increase anyway?

Aidan – I am not the one doing appalling damage, it is your friends Bernanke and Yellen and probably Draghi too. I only take precautions to survive the coming disaster by holding a large proportion of my assets in various forms of gold. I have no effect whatsoever on the world economy and I refuse to be held responsible for it ! I am not panicking, I am merely laying in ample supplies of ‘arsenic’ while I can continue with wine, women and song ad lib but only for the present. A quote from Douglas Hawks PHD MBA. Comments in brackets from me !

“The first cause of hyperinflation is when the market - consumers and other users of a currency - begin to lose faith in a country's currency. If consumers believe that the government won't honor the promissory notes (cash) it is issuing, then nobody wants to hold that cash. (How can anyone believe in the reliability of something that can be and is printed in apparently unlimited quantities – a few trillion here and there is irrelevant). The other cause of hyperinflation is actually caused by the government issuing the currency. As a government prints more money (already done) the value of that money goes down - just like the value of any commodity decreases as supply increases. The government may print more money to pay its own debts (or to bail out/in any bankruptcies), and by doing so, starts the inflation cycle. That, and people's confidence in that government, can start the hyperinflation ball rolling, and once it starts it can be very, very difficult to stop.”

From my understanding the Weimar hyperinflation was caused by the Treaty of Versailles insisting that Germany pay for the war. They then printed money to pay both that bill and to pay basic expenses and the situation described by Douglas Hawks arrived. It was not caused by a lack of an effective taxation system. This broadly speaking was Zimbabwe too.

Dickybird, they're not my friends. And I've got nothing against you gambling a large proportion of your assets on gold, even though I've got everything against replacing fiat money with gold backed money.

<<“The first cause of hyperinflation is when the market - consumers and other users of a currency - begin to lose faith in a country's currency. If consumers believe that the government won't honor the promissory notes (cash) it is issuing, then nobody wants to hold that cash.>>
How long ago did Douglas Hawks write that? Governments stopped honouring cash (in the sense of exchanging it for a set amount of gold) when Nixon was POTUS. Since then a dollar's just been worth a dollar. The market sets its value in real time, so its value is self stabilising (falling boosts exports and curtails imports; rising boosts imports and curtails exports) so the major overvaluations which would've caused hyperinflation during the Bretton Woods era simply don't occur any more.

<<(How can anyone believe in the reliability of something that can be and is printed in apparently unlimited quantities – a few trillion here and there is irrelevant).>>
Because "unlimited" doesn't mean "unrestricted".

<<The other cause of hyperinflation is actually caused by the government issuing the currency. As a government prints more money (already done) the value of that money goes down - just like the value of any commodity decreases as supply increases. The government may print more money to pay its own debts (or to bail out/in any bankruptcies), and by doing so, starts the inflation cycle. That, and people's confidence in that government, can start the hyperinflation ball rolling, and once it starts it can be very, very difficult to stop.”>>
Inflation and hyperinflation are two very different things. Can you think of a single example where the former has caused the latter? (I can't).

Hyperinflation is also quite easy to stop: raise taxes (and possibly cut government spending) until the budget balances: it will end almost instantly.

A government printing money to roll over domestic debts isn't a problem, but as I said before, foreign currency debts are a hyperinflation risk. That's why for the past twenty years, the Australian government's had a policy of not borrowing in foreign currencies.

<<From my understanding the Weimar hyperinflation was caused by the Treaty of Versailles insisting that Germany pay for the war.>>
That was certainly a strong contributing factor, but their tax system was ineffective, and the Weimar republic subsequently solved their hyperinflation problem by implementing an effective taxation system.

Aidan fiat currencies will only work if our Govts have control of their creation and we have a constitution that limits our Govts from creating too much of it. If private interests have the power of money creation then they own us and our Govts. That is the reality. Some say the Rothschilds are worth $100 trillion since they own a Central Bank in just about every country on the planet. What we have is slavery.

The BRICS nations are trying to break away from their control, this is why WW3 looms.It is our central bankers who are behind all these wars as they want to own the planet via their "New World Order".

Precious metals will have to be the way to stop the bankers from printing our currencies into oblivion. Hyper-inflation will destroy life savings and pension funds. In the USA since 2008 the money supply has increased 4 fold but this money just went into inflating the share market and creating more derivatives.

If infinite money can continue to supress PMs you will still be better off having them than a pension fund that lost 90% of its value.
Since 1913 our $ 1.00 has lost 99% of its value while PMs have gone up in value. Gold in 1935 was worth $35 per oz today it is almost $1400 per oz. If they had not over inflated property and shares and we had a good producing economy then they would out perform PMs.PMs are not a good investment but a hedge against total collapse.

Our economic fundamentals are all bad. Money printing,totally manipulated markets, off shoring of real production, Govt taxes to service unnecessary debt, bankism total control and corruption at every level. If people cannot make enough money to consume the products they produce, then our economies will fail.

World war 3 has been looming since world war two ended. It’s a matter of who has the upper hand. There are some rougue countries that are against a free society, and would bring on a world war.
North korea are again being squeezed, Russia are out of order and nearly broke, Iran can’t sell oil at a sustainable price, A host of mid east countries are incapable of fighting a world war, China is on a big downer that will last several years,
The world is overpopulated, and polluted to the extent of climate change, maybe the time is right.
If you are going to have a war you are best to do it while you are on top