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To: Mike McFarland who wrote (494)	12/4/1997 9:19:00 AM
From: Staff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 686

King Tonga on the Isle of Frill started it all. It's true... that why they call it Frivolous money or being frivolous today:-) So here is my simplified version to put this gold thing to bed once and for all. Hope you get a kick out of it. Here is how it all goes down Mike.... gold has lost it's luster largely in due to our Silicon economies. But lets retrace the roots to how Tonga started the entire mess. It used to be that as per money gold was king. Universally acceptable as legal tender. This is what made gold and silver go great an asset. the bible itself makes references to gold and silver as legal tender so it's been around longer than Peso's or dollars anyway History teaches us that modern day economies have tried to infuse their respective countries with * promises to pay* monopoly style appear and it has worked so some degree. History has also taught us that while currencies have come and gone the two that will always around are gold and silver because the countries with the paper eventually don't make good with their promises to pay as it where. It's called inflation and it robs the value of the paper. Now it was as recent as Nixon's rein when the strongest currencies of the world were those *most* backed by gold. Many people today don't even remember gold & silver certificates. Has anyone under the age of 40 ever seen one? Our American USA money actually started out as a piece of paper that could be taken to a bank and be redeemed for the metal. Countries were limited to how much money they could print by how much gold they had in the reserves.. What a crummy deal.. Those with the most gold thus had the most money.? So King Tonga came up with the idea to scrap backing money with something like gold which was hard to find on Frill and just promise people it was good. You know... good as gold as the saying goes. So King Tonga and the Isle of Frill started it all. He said phooey on gold. King Tonga say all cocoa-nuts now money. Lots of coco.nuts on Frill. Later say... coconuts hard to carry in pockets...(even Susan B. Anthony's hard to tell from quarters) so ... lets make paper leafs money..have even more than coconuts so make Tonga now richest country in world with most paper.... Nixon hears about Tonga and goes... why gee ... we just can't have that... get me tapes and dirt on this Tonga guy and lets find out how he does it!! And thus... slowly one country at a time begins to dump the gold standard and Tongonizes the world:-) :-) :-) It all works as long as people beleive in the king . Tonga say it good so it so. Entire tribe believe king and life good for while. And thus King Tonga's idea seemed like a great idea and the rest of the world started doing the same just like Nixon. Everyone resorts to selling those heavy old bar and just prints paper. paper wears out and it cast heck 1cent to make a hundred dollar bill so we in hte US take it to one more level and create plastic gough called credit cards. As I always say.. just when you take her to the brink of h@ll... there is always time for omne more senseless act!! Buy now... no money... no payments for 12 months ... just buy .... don't worry...be happy... were having a King Tonga sale today :-) Bottom line: So all the reserves that gave the paper some value other than rulers promise to pay get dumped all over the world. . Fort Knox may as well be a furniture warehouse now. Bet I have more gold bullion buried in my back yard than in this history museum! Like King Tonga's promise to pay, currencies have nothing to give them any value other than the paper or plastic they are printed on. The day will come where people as in Russia with its Rubble, Mexico with its Peso and Hong Kong and South Korea with their Won or whatever kind of Tonga dough they use <gggg> decide they won't give or do anything to get it anymore. Today its the US dollar they turn to but it's as Tonganized as any of them these days in reality. Take a dollar to the bank and watch the telller call security when you tell them you want to redeem it for a few OZ.'s of Silver.:-) Sooner or later it will revert back to somthing of rarity and value (like the gold and silver) that everyonehas accepted in the past. Right now... it's just paper and plastic. It works as long as they take it and let you remove stuff from the stores without all the bells and whistles going off.... then ..Tonga still rules.... but.. when the the ecconomy goes...so does its paper. Just ask Russia. ( And Russia is even bigger than Tonga's Isle of Frill so go figure... is anyone amune? :-)) Yesterday it was gold and silver. Today is cash and plastic. It's great as long as everyone accepts it. I however can name you several countries that don't anymore. If it happens all over.. back we go to what works... I would have given Nixon one bit of advice... Dick... if it ain't broke... don't try to fix it! ( and you can put that on tape) have a good day Staff