http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6uuAupT4AQ



its good doco, watch it if you havent seen it, less than 100 000 viewers so far
It talks about downsides of current economic system and why going back to gold standard in not an answer


Gold has value only because people believe in it however Gold has no inherent value same as paper money.

Fiat money is good idea if properly implemented i.e not allowing banks to loan out 10x more than they have in deposits, banks shd only lend the money they have and interest shd be no more than 1-2%, of course banks are in business to make $$ but there must be a limit set, in that case banks would not go bankrupt, bank runs would be imposible

The biggest flaw with fractional reserve banking is that banks lend money that they dont have at high interest