Even the swiss franc was pegged to gold until 2000. The Fed is getting pretty limited to what it can do by lowering rates.
With only 6% more unemployment, we would be at 1870s levels (completely unmanageable)?
Calling it counterfeiting is a bit extreme, though.
He's using the term "counterfeiting" in the economic sense.
One of the things that makes something money in economics is that it is difficult to duplicate, so you can't just make more of it for yourself. Fiat currency doesn't have that restraint. So, we can say it is not money, or we can say that it is being counterfeited. This is not a word chosen for its alarm value, though it should make you alarmed.
Those are the only requirements for money.
Obviously they are not. The requirement that it should be difficult to duplicate is essential.
Limiting us to gold also exposes us to massive economic swings, due to the limited ability to control how much or how little we all agree exists. I always hear people talk about how we 'print money' when we need it but NO ONE mentions that we also take money OUT of the economy all of the time.
True to some extent, but it does have more intrinsic value than paper currency. 1) It's rare enough that small amounts can be used to trade, but common enough that lots of people can have some. 2) It is pretty (subjective, but agreed-upon across many cultures). 3) It is chemically stable - doesn't rust or tarnish - so if you have 5oz today, you'll still have 5oz 10 years from now.
Reasons like these were explored on a Planet Money podcast, and they concluded that gold isn't an arbitrary choice; if you could pick any element from the periodic table to use for money, gold is the logical choice.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/02/07/131363098/the-tues...
This is just a nitpick with the use of term "intrinsic value" - gold's characteristics make it a good form of money, but it's still (abstractly speaking) on a fiat basis.
Controlling the monetary supply with "paper" currency (which is an inaccurate term, "digital" currency is the reality) is much more stable and controllable. The US Government says they have $50,000,000,000,000, and the global economic capital markets either agree or don't agree.