jsinger - 2:19 am on Nov 14, 2006 (gmt 0)

So....what SHOULD money be backed by?

In William Jennings Bryan's time: blocks of ice, street car company tokens, whale oil for lamps. Things that people will always need. LOL!

Diamonds were a great store of wealth until 130 years ago when it was discovered that the Congo was loaded with them.

Pearls: Immensely valuable 100 years ago. Then they learned how to culture pearls.

Gold? Oil? Hardly immutable stores of value as we've seen this year. At one time aluminum was much rarer than gold.

Land? Perhaps.