The Fiat System


Fiat money is money that is intrinsically useless - it is used only as a medium of exchange. There is no restrain on the amount of money that can be printed. In the gold standard, money can only be printed if it is backed by gold. In the fiat system money, money doesn't have an actual value. Money gains its value because people want it. If everyone decided money was worthless the money would be worthless. People want it and are willing to trade goods and services to get it so they can use it on other goods and services. The problem with the fiat system is that hyperinflation can easily occur and confidence in the system is easily lost. Once people start losing confidence in the money, the money becomes worthless. Gold has replaced every fiat currency, except the U.S.'s, for the past 3000 years. The U.S. manages to avoid hyperinflation by shifting between a fiat system and gold standard for the past 200 years as follows:

1985-1861 - Fixed Gold Standard
1862-1879 - Floating Fiat System
1880-1914 - Fixed Gold Standard
1915-1925 - Floating Fiat System
1926-1931 - Fixed Gold Standard
1931-1945 - Floating Fiat System
1945-1968 - Fixed Gold Standard
1971 - Floating Fiat System
1971-1973 - Fixed Fiat System
1973-present - Floating Fiat System

U.S. Debt


The U.S debt increases by an average of $3.96 billion per day. It has been growing like this since September 28, 2007. The U.S. has $11,552,141,291,250.35 (updates constantly) in public. Each citizen's share is approximately $37,693.61. The U.S. has 3072.2 billion dollars in debt to other countries. China, Japan, oil exporters, Caribbean banking centers, and Brazil are the five countries the U.S. in debt to. There are over 30 countries the U.S. is in debt to.

Foreign owners of US Treasury Securities (January 2009)

People's Republic of China $739.6 billion - 24.07% of total
Japan $634.8 billion - 20.66% of total
Oil exporters $186.3 billion - 6.06% of total
Caribbean banking centers $176.6 billion - 5.75% of total
Brazil $133.5 billion - 4.35% of total
United Kingdom $124.2 billion - 4.04% of total
Russia $119.6 billion - 3.89% of total
Luxembourg $87.2 billion - 2.84% of total
Taiwan $73.3 billion - 2.39% of total
Hong Kong $71.7 billion - 2.33% of total
Switzerland $62.1 billion - 2.02% of total
Germany $56.4 billion - 1.84% of total
Republic of Ireland $50 billion - 1.63% of total
Singapore $38.3 billion - 1.25% of total
Thailand $37.2 billion - 1.21% of total
Mexico $34.9 billion - 1.14% of total
India $32.5 billion - 1.06% of total
Turkey $31.3 billion - 1.02% of total
Korea $31.3 billion - 1.02% of total
Norway $21.9 billion - 0.71% of total
France $17.9 billion - 0.58% of total
Israel $16.9 billion - 0.55% of total
Egypt $16.9 billion - 0.55% of total
Netherlands $16.8 billion - 0.55% of total
Italy $15.6 billion - 0.51% of total
Belgium $15.5 billion - 0.50% of total
Chile $15.2 billion - 0.49% of total
Sweden $12.4 billion - 0.40% of total
Philippines $11.6 billion - 0.38% of total
Colombia $11.3 billion - 0.37% of total
All other $179.4billion - 5.84% of total
Grand Total = $3072.2 billion