from Armstrong Economics:
The mantra of Goldbugs has been that paper money is worthless and only gold is money. That is pretty much like saying the earth is still flat. Money has historically been many things and gold is only one of them. The issue is always the fact that money (regardless of what it is) rises and falls and everyone since the time of Hammurabi have been trying to create the perfect world where assets rise and you make money, yet at the same time money does not decline in purchasing power. This is just impossible and the problem is the fool who is too scared to invest so he wants to hold only cash and then complains where it buys less and says that is evil and not fair.