Great response. All three of them. Could not agree with you more.

One thing I am uncertain of. Your statement:

"you have gold and silver backed currencies that do not allow for economic expansion"

There is an alternative view out there that says that the portion of history we are taught by mainstream economists is not correct. That under the pre-1900 real gold standard that the economy actually grew at rates we have not since repeated.

I can not say with any certainty that this is correct because I am not enough of a historian to either confirm or refute it. But it is an alternative view that the Austrians promote and reading what they say is pretty convincing to me (which may not really mean much).

So with that possible exception to what you said in all three posts, I could not agree more with everything you said.

Thank you for giving that perspective from a banker in an industry that is not getting much respect right now. Takes guts for you to speak up and I admire that.

John