Maybe
Russia wanted to put a gold backed trade settlement currency on the 2023 Johannesburg agenda but failed. I suspect that they will try again later in the year at the October 2024 BRICS Annual Summit. Making slow progress, but progress it is:
Visualizing BRICS
A Sberbank launched a cryptocurrency stablecoin based on gold in December 2022.
Part crypto, part gold. With the disadvantages of both.
China and India are trying to hoard gold. Making a currency gold-backed means having a gold window. Better put a currency exchange.
If you do not see a problem with thatâŚ
China and India do not want a gold-backed currency. Russia does not count.
I do not care which representative of China or India says otherwise. Anyone can flap their lips.
What I see a problem with is the USA running up a debt at the rate of a trillion dollars every 100 days or less.
If China and India do not want a gold-backed currency then why are their central banks buying so much of it?
The West is in denial as they canât do anything about it. The US economy is kept going by endless wars around the world.
The rest of the world is moving on without us.
In the words of Bob Dylan âThe Times They Are A-Changinâ
The FED/US Treasury has more gold then both of them combined. The gold does not back up the currency at an exchange window. It is part of the asset base for the US Treasury.
It is only one thing stabilizing the USD.
We can not back up the currency with gold without running out of gold.
In a modernized economy, or liberalized economy, the currency is backed up by the GDP.
We want the GDP consumed.
âŚand GDP is embellished by deficit spending. A trillion dollar deficit every 100 days - sounds like a winner to me 
I get you do not think any of it works but it does.
Itâs working wonders for Japan:
What are your theories that gold would work better for Japan?
A gold based monetary system takes power away from the money printers and government and provides a more stable economic system. BRICS seems to understand this but we in The West seem to be under the illusion that we can print endless debt.
Too late for the dollar, euro and sterling Iâm afraid as we are in a debt trap. The rest of the world sees this but we donât:
You maybe want to read âLords of Financeâ aka âThe Bankers Who Broke The Worldâ, which so clearly demonstrates how adhering the gold standard killed the world economy following World War I. There is an absolute positive coorelation between countries which held on to the standard longest and performed most negatively in the years following.
Itâs not right for all situations, everywhere, for all time, but generally speaking yoking your finance system to a limited supply of [anything] is a recipe for being constrained and withholding flexibility in the face of economic disasters, which happen with alarming frequency. Worse, when small ones happen (say, Silicon Valley Bank) it prevents you from stopping the panic, and thus contagion overruns the market. You might want to look at the history of the US economy in the 19th century, back in the âgold and silverâ days to see how often a minor blowup turned into an all out national rout.
Read them!
See how running a trillion dollar deficit ever 100 days will kill the economy.
Last I read (and it keeps changing) BRICS were going for a mixture of gold and a bundle of currencies as some kind of backing for what they are planning (which also keeps changing).
This also happened after WW1, the result of endless money printing/debt:
Well, thereâs a bit more to the story. Germany didnât have a functioning economy after World War I. On top of which, they had enormous debts: the Reparations demanded by the Allies, which were basically crushing. On top of which they had nothing to pay returning soldiers who didnât have jobs, or the widows and families of the German soldiers who had been guaranteed some sort of pension.
The difference is that they were already bankrupt when they started the printing presses, and yes, thatâs a recipe for catastrophe, which it turned out to be. Our situation is different. Perhaps not optimal, but hardly worth the comparison to Weimar Germany.
I suggest you watch âFinding the Moneyâ. You might find it enlightening. (this would apply to many here).
Seen it and read the books
Rename the US debt clock the âUS dollar savings clockâ
They make the point that Western economies cannot go broke as they can print currency (debt). Quite true, but the problem is that any currency can become worthless when compared to real money (gold and silver).
If you are outside The West (where the majority of the world lives) and you had a choice you might just want something other than US dollars given the way they are being created. Especially as there is a growing risk of having those dollars stolen/frozen if you upset the USA.
So carry on growing those savings, sounds like a great plan
Gold and silver are not money.
The paper currencies are money.
Good and silver are metals. Do you want to mention platinum? Or palladium?
This man might disagree:
J.P. Morgan stated in his testimony before Congress in 1912, âGold is money. Everything else is credit.â
Yes. And then came WWI, post-war Britain sticking to the Morgan position, and worldwide catastrophic depression. Ahistorical scolds tut-tut and say that the cause of that depression was the insanity of âallowingâ WWI to âget out of controlâ.
Keynes and others (including Hayek) figured out that Morgan had been fundamentally mistaken, and came up with the modern theory of money backed by precious âstuffâ, but mostly backed by the powerful âcurrentsâ (yes, origin of the synonymous with âmoneyâ word âcurrencyâ) of trade.
Humans remain idiots, especially in herds and governments, and so we have lots of tut tutting to uselessly do as we make idiotic expenditures and design tax codes to privilege the privileged on the income side of government balance sheets.
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If MMT is so great then why do governments bother raising taxes? Why not just print a bit more currency?
The USA hasnât gone bust yet so MMT must be OK!
Printing causes some inflation and some growth. Raising taxes can cut off some inflation while raising growth during this part of the cycle.