I'll admit right up front that I grasp economics about as well as I
grasp brain surgery. But I wonder, if one can suddenly exchange US paper
money for gold, what's to stop China and other countries that have been
buying our debts from cashing in the worthless paper and taking our gold
reserves? Unless the paper money was very seriously devalued first, this
would strip our gold reserves and leave us with nothing but worthless
greenbacks that nobody trusts anymore.

Jon