It seems to me that going back to the gold standard would be impractical for a few countries. However, convincing arguments have been made that the fiat system has failed.
Is it feasible to back a country's currency with a commodity such as oil? I wonder if perhaps that could help out the stability of many OPEC economies.
Art transcends ideology.
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/ruben
IMHO, I think you have that backwards. Also, I recently signed up to this website to see if there's constructive ways to look for real answers to our financial and political problems. It seems most times 'Libertarians' and other outside the popular culture groups fight and argue (I mean discuss) among themselves and very little is accomplished. I would love to see a grass roots movement of limited government (constitutional) and honest money start to sweep our nation. I'm interested in joining a study group or forming one to start with educating people to alternatives.
Christopher M. Mahon
http://ambidextrouscivicdiscourse.blogspot.com/
Oil isn't scarce enough to serve as currency.
Let's say it did become a currency, and due to demand went to $5 a gallon. Do you know how many oil wells are viable at $5 a gallon? Like, many multiples of $4 or $3.
Also, it's possible to create oil fairly cheaply.
Oil is not viable, because it's not scarce, and soon to arrive tech like breakthrough in solar power could render is far less valuable than it is today.
Ok, why are people posting to these old topics?
Just get the government out of the way, enforce fraud laws and remove taxes commodity transactions.