A rational business decision would require that monetary symbols cost the least possible to manufacture. Presently, (1998), it costs around $280 to mine and refine an ounce of gold. Mining decades of tons of ore per ounce of gold has left holes in the ground measured by cubic miles. The ore is leached by toxic chemicals that have produced environmental pollution.
First this article was written during the dot com boom...today two shares of WorldCom could not buy you a 1oz Silver Eagle ...Second.. costs to mine gold in Nevada run around $125 per oz...third..the author is one of those left wing eco-nazi types....jeez....how could anyone miss this fact!
May I suggest a book GOLD WARS
Actually, Nevada gold averages about $200/oz, and when the price drops below the $275-300 range, they start shutting down mines. Still, Nevada has cheap ore and lots of it, which is why it is one of the leading gold producers in the world. Nevada's production reserves far outstrip their actual production, largely because the demand doesn't exist to support bringing more capacity on-line. There are a lot of relatively cheap deposits that haven't been tapped simply because doing so would only cannabalize the existing production sites. I own gold ore bodies in Nevada, and an extremely rich copper deposit as well, but there is simply too many good production sites sitting idle to waste my time and money capitalizing on them. The market has spoken. Incidentally, I think the gold standard is a useless idea as well; it doesn't fix the problem, just shifts it to a different place.