Thanks for your time in posting this. I have learned a great deal. But if the strength of a national currency is based upon more than popular confidence/lack of panic, i.e., stable economy, production & cash flow, then are things as bad as the gold bugs argue? Is the yuan going to replace the dollar as a medium of foreign exchange? Only the mullahs in Iran hope so.
If things really aren’t as bad as all that, doesn’t the prepper movement start to look uh, kooky? Not talking about laying in supplies in case of natural disaster.
For example, food producers & the system that brings their goods to market are interested in their own economic survival. There’s symbiosis for all participants.
Hope this does not seem too Pollyannish.
The only factor you left out is that every other currency is a piece of crap!
The owning of gold has its merits but at the same time, you are only one gun up your nose away from possibly losing it all.