Thanks Dave, we can try and be prepared! Speaking of gold, everyone blames the 1930s depression etc on the stock market crash of 1929, but what was equally (if not more) important was that the Bank of England came off the gold standard in 1931 as the market crash had caused a banking crisis in Europe. This destroyed the international monetary system and it was that that caused a run on the US banks. The underlying problem being debt - specifically in this case Germany's war reparations. As the pre-eminent Empire of the day it was Britain that had the reserve currency status. It must confer significant advantages otherwise why else would they be fighting so hard to keep it. I think paying your debts in your own currency is a major help - after all you can then print money to assist you. I'm sure there are gold deposits in the Grand Canyon, but I'm equally sure that if it had been profitable to mine them, they would have done so long before now.