by vincecate » Sun Oct 03, 2010 7:17 am
OLD1953 wrote:Apart from tradition, what's the reasoning for measuring against gold? Why not silver? Or copper, or platinum or tantalum? Or iron, for that matter. It's been claimed the dollar is backed by oil now, why not measure against oil?
Many central banks hold gold as part of their reserves. The currency symbol is XAU. Many people around the world still think of gold as the best currency. Silver and platinum have currency symbols but are not held as reserves, though silver used to be. There is no currency symbol for oil, copper, or tantalum and central banks are not holding these as reserves.
That "dollars backed by oil" claim could end any day, if oil producers stopped taking paper dollars. Some day they will stop, they seem to slowly be working toward that day.
Tradition matters. All that said, you could plot stocks against the others.
http://www.xe.com/iso4217.php[quote="OLD1953"]Apart from tradition, what's the reasoning for measuring against gold? Why not silver? Or copper, or platinum or tantalum? Or iron, for that matter. It's been claimed the dollar is backed by oil now, why not measure against oil?[/quote]
Many central banks hold gold as part of their reserves. The currency symbol is XAU. Many people around the world still think of gold as the best currency. Silver and platinum have currency symbols but are not held as reserves, though silver used to be. There is no currency symbol for oil, copper, or tantalum and central banks are not holding these as reserves.
That "dollars backed by oil" claim could end any day, if oil producers stopped taking paper dollars. Some day they will stop, they seem to slowly be working toward that day.
Tradition matters. All that said, you could plot stocks against the others. :-)
http://www.xe.com/iso4217.php