as good as it gets for gold *****, page-10

re: not as good as it gets for gold ***** Reserve banks don't exist to make a profit. They buy and sell other currencies in order to balance their own currency against those of trading partners - Asian central banks have for years bought bucketloads of loss-making US dollars in order to make their exports relatively cheaper.

How gold fits into the equation is beyond me. I can't see how it can have any use as a currency unless you can buy things denominated in gold. Even if the US dollar completely collapsed it seems more likely that business would be conducted in euros or yen rather than gold.

Its just another commodity - as a store of value it may be better than the dollar but probably not as good as zinc - and mining gold is the equivalent of printing money.