The U.S has not backed our dollar with gold in 46 years. The U.S dollar HAS to be used for all oil trades in the world. People of this lazy generation value the tiny paper more than gold based on its conveniences that gold could never offer. The FED is dropping the value of gold significantly this year, coincidentally after china announced they will now be backing each Yuen with gold, the only country that will be able to do this right now . The future argument will be, do you want to invest in the golddollar or the petrodollar? I prefer neither....