[Since it’s campaign break time, it is my duty to remind all that China is laughing at us, and it is sad, so sad.]

I'm more worried about their currency being backed by gold than their domestic infrastructure investment.

Infrastructure investment on contested islands? Nothing worse for the neighborhood than squatters putting up a shack on someone else's land.

The gold standard is bogus — as even libertarian economist Milton Friedman recognized. In American economic history, tethering the economy to gold has caused more bank runs and economic collapses and depressions than any tangible benefit.

If China has a bunch of precious metal collecting dust in a vault somewhere, that’s not too concerning to me. An interesting bet to make when every other modern economy has moved off of it. But I don’t think it will be a big factor.

But controlling the world’s trade routes — that equals real economic power. It always has, ever since European colonizers took to the seas in order to get around the Turks.

I recommend this entire YouTube series on the history of finance, but this episode is about the Gold Standard specifically.

https://youtu.be/GNo7MDN5-0g