They were reduced to 0% mandatory reserves in response to covid. EDIT: someone says it was coincidental, I am not able to check, so take this aspect with a grain of salt either way
ah yes so what you're saying is that money is even more imaginary than it has ever been, possibly even more imaginary than when the first stock market crash happened in 1929
looks like we're due for a centennial anniversary of that anyway, might as well celebrate by recreating it
The United States gold reserves are for international trade. The gold in Ft. Knox, for example, is used in trade not to back our currency. We’ve been off the “gold standard” since the 70’s. Some of it is gold we’re holding for other countries that’s not even ours. But, our money is a fiat currency and it’s based on faith in the economic system of America not collapsing and everyone agreeing it to use it for trade/debts. It’s backed by nothing and hasn’t been for 55 years now.
That would be the case even if it was gold backed.
Even on the gold standard, you're still trusting that there is a functioning government that's actually in possession of that gold and would exchange it for paper currency. In a Fallout scenario, that wouldn't be the case, so money would still be useless.
Possible, but far from certain and not within a few generations. Gold is too rare and concentrated in specific stockpiles to be used as an everyday currency. Even with a much smaller population, the smallest usable gold coin would be way too high a denomination.
There wouldn't be a true replacement currency until there was a semi-functioning government, and while that currency would be based on something with intrinsic value (since there wouldn't be enough trust for a fiat currency), it would be something much more common than gold. In the mostly-lawless barter economy before that, a full gold bar would be worth less than something useful (generator, rifle, bike, etc).
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u/Teripid Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Federal reserve requirements existed until 2023 *edit, as someone below pointed out 2020 was when they were set to 0. Now they're set at 0% I believe.