Gold standard gone. Money is based on BS and more BS. Our national debt is BS too. Paper is worth something. Our copper penny is worth 2 or 3 cents now.
Almost, you and some others have missed the big one and why our system is, yes, deeply in Chernobyl mode, and how this collapse was predicted long ago:
Money is created by generation of _debt_. Every dollar printed comes with interest attached. Every last fucking dollar is not a per se "note", no, it's a debt instrument.
Why are the banks in meltdown mode?
All banks use a method called Fractional Reserve, whereby they "invent" money based solely on someone's ability to repay. Your signature on the dotted line is a _debt instrument_, and that allows the bank to "conjur" into their books....money.
The daisy chain begins at the Fed, where every dollar shat out comes with an interest welded to it. Every dollar in your pocket is really an IOU with YOUR name on it.
This scenario was forecast a long time ago, as some nitwit sat back and asked the ultimate question:
"Suppose nobody can pay back the debt?"
Like a nuclear reaction, that's what we are really seeing take place: Credit card holders, signature loans, car loans, house loans, they start the financial neutrons afly. Banks, then, yes, they disintegrate, as all that "imaginary" money...cannot be repaid, and the banks themselves are in whopping debt....themselves.
Fractional Reserve began long ago, and yes, it works, but, it must have a conditional operand to it: There must always be a way to repay the debt, else, it collapses like a house of cards.
This works so long as there is always opportunity, and room to expand, to exploit, etc. We now exist in a world with tight resources, and the direction "up"...ain't anymore.
Hence, the experiment of "money as debt"...has finally failed. I would shudder to add up all the combined debt that has been created, such would require whole new numbers, quadrillions? Quintillions? Sextillions?
The experiment failed. Time to move on to a better and more realistic economic engine.