Rickards explains how the US monetary system is in fact based on gold.

In any system that is expected to work, there must be rules.  Without rules there is no order and without order, chaos.  The money elite do not want systemic chaos!  Short term chaos is used by them to move the herd along in an intended direction when needed (i.e. government involvement in 9/11)  but it is always a risk to employ that tactic because inciting limited chaos can sometimes get out of control leading to "unintended consequences".  If the cowboy cracks the whip one too many times in order to get the cattle into the slaughterhouse, it could incite a stampede instead of resulting in the desired movement. In fact, any nonlinear economic system will eventually get out of control because no con game ever runs forever and no it won't be different this time.

The rules must be in place not for the benefit of the cattle being fleeced by them but for those running the con.  The rules are there in order to enforce honor among thieves.  If you step outside the rules too far and you let the sheeple know that there is in fact no rule of law for them (only rule of the gun) then it risks the exposure of the entire scam.  And when the scam collapses, elite are hanged in the street.  So it is best for them to police themselves around an order that they know about but which they do not reveal to the rank and file.

Jim Rickards thus explains how our fiat currency system which supposedly has no link to gold is in fact linked to gold.  It's an interesting read and it underpins the statement made by JP Morgan so many years ago that gold is money and everything else is credit.  So what we have at the end of the day is a massive fractionally reserved gold based system where layers upon layers of fake promises (i.e. unpayable debt) exist on top of a stack of real metal.  This is the real pyramid that is running the fake money show.  Once the fake promises to pay are acknowledged for what they are, the pyramid collapses and exposes the foundation of it all which is gold metal.

Gold is not the risky "investment" that people have been conned into thinking it is.  Gold is money and the rest of it is a Ponzi scheme, period.