Comment by stephbook

> The only real gain is that you have gold in the US custody and the US can be tempted to just use it without telling you anything.

What if you're at war, you can't risk to get your gold out and the US doesn't sell you anything because.. you can't pay?

If your solution is to "write France's debt on a piece of paper and hope they honor it", I've got some news to tell you about the system you just "invented."