The US constitution specifically says gold and silver are the only allowed government money. The court specifically blew this off because they believed that using the fed as a tool to finance the system would benefit them financially, and enhance their power and prestige. Of course what has really happened is that it has enabled government to blow off any market accountability to being productive. Our fake markets constantly create bubbles, and our government continues to get financed at the expense of the middle class no matter how reckless and incompetent they are. If the market continues on at all, if the middle class grows, it's only in-spite of the government not because of it. Every day, the government becomes less and less accountable to the real world, and every day we become a little bit more poor, and a little bit less free. The system is just going down the path that has been set in place decades ago, if not over a century.