Bigworld, Rickards has said that the 'elites' don't want to have to reintroduce gold backing into the financial system if they don't have to, since that means huge restraints on their power. He said they would try to use an unbacked SDR if it will be accepted by the world, and only use gold backing if that's the only way to get the SDR accepted, since otherwise the SDR is just an unbacked fiat currency.
In his scenario, the SDR would come to the rescue during a huge financial crisis/collapse of the dollar as the world's reserve currency, so people might be understandably queasy about an unbacked/fiat SDR. But Rickards said that the level of financial chaos would be such that people may not care that the SDR is unbacked, that they'll welcome it anyway, in which case there's no need for gold backing. Chances are though that at least some gold backing would speed the SDR's acceptance worldwide as 'the saviour'.
However, what Rickards is talking about now is not gold backing for the SDR, but gold backing for the dollar, presumably as a last ditch attempt to allow the dollar to remain the world's reserve currency. That's the spin Rickards is putting on it anyway.
(see next post)
