All the wailing and gnashing of teeth right now over the "financial crisis" stems from one particular problem that no one except nutballs like me is willing to face: there is nothing, nothing, backing the dollar. There aren't even close to the same number of dollar bills as there are dollars on the international books. The dollar is a fiat currency, no more. The only thing that gives a dollar its purchasing power is that I believe that someone will give me something for it. What they will give me depends not on some intrinsic value of the dollar, but on what the other person is willing to give me. If he is willing to give me 10,000 acres of prime farmland for that dollar, that's fine. If he is willing to give me a small rock for it, that's also fine. But that means there is zero stability in the dollar.
No, I'm not going to make a "cross of gold" speech. There is a better answer.
The better answer is as old as Biblical times: This is an economic theory now known as mutualism. It is based on a labor theory of value to currency, as opposed to the current marginal theory of value, which says a dollar is worth whatever anyone will give you for it. It provides that goods and services are exchanged for the equivalent labor value, not for whatever the market will bear.
An example: Considering all the labor to cut the trees, saw the lumber, deliver it to the retailer, and build the table, a carpenter calculates that there is 15 hours of work per table to make 100 tables. (I'm pulling these figures out of my ear). He receives credit for those 15 hours, and can exchange them for something else in the market which is worth 15 hours of labor. Or three things of five hours.
The "hours of labor" sounds suspciously like "money," doesn't it? Here's the difference: As it stands now there is absolutely nothing backing the dollar, as I noted above. And if it's leveraged, as happens these days, there is 100 times nothing (still nothing) behind it. A currency based on labor value does have something behind it: the labor of the workers who create the currency.
I have only barely touched on all the aspects of mutualism. Anyone reasonably well schooled in economics may find this laughable. But read for yourself. Start with wikipedia (yes, I know it is quite fallable but it's a good starting point for reading real material). Look at Kevin Carson's website.
There are alternatives to marginal economics. Now is the time to look at them, instead of using financial duct tape to stop an unstoppable leak. (How's that for imagery?)