The hard reality is that a different system must be used to enable society at large to survive; if we don't know who is making a promise, if we don't know whether the promise maker can be trusted or not, the system itself must generate trust. Without trust, society breaks down and civilizations collapse.

Fiat currency is always and everywhere a promise; we don't know, indeed cannot know if the promise maker is to be trusted. After all, Ben Bernanke is not our intimately known 'Uncle Joe'... and Janet Yellen is not our 'Aunt Mindy'. We cannot trust them, as we do not know them... we only know stories that are spread about them... stories that are mainly 'spin'... i.e. mainly lies.

We do not have an intimate knowledge of their personality, their mindset, their belief systems; we don't have a long term history of direct interaction with them. If we do trust them, we are being naïve; and naivety generally leads to trouble... just as Utopian social experiments lead to trouble.

No system based on trust can work, unless there are solid grounds for giving trust; either intimate knowledge of the players based on living in close proximity, as in an extended family, or a strong case of common interest. The interests of Central Bankers bear very little commonality with the interests of the average wage earner; and I suggest very few people on this planet have lived as part of Bernanke's or Yellen's family... extended or otherwise.