Goldbugs are also often associated with attempts to return to the Gold Standard monetary system and many like to point out the limitations of fiat money, that is, that all fiat currencies have failed historically. Goldbugs may even consider making such views known as a public service or even a public duty. Opponents point out that in the last several decades the price of gold has been far more unstable than developing-world currencies are in terms of each other.
Recently, goldbugs have pointed to rapidly rising oil prices and the unwillingness of China to significantly de-couple the value of its own currency (the yuan) from the US dollar as complementary rationales for purchasing and holding gold. In this view, the relative value relationships between consumable commodities and variations in industrial capacity between markets increase the likelihood of chaotic behavior in the present international economic system because modern hard currencies (or fiat currency) lack full backing by gold reserves and therefore cannot establish empirically rigorous values for goods and services.