By Joshua D. Glawson

Imagine a street performer standing behind a small table, moving three shells around at lightning speed, concealing a pea beneath one of them. As the audience watches closely, they try to follow the pea's location, only to realize that no matter how well they track it, they've been fooled.

Now, replace that street performer with the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government, the shells with gold, silver, and paper money, and the pea with real value.

This, dear reader, is how the public got tricked into believing in fiat currency—a shell game of epic proportions.