First, it can not accuratly represent the economy at any given point of time, but needs to be re-jigged constantly depending on seasons and economic conditions.

Second there are no ways to have it represent intangibles in any practical way - and the modern economy is largely driven by non-material goods these days.

Third, any "basket of commodities" is a fiat system, which leaves it at the whim of the fiat creators to manipulate to their own ends.

Fourth, there is no single system that will be chosen by ALL businesses and traders based on a basket of commodities. The purpose of money is as a way to express value in a way that eases the difficulties and costs of transactions - and as such the most suitable materials (given a free system of exchange) will be chosen for the task.

Fifth, and this is the final of the very significant issues, there already exists a way to solve these problems - a way that evolved throughout the history of money which has used mediums of exchange such as salt, animals, tobacco, shells, and precious metals. Merchants and traders have historically chosen precious metals due to the efficiencies of trade they offer to the users. Precious metals also represent the economies where they are produced and used, as well as those where it is not. The entire economy is represented by the creation, manufacture, and distribution of precious metals, since these tasks reflect the costs involved - from the financing of the mining projects, to the cost of manual labour, the transport of materials, processing of ore, and demand for circulating currency. Although silver and gold have been used as currency, gold is less burdened with industrial use, and is therefore specifically loaded with historical value in the marketplace. Gold has value because it historically has had value - and is therefore more suitable as money in our modern economy. Placing gold into monetary use will alter the value of the good, as will recruiting any good into monetary use, but we really don't want to make wool and steel and wheat more expensive by using it as money because it would cause hardship for the industries and individuals that use them. Gold, and to some extent silver, is the historically and demostrably superior medium for monetary exchange available to us in the modern economy. Any basket of goods, as with any fiat currency, is ineffecient, introduces unacceptable costs, and is vulnerable to fraud and manipulation, and we have had one hundred years of proof (many hundreds of years in China) that this is the inevitable end for fiat.

murray rothbard wrote, "we won't be rid of the business cycle of inflation and crack up boom/busts till we replace the fed with private banks..."

unfortunately, if you look back into greek and roman economic history, the least unstable form of money was issued by a gov't, and it was invented by the pharohs of eygypt, long before the chinese stopped fighting amongst themselves...

basically, i think the GEORGEist's were right, a solid currency would be backed by a basket of commodities.