This leads one into the question of how do we build a strong national currency? My response is dump the federal reserve system (modern day slavery) and fractional reserve banking and issue our own currency...and re-build our nation's manufacturing base.

I couldn't agree more. The building blocks of any economy is production via manufacturing, agriculture and mining. This has always been true and then money becomes nothing more than a means to barter. Currently our dollar is extremely overvalued. From what I understand there are trillions of dollars worth of Treasury bills owned by other countries hanging over our head that if they suddenly become monetized would make the value of our currency plummet. I am not an expert on the subject but my interpretation of how it works is this: If our government needs money they can either borrow it from the FED or other countries in the form of these t-bills. Borrowing directly from the FED increases the money supply as soon as that happens and devalues our currency with inflation. If another country volunteers to purchase these treasury notes it is like an I O U to that particular country. This method prevents inflation. It just adds to our national debt keeping our dollar from losing value. The advantage of a country like China in purchasing these I O U's is that their currency remains devalued compared to ours and consequently the cost of manufacturing in China remains lower. The bad part about this is if China or another country steps up and says I want money for my I O U... Pay me now! We would have to give them something or print some money to satisfy the I O U. This monetizing of the debt causes the value of our dollar to drop and prices to go up through inflation. Again I am not an expert on this subject and if I have it wrong, someone please correct me. But in my mind this is our national debt in a box summary. The fractional reserve system is a fraud. Being able to create money out of nothing is ridiculous. I don't know if the answer necessarily is a gold standard but certainly that would help keep the system in check.