Some gold bugs – though not ones with historical memory – seem to have greeted Republican talk of a renewed Gold Standard with near ecstatic delight.
They need their heads examined. Gold must be free if it is to police the political class.
The beauty of gold is that it is a store of value beyond political or state control, or largely so.
It is a coldly disassociated asset based on atavistic attachment dating back thousands of years. It is common to mankind, and therefore nigh impossible to suppress. It is, to boot, a safe haven from tyranny, the portable wealth of persecuted peoples over the ages.
Once governments link their policies and fortunes to gold through a fixed system, the metal – or its owner – becomes prisoner of abuse...
Gold needs no party endorsement. It shines alone.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Goldbugs Cheering the Call for a Gold Commission in the Republican Platform Need Their Head Examined
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes:
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It's the same as all the "free trade" rhetoric. If you want free trade, then simply get rid of all your tariffs. You don't need an international agreement to do that.
ReplyDeleteThe government interfering with something (gold, trade, etc.) does not make it free. It makes it unfree.
There's a serious failure of imagination here. A gold commission isn't going to endorse a gold standard simply because no one really knows how to go about it. Just do a YouTube search of Austrian economics and the gold standard and you'll find that even Austrian economists cannot agree on how to handle the transition.
ReplyDeleteBut it is entirely possible that a Gold Commission could recommend a half-way proposal. That half-way proposal could involve the effective legalization of gold and silver as private money. This is exactly what Ron Paul has recommended and seems to be what Ambrose-Pritchard is getting at as well.
Setting up a commission to consider gold as money is a good idea simply because it brings the discussion back into the politcal arean and, depending on the economic situation when the commission meets, could produce something of value even if it isn't a return to the gold standard.
Robb, you exactly right. Ron Paul himself isn't really calling for a return of the gold standard because he knows the powers-that-be would never allow it, and the government would sooner or later manipulate it like they always have in the past. As Ron Paul has advocated, the best way to go is simply repeal the legal tender laws and any related taxes that work to prohibit private money. Gold, silver, and other private currencies (like say bitcoin) will arise to compete in the marketplace with fiat money. Competing currencies is politically and practically doable, a return to the gold standard is not.
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