Sunday, March 26, 2017

A Response from the Idaho Representative on His Incoherent Argument on Gold as an Inflation Hedge

 Mat Erpelding
David Mueller writes as a follow-up to my post, OMG An Idaho Politician Just Said This About Gold:
I wrote to the Idaho representative, Mat Erpelding, who made the comments about gold.

I looked up his email address and wrote to him.  I snagged your comments (as they were better than anything I would have had time or energy to come up with) and threw it into the letter and sent it off.

Surprisingly, he wrote back.  See below.

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Dear Sir,

I read your remarks about gold.

“If we say that gold is going to protect us from inflation, I want to point out that in 1868, gold was $27 an ounce, and today gold is $1,218 an ounce. So, we can’t say that gold is going to protect us from inflation when you have that type of a price range over the last hundred years. So, I just want to point out that facts are important."

Rep. Erpelding, please understand that if the price of gold has climbed from $27.00 per ounce in 1868 to a present value of around $1,218.00 an ounce, it means that gold has maintained its purchasing value in the face of the declining purchasing value of the Federal Reserve controlled U.S. dollar.

Kind Regards,

David Mueller

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Yep. I messed up my argument.

Sincerely,
Rep. Mat Erpelding
House Democratic Minority Leader
District 19
PO Box 1697
Boise, ID 83701
 RW note:

Since receiving Mueller's email, I also have written to Rep. Mat Erpelding:

Dear Rep. Mat Erpelding,

It has come to my attention that you have admitted your mistake with regard to your comments on gold as an inflation hedge (A Response from the Idaho Representative on His Incoherent Argument on Gold as an Inflation Hedge). 

It is really rare to see a politician admit a mistake. Bravo! I was fully expecting you to blame it on Adam Smith, the Russians or, perhaps, Roger Stone.

Under separate cover, I have sent you a copy of my book, The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. I hope it proves informative about money and the Federal Reserve, for what I suspect will be a long political career for you.

Best regards,


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Robert Wenzel
Editor & Publisher
San Francisco, CA

UPDATE

Rep. Erpelding's response to me: 
Thank you. We all make mistakes and I made a big one! I will read your book!Mat

8 comments:

  1. Now I almost feel bad about the video I just made...

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  2. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I like his honesty. Well done to all.

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  3. Wow, that's amazing. Who knows what seeds you've just sown.

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  4. I will write a letter of admiration to this guy. Sometimes the converts are the staunchest allies (Walter Jones for the antiwar movement). I myself wasn't born an Austrian and credit my ability to quickly admit that my ideas were simply wrong as the key factor that started the intellectual journey. The fact that this guy did that with relative ease bodes well for him.

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  5. That's awesome. The Fed Flunks is wonderful. I wish I could have read it from the perspective of not having a prior understanding and appreciation of Austrian Economics.

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  6. This is how change happens! Open, honest discussions and criticism.

    RW, you are one of those "damned" second hand dealers of ideas. I guess you know that ;)

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  7. Great response, good for him. He looks quite young, and of course most state reps (like most US House reps) know very little about money.

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  8. There is still hope for the wretched.

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