A anonymous commenter on a post below pointed me to the work of Benn Steil the director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In a National Public Radio interview, Steil calls for the end to national currencies. He calls for the adoption of a world currency (possibly the dollar), but by the end of the interview seems to have slipped in the dollar proposal only to get to his real preference gold.
I'm not sure what is going on with the power elite, first we have Alan Greenspan talking sweet nothings about gold, and now we have the CFR's director of economics telling us that gold as a global currency is not science fiction anymore.
I'm really a little nervous about these new friends of gold, but fascinated. This will require close monitoring.
Here's the audio of Steil's interview at NPR.
Here's NPR's transcript of the interview.
I think there's a better link that show Steil's preference for the gold standard.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cfr.org/publication/18989/1920s.html
in the transcript of the symposium above, Robert Rubin accuses Steil of being obessed with the gold standard. It's also available in audio and video, so I think it's worth a watch.
If you only want the part where Rubin accuses Steil of obssesion, here it is:
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RUBIN: Could -- let me ask you, could you -- can you explain one or two -- see, I read your book. It's a good book. I would recommend it. Not going to be a movie or anything. (Laughter.)
But why -- you seem obsessed, with all due respect -- (laughter) -- obsessed with the gold standard. But we don't have a gold standard. We're not going to have a gold standard. Can you take the gold standard out of your book and just think of it all in terms of monetary policy?
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His support for the gold standard is qualified, as mentioned by Tylor in the comment on the post below, but he is also risking being ridiculed. There's also a column where Krugman openly taunts Steil and says he is not qualifed to be at CFR.
I guess he was hurt by Krugman, and wrote this letter, which Amity Shlaes posted on her blog.
http://blogs.cfr.org/shlaes/2009/02/18/benn-unedited/
But make no mistake, I am not claiming that Steil is an Austrian. But he has shown some sympathy to Austrian ideas despite the professional risks that entails. And he is an enemy of Krugman and that has to count for something.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Steil favors a single world currency. As Taylor points out below, Steil may merely just be a "controlled opposition" to gather support for a single currency which is worse than the current monetary system and is the opposite to the gold standard.(because single currency would imply a single world government!)
He is one of the authors of money markets and sovereignty. That book has a fairly austrian view on both the origin of money and the development of law and arbitration between merchants.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, "Now, you've got it!"
I appreciate your consideration of my point so I'll try not to be too obtuse but I really don't think it's an accident/mistake that there is a "goldbug" at CFR. Qualifications are important to these people-- they qualify all their speech. That's how they control us with language that sounds good but ends nefariously.
It may be that the CFR figured one way to rally support for the one world currency is to sell it with the gold standard attached. Then, when they have their single currency, the gold standard will be phased out.
ReplyDeleteCFR Scum no matter how ya slice it. Who gives a damned about criminals who would steal every single one of your rights at the drop of a hat. Go ahead an grovel over your masters, but as for me I choose freedom!
ReplyDelete¨It may be that the CFR figured one way to rally support for the one world currency is to sell it with the gold standard attached. Then, when they have their single currency, the gold standard will be phased out.¨
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO. SO MANY YEARS FIGHTING AND LOBBYING FOR WORLD GOVERNMENT AND THEY ARE FINALLY AT THE GATE...