George Gilder, whose new book publishes today, is one of the original pillars of Supply Side economics. As stated by Discovery Institute, which he co-founded, “Mr. Gilder pioneered the formulation of supply-side economics when he served as Chairman of the Lehrman Institute’s Economic Roundtable, as Program Director for the Manhattan Institute….”
Lately we have been engulfed by headlines reporting financial turmoil on every continent, in almost every nation, large and small. The commissars of central planning who so marred the history of the 20th century have been replaced by central banks in the 21st. In Cyprus, the new leadership now dares to confiscate citizens’ wealth with a one-time tax of up to 60 percent on bank deposits above 100,000 euros. Self-interested prime ministers blame continental monetary policies for instigating the currency wars that they themselves surreptitiously carry on.
The True Gold Standard (Second Edition)
Would the Real Gold Standard Please Stand Up?
The gold standard debate has seen a spike recently in different blogs (Bruce Bartlett, David Beckworth, David Glasner, Blake Johnson, Kurt Schuller, Scott Sumner, David Glasner, George Selgin, David Glasner and Kurt Schuller). Besides the informative replies of Schuller and Selgin, the criticisms of the gold standard suffer from a mixing of different aspects, leaving their objections unclear. For instance, it is unclear if the criticisms are of the classical gold standard, or on how a particular gold standard was practiced, or on a potential return to some form of gold standard regime (and in such case, to which type gold standard?). Arguments against one are used as a claim against the other. In all of this confusion two aspects seem to have gone lost: What does “gold,” and what do the “rules of the game,” mean under a gold standard. A confusing characteristic of some of the criticisms is that it is not clear to what gold standard the critic is referring. If the Great Depression is brought into the argument, then the object of criticism is the particular monetary institution that was in place at the time; this is the relevant type of gold standard. It is a non sequitur to conclude that if one type of gold standard fails, then all types of gold standards are problematic (and the fact that it even was the monetary regime that failed is also disputable). And this is because some critics do not find the “rules of the game” to be a clear term. In addition, as Schuller points out, under the same line of reasoning one should argue that, given the (current) Great Recession, all types of central banks should be discredited. There can be different types of gold standards. I will mention three: (1) Free-banking with a gold standard (this means no central banks), (2) Classic gold standard (with central bank) and (3) gold exchange standard. These three vary fundamentally. One can imagine more variations, but these three will do to show how differences are important.     
America recently celebrated — well, maybe we didn’t celebrate – the 80th anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s action to end to the gold standard. But America is also celebrating – well, maybe not everyone is celebrating – the 100th anniversary of the legislation creating the Federal Reserve System.
As Lewis E. Lehrman...
Constitution.org provides an extensive and thoughtful Memorandum of Law by Larry Becraft, Esq., of Huntsville, Alabama, on Article I, Section 10, clause 1 of the US Constitution.
Sir William Blackstone courtesy of Wikipedia
One of many interesting matters the Memorandum treats is Blackstone's Commentaries, a book that was a fixture in the...
In the spring of 1933, global trade was being undermined by nationalistic economic responses to the Great Depression, including currency...
Thirty years ago, our Editor, Ralph Benko, was one of only 23 who testified before the U.S. Gold Commission at...
|
Kathleen M. Packard, Publisher The Gold Standard Now
Board of Advisors: Senior Advisors Sean Fieler, James Grant, Senior European Advisor Advisors In Memoriam
Breaking News
|
