The True Gold Standard (Second Edition)
The Wizard of Oz and the Gold Standard
The Wizard of Oz, that consummate American fairy tale, secretly is a "parable of populism." The late American educator, Henry Littlefield, once upon a time a mentor to this writer, published a rather famous, controversial, and persuasive essay to this effect in the American Quarterly in 1964. It has been transcribed and reproduced and made freely available here. In the original book, unlike the MGM movie, Dorothy's magical slippers, provided her by Glinda from the remains of the Wicked Witch of the East, were silver rather than ruby. This, of course, represents a sly allusion to the bimetallism -- the gold and silver standard -- of the day, and of perennial presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan's campaign for "free coinage of silver." Step off "the yellow brick road" -- gold -- and tap your heels together three times -- free coinage of silver -- to take you effortlessly anywhere you wish to go. As Hemingway concluded The Sun Also Rises, "Isn't it pretty to think so?" Bryan's 1896 campaign speech, concluding with the declamation, "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold," considered by many the greatest speech in political history, was rhetorically superb. But as The Gold Standard Now advisor Professor Brian Domitrovic has documented in Forbes.com, Bryan got the economics all wrong. Soft money led to stagnancy and misery. The road to prosperity for everyday people is paved with gold, not with money lite (such as Federal Reserve Notes). Cheap money leaves farmers, laborers, and Main Street holding the proverbial bag.    
Lawrence H. White is an economics professor at George Mason University who teaches graduate level monetary theory and policy.
Lawrence White
As described by the Wikipedia, "White earned his BA at Harvard University (1977) and PhD at the University of California at Los Angeles (1982). Before his current role at George Mason...
The Federal Reserve System's James Narron and David Skeie, career officials with the Federal Reserve System, are two eminent historically erudite figures.
Writing in the New York Federal Reserve Bank's online publication, Liberty Street Economics, they recently provided a continuation of their valuable historical "revue," Crisis Chronicles: The Collapse of the...
Jul 23, 2014
World Press
Imagining the Stupendous Growth and Plentiful Credit in a World Without the Fed
An article headline in Saturday’s Wall Street Journalread “Rate Talk Heats Up Within The Fed.” As Journalreporters Jon Hilsenrath and Michael Derby...
The Fed's "expectations" theory. Under Chairman Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve has subscribed to a widely held but erroneous...
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Why the Gold Standard?Kathleen M. Packard, Publisher In Memoriam
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