Replies

It doesn't take a Walter Williams to understand that Ron Paul's radical ideas would provoke economic chaos both on and off Wall Street.

You are aware that Walter Williams endorsed Ron Paul quite a while back? And when asked what kind of VP he would pick, Ron Paul said, "Someone like Walter Williams".

I'm not sure we ever mentioned it on these threads. RP does have more support among libertarian Republican economists and there is a lot of interest from folks at TheStreet.com in many of his ideas about the free market and Wall Street and the banking system. The management of the Fed is heavily disputed currently, especially with Bernanke devaluing the dollar to the point where it is worth no more now than a Canadian dollar for the first time in 31 years (a 30%-50% drop).

I'm not sure we ever mentioned it on these threads. RP does have more support among libertarian Republican economists and there is a lot of interest from folks at TheStreet.com in many of his ideas about the free market and Wall Street and the banking system. The management of the Fed is heavily disputed currently, especially with Bernanke devaluing the dollar to the point where it is worth no more now than a Canadian dollar for the first time in 31 years (a 30%-50% drop).

I'm not at all endorsing Bernanke or his policies but the idea of returning to the Gold standard is absurd for a handful of reasons, just for starters:

a.) There is a finite amount of gold in the world, and the appeal of 'limiting the amount of (gold-based) currency the government can print' will institute fiscal restraints that may or may not have positive effects. For example, how do these libertarians who want to place their faith in Gold propose to handle the inevitable moment when all U.S. currency printed prior to the return to the Gold standard becomes invalid and worthless? Can we say riots in the streets? Oh but that's ok, let 'em riot, right? (because we won't be able to afford to pay the cops to stop the riots)

b.) What does President Ron Paul propose to do in the event that the rest of the nations refuse to return to the Gold standard?

c.) It's easy to holler and demand a return to a metal-based currency, what isn't so easy is to recognize how such a decision would play out in the real world.