Posted on 02/09/2016 11:40:04 AM PST by GodGunsGuts
Echoing the recent sentiments of Steve Forbes, this week Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz told a group in New Hampshire:
"Money is ... a unit of measurement. So, the reason why we see these rapid oscillations in commodities markets, it's because of unstable currencies. And it's why I think we should look at going toward rules-based money supply, ideally tied to gold, so you have stability."
Perhaps this will trigger another flood of disagreement in the mainstream press, such as the recent New York Times item which reported that 40 out of 40 "leading economists" said that a gold standard system "would not improve the lives of average Americans."
This must explain how the United States, which embraced the principle of gold-based money for nearly two centuries until 1971, became the wealthiest and most powerful country in the history of the planet.
Here's a little different view of historical consensus. What follows is..
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
“In that time we also had depressions, recessions, inflation and soaring national debt.”
Not to the degree we have experienced since the Federal Reserve took over.
There will always be natural economic cycles to contend with, but now we suffer through both the natural cycles and the artificial effects of incompetent government interference in the natural cycles, which never serve to alleviate them, and instead only exacerbate them.
The amount of currency would be a defined ratio between the amount of money and the amount of GEOs. Congress could increase the amount of money by altering the ratio. Thus Congress would set the amount.
Fiat money is a dangerous tool which can be used for socialist purposes, but it also allows the phenomenon of a monetary wealth that is backed by the breadbasket.
What we do with such a thing is up to us.
“Congress could increase the amount of money by altering the ratio.”
So essentially, it wouldn’t be much different than the current system, except that Congress would devaluing our currency when it was politically expedient, rather than the Fed doing it for them.
Prior to the start of the Federal Reserve, US recessions were sharp, short, and generally limited to banks and speculators. Since the start of the Federal Reserve, we have had great depressions and world wars. Since the US Government finally threw off all restraint when it delinked from gold in 1971, we have had stagflation, a tech bubble and bust, and housing bubble and bust, a great recession, QE and ZIRP and financial repression. The economic record is far WORSE. If you like government and preferred banks being able to steal your money through control of the money supply, the our present situation is for you.
If you want to identify the muddle-heads, just start a discussion of the Gold Standard!
It's not the value of GOLD that is fluctuating! It's the value of the FIAT DOLLAR!
More muddle-headedness.
It doesn’t take much gold to run a gold standard.
Anyone who says “there isn’t enough gold” is betraying total ignorance of economics and the nature of money.
Good point. I often watch Gold Rush on Discovery. Folks that are actually digging for gold every day. Once they get it, they can't wait to turn it into dollars. But if you look at the bigger picture, you'll realize that gold or dollars have no value at all without the work that goes along with getting either of them.
gold is about $1,200 an ounce today. the $1,200 can earn interest supposedly, so try this: put $1,300 and a 1-ounce gold coin in your drawer. next year, see which buys more...
Oh by all means bring out the statistics and prove me wrong on my basic tenet which is: there is not enough gold if sold at today’s prices.
If you want some kind of symbolic thing which would symbolize $1000 of money with $1 of gold, well knock yourself out. But I would not call that a gold standard.
The very fact you have to stoop to insults is a worse voodoo than fiat money is.
"Monetary Wealth" is a fiction. It is bubbles supported, temporarily, by the power of the Federal Reserve to manipulate money markets, soviet-style, and (for the time-being anyway) acceptance of the US Dollar as the world's reserve currency. That will end because our politicians will eventually bury us in debt. You will then know what "monetary wealth" means to a Venezuelan, Russian or Argentine. Wealth is produced only two ways - by producing more, via more inputs, or greater productivity and technological advancement.
You don't accept leftist central-planning of our food or medical supply - why do you accept it for the most basic commodity of all - money?
And why does it mean that to these people? Because their governments have gotten so stupid they interfere with supply. They are not supply siders.
I.e. you can’t ask for your money to be backed by the breadbasket and then expect it to mean anything when you then choke the breadbasket.
You folks are confusing issues of what ought to be (whatever that is) with what is real and actually happens.
The bible never treated the matter. It didn’t have to and it would have been out of character. Caesar could have made his coins out of snot and it would not have changed the dynamics. Notice the insults to which so many people stoop to support their doctrine du jour.
Search his other writings on Constitutional matters for more.
Thanks for the links!
strong banking principles and a great place to start.
auditing the fed...
why not an oil standard.
Is Cruz pushing Goldline now with his buddy Beck?
People are always busy pontificating on a matter that turns out to depend on sheer belief.
There could theoretically be a people who didn’t care about gold.
I know that if the currency is fiat, it will be debased. This lesson is older than Rome.
Do you know this bit of economics and history?
It wasn't the gold standard that led to the great depression, is was a too free lending policy.
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