Don’t blame the Depression on the gold standard – but don’t expect it back either
Then again, who wants a government run gold standard anyway?
READ MOREThe Euro (Double) Standard
The received wisdom in economic history places much of the blame for the Great Depression squarely on the shoulders of the gold standard. For instance, Berkley economist Barry Eichengreen states, “Far from being synonymous with stability, the gold stan …
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Monetary Equilibrium and Relative Prices
There’s long been debate on the role of an elastic money supply in achieving monetary equilibrium in a free market. Namely, should the money supply follow a 100-percent reserve requirement on banks or should banks be allowed to make use of fractional r …
READ MOREGolden Paperweights, and Other Investments
Why gold isn’t money, steak isn’t food, and you’re not really reading this… File this one under “you’ve got to be pulling on my leg:” an unsigned editorial at Nasdaq.com makes the utterly risible claims that “gold has no value except as an investment …
READ MOREWhat Does it Really Mean to “Peg” Money?
For economics, money seems to be the exception to the rule, the thing that the market cannot provide by itself. Therefore, it is said, the economist and the government must step into the market (in the form of a central banks and regulators) to manage …
READ MOREThe Prospects for Sound Money
by Tim Kelly A silver lining of the global economic crisis is that millions of people have been awakened to the importance of sound money to a modern economy. The housing bubble and subsequent bust, excessive leveraging, reckless speculation, and the s …
READ MOREWhat the Price of Gold Means
It’s amazing how so many people don’t get gold. It’s only been 40 years since the dollar was completely severed from it’s once proud golden heritage, yet most finance and econ people are wont to consider gold just another commodity—and a not very “usef …
READ MOREThree Comments on the Gold Standard
The financial crisis in 2008, the uncertainty about the future of the Euro and the doubts on the efficiency of monetary policy has brought some renewed interest in the gold standard as an alternative monetary system; or, at least, as a benchmark to eva …
READ MOREGold bugs and Paper bugs
At Free Banking blog, Kurt Schuller points to Ralph Benko’s reply to Roubini’s statements that “this idea of a gold standard is pushed every other day by these gold bugs [and] is not even a theory it’s a theology,” and that the return to the Gold Stand …
READ MOREThe Gold Standard Mentality and the Great Depression
It is a common argument that the gold standard was one of the reasons of the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve, it is argued, was unable to follow an optimal monetary policy, with its hands tied with the gold standard regime. However, as Timberlake …
READ MOREForbes: Time to Go Back to the Gold Standard
Steve Forbes, Forbes Media Chairman, discusses the importance of returning to the gold standard and explains how the United States could do so in this interview with Fox Business Network. Listen here. For further discussion with Mr. Forbes, save the da …
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