Nobody actually advocates bringing back the gold standard except a few crackpots.
Ron Paul has often said he favors Sound Money
While an obvious choice is Gold & Silver he has stated more than once it could be other things as well.
A big X has been painted on Ron Paul's back this week as he was voted CPAC's 2012 straw poll .. neocons, many conservatives from Fox, and liberals to the left try to discredit him as they know that Paul is not a puupet that will play their game like Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush JR, Obama .. meet the New Boss .. Same as the Old Boss politics .. and it scares them and many puppet masters out there. Count all the good things that have happened to the country and world under these stooges .. on one hand.
Countries getting off the gold standard did alleviate the 1930's depression. In the early 1900's and slightly before countries around the world were on the gold standard, then came the first war to end all wars and countries had to print money up to fight the war.. after the war there was more money printed than there was gold (sound a little familiar to today). Countries had to stay on the gold standard they would have to devalue their currency and their goods would be worth less. Countries got off the gold standard because they couldn't afford gold anymore and, the US absorbed much of the worlds gold at this time but if the rest of the world got off gold, what good was it that the US stayed on the standard. Been printing it up ever since then. The current US dollar is worth 2 cents compared to the 1913 dollar .. think about that .. what has happened to the purchasing power of the US dollar. Much of it eroded away when ultra Smart Pres Wilson got the Federal reserve started and the central bankers have been robbing people blind for some time now.
Look at all the great things that have happened since we got completely off the gold standard.
The federal debt and increased spending went up dramatically after 1971 .. things have not been the same sine then .. were you even born by 1971?
If a gold standard is not necessary ... why are government's around the world working so hard to attain more gold right now?
Having a gold standard does not mean that we never have problems ... But if we still had the dollar tied to gold and silver we would not have the problems we are now which is global meltdown. Since the worlds currency is US dollar based and the US dollar is plummeting in value, what can countries like Greece, Scotland and Iceland do?
You do know this guy Frum is a neocon , a former Bush writer .. neocons don't like Ron Paul very much for obvious reason .. I'm not sure what your nutjob reason are for not liking him
Did you know that Frum suggested that we buldoze houses down to get out of the housing problem The man is a sure genius.
I'm not even going to debate this because it's a pointless waste of time and highly educated economists are far better at explaining it than I am. You can read all about the gold standard in journals of economics; it's a well researched area. But I will say that following Ron Paul on economics is like a blind man leading the blind.
Opinions are like assholes .. everyone has them. How many of those touted economists saw the housing bubble and collapse - Ron Paul did .. that's right .. that's why Ron Paul is not a quack.
Gold is no more free of the economic pressures of a fiat currency than anything else.
The real mistake made was that at the heart of a fiat currency is confidence and commodities. The exact same things that can screw you with gold can screw you with any other commodity. Also like gold, the supply of confidence is not boundless.
As for going back to the gold standard, you can't do it. Too many people, and not enough gold to represent their work. Heck, there probably isn't even enough copper. Even just china screws the pooch on trying to monetize copper, nickel, etc. They want to put cash into metals as an inflation hedge. As soon as they start buying they cause inflation in the price of metals and are in just as bad a position.
Meh, Ron Paul is ok, i just dont trust him.. And alot of his "ideas" are just bandwagon boats of whats already out there.
The problem with a gold standard is that gold value is no less volatile than paper. Today we agree that it's $1000 an oz, tomorrow 5 cents...
Paper can be printed quite easier than Mining and processing gold.
As long as it is sound commodity and gold has been pretty well regarded for a few thousand years.
When FDR confiscated gold from US citizens back 1933 the Feds paid $20 an ounce and the Feds said it was worth $35 dollars an ounce .. nice bit of handiwork by the feds. It was worht more than that on the open market.
Today gold closed at $1106 an ounce .. and that price is being manipoulated by hte money peddlers - it should be worht more than that .. but as you said, it is what people will pay for it and you'd be hard pressed to pay $1106 for an ounce of gold right now.
A few thousand years ago, we didn't have space exploration.
It comes back to probably the only reason why I would support going to a gold standard. As soon as you do so, the motivation to start mining the asteroids goes through the roof. We've got one nearby that has a LOT og gold and other nice metals.
For the gold part. About 20 billion tons. It dwarfs the current terrestrial supply by several orders of magnitude.
So yeah, inflation proof.
gold is fuel for the spaceships of the ancient masters who will return to claim their bounty. After all, they genetically modified monkeys to create us to mine it for them.
Now where is that satire button?
lamparty
Oh, Say it ain't so!