Monetary Reform: The Key to Spending Restraint
This is no small development. Although it does not reflect the view of the editors of the paper itself, since it is an editorial written by a Mr. Lehrman, of the Lehrman Institute, I find it extremely noteworthy that an article calling for a return to a gold standard would actually grace the pages of that prestigious leading financial newspaper. The WSJ is not a "Wild West" newspaper but is an establishment periodical, which is why I was quite surprised to see an article of this nature.
Perhaps the paper will find room to allow for some other writer to make a case against a gold convertibility statute, but for now this just goes to show that the debt crisis that is engulfing our nation is resulting in serious discussion about the role of gold in any future monetary system or in the current system.
My own personal view is that the first nation to do so will end up being the winner as its currency will be the strongest, assuming of course it takes the necessary steps to get its financial house in order.
The author correctly notes the following:
Unrestricted convertibility of the dollar to gold at the statutory price restricts Federal Reserve creation of excess dollars and the inflation caused by Fed financing of the deficit".
I urge you to read the entire commentary which can be found here.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983704576277431813826152.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
Also, additional information about the Lehrman Institute can be found here:
http://www.lehrmaninstitute.org/lehrman/index.html
Also, while you are at the Wall Street Journal's site, make a special point of reading the exceptionally fine commentary entitled:
Bernanke's Inflation Paradox
The Fed said it wanted higher prices. Voila!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704677404576285021008297758.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTopHat's off to the editors of the Journal for presenting such excellent articles on their site. Now if only we had political leaders who understood these things and who were true statesmen willing to heed the advice offered here. Perhaps our nation would have some hope that we can still rise out of the ash heap being created by our current crop of leaders who cannot stop spending this nation to its ruin and who indeed allow the Federal Reserve to deliberately debauch and thus ruin our national heritage, the Dollar.
That was on Zero Hedge today:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-gold-hedge-back-envelope-calculation
How much gold would an individual investor need as a hedge against the total depreciation of fiat currencies? Here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation...There are about 5.3 billion ounces of gold "above ground," roughly 160,000 tons. At the current price of $1,500 an ounce, all the available gold is worth about $8 trillion. About half is in jewelry, 10% in industrial uses and 40% as central bank reserves and investment. If gold took the place of fiat currencies as "money," the available gold would have rise to about $140 trillion in value. In today's dollars, that's about 18 times its current price. So $1,500 X 18 = $27,000 an ounce...
Now back to reality. The HUI is doing terrible. Why is that happening? One sure needs a steel stomach to go through that…
Thanks for those surprising articles published by the WSJ! Will add those to my reading list!
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