10/26/2011 @ 6:51PM
FORBES.com
Recreating A Real Gold Standard
Finished off as it was by the callous executive order of a U.S. president, the gold standard cannot be resurrected the same way. As the political system inches back toward gold-backed money, a roadmap for getting there is essential.
This is exactly what Lewis E. Lehrman (with whom this writer is professionally associated via American Principles Project and the Lehrman Institute) has provided with The True Gold Standard: A Monetary Reform Plan Without Official Reserve Currencies. Steeped in the experience of Jacques Rueff’s handling of postwar France’s return to the gold standard and Lehrman’s own thinking as a public intellectual, it is a comprehensive yet straightforward plan for cleaning up the global financial system.
As the subtitle suggests, the plan is based on replacing national currencies (the dollar, euro, yen) with the non-national, neutral asset of gold as the world’s reserve money supply. Nations would settle international payment deficits and surpluses in gold rather than paper-based currencies. This would have the effect, principally on the U.S. as the issuer of two-thirds of world reserves, of removing the debt overhang which has made trade deficits, government overborrowing, and hot money bubbles the way of life. Depending on whom you asked, the dollar standard was an “exorbitant privilege” (French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing) or an upgrade (Citibank financier Walter Wriston). Decades of financial disorder have now made it clear that it is actually an “insupportable burden” as Lehrman puts it.
Lehrman’s historical model is the international gold standard of 1873-1914, an era of industrial breakthrough, global economic growth, and astounding price stability. As charted by his colleague John Muller, it was the most stable period of U.S. monetary regimes based on the Consumer Price Index. Even with price shocks due to technological changes and rapid globalization, prices in the short-term and long-run were more stable than at any other time in American history. This was because of the credibility of the link between the dollar and gold, both for citizens at home and governments abroad.
How do we redevelop this best practice for the 21st century? In some ways, it will be less difficult with the integration of gold into the financial system already through electronic payment systems. On a practical level, using gold as money has never been easier (though financial repression of gold through taxes and regulation still presents a formidable barrier).
Full article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/richdanker/2011/10/26/recreating-a-real-gold-standard/
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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