This is the story headlining at Marketwatch right now. The discussion of restoring backing to our money becomes more mainstream by the month! This would have been ridiculed as someone's bad acid trip back in 2002... Today, major financial publications are headlining it.
If it ever happens, btw, I believe it will be for something between $5000 and $25,000 per ounce. Jim Grant claims he's set the standard at $2,500 per ounce. I don't think that's feasible. We don't have enough gold to back all the dollars at such a low price.
Feb. 2, 2012, 12:00 a.m. EST
Getting back to the gold standard
Commentary: Jim Grant says gold, not paper currency, is the future
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Jim Grant’s rise to power may be delayed.
The legendary Wall Street writer, publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, has been mentioned by two of the rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. Newt Gingrich said if elected president, he’d name Grant to help run a commission looking at a possible return to the gold standard. And Ron Paul said, if elected president, he’d go all-in and name Grant — one of Wall Street’s best-known gold bugs — as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve.
As Paul wants to abolish the Fed, it would doubtless be a temporary post. But Grant says he found the offer — which came out of the blue — very flattering.
Alas, both men are trailing in the race to front-runner Mitt Romney. “Unfortunately, I haven’t heard from Mr. Romney yet,” joked Grant when I called on him in his offices down on Wall Street. “I’m sitting by the phone, I’m ready.”
He may have to wait some time. Romney, a conventional Wall Street figure, is unlikely to tap him anytime soon.
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He is best known these days — to Gingrich and Paul, among others — for his long-standing support for the gold standard. The world has moved in his direction. In 12 years, gold has risen from a derided relic trading at $250 an ounce to a hot investment at $1,750. Everywhere paper currency systems are under challenge. In 2008, the world discovered that you can’t just manufacture endless wealth out of thin air, as the gold bugs had long argued, and it is still struggling with the realization.
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Full story: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/getting-back-to-the-gold-standard-2012-02-02
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