Comments on: I am a Crank

By: Les

Les — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:30:26 +0000

Money is worth what people Believe it's worth, nothing more, nothing less. Two things which influence that belief are..

A) The amount of money circulating in the economy.

and..

B) The amount of Stuff (real goods and services) circulating in the economy that you can spend all that money on.

Going back to the Gold standard does nothing but introduce a third factor,

C) The market value of some arbitrarily selected commodity.

Gold has value because it's pretty and not so easy to get at, it has no Intrinsic Objective value that stays true through the tests of time, it's a commodity like any other and as such it's value is up to the whims and fancy of the market.

I see no problem with the Federal Reserve in and of itself, if only they'd clue-in to one important fact. Their one and ONLY responsibility is to put money into the economy at a rate high enough to keep-up with real economic growth but not so high as to produce unruly inflation. The problem with the Fed today is it's assumed responsibilities well beyond it's original scope as some sort of benevolent (though not necessarily competent) shepherd of the national economy and if some key market sector trips over it's own feet and causes a few other sectors to stumble as well then it's up to the Fed to swoop in and make a dog's breakfast of things trying to sort it all out instead of just letting the market get back up on it's own like big boys and girls.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:21:12 +0000

using letters of marque against terrorists is a loony idea?

I like that idea.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:20:35 +0000

Am I the only one who thinks the idea of using letters of marque against terrorists is a loony idea?

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:02:35 +0000

The Mises institute publishes a PDF of ‘Case for Gold’. Link here ..

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp38236

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:15:40 +0000

and why all honest people should also want it.

Wow - way to slag people and make friends, Bob.

By: bob

bob — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:36:58 +0000

Ron Paul:
Case for Gold: A Minority Report of the United States Gold Commission.
I think that does a pretty good job of explaining why he wants a "gold standard" -- and why all honest people should also want it.

Another good explanation.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:43:35 +0000

he's simply saying that Ron Paul does.

Okay. Why does Ron Paul think the gold standard is a bad idea.

By: Max Lybbert

Max Lybbert — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:35:16 +0000

I don’t think Coyote necessarily wants to go to the gold standard; he’s simply saying that Ron Paul does.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:33:50 +0000

I’d be satisfied to go to a flat tax and eliminate the 19th

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:59:37 +0000

I'm just this guy whose only expertise is making computers run in circles but ... why is the Fed and the Gold standard a good idea?

I've just read John Gordon's 'Empire of Wealth' where .. to a non-economist .. he makes a convincing argument (to this layman at least) that the lack of a central bank was a major reason for the cycles of boom and depression in the 18th and 19th centuries and that a gold standards ain't such a good idea either.