The End of Dollar Hegemony by Rep. Ron Paul

[FrankRizzoXD40]

Originally Posted by Dhunter55

That's a point Ron Paul has brought up time and time again during his campaign. He was the only candidate I can recall who's bothered to address the issue.

You are right. I agree with Paul on that point, but I disagree that we need to completely revert to the gold standard, simply to solve a problem that can be easily fixed by restricting the amount of money we print.

Frank

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by FrankRizzoXD40

You are right. I agree with Paul on that point, but I disagree that we need to completely revert to the gold standard, simply to solve a problem that can be easily fixed by restricting the amount of money we print.

Frank

Thus we have more agreements. To the best of my knowledge, he never said we should completely revert.

[FrankRizzoXD40]

Originally Posted by AZXD

Thus we have more agreements. To the best of my knowledge, he never said we should completely revert.

Perhaps, but from his writings and what I've heard him say he is willing to go farther than necessary, IMHO.

Did you read my post?

Frank

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by FrankRizzoXD40

Perhaps, but from his writings and what I've heard him say he is willing to go farther than necessary, IMHO.

Did you read my post?

Frank

I read the one I commented on

[FrankRizzoXD40]

Originally Posted by AZXD

I read the one I commented on

lol--I wrote a long one on page 2.

Frank

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by FrankRizzoXD40

lol--I wrote a long one on page 2.

Frank

Yea, I read that and noticed that Dhunter pointed out the best part of what you wrote.

[Delija]

This thread reminds me of the plot in "Goldfinger'....

Also the William Jennings Bryant "Cross of Gold" speech over a hundred years ago (saw "Goldfinger", only read the Bryant speech..LOL).

How's this for a colorful quote (from that speech)....I have to laugh. The guy was trying to get his party's presidential nomination. Imagine GWB saying anything like this:

'Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.'

Quite the orator, but I digress......

To a degree we are technically on a "gold standard" today. We hold something like 10,000 tons of gold between Fort Knox and at the Federal Reserve Bank across the street from the NY Stock Exchange.

This gold is held 'in trust' for foreign governments, central banks and official international organizations.

It is controlled by the US Treasury Dept.

The Treasury does the minting of money.

While it is true that the dollar is based on the "full faith and credit' of the US, (meaning the ability to tax), as Paul (and so many others) said, "He who has the gold makes the rules".

In an economic "doomsday" scenario, it is hard to imagine that the Treasury Dept. would not seize the gold it already has and re-standardize our money if necessary.

Whatever...it's all speculation and theory. In fact I remember reading the Samuelson textbook in my freshman year of college. I think every economics class in the country used the same book. Even Samuelson could not clarify the way money is valued beyond what we know by common sense......how many hours at what particular pay scale does it take to buy a loaf of bread? This alone defines inflation, deflation, stagflation, any kind of "flation". (are there any others?

Bottom line is the system has been working with cycles of inflation, recession, etc...but no depression, and no "bank runs" . No "bank holiday's" (banks used to close every Wednesday in case some here did not know....to reduce their "risk"). Movie theatres had matinees those weekdays and even today, Broadway has it's weekday matinees on Wednesdays.

Paul makes some valid points, but so did Bryant. (Which actually led to a SILVER standard which was in place until ....not sure, but I remember "silver certificate" being printed on dollar bills and I'm old, but not that old.) Real silver dollars were in circulation well into the 1970s (mostly in Las Vegas).

Anyway...the system we have of 'faith and credit" isn't broke, so why fix it? It's certainly got it's weaknesses, but so would a gold standard. Probably far more in reality. There was a reason Roosevelt changed the monetary system. It wasn't working!!.

Peace,
D.

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by AZXD

Thus we have more agreements. To the best of my knowledge, he never said we should completely revert.

No he wants to have competing currencies to prop up the dollar...WTF? He complains that printing more dollars causes inflation (true), and then turns around and wants to generate even MORE money that will compete with the dollar? Simply insane.

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by Tempest

No he wants to have competing currencies to prop up the dollar...WTF? He complains that printing more dollars causes inflation (true), and then turns around and wants to generate even MORE money that will compete with the dollar? Simply insane.

An interesting reading method. Where did you learn it ??

[Delija]

Here's a little something scary that is somewhat apropos to the issue:

Dollar's clout sinks worldwide - Yahoo! News