Late To The Party
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes, once of Como Park, emails:
John Hinderaker from Powerline looks at the data and comes to the conclusion that Nixon taking us off the gold standard was a mistake.
Welcome to the club. Never too late to wake up to the truth. Now, about the 2020 election . . .
Joe Doakes
Right. Now – in both cases, what do you do about it?
May 30th, 2025 at 7:02 am
Yeah, true, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”.
May 30th, 2025 at 11:01 am
What can we do about it? Glad you asked.
First, establish a price. One Gold Dollar equals X percent of the spot price of gold. Allow the value to float with the market. Set the value low enough that we don’t get a run on the gold reserve, but make it a known value. For example, today you can buy once ounce of gold from Kitco for $3,300 Federal Reserve Notes. Let’s say you can buy a one-ounce Gold Note for $5,000 Federal Reserve Notes. Who would buy one? Anybody who wanted the stability of gold without taking actual possession. The goal is to make the Gold Dollar a stable currency linked to a real commodity, not scraps of linen backed by promises of politicians.
Second, make Gold Dollars easily to distinguish from ordinary dollars – new design, new color – and hard to fake – embedded RFID chip, maybe. Maybe make them from plastic or aluminum so they last.
Third, issue Gold Dollars from US Government offices only, not from the Federal Reserve. Most people don’t realize the Fed is not a government agency like Fish and Wildlife, it’s a weird combination of public and private entities. It’s supposedly accountable to Congress but as a practical matter, there’s little oversight. And the Fed has morphed its mission away from “maintain a stable currency” to “only steal a little each year” by setting an allowable inflation target. The Federal Reserve dollar has lost 97% of its value since its introduction in 1913, most of the loss occurring after 1975. You can continue to use Federal Reserve notes if you want, the new Gold Dollar is a parallel system, a safe haven, a store of value.
Fourth, you must bring your wheelborrows of Federal Reserve Notes to exchange for Gold Dollars so we eventually phase old money out of circulation. You can’t buy Gold Dollars at the Denver Mint nor at the local savings and loan so we control how much new money is issued. You can only redeem them at the office.
I know, the doomsayers will insist the plan will not work. It will cause inflation. It will collapse the bond market. It will make counterfeiters unhappy. It will put hedge fund managers out of work. It will make currency speculators like George Soros obsolete. It will lead mass hysteria, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, the end of days. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what’s the alternative? Wait until the US Dollar is as worthless as the Weimar mark, the Zimbabwe dollar, the Venezuelan dinar? At some point, every debased currency in history has collapsed in value. Why not take steps to soften the blow now, while we can still make the transition a soft landing?
May 30th, 2025 at 11:01 am
Dang, forgot about the moderation filter.
May 31st, 2025 at 8:15 am
Found the moderation filter trap, fixed it:
What can we do about it? Glad you asked.
First, establish a price. One Gold Dollar equals X percent of the spot price of gold. Allow the value to float with the market. Set the value low enough that we don’t get a run on the gold reserve, but make it a known value. For example, today you can buy once ounce of gold from Kitco for $3,300 Federal Reserve Notes. Let’s say you can buy a one-ounce Gold Note for $5,000 Federal Reserve Notes. Who would buy one? Anybody who wanted the stability of gold without taking actual possession. The goal is to make the Gold Dollar a stable currency linked to a real commodity, not scraps of linen backed by promises of politicians.
Second, make Gold Dollars easily to distinguish from ordinary dollars – new design, new color – and hard to fake – embedded RFID chip, maybe. Maybe make them from plastic or aluminum so they last.
Third, issue Gold Dollars from US Government offices only, not from the Federal Reserve. Most people don’t realize the Fed is not a government agency like Fish and Wildlife, it’s a weird combination of public and private entities. It’s supposedly accountable to Congress but as a practical matter, there’s little oversight. And the Fed has morphed its mission away from “maintain a stable currency” to “only steal a little each year” by setting an allowable inflation target. The Federal Reserve dollar has lost 97% of its value since its introduction in 1913, most of the loss occurring after 1975. You can continue to use Federal Reserve notes if you want, the new Gold Dollar is a parallel system, a safe haven, a store of value.
Fourth, you must bring your wheelborrows of Federal Reserve Notes to exchange for Gold Dollars so we eventually phase old money out of circulation. You can’t buy Gold Dollars at the Denver Mint nor at the local savings and loan so we control how much new money is issued. You can only redeem them at the office.
I know, the doomsayers will insist the plan will not work. It will cause inflation. It will collapse the bond market. It will make counterfeiters unhappy. It will put hedge fund managers out of work. It will make currency speculators like George Soros obsolete. It will lead mass hysteria, human sacrifice, CANINES and cats living together, the end of days. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what’s the alternative? Wait until the US Dollar is as worthless as the Weimar mark, the Zimbabwe dollar, the Venezuelan dinar? At some point, every debased currency in history has collapsed in value. Why not take steps to soften the blow now, while we can still make the transition a soft landing?
May 31st, 2025 at 9:50 am
Doomsayers. Otherwise known as experts.
Remember how the experts excoriated Trump’s tariffs as inflationary? Trump’s Economy is Roaring! Democrats Most Hurt
May 31st, 2025 at 10:34 am
Seems to me there is an easier way to curb inflation and end deficit spending. Simply invoke the Constitutional edict that only Congress can coin money. Therefore, when Treasury bonds go unsold, the Federal Reserve would be prohibited from simply adding them to their books, creating billions of new currency on the spot. If the bonds don’t sell, interest rates would rise to pitchforks-and-torches levels quickly, and the profligate spending would have to end because there would not be the money for it.
June 2nd, 2025 at 3:49 pm
It strikes me that going directly to the Constitutional gold standard would be very troubling–and the way to get to that point would be to start by appointing Fed directors who would be pledged to target zero inflation. I’m thinking you’d need at least a decade of near zero inflation before we could risk a gold standard.