Brent H
02-29-2008, 11:02 AM
Excerpts from After Monetary Collapse: Strict Reconstruction or More Bork? (http://www.goldensextant.com/Reconstruction.html#anchor11643)
These four precedents pretty well define the range of possibilities for the next discussion of monetary reform. The context will be an actual monetary collapse, perhaps as severe as that which confronted the Founders. So perhaps there will be a stormy political convention. Or perhaps the monetary question will become so fashionable that the judiciary will be moved to weigh in. But if we had to bet, we’d put our Federal Reserve Notes on an attempt by the authorities to pull a replay of the Gold Commission, some sort of council of insiders and “experts” in Keynesian or related inflationist economic theories.
Whatever the format, sound money advocates are unlikely to figure prominently in the guest list.
But in the age of the Internet, that needn’t keep them from crashing the party. To be effective, though, they’ll need to know what they want and unite around a single set of demands. They’ll also need to be willing to make a nuisance of themselves. Big time.[2]
E Pluribus Unum
The prospects for a united front are admittedly dim. The natural condition of a fractious community of libertarians is hardly a high level of organization or consensus. It will be easier for individual sound money advocates to remain indifferent and divided, each with his own private vision. But if they can’t ultimately get behind a shared concept of monetary reform, they stand no chance of having any impact on reconstruction. There will be, at best, a replay of the cacophony of independent recommendations made to the Gold Commission, many well reasoned, all, in aggregate, easily ignored.[3] This would be sadly ironic, because things will have turned out just as the hard money crowd had predicted, and the correct solutions will be found among those they are severally putting forward. Gold bugs will find themselves divided and ineffective, once more watching helplessly from the fringe as ignorant people hatch bad policies. Worse yet, they could find themselves on the defensive, scapegoated by demagogues.
So what would a useful consensus on monetary reform look like?
First prize would go to a bullet point outline, no longer than two pages, like the individual submissions to the Gold Commission. The outline should satisfy two main criteria. One is what we’ll call, with a nod to the Texas White House, the Crawford Simplicity Criterion: the proposed monetary system must be so simple that it can be readily articulated by politicians of the caliber now favored in the United States.
Better yet, make it rhyme.
Simplicity is important for several reasons. First, getting any sort of reform adopted in the context of a financial panic will be, at best, an intensely political process, not an intellectual exercise. Complicated won’t hunt. Second, the system needs to be accessible to ordinary people, not just clever financial types. The more complicated the system, the more easily the smart guys will scam it, and the sooner we’ll end up with another crisis on our hands. Third, the historical record suggests that any reform will at best be temporary. Over time, judges and politicians will sell us out. The simpler and the more transparent the system, the more difficult their task, and the longer it should take them.
Simplicity can’t be the only criterion, however. We need to keep it legal. The other main criterion must be consistency with the Constitution of the United States, properly construed.
These four precedents pretty well define the range of possibilities for the next discussion of monetary reform. The context will be an actual monetary collapse, perhaps as severe as that which confronted the Founders. So perhaps there will be a stormy political convention. Or perhaps the monetary question will become so fashionable that the judiciary will be moved to weigh in. But if we had to bet, we’d put our Federal Reserve Notes on an attempt by the authorities to pull a replay of the Gold Commission, some sort of council of insiders and “experts” in Keynesian or related inflationist economic theories.
Whatever the format, sound money advocates are unlikely to figure prominently in the guest list.
But in the age of the Internet, that needn’t keep them from crashing the party. To be effective, though, they’ll need to know what they want and unite around a single set of demands. They’ll also need to be willing to make a nuisance of themselves. Big time.[2]
E Pluribus Unum
The prospects for a united front are admittedly dim. The natural condition of a fractious community of libertarians is hardly a high level of organization or consensus. It will be easier for individual sound money advocates to remain indifferent and divided, each with his own private vision. But if they can’t ultimately get behind a shared concept of monetary reform, they stand no chance of having any impact on reconstruction. There will be, at best, a replay of the cacophony of independent recommendations made to the Gold Commission, many well reasoned, all, in aggregate, easily ignored.[3] This would be sadly ironic, because things will have turned out just as the hard money crowd had predicted, and the correct solutions will be found among those they are severally putting forward. Gold bugs will find themselves divided and ineffective, once more watching helplessly from the fringe as ignorant people hatch bad policies. Worse yet, they could find themselves on the defensive, scapegoated by demagogues.
So what would a useful consensus on monetary reform look like?
First prize would go to a bullet point outline, no longer than two pages, like the individual submissions to the Gold Commission. The outline should satisfy two main criteria. One is what we’ll call, with a nod to the Texas White House, the Crawford Simplicity Criterion: the proposed monetary system must be so simple that it can be readily articulated by politicians of the caliber now favored in the United States.
Better yet, make it rhyme.
Simplicity is important for several reasons. First, getting any sort of reform adopted in the context of a financial panic will be, at best, an intensely political process, not an intellectual exercise. Complicated won’t hunt. Second, the system needs to be accessible to ordinary people, not just clever financial types. The more complicated the system, the more easily the smart guys will scam it, and the sooner we’ll end up with another crisis on our hands. Third, the historical record suggests that any reform will at best be temporary. Over time, judges and politicians will sell us out. The simpler and the more transparent the system, the more difficult their task, and the longer it should take them.
Simplicity can’t be the only criterion, however. We need to keep it legal. The other main criterion must be consistency with the Constitution of the United States, properly construed.