Ron Paul does NOT want to return to a Gold Standard.

[freshjiva]

As gold has been discussed on this board a lot lately, this video settles the debate on what Dr Paul's position on monetary policy and currency is:

Skip to 7:15 in this video:

YouTube - CNBC Interview Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTly1CPNFPw&feature=channel)

[dannno]

I think he'd prefer a gold standard to fiat, but a true free market that allows the market to decide would be optimal.

[Vessol]

This has been one of the biggest misconceptions people have had of Ron Paul.

There was even a game back in 2008 on Xbox Indie Games called 'Angry Barry' where you played as Obama and beat up people for their votes.

Anyways I noticed a reference which was neat and annoying at the same time

A BLIMP in the background with 'GOLD STANDARD REVOLUTION' written on it. :\

[sevin]

A very common misconception. The answer is competing currencies.

[Stary Hickory]

Yep competing currencies is the best....the gold standard is at least honest accounting though. Either would be a huge improvement. I'd like to see a competing gold standard with the dollar in the US. No need to abolish the FED, just see if it can compete with 100% reserve, nofraud, gold standard backed currency.

I think we all know who the winner would be in such a match up. But the men with guns are making sure the people never get that choice

[.Tom]

People love to misconstrue this issue. Ron Paul is for competing currencies and ultimately a true free market in money. The fed is only "private" in a corporatist since, not a free market since. It's inherently a statist institution, just like having Kroger given a legal, absolute monopoly on selling food would make it a statist institution.

Private + given a coercive monopoly = bad and not really private and totally not free market.

End the fed!

[idirtify]

As gold has been discussed on this board a lot lately, this video settles the debate on what Dr Paul's position on monetary policy and currency is:

Skip to 7:15 in this video:

YouTube - CNBC Interview Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTly1CPNFPw&feature=channel)

At the end, Gregg repeatedly insisted that he wasn’t allowed to finish his sentence. But when the moderator told him to finish, he merely repeated an old point that had already been refuted. What a loser!

[trey4sports]

At the end, Gregg repeatedly insisted that he wasn’t allowed to finish his sentence. But when the moderator told him to finish, he merely repeated an old point that had already been refuted. What a loser!

This reminds me of so many interviews back in the day when ron couldn't get one damn point in, and now the other guys can't do shit.

About time

[Vessol]

I brought up once to one of my teachers that competing currencies within an area or a nation is great and that the government should dictate what is and what isn't legal tender.

He then asked me "But how would the government tax that for the money it needs?" I proceed to facepalm myself and explain the whole reason for legal tender laws are so the government can guarentee that it will get the biggest share with taxes. He called me an anarchist :\.

[emazur]

Isn't it more accurate to say Ron Paul does not want to return to the OLD gold standard? Yes he supports competing currencies and so do I. But best I can tell, he does indeed support a 100% gold backed currency issued by the government, which is constitutional.
From End the Fed, pg. 203-204:
"In an ideal world, the Fed would be abolished forthwith and the money stock frozen in place. That doesn't mean that there would be no more credit; rather , credit would be rooted in money saved, not money created. Congress would remove the Fed's charter, and the president would stop appointing Fed governors. Its buildings could be used for other purposes, perhaps bought by private banks that would operate as regular businesses. At the same time, the dollar would be reformed so that it again would become redeemable in gold. The government's gold stock could be used to guarantee this convertibility at home and abroad. All remaining powers associated with money could then be transferred to the U.S. Treasury, but now there would be a check on what government did with its power."

Shortly after that, he talks about he we shouldn't have wait for the Fed to end so competing currencies should be made legal now, which is what he talks about in the video. Elsewhere in End the Fed, he talks about the "honest to god" 100% gold backed U.S. dollar, but the book doesn't have an index and I couldn't find that part to provide a quote.

[LibertarianfromGermany]

He called me an anarchist :\.

Could be worse Vessol :)