The gold standard was a contributing cause of the great depression?

[tangent4ronpaul]

First I've heard this argument. Can anyone explain this?

The statement was made by James Mann on Washington Journal a few minutes ago.

http://james-mann.com/

-t

[Travlyr]

Did he mention Adam Smith’s Real Bills doctrine?

Professor Antal E. Fekete (http://www.professorfekete.com/default.asp)

You are right, the gold standard is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for
achieving lower unemployment. A necessary and sufficient condition would
assume that Adam Smith’s Real Bills doctrine is also rehabilitated along with the
gold standard.

[tangent4ronpaul]

No, that's all he said to dismiss a question on the gold standard. They were talking about the visit/dinner for China and our dependence on that country, including financial.

-t

[LibertyIn08]

You can only maintain two of the lower three at any given time:

* A fixed exchange rate.
* Free capital movement (absence of capital controls).
* An independent monetary policy.

One look at the unholy trinity (trilemma of international monetary economics) and it is clear why that was the case.

[Travlyr]

It is incumbent upon as many of us as possible to understand the gold standard (http://www.professorfekete.com/default.asp) because our one true collective enemy is the power rulers achieve by counterfeiting fiat money. The attacks on the gold standard will likely increase.

[YumYum]

In 1926 Montagu Norman, the governor of the Bank of England, met secretly with the New York Federal Reserve and dictated that America's gold reserves be shipped to England to help Europe's central banks. In doing so, this caused interest rates to drop and created easy credit and a bubble in the stock market evolved. This also inflated the dollar. In February of 1929, Norman came to New York and told the banksters to get out of the stock market and buy treasuries; the stock market was going to crash. Talk about inside trading!

[xd9fan]

please read:
http://www.gata.org/files/Vieira-ACrossOfGold-10-21-2010.pdf

[Travlyr]

please read:
http://www.gata.org/files/Vieira-ACrossOfGold-10-21-2010.pdf

Excellent ... excellent ... paper.
+ rep


The true perversity of the present situation lies in the indication—indeed, in some quarters
the expectation—that this scheme for a new supra-national monetary order will be sold to a doubting
world by attaching some sort of “gold standard” to it. This could be used as the bait to entice naive
people tired of monetary instability caused by international bankers to bite on the hook of supra-
national management of their economies by the selfsame international bankers.

Beyond any doubt, however, whatever will be offered will not be even a traditional “gold
standard”, perforce of which the issuer of a unit of paper currency (or bank credit solvable in that
currency) will be required by law to exchange each unit of its currency for a fixed weight of gold
upon demand by the holder of that currency. Neither will it be a true “gold standard”, in which the
only actual unit of money is a fixed weight of gold, and everything else is merely an instrument of
debt without final “legal tender” force as currency. So, even with whatever thin gold veneer may be
provided (if that is the ruse to be used), the new supra-national global currency will be a deception
from its inception.

In light of the precedents, though, notwithstanding its inherent instability the new swindle
may be able to perdure for perhaps another forty (40) years, during which time tremendous further
looting, waste of resources, and other damage will be visited upon the peoples of the world.

Again, what is to be done by Americans to forefend this?
Basically, they have two choices:
(1) Americans can try to salvage, “repair”, “restore”, and then control the present Federal
Reserve System. Or,
(2) They can provide themselves with an entirely new currency, preferably before the present
one completely self-destructs.

[Travlyr]

This paper addresses the root of our problems...


So long as a government has the power over a people that is provided by an
irredeemable currency, all efforts to stop a government disposed to lead a people into
socialism tend to be, and probably will be futile. The people of the United States have
observed all sorts of efforts, organized and individual, to bring pressure upon Congress
to end its spending orgy and processes of socialization. It should be amply clear by this
time that none of these efforts has succeeded. Moreover, there is no reason for
supposing that any of them, except the restoration of redeemability, can succeed in
arresting our march into socialism.

For any of you who are looking for a cause to rally around which will solve much of our social problems, please take the time to read this presentation ... Vieira nails it.


So why are not more of the champions of sound money, limited government, and free markets
actively promoting the adoption of an alternative gold currency?

The present economic crisis presents the best opportunity since 1932 for taking the steps
necessary and sufficient to free the American people from their thralldom to the Federal Reserve
System and the vicious factions behind it. Under the pressure of this crisis, common people are finally
awakening to their predicament, and sensing what needs to be done—because, as Samuel Johnson
once observed, nothing focuses a man’s mind more sharply than his impending hanging. Moreover,
this may be the last opportunity of its kind for a long time to come. For if “the financial community”
can succeed in jury-rigging some supra-national global currency and central bank, the Ponzi scheme
of fiat currency can probably be kept inflated for another generation, until a final, utterly catastrophic
breakdown sweeps across the entire world.

So, the American people must be convinced now—immediately, if not sooner—ahora
mismo—that this country’s economy cannot be restored by mere repair or renovation of the existing
edifice of money and banking, but only by its total replacement. The present structure is rotten to
its very foundations, and even below. It lacks the capacity to survive—and can claim no right to be
saved. A new structure must be built from the ground up, on a new site, according to a different plan,
with better workmen. If this can be accomplished, then for the first time in generations Americans,
indeed all of mankind, will enjoy honest weights and measures in the monetary field—and with that
reform, will have a realistic hope to restore honest commerce and honest politics as well.

http://www.gata.org/files/Vieira-ACr...10-21-2010.pdf