Author says currency wars could crash the dollar...

[wgadget]

I just listened to James Rickards on a radio show and he sounded very informed. He is probably a Ron Paul guy. Anyway, I found this review of his new book in USA Today from a couple of days ago.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/...ars/52233544/1

[hazek]

Don't fall for it. Yes he is very informed, yes he is being honest about what's going on but he doesn't share our beliefs about sound money and free market regulations. He wants to fix the system the way he knows how and keep it running.

So sure, listen to him for what's going on, but do your due diligence before you follow his advice about what we're suppose to do about it.

[wgadget]

There is a sentence in the article where he says he'd like a flexible form of a gold standard to come back. Doesn't sound too far off from Ron. He is also predicting the government will inflate to kill the debt problem.

[wgadget]

Rickards, never an optimist, maintains that the most plausible scenario moving forward is a chaotic debasement of the dollar, characterized by a gradual loss in investor confidence and created "like an avalanche brought about by the layering of one last financial snowflake on an unstable mountainside of debt."

This hypothetical scenario, he admits, is not inevitable. A gradual move away from the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency has the potential to bring about a softer landing, as does the growth in use of the Special Drawing Rights, an existing medium of exchange between nations issued by the International Monetary Fund. Still, the best way to ensure financial stability, he argues, would be the adoption of a "flexible gold standard," in which major currencies are linked to the price of gold, as they were in past periods of global economic calm: prior to World War I and in the two decades following World War II.

Like his radical dollar pessimism, Rickards' nostalgia for gold places him well outside the mainstream of contemporary economics. On the whole, his provocative ideas are sure to find critics on both sides of the political aisle.

[hazek]

Yeah that's the real problem with him isn't? He wants a certain form, he's not saying I want the market to choose, no, he says "I think this form would be best". He has a pretense of knowledge no man can have and that's why I said don't fall for it. He knows a lot about what's happening but he doesn't share our beliefs.

[hazek]

Still, the best way to ensure financial stability, he argues, would be the adoption of a "flexible gold standard," in which major currencies are linked to the price of gold, as they were in past periods of global economic calm: prior to World War I and in the two decades following World War II.

This would merely shrink the tumor. I want to cut it out and kill it.

[Blueskies]

What do you mean he doesn't share our beliefs? I've read the book and interviewed Rickards. He wants a return to the gold standard.

[hazek]

What do you mean he doesn't share our beliefs? I've read the book and interviewed Rickards. He wants a return to the gold standard.

Free market regulated gold standard? That would be news to me.

Btw I don't want to go back to the gold standard. I want to go forward to a free market competing currencies and let the market decide and regulate.

[RSLudlum]

If you're interested in following Rickards, he is a regular guest on the King World News broadcast and you can follow him on twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/JamesGRickards . I've been following him for quite a while and he does provide some very good insight.

[Bern]

Rickards is a pretty sharp analyst. His observations on the Fed, monetary policy and macro economic events can be insightful and thought provoking. I tried several times to ask him (via twitter) what he thinks about HR 1098, but I never got any response out of him.