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I'm not sure we ever mentioned it on these threads. RP does have more support among libertarian Republican economists and there is a lot of interest from folks at TheStreet.com in many of his ideas about the free market and Wall Street and the banking system. The management of the Fed is heavily disputed currently, especially with Bernanke devaluing the dollar to the point where it is worth no more now than a Canadian dollar for the first time in 31 years (a 30%-50% drop).

I'm not at all endorsing Bernanke or his policies but the idea of returning to the Gold standard is absurd for a handful of reasons, just for starters:

a.) There is a finite amount of gold in the world, and the appeal of 'limiting the amount of (gold-based) currency the government can print' will institute fiscal restraints that may or may not have positive effects. For example, how do these libertarians who want to place their faith in Gold propose to handle the inevitable moment when all U.S. currency printed prior to the return to the Gold standard becomes invalid and worthless? Can we say riots in the streets? Oh but that's ok, let 'em riot, right? (because we won't be able to afford to pay the cops to stop the riots)

b.) What does President Ron Paul propose to do in the event that the rest of the nations refuse to return to the Gold standard?

c.) It's easy to holler and demand a return to a metal-based currency, what isn't so easy is to recognize how such a decision would play out in the real world.

I'm not at all endorsing Bernanke or his policies but the idea of returning to the Gold standard is absurd for a handful of reasons, just for starters:

Ron Paul does not demand or envision a complete return to a gold standard. He never has.

The United States has never had an entirely gold-backed currency, contrary to what many people believe.

Ron Paul advocates offering a gold/silver/copper currency in competition with the Fed's fiat money, not as a complete and/or immediate replacement for paper money. You might know this if you bothered to read our comments instead of scouring the St*rmfr*nt and D.U. for anti-Paul material or searching out shrimp pictures for more of your bogus earmark posts which I think you do know to be false. Certainly, your support for a FDT, a real earmarker, shows you don't give a crap about the issue to begin with but you have undoubtedly had a lot of fun stirring up the Paul-haters and FUDding away. That is, after all, your real purpose as it is with the other habitual Paul-haters at FR.

The reason is to stabilize the value of the currency and guard against the constant deflation of the currency, the periodic attempts (2002-2006) to punish anyone who won't plunge themselves into massive debt, the inevitable bank bailouts that follow (the S&L bailout of the first Bush presidency, the imminent bailout of the big banks over their insane loan practices in recent years). And that's not even including the fact that our dollar is now trading evenly against the Canadian dollar for the first time in 31 years, a devaluation of your savings and purchasing power of 30%-50%.