Bernanke Doesn't Understand a Gold Standard

The Paper Empire ^ | 03/02/2011 | The Paper Empire

[johnsmom]

Ben Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking yesterday, was asked about a possible return to a gold standard – his disingenuous reply was that there isn’t enough gold in the world to cover the US money supply.

This really has to be one of the most pernicious fallacies that haunts the entire discussion of money*. The truth is there is always enough gold, it is simply a matter of price. Of course the dollar denominated price of an ounce of gold would be many multiples of the current price, but that just serves to demonstrate that gold is still significantly undervalued at the current levels. Creating a gold standard for the Dollar is simply a matter of dividing the total weight of gold that provides the backing, by the money supply to be backed. Each dollar is redeemable for a fixed weight of gold. The price does not matter. What matters is that new dollars cannot be created out of thin air without adding a proportional weight of gold to the reserves.** This is why Bernanke does not want a gold standard and perpetuates simple myths about money.

The Federal Reserve is arguably the most powerful institution in the world as it maintains the sole legal right to counterfeit the world’s reserve currency without limit and without oversight. This allows them to bail out the too big to fail banks, manipulate currencies, support foreign central banks and corporations and allow near endless government spending above and beyond what the government can pay for through direct taxation. A true, enforceable gold standard would put an immediate end to all of that. Responsible people who live within their means and save would not have the efforts of their labor stolen through inflation. These are all positive outcomes. So the problem isn’t that there is too little gold in the world but rather too little discipline and honesty in Washington DC.

[SunkenCiv]

from the FRchives:

• What Andrew Jackson did

[surfer]

Yeah the current games they are playing have worked out so well for us!

[CowboyJay]

We shouldn’t mix cause & effect though. Those graphs are predicated on the idea that “gold holds its value not matter what”.

It does. Unlike FRN, PG has a relatively stable (thousands of years) historic exchange value in terms of capital (land, other PM's, copper, steel, et c.,.). Its supply has increased at roughly the same rate as the human population which makes it uniquely suitable for indexing other commodities and currencies. Hence the vernacular term "Gold Standard".

"Then the third part of those graphs is the drop after 2000, which clearly represents the rise in gold price."

A wholly incorrect assertion. That part of the graph represents the massive dollar devaluation that has occurred over the past 10+ years. IOW - a big haircut in terms of absolute affluence for those who take their earnings, or hold assets denominated in USD. PG has risen only moderately vs. basic input commodities, which means it's not a bubble that we're seeing so much as a simultaneous collapse in purchasing power of the USD and Euro.



Beginning to wonder if THIS GUY is setting monetary policy at the Fed.

[Christian Engineer Mass]

I’m not disagreeing with you that there’s a bunch of shenanigans going on, but I’m trying to inject some thoughtfulness into the debate. Things are not so simple as many believe.

[M-cubed]

Hmmmmm........Not a peep.......from a 25 yr old smart ass....

“argumentum ad antiquitum”.<<<..I rest my case Your Honor!

[M-cubed]

Frucking rocket scientist...Trust me here....*G*