Tag Archives: Gold Standard

Going for the Gold

The Republican Party’s 2012 platform calls for the establishment of a “Gold Committee,” to explore ways of returning to the gold standard. It would also call for or conduct an audit of the Federal Reserve. The gold standard has been a favorite hobby of the GOP, off and on, for many years. The last gold […]

August 27, 2012 – 11:04 am | By admin | Posted in History, Money | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Ron Paul, the Gold Standard and Neo Confederates

Ron Paul, the Texas Congressman, is now chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Monetary Policy, which means he gets to hold hearings into the Federal Reserve and to push his pet project, the gold standard. I like the fact that Paul wants to open the Fed to criticism. I’d criticize it too, […]

February 10, 2011 – 2:20 pm | By admin | Posted in History, Money | Tagged , , , , | Comments (35)

Money and Making Sense

You say you don’t really understand money? You’re in good company–look at  how J.P.  Morgan, the titan of Wall Street, king of the bankers, richest man in the world, talked about money. Morgan is here testifying before the Pujo committee, investigating the Panic of 1907.[1. You can find the full text of Morgan’s testimony before […]

December 6, 2010 – 12:58 pm | By admin | Posted in Money | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (9)

Rhetoric of the Gold Fetish

In anthropology, a “fetish” is an object believed to have magical powers. A rabbit’s foot, a horseshoe, a lucky coin: these are “fetishes,” material things supposedly animated by magic power. They can ward off bad times. Historically, when Americans talked about the gold standard, they often talked about it as magical. Gold would make bad […]

November 23, 2010 – 3:09 pm | By admin | Posted in Money | Tagged , , , , | Comments (20)

The Gold Standard of Lunacy

The gold standard is coming back in a a big way. Not only do a number of recently elected congressman and Senators favor a return to the gold standard: the President of the World Bank recently initiated a conversation about returning to gold, and the New York Times recently ran an editorial by James Grant […]

November 16, 2010 – 6:18 pm | By admin | Posted in History, Money, Top Posts | Tagged , , , , | Comments (32)