Case for Gold: A Minority Report of the United State Gold Commission

by Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman

Book Overview

This book is a reprint of the report of the US Gold Commission originally published in the Congressional Record. As with all federal government publications, this work is public domain. Paul blamed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0932790313
• ISBN13: 9780932790316
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Cato Institute
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

book

gave this book to my son as one of his birthday gifts...he loved it! thanks

One of the best overviews of US monetary history

This book makes an excellent case for a return to a full gold standard. This is an idea that has been spurned by the economics mainstream, due in no small part to the influence of J.M. Keynes, who famously called gold the 'barbarous relic'. Fiat currencies, with their partner, fractional reserve banking, provide 'elasticity' to the money supply -- a sort of code word which means that they give to the government the ability to destroy the value of the currency at wil, inflating prices and causing a credit bubble which will inevitably pop, causing pain to both rich and poor. This book is intended for the average educated reader, so do not expect a nuanced treatment of economic theory; yet what theory there is here is pretty clearly presented. If you like this book, you should also read Murray Rothbard's "The Case for the 100% Gold Dollar", "What has the government done to our money?"; also Griffin's "The Creature from Jekyll Island", and Bonner and Wiggin's recent work, "Empire of Debt".

An economic history of the United States

This book offers a well documented, detailed account of the history of money and banking in the United States. In it, Congressman Paul outlines why fractional-reserve banking, unenforced property rights and money not backed by hard assets cause inflation, and what the consequences of inflation really are. The concepts are fairly easy to grasp. Sadly, in a noble effort to achieve the greatest amount of integrity, and originally intended for an audience of higher caliber, this scholarly work is unlikely to be read by the average layperson. Albeit comprehensible by many, it combines two subjects - history and economics - that normally force all but the most steadfast inquirers of truth to avoid. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in monetary policy and reform.

Ron Paul's Report of the U.S. Gold Comission

This book first written in the early 1980's by the honorable Congressman from Texas and Lewis Lehrman discusses the feasibility of bringing back the gold standard. Moreover, Paul makes the case for the gold standard and the case for abolishing the Federal Reserve, which has to its credit: a Great Depression, bloated government growth, skyrocketing public and private debt, stagnating economic growth, and an inflationary boom in the 1970's.Amidst, rampant inflation of the 1970's, a skyrocketing deficit... Things didn't look so good and a number of business and political leaders seriously enterained and supported the idea of reverting back to the gold standard. Sooner or later the financial institutions and fiat money cartel will abuse its power of the press and inflate us into another depression. Perhaps then instead of migrating to a world bank and currency structure, we will kill the fiat money machine once and for all.Lastly consider these words: "Under a gold standard, the amount of credit that an economy can support is determined by the economy's tangible assets, since every credit instrument is ultimately a claim on some tangible asset. But government bonds are not backed by tangible wealth, only by the government's promise to pay out of future tax revenues... A large volume of new government bonds can be sold to the public only at progressively higher interest rates. Thus, government spending under a gold standard is severely limited.... In the absence of a gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation.... This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process..." Moreover, the author also makes it known that the gold standard wouldn't have the prolonged economic distortions and vicious boom-and-bust cycles that fiat money systems have. Who was the author? None other than Alan Greenspan in an essay called Gold and Economic Freedom. When Greenspan, the Federal Reserve Chief, is face-to-face with Ron Paul... in the back of his head, he knows Paul is right and that the central bank is wrong!