MONEY

Multimillionaire Forbes and previous co-author Ames (Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn't, 2012, etc.) argue that a monetary system based on a sound and stable currency is “our best hope of finally achieving a genuine recovery.”

Ever since the United States abandoned the gold standard more than 40 years ago, the value of the dollar has been at the mercy of the Federal Reserve and other central banks whose policies reflect the political whims of governments. The result—a weakened dollar—has slowly destroyed wealth, destabilized the global economy and caused a host of problems, from the subprime bubble to high food and fuel prices to declining mobility and higher unemployment. Yet many in the policy establishment who are “steeped in the superstitions of Keynesian/monetarist dogma” refuse to consider the idea of a return to the gold standard out of a misplaced fear that gold would mean a “rigidly fixed money supply.” In fact, the authors write, “gold is far more flexible than people generally acknowledge.” Aiming to demystify the subject of money to help spur debate and a return to the gold standard, they offer lucid discussions of the role of money (as a means of measurement, trust and communication), the critical need for a stable monetary value, and how any artificial manipulation of currency values can produce adverse social consequences. “When money becomes unstable, trust unravels,” they note, pointing to historical ties between inflation and higher rates of crime, corruption and unrest. A return to sound money will usher in long-term growth to the benefit of both the U.S. and the global economy.

A brief, straightforward, decent case for returning the dollar to the gold standard, sure to attract opposing arguments.