gold standard cranks

Daniel Davies dsquared at al-islam.com
Thu Feb 27 04:50:44 PST 2003



>Please excuse my naiveté, but what is it about mentioning >the gold
>standard that gets one branded a "crank"?

Nathan is right. Basically, there has never in the history of everything been anyone who says "I am broadly in favour of the gold standard, but other economic issues are more important", or "On the balance of evidence, I tend toward the view that the gold standard would be the best of the available alternatives, but there are a few anomalies which tend to favour the other side".

It's an intrinsically right-wing position too, in that it's anti-inflation and therefore pro-creditor. Also carries with it a touch of Adorno's f-type personality; shades of both a certain degree of mystic appeal of gold, and a generalised unwillingness to trust anyone (the entire economic argument is that you "can't trust" fiat currencies).

Note, however, that one of the most famous opponents of the gold standard (back in the day in which it was a live issue) was William Jennings Bryan, so it is possible to be a crank and not favour a gold standard.

dd

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