Gold Standard

The question if 2012 is 1980 all over again tells us why returning to gold is imperative.

A priori theory shows us that deviating from the sound-money principle leads to disastrous economic, social, and political damage.
 

The erratic volatility of gold and other commodities is the direct result of further intervention into the market through central banking.

The period between 1873 and 1894 remains one of the most misunderstood and debated in all of American economic history. To some, this era represents the greatest phase of industrial growth in the country's history.

The Fed's entire policy program suffers from the same defect that all market interventions suffer from. The moment you stop intervening, the underlying problems come to the surface again. Administrative price setting does not change economic reality, at least not for the better.

It's no mystery that Bernanke's incredible dollar pumping would send worried investors into safe-haven currencies (gold and silver) that cannot be debased. We don't need to draw up fancy models to get inside investors' heads; these people are screaming their motivations at us every day.
 

"Second-best" policy recommendations can never find perfection (by definition). But if we are going to have the government providing a monopoly of domestic currency, Ludwig von Mises's proposal for a return to a gold standard is theoretically elegant and eminently practical.