Gold Standard

Only two things can save the Fed at this point. One is a bailout by the federal government. This recapitalization could be financed by taxes or by monetizing government debt in another blow to the value of the currency.

Recorded at the Mises Circle in Houston, Sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis; Saturday, 24 January 2009.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1934 Gold Reserve Act was the greatest theft of wealth I'm aware of in American history:

I conclude with an important final warning: naturally (and I must never tire of repeating it) the solution I propose is only valid in the context of an irrevocable decision to establish a free-banking system subject to a 100% reserve requirement on demand deposits.

Recorded in Houston, Texas; October 27, 1984.

Presented at the Mises Institute’s first conference, November 16-17, 1983; in Washington, DC.

Presented at the Mises Institute’s first conference, November 16-17, 1983; in Washington, DC.

People must relearn that free-market money, or sound money, as Mises put it, is the indispensable element for preserving the free societal order.

Recorded at the Toronto Stock Exchange; September 16-17, 1999.

What is amazing about America circa 2008 is not the citizens' money illusion — history has seen that aplenty — but the utter lack of resistance to it.