Ron Paul has been the leading champion of sound money in the Congress. Here he explains why sound money means a new gold standard. The monograph is written in the clearest possible terms with the goal of explaining the basics of paper money and its effects of inflation, business cycles, and government growth. He maps out a plan to bring about a dollar that is as good as gold, one that would be protected against manipulation by government and central bankers. Part of that strategy is the minting of a new gold one but the more far-reaching plan involves a redefinition of the dollar and complete monetary competition. This monograph first appeared in 1981, and it has been in wide distribution ever since. Henry Hazlitt writes the introduction, and Murray Rothbard writes the preface.
57 pages, 6" x 9", paperback
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity
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97 of 99 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ron Paul's easy-reading 57-page monograph addresses the history and current condition of our money and banking system, which he argues is solely responsible for inflation. Dr. Paul, a rising star among presidential candidates, originally entered politics in the 1970s because of his strongly-held convictions about Austrian economics in general and honest money in particular. Among the points he makes are:
* The 1913 Federal Reserve Act made it possible to finance our catastrophic entrance into WW I.
* The Fed's structure was inherently inflationary, requiring only a fraction of gold backing for notes and deposits.
* Contrary to mainstream views, depressions are the result of creating money out of thin air, which is how Austrian economists define inflation. For obvious reasons the monetary authorities never refer to it this way, but instead describe it as Fed open market purchases, or providing "liquidity" or "accommodation." Inflation thus increases the money supply artificially, an operation identical in its effects to counterfeiting, and fosters the malinvestments that make a correction (recession) necessary.
* Unlike previous panics and recessions in which government stayed out of the way, the 1930s depression was deepened and prolonged by massive government intervention on the part of both Republican and Democratic administrations.
* Popular myth blames unions or business for inflation by jacking up wages or prices arbitrarily. This is an effect, not a cause. inflation is the prerogative of the people in charge of the money supply.
* A "modern" gold standard would end inflation and the boom-bust business cycle. It would also preserve the value of the money we save. Paul's critics please note: He is not advocating a return to some previous version of the gold standard. He wants a monetary standard untainted by government intervention. If we want liberty and control of our lives, we need to take money out of the hands of government.
Ron Paul's book includes many relevant quotes to clarify his position and make the reading more interesting. Among those he cites are Jefferson, Jackson, Webster, Sennholz, Rothbard, Mises, Hayek, and especially the Keynes of 1919.
He takes issue with the author of the past century's most popular textbook on economics, Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson, who claimed the Fed was created over the objections of the bankers. But economic history tells us otherwise, Dr. Paul notes.. The Fed was in fact created by Wall Street's biggest bankers, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Kuhn-Loeb's man, Paul Warburg, in close cooperation with key government officials.
Ron Paul's book will not make the reader a monetary economist, but it will drive home enough common sense points about money to make him or her aware of the massive fraud that constitutes our money and banking system. I recommend Dr. Paul's book highly.
* The 1913 Federal Reserve Act made it possible to finance our catastrophic entrance into WW I.
* The Fed's structure was inherently inflationary, requiring only a fraction of gold backing for notes and deposits.
* Contrary to mainstream views, depressions are the result of creating money out of thin air, which is how Austrian economists define inflation. For obvious reasons the monetary authorities never refer to it this way, but instead describe it as Fed open market purchases, or providing "liquidity" or "accommodation." Inflation thus increases the money supply artificially, an operation identical in its effects to counterfeiting, and fosters the malinvestments that make a correction (recession) necessary.
* Unlike previous panics and recessions in which government stayed out of the way, the 1930s depression was deepened and prolonged by massive government intervention on the part of both Republican and Democratic administrations.
* Popular myth blames unions or business for inflation by jacking up wages or prices arbitrarily. This is an effect, not a cause. inflation is the prerogative of the people in charge of the money supply.
* A "modern" gold standard would end inflation and the boom-bust business cycle. It would also preserve the value of the money we save. Paul's critics please note: He is not advocating a return to some previous version of the gold standard. He wants a monetary standard untainted by government intervention. If we want liberty and control of our lives, we need to take money out of the hands of government.
Ron Paul's book includes many relevant quotes to clarify his position and make the reading more interesting. Among those he cites are Jefferson, Jackson, Webster, Sennholz, Rothbard, Mises, Hayek, and especially the Keynes of 1919.
He takes issue with the author of the past century's most popular textbook on economics, Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson, who claimed the Fed was created over the objections of the bankers. But economic history tells us otherwise, Dr. Paul notes.. The Fed was in fact created by Wall Street's biggest bankers, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Kuhn-Loeb's man, Paul Warburg, in close cooperation with key government officials.
Ron Paul's book will not make the reader a monetary economist, but it will drive home enough common sense points about money to make him or her aware of the massive fraud that constitutes our money and banking system. I recommend Dr. Paul's book highly.
52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
By The Actor
Format:Paperback
Lately, if you argue that we ought to return to the gold standard, most people will look at you like you're out of your mind. Unfortunately, most people don't really understand economics.
Read this book if:
- You aren't quite sure what the gold standard is or why we should do it, or if you've never really thought about the issue.
- You're absolutely convinced that the idea is crazy.
- You don't understand what's wrong with inflation or the effect it's having on you.
- You're concerned with the direction of the economy.
- You already believe in the gold standard and want to learn how to defend it better.
- You're a voter. The gold standard may be a big issue in the 2008 election. Plus, Ron Paul himself is running for President; if you're not familiar with him, this book is a great way to find out more about a lot of his positions on economics (I'd also recommend his "Mises and Austrian Economics," which I'm reading now, for that). If you haven't decided who you're going to vote for yet or are unsure as to exactly what you think about the gold standard, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It will certainly help you be an informed voter for this, and future, elections.
For that matter, I recommend this book to just about everyone. This book really helped me understand the issues better. This book avoids using too much economic jargon or getting too technical. It doesn't get bogged down in trivial details. It is concise enough that you can read it fairly quickly, but it is still packed with information. Even if you don't have much training in economics or the word "economics" puts you to sleep (if you had a boring econ professor in college) or gives you a panic attack (if you took econ and hated it), I'd urge you to read this book.
Read this book if:
- You aren't quite sure what the gold standard is or why we should do it, or if you've never really thought about the issue.
- You're absolutely convinced that the idea is crazy.
- You don't understand what's wrong with inflation or the effect it's having on you.
- You're concerned with the direction of the economy.
- You already believe in the gold standard and want to learn how to defend it better.
- You're a voter. The gold standard may be a big issue in the 2008 election. Plus, Ron Paul himself is running for President; if you're not familiar with him, this book is a great way to find out more about a lot of his positions on economics (I'd also recommend his "Mises and Austrian Economics," which I'm reading now, for that). If you haven't decided who you're going to vote for yet or are unsure as to exactly what you think about the gold standard, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It will certainly help you be an informed voter for this, and future, elections.
For that matter, I recommend this book to just about everyone. This book really helped me understand the issues better. This book avoids using too much economic jargon or getting too technical. It doesn't get bogged down in trivial details. It is concise enough that you can read it fairly quickly, but it is still packed with information. Even if you don't have much training in economics or the word "economics" puts you to sleep (if you had a boring econ professor in college) or gives you a panic attack (if you took econ and hated it), I'd urge you to read this book.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a university-trained and licensed financial professional, I fully accepted the monetary status quo. Like most people, I probably would have never given the Federal Reserve System a second thought if I had not been drawn into libertarian political philosophy, based in large part by my appreciation for what I considered "the free market."
When I first encountered anti-Fed arguments, it did not make me abandon the views of the Wall Street Journal (to which I faithfully subscribed) or Kudlow & Company (which was set on "Season Pass" on my TiVo), but rather, I steadfastly defended the Fed in the face of largely baseless and inaccurate attacks by people who had watched Freedom to Fascism and skimmed through The Creature from Jekyll Island. These people were so irrational and so flat-out wrong, that I dismissed Ron Paul's monetary views as crankery and thought he was a good candidate "in spite" of his monetary views.
I doubt I ever would have read this book if not for the fact I was contracted to write a series of articles about gold and silver, one of which was to be about Ron Paul's monetary-policy views.
I read this book in one sitting and it was like a kick in the stomach. It is a very odd experience to realize that everything you believed was horribly wrong in a matter of two hours or so.
What makes this concise little book so excellent is that (1) it doesn't deal in conspiracy theories, and (2) it is backed up by solid free-market economic principles. Ron Paul's view at the time was to instate a gold-coin standard, but he was also open to free-market money and free banking. Now, he's pretty much dropped the former and instead argues exclusively for the latter. He never, as Aaron Russo does in Freedom to Fascism, advocates greater government (as opposed to Fed) control of the printing presses -- the nightmare scenario that's causing 12-million-percent inflation in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. This was my main hang-up when I was defending the Fed -- I thought the alternative was greater government control, which is what many of the right-wing conspiracy kooks advocate!
Secondly, this book -- in a little over 50 pages -- answers all of the objections to monetary gold that I had (and most university-brainwashed finance students will have), such as the ridiculous (I see now) idea that moderate inflation promotes economic growth and a stable money supply is deflationary. A third great thing about the book: It gives a very brief, but informative, history of money and banking in the United States.
The only negative thing I can say about the book is that Ron Paul's predictions at the time this was written, turned out to be way off. Thus, this book would be easily "discredited" by neocons and liberals and used to defend the inflationary system, since the ills Dr. Paul saw in the future did not come to pass in the 80's. But 2008 is a lot different from 1978, what with China and the euro and another thirty years of monetary expansion. I think Ron Paul will, sadly, be proved right in his dire predictions, even if his timing was off by three decades.
When I first encountered anti-Fed arguments, it did not make me abandon the views of the Wall Street Journal (to which I faithfully subscribed) or Kudlow & Company (which was set on "Season Pass" on my TiVo), but rather, I steadfastly defended the Fed in the face of largely baseless and inaccurate attacks by people who had watched Freedom to Fascism and skimmed through The Creature from Jekyll Island. These people were so irrational and so flat-out wrong, that I dismissed Ron Paul's monetary views as crankery and thought he was a good candidate "in spite" of his monetary views.
I doubt I ever would have read this book if not for the fact I was contracted to write a series of articles about gold and silver, one of which was to be about Ron Paul's monetary-policy views.
I read this book in one sitting and it was like a kick in the stomach. It is a very odd experience to realize that everything you believed was horribly wrong in a matter of two hours or so.
What makes this concise little book so excellent is that (1) it doesn't deal in conspiracy theories, and (2) it is backed up by solid free-market economic principles. Ron Paul's view at the time was to instate a gold-coin standard, but he was also open to free-market money and free banking. Now, he's pretty much dropped the former and instead argues exclusively for the latter. He never, as Aaron Russo does in Freedom to Fascism, advocates greater government (as opposed to Fed) control of the printing presses -- the nightmare scenario that's causing 12-million-percent inflation in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. This was my main hang-up when I was defending the Fed -- I thought the alternative was greater government control, which is what many of the right-wing conspiracy kooks advocate!
Secondly, this book -- in a little over 50 pages -- answers all of the objections to monetary gold that I had (and most university-brainwashed finance students will have), such as the ridiculous (I see now) idea that moderate inflation promotes economic growth and a stable money supply is deflationary. A third great thing about the book: It gives a very brief, but informative, history of money and banking in the United States.
The only negative thing I can say about the book is that Ron Paul's predictions at the time this was written, turned out to be way off. Thus, this book would be easily "discredited" by neocons and liberals and used to defend the inflationary system, since the ills Dr. Paul saw in the future did not come to pass in the 80's. But 2008 is a lot different from 1978, what with China and the euro and another thirty years of monetary expansion. I think Ron Paul will, sadly, be proved right in his dire predictions, even if his timing was off by three decades.
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Ron Paul is truely an American treasure and desperately needed today.
This book should be required reading in economics, or history courses or by the general public. It explains things in a clear, concise, and easily understood manner. Read more
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loved this book!
i loved this book! i think every American should read this to understand the problems with our money! worth every min of reading
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GOLD, PEACE AND PROSPERITY
So, WHERE IS THE "advice for prosperity"? Should I too write books without substance or character and pawn it offf as one worth a dime? I think not--PASS ON THIS ONE!!
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Thoughtful critique.
Save your money, this creep is a moron. His writing is amateurish and his logic is nonexistent. What was he smoking?
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