300 years ago last week on the 21st September, 1717 Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Royal Mint of Great Britain, accidentally invented the gold standard.
Last month it was the 46th anniversary of President Nixon ending the gold standard. Since then the world has existed on a system of fiat paper and digital currency. It works so badly that it has lead to the global financial crisis, unending debt issues and a dramatic devaluation in sovereign currencies.
Despite this, much of the media and central banking system remain supporters of the current financial and monetary status quo.
They are so convinced that the time before fiat money was a disaster that anyone who suggests otherwise is labelled a gold-bug and told to move along.
Last week, there was a glimmer of light when the Financial Times’ Matthew C. Klein uncovered some 18-year old research into the gold standard and a recent speech by a Bank of England economist.
Mr Klein although a young man has quite an impressive journalistic c.v. He writes for FT Alphaville and Bloomberg View about the economy and financial markets.
He previously wrote for the Economist magazine and before that, Klein was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he spent more than two years studying the history of the Federal Reserve and the intellectual history of monetary economics.
Going off gold did the opposite of what many people think
Klein writing in FT Alphaville draws on research from former economics advisor to President Obama, Christina Romer:
Imagine you can choose between living in two kinds of societies:
- Dynamic world prone to wild swings and big crashes, but ultimately more growth in the long run
- Safe and stable world with greater consistency, less volatility, and much lower risk of catastrophe
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