Should the US put itself back on the gold standard?

Great Debates
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[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig]
I’m an ass for posting in this thread, because I’ll be subjected to a ten-on-one pile-on, and I don’t even support the gold standard. But I’ll take you question as sincere and try to explain what libertarians don’t like about fiat currency.

The value of fiat currency is controlled by government and government only, and two thousand years of human experience has shown that governments can’t always be trusted to issue currency that retains its value. The United States Consumer Price Index was 51 in 1800, 41 in 1932 when we went off of a specie standard, and 615 today. This is what some people believe is broken and needs fixing.

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Thanks, I think you nailed it. They basically don’t trust governments. Never mind that bigger hashes were made of the economy with the gold standard in place.

Deflation would be no fun. Do you remember the stereotypical plot of the evil banker evicting the poor old widow from her house? That wasn’t from the poor old widow losing here money - it was from deflation making the poor old widow’s farm not earn enough to keep up with the mortgage.

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[QUOTE=Voyager]

Deflation would be no fun. Do you remember the stereotypical plot of the evil banker evicting the poor old widow from her house? That wasn’t from the poor old widow losing her money - it was from deflation making the poor old widow’s farm not earn enough to keep up with the mortgage.
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The nature of mortgage lending has changed a bit too - that’s how I heard that anyway. What in the US we consider a normal 20% down, fixed-rate 30 year mortgage is relatively new. The classic “widower going to be evicted” movie plot also stems in part because in those days, a note could be called in for the entire amount at any time. Buying a house might mean putting half down, or more, but still on the hook for the remainder depending on the lenders’ whim.

The bank might not be mean enough to do this, but the loans could be purchased on the secondary market as it were, and “called in” by the vindictive sort or land speculator.