The Missing Cause

Walter Williams On The 2012 Election And Sound Money | ZeroHedge: "Walter Williams: Keep in mind something that Richard Nixon said to John Ehrlichman, who warned that Milton Friedman, an economist and Nobel laureate, advised against the policy Nixon was pursuing. Nixon’s response was, “Milton Friedman is not running for reelection.” These people in Washington have commitments and responsibilities that I don’t have. I don’t owe anybody anything, so I can be perfectly honest. When you are trying to get reelected, or appointed to a high-level position, or hoping to have a high-paying job when you leave government, you just can’t say the sort of things I am free to say.

CR: Will we ever return to fiscal responsibility when there is no constraint on how many dollars can be produced?

Walter Williams: The gold standard is a discipline for the monetary authorities. It restricts their ability to print money. Without a gold standard, the only restriction is the political arena’s restraint that has been shown around the world to be insufficient. Our founders feared fiat money.

CR: Americans seem to have forgotten that.

Walter Williams: Not so much forgotten as just observed that such a restraint on government limits my ability to live off my fellow Americans. At the Democratic National Convention in 1896, William Jennings Bryan, one of the first so-called “progressives,” gave a speech – the “Cross of Gold” speech – condemning the high rate of silver-to-gold convertibility. [Bryan called for the inflationary free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16:1 to gold. His answer to the demand for a gold standard: “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”] At that time, we had presidents like Grover Cleveland, who fought against the weakening of the dollar and against moving away from the gold standard.

CR: That’s certainly not a cause championed by Barack Obama."

And now you know why I'd be thrilled to vote for Walter Williams for prez since I don't seem to be allowed to vote for Thomas Sowell. Not that I have any illusions about either being on the ballot in my lifetime mind you ... because that would be evidence the world is not nuttier than a cuckoo clock ... like it clearly is. Full stop.