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despite the consensus among professional economists that a gold-standard prevented governments from responding quickly to monetary crises; when an economy falte

despite the consensus among professional economists that a gold-standard prevented governments from responding quickly to monetary crises; when an economy faltered, treasuries couldn’t easily manufacture gold bars to stimulate it. this is a feature not a bug. the economists who support government monetarism are shills.

davidw 17y ago
No, the "shills" are the ones that don't agree with me. (Which is the reason these topics get avoided here: like everywhere else on the internet, they turn smart people into name-callers)
- nazgulnarsil 17y ago
  random internet people are different from trained economists. the economists know better. go talk to an economics professor or a professional economic analyst. I have yet to encounter one who wouldn't call the major economic advisers political shills.
  - philwelch 17y ago
    I've yet to encounter very many who actually like the gold standard, unless you're talking about self-trained "economists" who learned little more than a series of reasonable-sounding economic arguments for anarcho-capitalism.
ubernostrum 17y ago
Bug Report What steps will reproduce the problem? 1. Crash global economy. 2. Have nothing on hand other than large stockpile of gold bars. What is the expected output? Gold will magically transmute into food, water, ammunition and shelter. What do you see instead? Gold remains inedible, non-potable, unsuitable for use as ammunition and too heavy for use as shelter-building material.
- nazgulnarsil 17y ago
  this is rhetoric. everything that you've written applies to paper money just as much if not more so.
  - ubernostrum 17y ago
    Except nobody claims that paper money will be some sort of magical hedge against the collapse of western civilization. Some folks do seem to think that way about gold...
philwelch 17y ago
I'm inclined to agree with you, but there are other bugs in the gold standard: -Gold rushes cause unpredictable, often high inflation. The Nevada silver rush proved bimetallism (a gold standard combined with a silver standard) untenable. -The lack of a gold rush causes deflation. -Actually useful goods (i.e. gold) are overloaded with value due to being legal tender. This causes inefficiencies, because if you actually need gold to use as a metal, you have to pay more because there's artificial demand for it. Likewise, an artificially high amount of capital and labor is invested in gold mining.

davidw 17y ago

No, the "shills" are the ones that don't agree with me. (Which is the reason these topics get avoided here: like everywhere else on the internet, they turn smart people into name-callers)

nazgulnarsil 17y ago
random internet people are different from trained economists. the economists know better. go talk to an economics professor or a professional economic analyst. I have yet to encounter one who wouldn't call the major economic advisers political shills.
- philwelch 17y ago
  I've yet to encounter very many who actually like the gold standard, unless you're talking about self-trained "economists" who learned little more than a series of reasonable-sounding economic arguments for anarcho-capitalism.

ubernostrum 17y ago

Bug Report What steps will reproduce the problem? 1. Crash global economy. 2. Have nothing on hand other than large stockpile of gold bars. What is the expected output? Gold will magically transmute into food, water, ammunition and shelter. What do you see instead? Gold remains inedible, non-potable, unsuitable for use as ammunition and too heavy for use as shelter-building material.

nazgulnarsil 17y ago
this is rhetoric. everything that you've written applies to paper money just as much if not more so.
- ubernostrum 17y ago
  Except nobody claims that paper money will be some sort of magical hedge against the collapse of western civilization. Some folks do seem to think that way about gold...

philwelch 17y ago

I'm inclined to agree with you, but there are other bugs in the gold standard: -Gold rushes cause unpredictable, often high inflation. The Nevada silver rush proved bimetallism (a gold standard combined with a silver standard) untenable. -The lack of a gold rush causes deflation. -Actually useful goods (i.e. gold) are overloaded with value due to being legal tender. This causes inefficiencies, because if you actually need gold to use as a metal, you have to pay more because there's artificial demand for it. Likewise, an artificially high amount of capital and labor is invested in gold mining.