United Liberty

Oh hallelujah. From my friend Michael Bastasch at the Daily Caller News Foundation:

At the Idaho GOP convention in Twin Falls, the state GOP decided to preserve the platform of abolishing the Federal Reserve Bank and instituting dollars backed by gold and silver.

“We recognize the failure of the Federal Reserve System to maintain a sound U.S. dollar and the danger of mercantile banks controlling the issuance of our currency. We believe the Federal Reserve Bank should be abolished and the issuing power restored to the people with the stipulation that the U.S. dollar be backed by gold and silver,” reads the recently adopted 2012 platform.

The platform goes even further and encourages Idahoans to acquire precious metals.

“We believe Idahoans need to protect their savings from the ravages of inflation, which is hidden taxation, and encourage citizens to participate in a systematic acquisition of precious metals which represent real value as opposed to paper currencies,” the platform continues.

An Idaho GOP spokesperson declined to comment on the record about the state party’s 2012 platform and the platform of abolishing the Fed and instituting U.S. dollars backed by gold and silver plank.

What more did you need to say, other than “It’s awesome!”?

I may disagree with a lot of the Ron Paul types on here, but that’s mostly with strategy, with only a little quibble over the ideology itself. I have always been a proponent of the gold standard, once I discovered how far our dollar’s value had dimished under a fiat currency system. Without a hard backing to the currency, the government—through either rampant Congressional (and, these days, Presidential) spending, or monetary manipulation through the Federal Reserve—can and will destroy the very money it relies upon in order to keep running.

The end result has been higher prices across the board, poorer Americans (as the dollars in their wallets no longer buy as much) and unimaginable mountains of debt. If the government couldn’t print money, and had to rely only on the gold bars stored at Ft. Knox, I doubt we would have any worries about the impending fiscal apocalypse.

Charles Kadlec, writing in Forbes this past February, gives a great example of why fiat currency is so dangerous:

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) has made it official:  After its latest two day meeting, it announced its goal to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years.  The debauch of the dollar will be even greater if the Fed exceeds its goal of a 2 percent per year increase in the price level.

An increase in the price level of 2% in any one year is barely noticeable.  Under a gold standard, such an increase was uncommon, but not unknown.  The difference is that when the dollar was as good as gold, the years of modest inflation would be followed, in time, by declining prices. As a consequence, over longer periods of time, the price level was unchanged.  A dollar 20 years hence was still worth a dollar.

But, an increase of 2% a year over a period of 20 years will lead to a 50% increase in the price level.  It will take 150 (2032) dollars to purchase the same basket of goods 100 (2012) dollars can buy today.  What will be called the “dollar” in 2032 will be worth one-third less (100/150) than what we call a dollar today.

How anyone can call our economic system “free market” when its currency—literally, the economy’s lifeblood itself—is so blatantly warped and manipulated by government officials, bought out by big business—is beyond me.

Of course, I don’t think we’re going to go to a gold standard for quite some time (even though Mr. Forbes himself thinks we’ll get there before 2020). But still, it is refreshing to see at least some Americans recognize one of the major hidden problems in our society, and are making the correct solution known.