Gold Standard

Bob reviews Murray Rothbard's 1988 essay "The Myth of Free Banking in Scotland," his sharp response to Larry White's influential account of Scottish free banking.

How do you turn a sound money bill into a big-government bill?

The US fiat monetary regime not only has given us inflation and boom-and-bust cycles, but it also is the main contributor to the out-of-control government spending and debt accumulation.

The US fiat monetary regime not only has given us inflation and boom-and-bust cycles, but it also is the main contributor to the out-of-control government spending and debt accumulation.

Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.

Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.

Gold markets have been volatile, to put it mildly, and the drama isn’t over. Unfortunately, governments are so involved in the gold markets that true market prices are hard to find.

Gold markets have been volatile, to put it mildly, and the drama isn’t over. Unfortunately, governments are so involved in the gold markets that true market prices are hard to find.

The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements.

In 1971, when the last formal link between the dollar and gold was severed, more than a monetary system collapsed.