Paul Ryan thinks we should be on the Gold Standard

[cthulu2016]

A few years ago Paul Ryan explained in his speech to the Ayn Rand society that everything he thinks about monetary policy is summed up by a character in Atlas Shrugged who believed that anything other than gold coinage was theft.

Cool.

So let's get cracking!

How much gold is in Fort Knox? 147 million ounces. At current (near record) gold prices, about 260 billion dollars worth.

Depending on whether you use M2 or M3, the US money supply is $10-15 trillion. That's too bad, because all the gold ever mined in history in the entire world, combined, is only worth about 10.5 trillion, even at these astronomical gold prices.

But that money supply is mostly just computer money. So is the money in your bank account... but that's your fault for not keeping your money in cash in the mattress.

So let's wipe out everyone's bank account and stick to real cash money. A small price to pay for our Ayn Rand dreamworld. If it's not cash in your pocket or mattress right now, it doesn't exist. Poof.

There are $829 billion dollars of U.S. currency in circulation. That's 829,000 million. And 147 million ounces of gold.

Now, the free market is perfect, so we know that the current price of freely traded gold is correct. About $1750/ounce.

That's a shame... just to back outstanding currency (only 5%-10% of the actual money supply) we would need gold to be worth $5639/ounce. And that is after declaring everyone's bank accounts worthless.

So your bank account is gone, and every dollar in your pocket is now worth $0.31. But you're on the gold standard now! Don't you get how awesome that is?

You can now trade in that bogus dollar bill for 1/5639 ounce of gold! Real Gold!

(Of course, you can walk to any coin shop in America today and trade in the same "worthless" dollar bill for 1/1750 ounce of gold, which is a lot more than 1/5639... details, details.)

[alphafemale]

1. What a complete crackpot. But since he's also a believer that the earth is 6K years old.

And that Ayn Rand was a brilliant visionary.

It's not even close to his nuttiest idea.

[Mr.Bill]

2. He needs to be told he was picked as VP candidate by Mitt Romney,

not Ron Paul.

[Drahthaardogs]

3. Does he realize that there is not enough gold in Ft. Knox to cover the current money in the system?

That would go over well.

[MineralMan]

4. Goldbuggery sucks. nt.

[laundry_queen]

5. Holy fuck

And he's their 'economic guru'? The gold standard was abandoned for some very good reasons.

[girl gone mad]

6. We really could use some leaders who understand our modern money system.

One party wants to put us back on the gold standard, the other party thinks we already are on the gold standard. It's pretty much a total disaster.