I don't have any contention with what you're saying, MD. If what happened in the past had happened differently, our current situation would be different. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. And if Lee had won at Second Manassas, the American States would still have the powers granted them by the Constitution. But, it didn't, and they don't, except maybe in a parallel universe. (That's supposed to be a joke.)
From where we are now, though, I have no idea of what could be done to return to a "hard money" currency (that is, commodity based), especially since it is unlikely that other countries would want to do the same. And, at the risk of inflaming the thread again, Ron's point that we would constrain our economy by doing so, seems logical to me. Even if a hard currency would constrain inflation (whether it exists today or not), it would necessarily do it by the government fixing the price of the commodity(-ies) as well as its relationship to the currency. This would necessarily limit the use of the commodity and put the binders on capital creation.
As I said weeks ago, it seems that the only way this could work would be if something like plutonium or U-235 were the basis for a hard currency. And, BTW, my position on whether "hard money" is a good thing or bad has changed 180 degrees (well, 170, at least <g>) since I've started following this thread.
jim |
