Returning to Sound Money
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Alasdair Macleod
With the threat of US dollar hyperinflation now becoming a reality, it is time to consider what will be required to stabilize the currency, and by extension the other fiat currencies that regard the dollar as their reserve.
This article takes its cue from Ludwig von Mises’s 1952 analysis of what was required to return to a proper and enduring gold standard—metallic money, particularly gold, having been sound money for thousands of years, to which everyone has always returned when government fiat currency fails.
When Mises wrote that article, the dollar was nowhere near the state it is in today. But Mises had had practical experience of what was involved, having advised the Austrian government during and after its hyperinflation of the early 1920s, making his analysis doubly relevant.
Macleod discusses how an economic and monetary collapse of the dollar can be turned to advantage—the opportunity it creates through the destruction of Keynesian and other inflationist fallacies to secure long-term economic and monetary stability under which economic progress can be maximized.
Up for discussion: Introduction; the intractability of current inflationism; initial actions to stabilize the currency; the return to a gold standard; government reform; banking reform; the benefits and workings of a new gold standard; and gold supply factors.