Letters to the Editor
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Do not nail me to this cross of gold
William Jennings Bryant.
I don't have a problem with the gold standard but there are issues. It won't prevent fiscal chicanery on the part of the gang of 535 and it does pose problems in a world where the US dollar is the reserve currency. Getting rid of the Fed would be sheer stupidity. Granted, they have failed to act appropriately in a number of instances but not having a central bank is much worse than having one that screws up every so often.
I realize that hard data going back to the 19th century is hard to come by but anecdotal evidence available in histories about the consequences of money issued by banks suggests that a lot of people lost a lot of money on worthless paper (hence the preference for specie (which we wouldn't have enough of to go around anyway)). Plus, I doubt anybody is considering the chaos that would ensue when the Fed no longer ran clearinghouses for interbank transactions (such as when I pay you from my bank and you want to put that money in your bank) or the problems that would arise when your transactions came as US dollars, Morgan-Stanley Yuan, and Citi Corp Rials.