Weekend edition: Tamny quotes 1981 Bartlett; Lewis on high taxes on low earners; Grant on the gold standard.

From Forbes, John Tamny quotes from Bruce Bartlett’s 1981 Reaganomics to explain today’s weak economy.

At Forbes, Nathan Lewis advocates tax cuts on lower income earners.

The WSJ profiles hard money advocate James Grant:

The "fiat" dollar, he adds ruefully, "is one of the world's astounding monetary creations. That a currency of no intrinsic value is accepted as money the world over is an achievement that no monetary economist up until not so many decades ago could have imagined. It'll be 40 years next month that the dollar has been purely faith-based. I don't believe for a moment it's destined to go on much longer. I think the existing monetary arrangements are so precarious, so ill-founded and so destructive of the economic activity they are supposed to support and nurture, that they will be replaced by something better."

How exactly the transition to a new gold standard might take place is a puzzle, but Mr. Grant says he's seen many "impossible" things come to pass in his career. A certain "social spontaneity" might take a hand. He points to GLD—the ticker symbol for an exchange-traded fund whose gold holdings now make it equivalent to the world's 10th largest central bank. "At the margin," he says, "people are registering dissent from the judgment of our central bankers by bidding up the price of gold."

At The Telegraph (UK), Ambrose Evans reports the flight to gold amidst currency and debt crises.

On Forbes, Peter Ferrara suggests the current economic policy mix is the opposite of Reaganomics.

At RCM, Joe Calhoun makes the crucial point that economic bubbles are always and everywhere a function of monetary policy.

On The Kudlow Report, James Pethokoukis debates the debt showdown and tax hikes:



From Forbes, Reuven Brenner wonders what can be done to reawaken European entrepreneurship.

The NY Sun notes last week’s Ron Paul/Ben Bernanke exchange on gold.

On the Rick Amato radio show, Art Laffer discusses the 2012 presidential campaign:




In The WSJ, Robert Reich argues the 2012 presidential campaign will come down to jobs.

At The Washington Times, blogger Eric Golub challenges progressive claims about tax cuts.