Wednesday summary: Benko on the Gold Commission; Forbes discusses Romney spending and tax plans; Lewis on gold versus a commodity basket.

From TGSN, Ralph Benko notes critical interest in Gingrich’s Gold Commission.

On his blog, Dick Morris suggests Mitt Romney beat Newt Gingrich in Florida by distracting him from talking about pro-growth ideas.

The WSJ wonders if Gingrich can come back by focusing on policy.

At The Future of Capitalism, Ira Stoll notes Romney’s remark on the poor.

On The Kudlow Report, Steve Forbes discusses Romney’s fiscal proposals:



From The American, James Pethokoukis examines poverty rates in America.

At Forbes, Nathan Lewis argues gold is a superior to a commodity basket for monetary stability.

From The Financial Post (CA), Steve Hanke explains the danger of exchange rate manipulation.

The Cato Policy Report excerpts remarks from its November monetary conference.

From First Trust, Brian Wesbury predicts the Fed’s loose policy will lead to inflation.

At NCPA, Bob McTeer explains that saving not bad for the economy.

On The Kudlow, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) debates tax rates:



In The Washington Times, Dean Kleckner opposes the Obama Administration’s tough stance on China trade.

In US News, Dan Mitchell supports the flat tax.

At TGSN, Ralph Benko highlights George Washington’s support for sound money.

Weekend round up.

From Forbes, Nathan Lewis highlights the genius of the 18th century gold standard.

At New World Economics, Lewis notes that demand for stable money is much higher than for unstable.

The WSJ editorial board disputes Goldman Sachs’s recent Keynesian analysis of spending cuts.

On The Kudlow Report, Stephen Moore debates the Wisconsin budget battle:



At RCM, Joe Calhoun sees hopes for real fiscal reform fading.

From last week's WSJ, weak dollar advocate Fred Bergsten discusses his successful campaign to force China to appreciate the yuan.

At PIIE, Bergsten advocates three global currencies.

On Kudlow, James Pethokoukis and Peter Navarro debate the rise of China and India:



From Seeking Alpha, Kevin McElroy explains why currency devaluation is bad policy.

The Economist notes the American Economic Review’s list of top 100 articles includes Robert Mundell’s Theory of Optimum Currency Areas.

In another sign of inflation, GOOD notes the declining size of various products.

From NCPA, former Federal Reserve governor Bob McTeer claims surprise at calls for Fed reform since it has done a good job keeping inflation low.

On Forbes, John Tamny discusses the economic growth rates in Texas and California.

Also at Forbes, Bill Flax hopes Congress will shut down government.

From Forbes, Reuven Brenner suggests taxing smoking through higher health care costs rather than cigarettes.

Monday update.

Two remarkable mainstream media hits:

First, in The NYT, James Grant advocates return to the gold standard.

Second, on National Public Radio, Reaganite and American Principles Project director Jeffrey Bell supports a gold-backed dollar.

And, in a notable act of public dissent, economists oppose Ben Bernanke's quantitative easing. On CNBC, David Malpass discusses the letter:




On his blog, Bret Swanson praises the rise of the sound money coalition.

In The WSJ, Mary Anastasia O’Grady explains that dollar volatility is undermining Brazil’s market reforms.

Bloomberg reports Australia’s measures to raise its currency’s exchange rate against the dollar to stem inflation.

Also in The Journal, Victor Shih of Northwestern University explains that China’s dollar link is causing painful inflation:

China is seeing the highest price increases in over two years, and this has officials worried. While the official consumer inflation rate was 4.4% for October, a 10% rise in food prices is having a huge impact on poorer households. The domestic media is filled with stories of hoarding by both producers and consumers.

The government has responded with a small interest-rate increase and some hikes of the reserve requirement, though rates on demand deposits have not budged at all. More action is needed. A resolute drive to slow growth of the money supply will stop the hemorrhaging of household savings due to inflation. As an added bonus, it may also wean China off of its heavy dependence on investment-driven growth.

The recent bout of inflation may seem mild in comparison to the double-digit price rises in the 1980s and '90s. But the social impact may be almost as severe. According to research by a Chinese government think tank, poorer households now face inflation that is twice the overall rate because their consumption basket is dominated by food items, which have seen the most rapid price increases. So even though wage gains seem robust, many households are seeing flat or negative increases in purchasing power.

In Forbes, Reuven Brenner advocates fixed exchange rates and tax reform to reenergize the economy.

At Asia Times, David Goldman foresees a serious crisis from the falling dollar.

On The Kudlow Report, Bob McTeer discusses global currency tensions:




On NRO, Larry Kudlow sees good economic news in the short run.

At The NY Sun, Seth Lipsky recounts Henry Hazlitt’s sound money advocacy.

Also on Kudlow, Dan Mitchell debates Robert Reich on Congress’s next steps:




On Forbes, John Tamny raves about Bill Flax’s book on markets, The Courage To Do Nothing.

At Hugh Hewitt, Clark Judge summarizes a recent Art Laffer speech.

From the archives, Jude Wanniski recounts dollar reform efforts in 1987:

Having demonstrated the Mundellian process by which tax cuts and a stable dollar-gold price at an optimum level was a far superior policy framework than the monetarist formula, I believed it would be only a matter of a year or two before we would re-establish a dollar link to gold. The monetarists were indeed no longer a powerful force in policy circles, but the neo-Keynesians stepped up to argue against a price rule, on the grounds that they could do even better in the management of the economy with the flexibility of a managed currency. The closest we got to a dollar-gold link was in September 1987, when then-Treasury Secretary James Baker III proposed an international monetary reform that would link the major currencies together, with central banks using “a commodity basket, including gold” as a “reference point,” a term I gave Baker and his aide, Bob Zoellick, at the time.

Wednesday items.

The Washington Post reports the House of Representatives has voted to raise tariffs on China if it doesn’t raise its currency's value.

At Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden lashes the “House of Idiot Representatives.”

At Café Hayek, Don Boudreaux comments here, here, and here.

On The Kudlow Report, former GW Bush advisor Glenn Hubbard and China basher Peter Navarro discuss the need to improve U.S. exports through a lower dollar relative to the yuan:




At Smart Money, Don Luskin worries the China tariffs could trigger a trade war on par with Smoot-Hawley.

From 1999, Jude Wanniski argues the Smoot-Hawley tariff caused the Great Depression.

At The Financial Post, Alan Reynolds responds to income inequality claims:



At NRO, Larry Kudlow critiques the Fed’s monetarist policy.

On Asia Times, David Goldman suggests China’s slow accumulation of gold will help keep U.S. interest rates low.

At The WSJ, Stephen Moore examines the middle-class impact of expected tax increases.

At the National Center for Policy Analysis, Bob McTeer reports a recent Art Laffer comment:

I was on a program recently with Arthur Laffer, who said some things about the Laffer Curve that I wasn’t fully aware of. There was no handout, but, as I recall, he said that careful examination of IRS tax records indicates that below the highest income levels there is no Laffer-Curve effect i.e., marginal tax-rate reductions at those levels would not fully pay for themselves. On the other hand, at the highest income level, there is a strong Laffer-Curve effect, since “the rich” can afford accountants and tax lawyers to avoid or defer taxes.

Also at The Journal, Moore suggests the current Congress is responsible for rising deficits.

In Australia, Steve Forbes advocates a flat tax or reduction of the top tax rate.

UK Telegraph columnist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard regrets supporting the Fed’s monetary expansion.

Wednesday articles.

Larry Kudlow sees a new tea-party Senate nucleus forming.

Former Dallas Federal Reserve President Bob McTeer says there can be no inflation because money supply is flat.

More than a decade ago, supply-sider Jude Wanniski pointed out that focusing solely on money supply was a mistake.

Art Laffer argues the low-tax environment of Texas helped it weather the recession.

As noted below, Dave Ranson recently wrote at The Wall Street Journal on the futility of raising taxes. Here’s a similar recent analysis from Nathan Lewis.

David Goldman analyzes the foreign financing of U.S. fiscal deficits.