At Forbes, Brian Domitrovic recounts the history behind William Jennings Bryan’s “cross of gold” speech.
On RCM, John Tamny scolds Paul Kruman for suggesting sound money has racist roots. At The Kudlow Report, Larry advises Republicans to focus on tax and monetary reform rather than obsessing solely on the deficit:
Think Progress previews the left’s line of attack on Republicans: “Invest and Grow vs. Slash and Burn.”
At Alhambra Investments, Joe Calhoun suggests current Fed policy may provide a window for overdue fiscal policy reforms.
The NY Sunexplains why the dollar’s value should be fixed.
On The Kudlow Report, Tamny debates high commodity prices:
The Independent Institute reprints Richard K. Vetter’s recent congressional testimony on why money creation doesn’t stimulate employment. (Hat tip: Atlas Sound Money Project.)
On Forbes, Steve Forbes interviews George Gilder on the future of technology.
From the weekend WSJ, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser explains his skepticism regarding Ben Bernanke’s policy direction.
Mr. Plosser doesn't see a deflation risk for the U.S. economy right now. Even those who were worried about deflation six months ago, he says, have begun to change their tune. That means that, with moderate GDP growth and low inflation in the mix, the only thing left as an excuse for QE2 is high unemployment. Can lax monetary policy change that picture?
Mr. Plosser's answer is unequivocal: This mess was caused by over-investment in housing, and bringing down unemployment will be a gradual process. "You can't change the carpenter into a nurse easily, and you can't change the mortgage broker into a computer expert in a manufacturing plant very easily. Eventually that stuff will sort itself out. People will be retrained and they'll find jobs in other industries. But monetary policy can't retrain people. Monetary policy can't fix those problems."
At Forbes, Econoclasts author Brian Domitrovic illustrates similarities between the 1970s Dow and today’s.
The WSJeditorializes on President of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Charles Plosser’s recent speech in Chile:
"I believe we have come to expect too much from monetary policy," Mr. Plosser said, quoting similar comments by Milton Friedman in 1967, another era when we were told the Fed could produce prosperity by manipulating money creation. "Monetary policy can sometimes temporarily stimulate real economic activity in the short run," he added, and it has a role to play in preventing deflation or offsetting productivity shocks.
But central bankers cannot create jobs or retrain a work force, or even—brace yourself—"reverse the sharp decline in house prices when the economy has significantly over-invested in housing." Though Mr. Plosser didn't say this, we would argue that the Fed's current historically easy policy is intended precisely to reflate the housing and job markets. How's that been working out?
At CNBC, David Malpass suggests loose U.S. monetary policy is causing inflation in China:
From last week, Malpass examines China’s currency.
On NRO, the editors dismiss yuan manipulation charges.
From November, Taiwan’s Next Media Animation releases a surprisingly substantive “currency rap battle,” between Presidents Obama and Hu:
At The Atlantic, Uri Friedman explains why the yuan isn’t the main issue confronting U.S.-China relations.
The NY Suneditorializes in support of Virginia’s bill to study a gold-backed currency:
America is at a remarkable moment in respect of the dollar. Suddenly a wide range of thinkers are waking up to the catastrophe that would be represented by the loss of the dollar. A former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, presented himself at the Council on Foreign Relations to warn that fiat money always goes to gold. The president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick wrote an important op-ed piece in the Financial Times, of all places, to suggest that there may be a role for gold after all. The New York Times brought in no less a figure than James Grant to argue that the time has come to bring back the classical gold standard. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has been running a stream of important pieces on monetary reform. This week a committee has been set up to draft for the 2012 presidential campaign a candidate, in the person of Congressman Michael Pence, who might stand on a gold plank. The Congress of the United States has just put Ron Paul at the head of the subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. What a golden opportunity for Virginia, which gave us so many fathers of the Constitution, to take the lead in studying what role the states themselves might have in a return to sound money.
From Bloomberg, Art Laffer applauds the President’s recent pro-business slant.
