Don Luskin thanks China for holding onto its European government bonds.
Investors Business Daily sees slow economic growth ahead.
The Tax Foundation's Scott Hodge responds to Sec. Clinton's recent claim that the rich are under-taxed.
In The WSJ, Seth Lipsky discusses Edwin Vieira Jr.'s book on money, "Pieces of Eight."
The finished book begins with a quote from Justice Stephen J. Field's dissent in a legal tender case, Dooley v. Smith (1871), warning that arguments in favor of legal tender paper currency "tend directly to break down the barriers which separate a government of limited powers from a government resting in the unrestrained will of Congress."
Mr. Vieira believes the Federal Reserve is unconstitutional on, among other points, the same grounds that FDR's National Recovery Administration was found unconstitutional—namely that Congress had delegated too much of its own law-making responsibilities. He is less harsh toward Fed officials. "I don't basically attribute either greed, stupidity or evil to these people," who are "caught up in this extraordinarily difficult position," he says.
But Mr. Vieira believes the federal government has gone way past what would have been red lines for the Founders—and that we are now in a "race against time" over "which happens first, the crisis or the reform." He finds himself in an isolated spot. Those who want to secede from the Union don't call him, he says, because "I'm against secession." Nor do the paper money people, because "I point out that paper money is absolutely unconstitutional." The gold standard people don't call, "because I point out that the constitutional standard is silver."
Mr. Vieira offers this hope. "We're in a better position than the Founding Fathers," he says, noting they faced stagflation, dissension from those loyal to England, devastation from war in large sections of the country, and regional jealousies. "And they came together in Philadelphia, and they worked out this document—a work of practical genius." He considers it a wonder that, despite all the damage done to it over the years by politicians, "it's still with us and it contains the answers. It's right there."
