More and more people are asking if a gold standard will end the financial crisis in which we find ourselves. The question is not so much if it will help or if we will resort to gold, but when. All great inflations end with the acceptance of real money -gold- and the rejection of political money-paper. The stage is now set; monetary order is of the utmost importance. Conditions are deteriorating, and the solutions proposed to date have only made things worse. Although the solution is readily available to us, powerful forces whose interests are served by continuation of the present system cling tenaciously to a monetary system that no longer has any foundation. The time at which there will be no other choice but to reject the current system entirely is fast approaching. Although that moment is unknown to us, the course that we continue to pursue will undoubtedly hurtle us into a monetary abyss that will mandate a major reform. [...] Briefly, we offer two methods, one through the legalization of competing currencies, the other a government-directed gold standard of the classical variety. Only future events and attitudes will determine the best method. We do know that current monetary policy cannot continue indefinitely, and we are obligated to prepare for better times.» The case for Gold, Ron Paul e Lewis Lehrman, Government Printing Office, 1982. Cato Institute 1982.
