Writes Nathaniel Popper over at the LA Times:
The ultimate goal is to return the nation to the gold standard, in which every dollar would be backed by a fixed amount of the precious metal. Economists of all stripes say the plan would be ruinous, but that view is of scant concern to Pitts.
“Quite frankly, I think that economists from universities are thinking within the confines of their own little world,” Pitts said. “They don’t deal with the real issues.” Proponents of the laws believe that returning America to the gold standard would force the government to live within its means, curtailing runaway spending and inflation.
[…]
The United States and most of the rest of the world operated on a full gold standard until the Great Depression. Economists generally agree that the policy helped cause the depression and earlier severe downturns by limiting the amount of money the government could create, constraining its ability to stimulate the economy. Scholars say moving to a gold standard now would be likely to slow the economy’s already meager growth. [Gold Standard | U.S. monetary policy and gold standard: Pushing for a return to the gold standard – Los Angeles Times]
Contrast this view to that of Alan Greenspan (when he was a defender of capitalism):
“The irony was that since 1913, we had been, not on a gold standard, but on what may be termed “a mixed gold standard”; yet it is gold that took the blame.” [Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal]
The article falsely claims that economists “of all stripes” are against a gold standard. The truth is that any pro-capitalist economist would support a proper gold standard based on pro-capitalist principles over the FED mess we have now.