Mises Wire

It's Over, You Lost, Now Go Away

It's Over, You Lost, Now Go Away

Reading Justin Raimondo’s The War Party: A Paper Tiger I followed a link with the title “From the snide Washington-insiderism of the “cosmotarians” in the ostensibly libertarian movement” to an article on Reason The Ron Paul Delusion by David Harsanyi. In this article Harsanyi wites:

[Ron Paul's] obsession with long-decided monetary policy and isolationism are not his only half-baked crusades

Harsanyi is obviously referring to the debate over the nature of the monetary system that many writers on this current site are active in. Many of us, Ron Paul included, believe that a commodity money system is superior to a pure fiat system, and that the a central bank is not necessary, even harmful.

An issue that was once-decided may not have been well-decided. It is true that the transition from gold to paper took place, but not exactly by any kind of open debate in which all sides agreed on the best course of action. Instead, as Rothbard wrote the central bank was “a governmentally created and sanctioned cartel device to enable the nation’s banks to inflate the money supply in a coordinated fashion.” that was planned in secrecy and sold to the public with deceitful propaganda. The post-war gold exchange standard was planned by the world’s financial elites, and Nixon’s decision to sever the final link to commodity money was an act of default.

What makes these questions “decided”? (even long-decided?) An issue is only decided as long as everyone involved is happy with the result. In this era, you even have an opinion on the monetary system that makes you a bit eccentric. But as Lew Rockwell wrote, there was a time when “Every educated man had an opinion [on the money question]“. A lot of us weren’t around when the issue of the monetary system was “decided”, anyway. Those of us who are alive now and are not happy with how things have turned out over the last hundred years are reopening the discussion. While there is no guarantee that things will eventually go our way, the discussion cannot be ended simply by labeling it as “long-decided”.

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