Hack Yglesias on Dr. No

Matt Yglesias sums up his views on Ron Paul:

After looking at his positions and statements, the most remarkable thing is that if it weren’t for his loud fanbase of self-proclaimed libertarians you wouldn’t really think this is the platform of a libertarian. He’s loudly trumpeting his plan to impose criminal penalties on women who terminate their pregnancies and he makes it clear that his interest in freedom doesn’t extend to the freedom of anyone unfortunate enough to have been born in a foreign country. His campaign slogan of “RESTORE AMERICA NOW” is strongly suggestive of conservative impulses and nostalgia for the much-less-free America John Boehner grew up in. The mainstay of his economic thinking is the ridiculous proposition that “[t]here is no greater threat to the security and prosperity of the United States today than the out-of-control, secretive Federal Reserve.” Not only is Paul’s goldbuggery nutty on the merits, like his affection for forced pregnancy and severe restrictions on human freedom of movement it’s difficult to see what it has to do with freedom. The freedom of the government to set a fixed dollar price of gold? America’s current monetary policy—a fiat currency that’s freely exchangeable for other currencies and commodities—is the free market position.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I'd consider this rare hackery from Yglesias. Ron Paul’s opinions on the Fed and the gold standard may be unorthodox, but they are not “ridiculous” or “nutty” simply because Matt Yglesias asserts that they are. The Congress has the constitutional authority to coin money and manage the money supply. This is a power the Congress gave to the Federal Reserve a hundred years ago. Ron Paul thinks the Congress should take that power back since the Fed is at least somewhat complicit in the last recession. I partially agree with Ron Paul, in that I believe there should be more Congressional oversight of the Fed à la the recent audit bill Paul co-sponsored with Barney Frank. How exactly is the idea that a democratically elected Congress at least have the final say on how currency is administered in this country “ridiculous”?

Tagging the currency to the intrinsically useless fiat gold is the same as tagging the currency to the intrinsically useless fiat word of the present government. In advocating a return to the gold standard, Paul is not saying that we should all buy gold and hand nuggets over to the cashier at Walmart. He’s making the claim that gold represents a safer store of value than the word of the present government. Essentially, he’s downgrading the U.S. government’s credit rating and suggesting instead that we tether our money supply to something which empirically throughout the ages has been a continuous and relatively safe store of value for hundreds of generations. This is not “nutty”. If anything, it's unnecessarily cautious.

h/t Erik Kain