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You are here: Home / Reflections in a golden eye

Reflections in a golden eye

by DougJ|  August 27, 20129:26 pm| 79 Comments

This post is in: We Are All Mayans Now

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Reader PZ recently pointed out to me that the Bill Taggart wedding speech that Paul Ryan loves so much isn’t just an endorsement of gold-backed currency, it’s an endorsement of gold coingage; it asserts “that we should not use credit cards or checks or currency at all“.

Conservatives Jimmy P and Charles Lane recently wrote that they opposed moving to a gold-backed currency. But the tone wasn’t “damn those wingaz is crazy” but rather “while serious people might favor a gold standard, there are some reasons blah blah blah.”

I can’t help but feel that we’re fucked, that soon enough the EXTREME LEFT will want no gold standard, the EXTREME RIGHT will want gold coinage, and the sensible centrists will agree that paper money backed by gold is the most serious choice.

There’s got to be some kind of way out of here.

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Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    August 27, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    Jesus H. Christ. The last thing I’m going to start worrying about is the return of the gold standard.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    August 27, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    Damn that hippie Richard Nixon for de-pegging the dollar from the gold standard!!

  3. 3.

    cathyx

    August 27, 2012 at 9:30 pm

    So, Paul Ryan wants to diminish the bank’s influence in our lives?

  4. 4.

    raven

    August 27, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    And the wind
    began to howl. . .

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 27, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    @cathyx:

    Paul Ryan is every bit as jejune as Ayn Rand.

    Every fucking bit.

  6. 6.

    Turgidson

    August 27, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    Bobo will surely offer up a column full of sociological research he made up the day before dividing us into “fiaters” and “goldies” and discuss how the “fiaters” oppose the gold standard because omg hippies, while the “goldies” are courageous, noble champions of a cause that we’d all agree was just and correct if it wasn’t for the damn hippies and America’s moral decline.

    (hey David Brooks, I just gave you a column idea you can’t possibly pass up. I expect a large check after you vomit it out. thanks in advance)

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    August 27, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    I assume the gold standard would be accompanied by more gold diggers.

    I would applaud the return of the Solid Gold Dancers, honestly.

  8. 8.

    Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGirl)

    August 27, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    There’s got to be some kind of way out of here.

    Said the Joker to the Thief

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 27, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    @Turgidson:

    Brooks, of course, being an ignorant fuckhead, has no fucking idea that Adam Smith his own self was a fiater.

  10. 10.

    Regnad Kcin

    August 27, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    there’s too much confusion…

    (ETA: late, dangit)

  11. 11.

    raven

    August 27, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    You have the temerity to say that I’m talking to you out ofjejunosity?

  12. 12.

    weaselone

    August 27, 2012 at 9:38 pm

    Well, the gold standard would be unlikely to last long. The economy would collapse in short order or sane Americans would start using one of the major foreign currencies. Probably a combination of the two. Fiat currency was adopted for reasons beyond a desire on the part sovereigns to debase the currency.

  13. 13.

    A Ghost To Most

    August 27, 2012 at 9:39 pm

    I can’t get no relief

  14. 14.

    raven

    August 27, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    @efgoldman: You haven’t watched Love and Death in 30-40 years? Damn son, run out and rent it now!

  15. 15.

    cathyx

    August 27, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    Oh, I get it. It goes with the idea that the republicans want us to go back to the 1800’s when everyone carried a bag of gold coins to pay for stuff. And women knew their place, too.

  16. 16.

    Richard

    August 27, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    We’re going to need tweezers to pull those $1 gold coins out of our change purses, I think.

  17. 17.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 27, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    @cathyx: If everyone has a bag of gold coins, the GOP plan will not be working.

  18. 18.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 27, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    There’s got to be some kind of way out of here.

    Reelect Obama. Plunge the racists into despair by showing them that throwing absolutely everything they could at him still could not chase a black man out of office. The level of insanity on the Right will drop sharply. They are operating on anger, not principles, and that includes most of their leaders.

  19. 19.

    raven

    August 27, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: right

  20. 20.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 27, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    The thing is, this cuts crosswise with the interests of the very rich. While people who have a lot of money like the idea of a super-strong dollar, no asshole financier actually wants the total economic cataclysm that would be caused by a return to the gold standard, and most of them are smart enough to realize that this would happen.

    The other wrinkle, though, is that by this very fact, some lefties of the posturing-tough-guy persuasion are going to be tempted to join the goldbugs just to stick it to Wall Street. I suspect that Matt Taibbi is halfway there already, judging from his complaints about quantitative easing; the bit about how QE is the magical creation of fake money could have come out of one of Ron Paul’s newsletters.

  21. 21.

    cathyx

    August 27, 2012 at 9:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: You’re right. So the 1% will have the bag of gold coins, and the rest of us will be running after their carriage and begging for them to throw us one so we can spend it and therefore, keep the economy going.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 27, 2012 at 9:50 pm

    Not Bill Taggart.

    James Taggart.

    Don’t ask me how I know this.

  23. 23.

    Poopyman

    August 27, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    No reason to get excited.
    There are many among us here who feel that life isRepublicans are but a joke.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 27, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: How do you know this?

  25. 25.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    @raven: You beat me to it, said the joker to the thief… ARRGHHH! Late Again!

  26. 26.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    @raven: shouldn’t that be “jejeunesse”? damn, that’s just fun to say. and thank you DougJ for forcing me to play All Along the Watchtower at bunny-frightening volume.

  27. 27.

    Poopyman

    August 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Who is James Galt Bill Taggart?

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    the sensible centrists will agree that paper money backed by gold is the most serious choice.

    Has anyone considered gold money backed by paper?

  29. 29.

    Hawes

    August 27, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    Given how devastating the gold standard would be for everyone who works with money, I don’t think we have to worry about it.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 27, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Goddammit Omnes, I TOLD you not to ask me that!

  31. 31.

    low-tech cyclist

    August 27, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    There’s got to be some kind of way out of here.

    I really, really wish I could honestly say, “No reason to get excited.”

    But let’s not talk falsely now, because the hour is getting late.

  32. 32.

    Spaghetti Lee

    August 27, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    I like to call it “Gollum Economics.” We mustn’t lose the precious gold standard…

  33. 33.

    Reklam

    August 27, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    Actually I think the Chunky Bobo is the more likely culprit for dragging the gold standard centrist. It appeals to an absolute standard; even if that standard is patently specious. Because the hippies and Vatican II something something relativism…

  34. 34.

    PZ

    August 27, 2012 at 9:56 pm

    Only solution-reanimate William Jennings Bryant to give his “Cross of Gold” speech in Charlotte. Of course, it might take him awhile to accept we have a black President…

  35. 35.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 9:57 pm

    @low-tech cyclist: nice.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 27, 2012 at 9:57 pm

    @raven:

    Let me guess, raven…you’re one of the most june persons in all the Russias, right?

  37. 37.

    Donut

    August 27, 2012 at 9:57 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Yes, but the idea was deemed to lack Burkean humility and was subsequently set aside for a more serious solution.

  38. 38.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    @cathyx: But look on the bright side! It will be so much easier to pay for cancer surgery with a bag of gold coins instead of 4 million chickens…

  39. 39.

    Poopyman

    August 27, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    @Poopyman: Huh! Googling helps, especially since I’m not a gamer.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 27, 2012 at 9:59 pm

    Also, if we go on the gold standard, some megalomaniac will try to irradiate all the gold at Fort Knox and we will have to be saved by a British guy and a lipstick lesbian.

  41. 41.

    schrodinger's cat

    August 27, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    Don’t worry its not going to happen, the banksters and the 1% won’t let it happen. Republicans in power always defer to them, since that is their true constituency.

  42. 42.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    @hoppipolla: If you can, listen to the XTC cover of All Along The Watchtower. It’s crazy stupid great.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 27, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    @Donut:

    Oh piffle, it’s all they’re talking about at the salad bar down to Applebee’s.

  44. 44.

    arguingwithsignposts

    August 27, 2012 at 10:03 pm

    I would rather have some magic beans. I hear those work great.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 27, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Temptation, it’s the one thing I can’t resist.

  46. 46.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    Je-jeune!
    Without a clue in my head
    Without a thought of my own

    Je-jeune!
    I think Ayn Rand is the nazz
    It’s easy being a clone

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 27, 2012 at 10:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yeah, don’t make me go all Little Boots on your ass.

  48. 48.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    @Haydnseek: vraiment? holy shit, i had no idea. quick, Robin, to the Google machine!

  49. 49.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    @hoppipolla: I didn’t activate the Googler before I posted. I REALLY hope it’s there, or somewhere. It’s on their “White Music” LP from 1978.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 27, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: You plan on spending late nights asking where DougJ, Cole and I are and why we aren’t talking to you? Or are you going to post the Numa, Numa song?

  51. 51.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    @Haydnseek: oh my stars and garters, i don’t know what i expected but it wasn’t that. it’s like the band did a vulcan mind-meld with Liquid Liquid right before they hit the “record” button.

    damn, now i’m going to have to haul out that live at the beeb boxed set.

  52. 52.

    low-tech cyclist

    August 27, 2012 at 10:17 pm

    @hoppipolla: Thanks!

  53. 53.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    @low-tech cyclist: a former work colleague and i communicated almost exclusively in dylan quotes. it got a bit ridiculous.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 27, 2012 at 10:23 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I wake up at 3 a.m. every night and wonder where you, Cole and DougJ are and why you aren’t talking to me. But I hope I have more sense than to ask it out loud in public. Over. And over. And over. And over again.

  55. 55.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 10:24 pm

    @hoppipolla: Boxed set? What is this “boxed set” of which you speak? I know of no such object. Please enlighten me…

  56. 56.

    arguingwithsignposts

    August 27, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Ha! I knew exactly who you were referencing before reading upthread.

    That says … something.

  57. 57.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 27, 2012 at 10:26 pm

    Come on, Wall street would veto madness like that. We can’t be that far gone.

  58. 58.

    dance around in your bones

    August 27, 2012 at 10:27 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Heh, I once typed out a whole comment a la Little Boots but deleted it because I thought it was mean.

    Now, of course, I have negated that whole compassionate impulse…..

    Bad me! Bad me!

  59. 59.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    @Haydnseek: Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions, 1998 on Cooking Vinyl. Fourth disc is a full live show during which Andy Partridge is healed of his cold. or so he says in the liner notes, and it certainly sounds that way. also, on the first disc, an even-more-psychedelic-than-the-original Garden of Earthly Delights. trails, man…

  60. 60.

    BruinKid

    August 27, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    This is why I’ve been saying for a while we needed to push back much more strongly against Ron Paul’s psycho ideas, but too many liberals just laughed it off and said it wasn’t worth our time, or even ignored issues like this and kept praising Paul for some of his other stances.

  61. 61.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    @hoppipolla: A co-worker and I used to do the same thing with Firesign Theatre lines. It was hilarious. For us.

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 27, 2012 at 10:35 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Sometimes I wake up at 3 a.m. and wonder where I am.

  63. 63.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    @Haydnseek: ah, the Firesigns. i was about to say the kids will never know what they missed, and then i realized i sound like my mom talking about Bob and Ray. getting old is so weird.

  64. 64.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 10:41 pm

    @hoppipolla: Thank you for the detailed info. We live in a wondrous age when something like this can be obtained without too much heartburn…I’ll find it. It sounds like something I…need. Vinyl addiction is a treatable condition that I have no intention of dealing with. Best to ya…oh yeah, one more post, #63. I know just what you’re talking about.

  65. 65.

    Sgaile-beairt

    August 27, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    Most of the old school prayer anti abortion protester social warriors writing decline and fall of the Xtian west editorials back in the seventies were also goldbuggers. It just went together like pb and j….nobody ever questioned it that i recall.!

  66. 66.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    August 27, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    Sure, let’s go to a gold standard.

    Five years later, everyone with a mortgage is wondering why their house is only worth $20,000.

    Stability!

  67. 67.

    hoppipolla

    August 27, 2012 at 10:47 pm

    @Haydnseek: very strange to be 56 and know only how to be a teenager.

    good night, and here’s to waking up in the morning.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    August 27, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    @cathyx:

    Where have I seen that before…oh yes, in A Tale Of Two Cities. Very apropos, considering what happened to Monsieur the Marquis.

    @Matt McIrvin:

    As to gold…I’m far from being a posturing tough guy, but if I had any long term assets to diversify I might well be tempted to buy some gold and bury it in the back yard. At least it wouldn’t get stolen by politically connected looters…

  69. 69.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    @hoppipolla: Man, your mom must have been really hip to be a Bob and Ray fan. I didn’t know who they were until I discovered them in my older cousins collection of Mad magazines…getting old IS weird. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that our generation used up most of the fun…It’s a renewable resource, but I think we got the quality stuff.

  70. 70.

    Haydnseek

    August 27, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    @hoppipolla: My morning mantra–nothing hurts, everything works! I’m pushing 61, but not very fast. A heartfelt good night to you, as well.

  71. 71.

    Suffern ACE

    August 27, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: Yep. My house is now worth 20,000 and I still owe 100,000 on it. And I get 5000 a year in my nice middle class job. On the plus side, my Medicare voucher might actually cover an insurance policy.

  72. 72.

    Narcissus

    August 27, 2012 at 11:25 pm

    I can’t tell you how it makes me feel that our monetary polciy is dictated by a speech a minor character gives from a 70 year old third-rate potboiler.

  73. 73.

    Tim F.

    August 27, 2012 at 11:41 pm

    Any writer who puts a long rant about the good standard into a freaking wedding speech needs to find a new hobby.

  74. 74.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    August 28, 2012 at 12:39 am

    @hoppipolla: Ah, but what if you remember both Bob and Ray and Firesign? What does that say about you? And the Marx Brothers and Monty Python? And George Carlin? And Lewis Black?

    Maybe that you’re old and you like to laugh? I hope my kids dig back into the archives.

  75. 75.

    AA+ Bonds

    August 28, 2012 at 1:19 am

    soon enough the EXTREME LEFT will want no gold standard

    See, though, we’re already there, in the land of sanity, waiting for y’all to join us

    There are any number of possible situations where the “far left” isn’t where sanity rests

    But today ain’t that day

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    August 28, 2012 at 7:37 am

    @Haydnseek:

    XTC, “All Along the Watchtower.”

  77. 77.

    rea

    August 28, 2012 at 8:30 am

    There are many here among us who . . . dabble in existentialism.

  78. 78.

    Berial

    August 28, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Krugman has been talking about the whole ‘gold standard’ thing for awhile now. Here’s his latest about it. Hint, he’s agin’ it.

  79. 79.

    Retief

    August 28, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    I can never hear about the gold standard without thinking of Harry Enfield’s “Women know your limits” sketch.

    I don’t know much about the gold standard, I’m afraid, but I do love kittens…

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