Alan Greenspan Quotes About Gold
-
Gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency...and the major thrust in the demand for gold is not for jewelry. It's not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating.
→ -
Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth.
→ -
Remember what we're looking at. Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency, that no fiat currency, including the dollar, can match.
→ -
Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world. Fiat money in extremis is accepted by nobody. Gold is always accepted.
→ -
The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit. In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.
→ -
I have one other issue I'd like to throw on the table. I hesitate to do it, but let me tell you some of the issues that are involved here. If we are dealing with psychology, then the thermometers one uses to measure it have an effect. I was raising the question on the side with Governor Mullins of what would happen if the Treasury sold a little gold in this market. There's an interesting question here because if the gold price broke in that context, the thermometer would not be just a measuring tool. It would basically affect the underlying psychology.
→ -
Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.
→ -
An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense... that gold and economic freedom are inseparable.
→ -
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.
→ -
If all currencies are moving up or down together, the question is: relative to what? Gold is the canary in the coal mine. It signals problems with respect to currency markets. Central banks should pay attention to it.
→ -
Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.
→
Related Authors
-
Richard Branson Business magnate -
Henry Paulson Former United States Secretary of the Treasury -
Timothy Geithner Former United States Secretary of the Treasury -
Nouriel Roubini Economist -
Robert J. Shiller Economist -
Janet Yellen Economist -
Friedrich August von Hayek Economist -
Andrea Mitchell Journalist -
Lawrence Summers Former Undersecretary for International Affairs -
Henry A. Kissinger Former National Security Advisor -
John Maynard Keynes Economist -
Ben Bernanke Economist -
Paul Volcker Economist -
Robert Rubin Former United States Secretary of the Treasury -
George W. Bush 43rd U.S. President -
Warren Buffett Investor -
Milton Friedman Economist -
Alan Blinder Economist -
Paul Krugman Economist -
Ayn Rand Novelist