This book is highly optimistic that we will restore a gold standard to our world.? Much as I would like it, because it restrains the power of governments that increasingly behave like thugs, I don’t think a gold standard is likely to replace the status quo.

The book has many good areas to commend it, where it deals with history, explaining the problems of the past.? It trashes the concept of the SDR of the IMF, it is the Euro on an even weaker footing.

But the book is weak, because it does not recognize that the standard for money and the regulation of banks are separate issues.? Merely instituting a gold standard will not bring stability.? One must regulate heavily the degree that banks borrow short and lend long.? We had many crises during the gold standard in the 19th century, none as bad as the Great Depression, but they all stemmed from a lack of bank regulation.? I have no sympathy for the concept of “free banking.”? Anyone that is making a large number of promises needs to be regulated; he is a systemic risk.

Chapter seven is the critical chapter of the book, and it fails because it doesn’t go far enough.? In the chapter, Russia adopts a gold standard, and requires payment in gold for exports.? Fair enough, but as other nations attempt to adopt a gold standard, they would find their exporters objecting, leading to no adoption of a gold standard.

Chapter seven is the only thing that makes this book unique, and it is why I requested it from the publisher.? That makes this book a “fail.”

On the bright side, I now know that a gold standard would be difficult to appear, unless hyperinflation drove people to a commodity standard.? (And the odds of that are better than 20% over the next 20 years.

Quibbles

I do not recommend this book.

Who would benefit from this book: No one.? If you want to, you can buy the book here: The Golden Revolution: How to Prepare for the Coming Global Gold Standard.

Full disclosure: I asked the publisher for the book and he sent it to me.

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