Last updated on: 4/3/2017 | Author: ProCon.org

Footnotes

The background and pro and con arguments were written by ProCon.org staff based upon input from the following sources.

Footnotes:

1.John Waggoner, "Should We Return to the Gold Standard?," usatoday.com, Apr. 23, 2012
2.Robert McTeer, "A Brief History of the Gold Standard," ncpa.org, June 16, 2011
3.Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "The Key to the Gold Vault," newyorkfed.org (accessed Dec. 5, 2012)
4.Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, "Currency Component of M1 (CURRNS), research.stlouisfed.org (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
5.Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, In Gold We Trust, 2012
6.Steve Forbes, "Golden Rule for Prosperity," forbes.com, June 6, 2012
7.Ludwig von Mises Institute, The Gold Standard: Perspectives in the Austrian School, mises.org, 1992
8.Michael D. Bordo, et al., "Gold, Fiat Money and Price Stability," research.stlouisfed.org, May 2007
9.Michael D. Bordo, "Gold Standard," econlib.org (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
10.US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers," ftp.bls.gov, Dec. 14, 2012
11.Arthur J. Rolnik and Warren E. Weber, "Money, Inflation, and Output Under Fiat and Commodity Standards", minneapolisfed.org, Spring 1998
12.Ron Paul, "Paper Money and Tyranny," lewrockwell.com, Sep. 5, 2003
13.F. William Engdahl, "Crisis of the US Dollar System," globalresearch.ca, Oct. 14, 2006
14.US Department of Defense, "Base Structure Report Fiscal Year 2010 Baseline," acq.osd.mil, 2010
15.Loren Thompson, "The Real Cost of US In Libya? Two Billion Dollars per Day," forbes.com, Mar. 28, 2011
16.Scott S. Powell, "How US Debt Risks Dollar Doomsday," nypost.com, Apr. 30, 2012
17.Charles Kadlec, "A Gold Standard Is Big Oil's Best Defense Against Political Attack," forbes.com, Oct. 31, 2011
18.The Bancroft Library, "1973-1974 Oil Crisis," bancroft.berkeley.edu (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
19.Tim McMahon, "Historical Oil Prices Chart," inflationdata.com, June 14, 2012
20.Charles Kadlec, "The Top Ten Reasons That You Should Support the 'Gold Commission,'" forbes.com, Aug. 27, 2012
21.Ron Paul, "The Austrian School and the Meltdown," lewrockwell.com, Sep. 26, 2008
22.Lewis E. Lehrman, "A Road to Prosperity," spectator.org, Oct. 2012
23.Lawrence H. White, "A Gold Standard with Free Banking Would Have Restrained the Boom and Bust," cato.org, Fall 2011
24.Frank Shostak, "Contra Bernanke on the Gold Standard," mises.org, Apr. 11, 2012
25.Michael Pollaro, "Money Supply Booming, Seeds of the Next Greater Recession," forbes.com, Mar. 17, 2012
26.Lawrence H. White, "Is the Gold Standard Still the Gold Standard among Monetary Systems?," cato.org, Feb. 8, 2008
27.Charles Kadlec, "The Price of Abandoning the Gold Standard," forbes.com, Sep. 12, 2011
28.Sean Fieler, "Easy Money Is Punishing the Middle Class," online.wsj.com, Sep. 26, 2012
29.Ron Paul, "Paper Money and Tyranny," paul.house.gov, Sep. 5, 2003
30.Ralph Benko and Charles Kadlec, The 21st Century Gold Standard: For Prosperity, Security, and Liberty, agoldenage.com, 2012
31.US Department of the Treasury, "The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It," treasurydirect.gov (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
32.Levin Institute, "The Trade Balance," globalization101.org (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
33.Michael Pollaro, "America, Poised for a Hyperinflationary Event?," forbes.com, Feb. 8, 2011
34.Ron Paul, "Why Gold Is Good Money," goldnews.bullionvault.com, Oct. 2, 2012
35.Ron Paul, Robert P. Murphy, and Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Pillars of Prosperity: Free Markets, Honest Money, Private Property, 2008
36.John Ameriks, "The Gold Rush of 2010," vanguardblog.com, July 26, 2010
37.Inflation Data, "Inflation Adjusted Annual Average Gold Prices," inflationdata.com, Sep. 15, 2011
38.Gregory Hilton, "The Case against Gold," diplomatdc.wordpress.com, May 29, 2011
39.Donald T. Regan, et al., "Report to the Congress of the Commission on the Role of Gold in the Domestic and International Monetary Systems" , Mar. 31, 1982
40.John H. Makin, "All That Glitters: A Primer on the Gold Standard," aei.org, Oct. 9, 2012
41.Ben Bernanke and Harold James, "The Gold Standard, Deflation, and Financial Crisis in the Great Depression: An International Comparison," nber.org, Jan. 1991
42.Matthew O'Brien, "Why the Gold Standard Is the World's Worst Economic Idea, in 2 Charts," theatlantic.com, Aug. 26, 2012
43.Chicago Booth IGM Forum, "Gold Standard," igmchicago.org, Jan. 12, 2012
44.Ben Bernanke, "The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis: Origins and Mission of the Federal Reserve" , federalreserve.gov, Mar. 20, 2012
45.Paul Krugman, "Golden Instability," krugman.blogs.nytimes.com, Aug. 26, 2012
46.US Department of the Treasury, "TARP Programs," treasury.gov (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
47.Barry Eichengreen, "A Critique of Pure Gold," nationalinterest.org, Aug. 24, 2011
48.Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, "The First Fifty Years," fdic.gov (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
49.James D. Hamilton, "A Disaster for Wages," nytimes.com, Mar. 8, 2011
50.Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters : The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939, 1996
51.Paul Heise, "The Gold Standard Isn't Good as Gold," ldnews.com, Nov. 21, 2012
52.Frank Curzio, "Gold Mining Costs Rising Fast," goldnews.bullionvault.com, June 28, 2012
53.US Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing, "Annual Production Figures," moneyfactory.gov (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
54.Anna J. Schwartz, "Alternative Monetary Regimes: The Gold Standard," nber.org, 1987
55.R. Eisler and SN Wiemeyer, "Cyanide Hazards to Plants and Animals from Gold Mining and Related Water Issues," ncbi.nlm.gov, 2004
56.Earthworks and Oxfam America, "Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment," nodirtygold.org, 2004
57.Ofelia Rivas, "O'odham Sacred Site of Quitovac once again under Threat from US Gold Mining Company Silver Scott Mines," solidarity-project.org, Feb. 2012
58.Great Basin Resource Watch, "Save Spiritual Site Mt. Tenabo," gbrw.org (accessed Dec. 26, 2012)
59.Scott Sonner, "Tribe Battles BLM over Nev. Gold Mine in US Court," desertnews.com, Oct. 6, 2011
60.Jeffrey Frankel, "The Dollar's New and Old Rivals," nytimes.com, Nov. 10, 2010
61.John Waggoner, "Should We Return to the Gold Standard," usatoday.com, Apr. 23, 2012
62.Joe Weisenthal, "Why the Gold Standard Is the Worst Idea in the World in One Chart," businessinsider.com, Sep. 4, 2012
63.Franklin Noll, "The Birth of US Fiat Currency," bloomberg.com, Apr. 2, 2012
64.Marc Labonte and Mindy Levit, "Financing Issues and Economic Effects of American Wars," fas.org, July 29, 2008
65.Matthew Philips, "GOP: In Gold We Trust," businessweek.com, Aug. 31, 2012
66.Ron Paul, "Fiat Paper Money," lewrockwell.com, Sep. 12, 2003
67.Steve Forbes, "Gold Can Save Us from Disaster," forbes.com, Oct. 3, 2012
68.The McAlvany Weekly Commentary, "Steve Forbes Interview: Gold Standard Inevitable," mcalvanynews.com, Dec. 4, 2012
69.Republican National Committee (RNC), "2012 Republican Platform," gop.com (accessed Dec. 28, 2012)
70.Peter G. Peterson Foundation, "The US Spent More on Defense in 2011 Than Did the Countries with the Next 13 Highest Defense Budgets Combined," pgfp.org, Apr. 12, 2012
71.Congressional Research Service (CRS), "Brief History of the Gold Standard in the United States", fas.org, June 23, 2011
72.US Financial Management Service, "Status Report of US Treasury-Owned Gold," fms.treas.gov, Oct. 31, 2012
73.A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc., "A-Mark Spot Prices History," amark.com (accessed Dec. 28, 2012)
74.Allan H. Meltzer, "Origins of the Great Inflation," research.stlouisfed.org, March/April 2005
75.The Coinage Act of 1792 , nesara.org, Apr. 2, 1792
76.Richard Giedroyc, "The History of the United States $10 Gold Piece," coinfacts.com (accessed Dec. 28, 2012)
77.NGC Coin Explorer, "Gold Dollars (1849-1854),” ngccoin.com (accessed Dec. 20, 2012)
78.The Coinage Act of 1834, nesara.org, June 28, 1834
79.Sarah Stodola, "Civil War at 150: Debt Lessons from Lincoln," thefiscaltimes.com, Apr. 12, 2011
80.Tax History Project, "Tax History Museum: 1861-1865: The Civil War," taxhistory.org (accessed Dec. 28, 2012)
81.United States Department of Treasury Bureau of Public Debt, "Our History," publicdebt.treas.gov, Dec. 22, 2011
82.Richard H. Timberlake, "From Constitutional to Fiat Money: The US Experience,” cato.org, Spring/Summer 2012
83.The Learning Network, "March 14, 1900: US Officially Adopts the Gold Standard,” learning.blogs.nytimes.com, Mar. 14, 2012
84.Harvard Business School Historical Collections, "Off the Rails,” library.hbs.edu (accessed Nov. 30, 2012)
85.Elmus Wicker, "Banking Panics in the US: 1873-1933,” eh.net, Feb. 1, 2010
86.John Steele Gordon, "On the Greenback Party and Its Newly Relevant Ideas,” bloomberg.com, Nov. 30, 2011
87.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Resumption Act of 1875,” bratannica.com (accessed Nov. 30, 2012)
88.US Federal Reserve, "History of the Federal Reserve,” federalreserveeducation.org (accessed Nov. 30, 2012)
89.The Lehrman Institute, "The Free Silver Movement,” thegoldstandardnow.org (accessed Nov. 30, 2012)
90.William Jennings Bryan, "Cross of Gold," pbs.org, July 9, 1896
91.The American Presidency Project, "Republican Party Platform of 1896," presidency.ucsb.edu, June 16, 1896
92.New York Times, "Gold Now the Standard: President McKinley Signs the Financial Bill,” nytimes.com, Mar. 14, 1900
93.Richard H. Timberlake, "Federal Reserve System,” econlib.org, 2008
94.American Experience, "Timeline of the Great Depression,” pbs.org (accessed Dec. 3, 2012)
95.Stephen G. Cecchetti, "Prices During the Great Depression: Was the Deflation of 1930-32 Really Unanticipated?,” nebr.org, Nov. 1989
96.World Gold Council, "After the Gold Standard 1931-1999," gold.org (accessed Dec. 28, 2012)
97.United States Mint, "The United States Bullion Depository Fort Knox, Kentucky,” usmint.gov (accessed Dec. 4, 2012)
98.Ron Paul, The Case For Gold, 1982
99.M.J. Stephey, "A Brief History of the Bretton Woods System,” time.com, Oct. 21, 2008
100.Alan S. Blinder, "The Anatomy of Double-Digit Inflation in the 1970s,” nber.org, 1982
101.Ezra Klein, "The GOP Has Picked the Wrong Time to Rediscover Gold," washingtonpost.com, Aug. 24, 2012
102.Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985, usmint.gov, Dec. 17, 1985
103.Reuters, "Republican Gold Standard Return Plan Seen as Full of Bugs," huffingtonpost.com, Aug. 27, 2012
104.World Gold Council, "Frequently Asked Questions," goldfacts.org (accessed Dec. 28, 2012)
105.Mamta Badkar, "10 Countries Hoarding Massive Amounts of Gold," businessinsider.com, Nov. 9, 2012
106.Matt Phillips, "The Long Story of US Debt, From 1790 to 2011, in 1 Little Chart," theatlantic.com, Nov. 13, 2012
107.American Principles Project, "Gold Is Money," americanprinciplesproject.org (accessed Dec. 29, 2012)
108.The Lehrman Institute, "The Gold Standard Now," thegoldstandardnow.com (accessed Dec. 29, 2012)
109.Ludwig von Mises Institute, mises.org (accessed Dec. 29, 2012)
110.New York Times, "Economic Stimulus - Jobs Bills," nytimes.com, Mar. 15, 2012
111.Christina D. Romer, "The Fiscal Stimulus, Flawed but Valuable," nytimes.com, Oct. 20, 2012
112.Benjamin Cohen, "Bretton Woods System," polisci.ucsb.edu (accessed Dec. 31, 2012)
113.Scott Horsley, “It’s Official: U.S. Economy Is in a Recession,” npr.org, June 8, 2020
114.Charles Kadlec, “Gingrich, The Gold Standard, And the Florida Primary,” forbes.com, Jan. 23, 2102
115.US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject: (Unadj) Unemployment Rate,” data.bls.gov, July 29, 2020
116.Jeffrey Cheng, Dave Skidmore, and David Wessel, “What’s the Fed Doing in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis? What More Could It Do?,” brookings.edu, June 19, 2020
117.Provident Metals, “How Much Gold is Left in the World?,” providentmetals.com (accessed July 31, 2020)
118.Trading Economics, "United States Money Supply M1," tradingeconomics.com (accessed July 31, 2020)
119.Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, "M3 for the United States," fred.stlouisfed.org, July 10, 2020
120.Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, "Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product," fred.stlouis.org, July 30, 2020
121.Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, "Why Does a Trade Deficit Weaken the Currency?," frbsf.org, Oct. 1999
122.Kimberly Amadeo, "US Trade Deficit and How It Hurts the Economy," thebalance.com, Apr. 18, 2020
123.Tom Lewis, "Lowest Cost Gold Mines in the World for First Quarter 2019," goldtelegraph.com, July 29, 2019
124.Mykal May, "How Much Does a Typical Gold Ring Weigh?," leaf.tv (accessed Aug. 4, 2020)
125.Federal Reserve, "How Much Does It Cost to Produce Currency and Coin?," federalreserve.gov, Apr. 6, 2020
126.Simon Scarr and Anthony Boadle, "Amazon Gold Rush: Illegal Mining Threatens Brazil's Last Major Isolated Tribe," reuters.com, June 25, 2020
127.Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition, "US Military Bases Overseas: The Facts," overseasbases.net (accessed Aug. 5, 2020)
128.Nick Turse, "Trump's Confusing Orders in Syria Show Why It's So Hard to Tell How Many Bases the US Military Has Overseas," businessinsider.com, Nov. 5, 2019
129.Joe Gould, "Pentagon Finally Gets Its 2020 Budget from Congress," defensenews.com, Dec. 19, 2020
130.SIPRI, "Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019," sipri.org, Apr. 2020
131.Lindsey Konkel, "How Did the Gold Standard Contribute to the Great Depression?," history.com, Mar. 18, 2020
132.Kimberly Amadeo, "History of the Gold Standard," thebalance.com, Apr. 24, 2020
133.Judy Shelton, "The Case for a New International Monetary System," cato.org, Spring/Summer 2018
134.Thomas Franck, "Fed's Powell Explains Why a Return to the Gold Standard Would Be So Damaging to the Economy," cnbc.com, July 10, 2019
135.Akin Oyedele, "Greenspan: The US Cannot Afford to Spend on Infrastructure Like It Wants because It's Not on the Gold Standard," businessinsider.com, Feb. 16, 2017
136.US Mint, "History of the U.S. Mint," usmint.gov, Oct. 31, 2019
137.US Mint, "Coin Production," usmint.gov, Sep. 3, 2019
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139.US Capitol Visitor Center, "From Gold to Greenbacks," visitthecapitol.gov (accessed Aug. 10, 2020)
140.Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Legal Tender Cases," britannica.com, Apr. 24, 2020
141.Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Greenback Movement," britannica.com, July 29, 2013
142.Gary Richardson and Tim Sablik, "Banking Panics of the Gilded Age: 1863–1913," federalreservehistory.org, Dec. 4, 2015
143.Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Free Silver Movement," britannica.com, Apr. 9, 2019
144.History Matters, "Bryan’s 'Cross of Gold' Speech: Mesmerizing the Masses," historymatters.gmu.edu (accessed Aug. 10, 2020)
145.Jospeh C. Ramage, "The Gold Cover," fraser.stlouisfed.org, July 1968
146.Gary Richardson, Alejandro Komai, and Michael Gou, "Roosevelt's Gold Program," federalreservehistory.org, Nov. 22, 2013
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148.Sandra Kollen Ghizoni, "Creation of the Bretton Woods System: July 1944," federalreservehistory.org, Nov. 22, 2013
149.Edwin L. Dale, Jr., "Devalued Dollar Is Asked in Study," nytimes.com, Aug. 8, 1971
150.Charles Kolb, "August 15, 1971," huffpost.com, Nov. 19, 2013
151.Michael J. Graetz and Olivia Briffault, "A “Barbarous Relic”: The French, Gold, and the Demise of Bretton Woods," scholarship.law.columbia.edu, Aug. 19. 2016
152.US Department of State Office of the Historian, "Nixon and the End of the Bretton Woods System, 1971–1973," history.state.gov (accessed Aug. 11, 2020)
153.History.com Editors, "1933 June 05: FDR Takes United States off Gold Standard," history.com, June 17, 2020
154.Bud Newman, "Congress Approves Gold Coin Bill," upi.com, Dec. 3, 1985
155.Department of the Treasury, "Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve July 31, 2020," fiscal.treasury.gov, July 31, 2020
156.World Gold Council, "How Much Gold Has Been Mined?," gold.org (accessed Aug. 11, 2020)
157.David Gura, "Senate Banking Committee Approves Contentious Nominee Judy Shelton for Federal Reserve Board," nbcnews.com, July 21, 2020
158.Natasha Frost and Gwynn Guilford, "The Quiet Campaign to Reinstate the Gold Standard Is Getting Louder," qz.com, July 3, 2019
159.Julia Horowitz, "Gold Price Rockets past $2,000 per Ounce and It Could Keep Going," cnn.com, Aug. 5, 2020
160.William Watts, "Dollar Weakens across the Board after Fed Decision," marketwatch.com, July 29, 2020