American Principles Project - Rollcall on Rassmussen, APIA polls

Dear Monetary Policy Observer,

The article excerpted below details two recent polls covering public opinion on the gold standard:  The first was run in October by Rassmussen. The second was commissioned by APIA and was picked up by both Drudge Report (screenshot attached) and Ron Paul in his post Iowa Caucus speech (he mentions it around 6:32 if you want to watch).  The article goes over the results and potential implications of both polls.

We hope you find this material of interest.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Arnold
American Principles In Action
www.americanprinciplesinaction.org

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Opinion

Blom & Benko: Advocating Gold Standard Could Change Outcome of 2012 Presidential Contest

• By Andresen Blom and Ralph Benko
• Special to Roll Call
• Jan. 3, 2012, 10:45 a.m.

Scott Rasmussen, in October, polled 1,000 voters on gold and found it popular, especially if characterized as a way to constrain big government and big banks.

In November, American Principles in Action commissioned the Polling Company to drill deeper into the implications for the early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

The Polling Company found that advocating the gold standard would move votes where they most matter. The gold standard is highly popular with tea party voters, movement conservatives and others disproportionately likely to attend the Iowa caucuses or vote in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

Restoring the gold standard — the classic American monetary policy destroyed by Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon — turns out to be a potential “sleeper issue,” and an under-exploited one. It could tip the scales of this race.

Phone interviews with 501 likely caucus-goers were conducted in Iowa in mid-November. The potential respondent was screened to ensure a. registration to vote in Iowa b. registration as a Republican and c. self-described as “definitely” or “probably” going to participate in the caucuses to select the Republican nominee for president. The survey has an overall margin of error of 4.4 points at the 95 percent confidence interval.

“A majority (57 percent) of those surveyed are favorable to the United States returning to a gold standard and over one-quarter is ‘very’ favorable to the idea,” reports pollster Erin Norman. “Only 17 percent are unfavorable to this idea, which equates to a better than three-to-one favorability ratio among likely Iowa Republican Caucus goers. These are remarkably high numbers given that the question contained no information about the gold standard specifically.”

Translated out of pollsterese? The gold standard drives votes both in the caucuses and primaries and in the general election.

Read Full Article Here http://www.rollcall.com/news/blom_benko_advocating_gold_standard_could_change_outcome_of_2012-211309-1.html?pos=oopih

Gov. Roemer to Host 'Made in America' Yankee Swap

Manchester, NH– Governor Charles E. “Buddy” Roemer's campaign today announced a "Made in America Yankee Swap" at Roemer's headquarters in Manchester this upcoming Monday, January 9, at 12:30pm.
 
"Made in America is at the heart of my economic policy," said Roemer. "America, unlike our rivals, has no trade strategy. Our President should begin with three actions: (1) Revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China; (2) Have the Treasury Department officially designate China as a currency manipulator; and (3) Pass the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act to give American industries the means to fight back."

"China is the worst trade aggressor in the world," Roemer continued. "A black hole for American jobs, a security threat. Our president needs to lead by taking these three minimum steps. He won't. I will."
 
NH State Director Chris Buck said the event gives supporters, staff and any interested media who want to attend a chance to unwind and enjoy the holiday season with Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer.
 
In traditional Yankee Swap fashion, gifts should be no more than $15 in value, should be made in the United States, and will be exchanged based on numbers drawn at the event. Hot cider, coffee and donuts will be served. The address is 66 Hanover St., Suite 200, Manchester, NH 03101, and the office telephone is 603-782-4812. This event is free and open to the public, media may participate in the Yankee Swap, and attendees are encouraged to RSVP to Chris.Buck@BuddyRoemer.com.

Governor Buddy Roemer is a four-term Congressman and former Governor of Louisiana. He is known for refusing PAC and special interest money, implementing campaign finance reform, turning around Louisiana’s failing economy and cutting the state’s unemployment rate in half in just four years. Roemer is a candidate for President of the United States. His website is www.BuddyRoemer.com.

American Principles Project - Benko in Forbes: The Death Certificate of the Paper Dollar

This latest article by APIA's Senior Economics Advisor, Ralph Benko, looks at a recent financial stability report from the Bank of England and what it could mean for the international monetary system. 

We hope you find this material of interest.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Arnold
American Principles In Action
www.americanprinciplesinaction.org

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The Death Certificate Of The Paper Dollar: Where To Next?

The world dollar standard’s death certificate arrives in the mail this week. The Bank of England — “the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” — one of the most staid, cautious, and dignified entities in the world of monetary policy — signals that the fiduciary currency standard ushered in on August 15, 1971 is, empirically measured, far inferior to the (dilute form of the) gold standard erected at Bretton Woods. Fellow Forbes.com columnist Charles Kadlec thoroughly reprises and analyzes the facts submitted to a candid world by the Bank of England in a paper to be officially published December 20, 2011.

The Bank of England’s Financial Stability Paper No. 13, Reform of the International Monetary and Financial System, reported at Bloomberg BusinessWeek and reviewed here, is being seen by many monetary policy observers around the world as the “coroner’s report” on the death of the world dollar standard.

What’s next? Presciently, at the watershed October 5-6 Heritage Foundation Conference on a Stable Dollar: Why We Need It and How to Achieve It, Forbes’ editor-in-chief  Steve Forbes called for escalating the discourse from “whether” we should restore the gold standard to “how” to do so. The floodgates open.

Read Full Article Here http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2011/12/19/the-death-certificate-of-the-paper-dollar-where-to-next/

American Principles Project - Newsmax on Jeff Bell on Gold and the Dollar

Jeffrey Bell: US Must Return to Gold Standard to Avoid Dollar Disaster

Thursday, 15 Dec 2011 03:26 PM

By Forrest Jones and Kathleen Walter

The United States must return to the gold standard if it wants the dollar to retain its worth, says author and Republican political consultant Jeffrey L. Bell.

Since the recession, the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates low — they're near zero now — and has bought assets from banks with what critics charge is money printed out of thin air to spur the economy, a policy known as quantitative easing.

Calls are increasing for a return to the gold standard, which ties the value of the dollar to gold and was abandoned in the 1970s.

The gold standard would limit what the U.S. could borrow, but as Bell pointed out, such a currency regime would do away with excessive spending and inflationary threats that today's loose monetary policies are unleashing on the economy and eating into personal savings.

"I think it's disastrous. For one thing, Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve don't seem to know how to get away from having a zero interest rate regime that makes elderly and middle-class people unable to save at their local bank," Bell told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

"It is true that the gold standard restricts the amount you can borrow, or at least borrow without having a good reason. But that's been precisely the problem," said Bell, author of “The Case for Polarized Politics: Why America Needs Social Conservatism.”

"Really the dangers are much greater than remaining with the present, debt-driven system than returning to a dollar that has independent value," said Bell, a two-time campaign adviser to Ronald Reagan.

Read full article here: Jeffrey Bell: US Must Return to Gold Standard to Avoid Dollar Disaster

Benko on Roll Call: Monetary House Built by Nixon Should Go

Dear Monetary Policy Observers,

What do the gold standard and our trade relationship with China have to do with each other?  Our Senior Economics Advisor Ralph Benko tackles this question in the below article, which appeared as a special in Roll Call this week.  We hope you find this material of interest.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Arnold
American Principles In Action
www.americanprinciplesinaction.org

_____________________________________________________

 Benko: Monetary House Built by Nixon Should Go

• By Ralph Benko
• Special to Roll Call
• Oct. 6, 2011, Midnight

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While Republican presidential candidates were trading jabs on TV late last month, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was stealing what should have been the Republicans’ fight plan.

Schumer, ever alert to the media possibilities, joined with three Senate colleagues to refocus attention on China’s currency manipulations and the resulting injury to American exports.

The Republican presidential aspirants have a short memory. In the last cycle, the most powerful independent political ad, one that went viral with more than a million YouTube views, was titled “The Chinese Professor.” A near-future Chinese professor asks, “Why do great nations fail?” and concludes, about America, with a smirk, “So now they work for us.”

Schumer and Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) made headlines for introducing a variation on legislation they have long advocated to punish China for protecting its manufacturers behind a currency wall created by undervaluing the renminbi.

The ever-crafty Schumer gets the problem even though his approach — escalating to a currency war and flirting with trade war — is dead wrong. Unfortunately, Republicans have been slow to develop a legitimate game plan, just as they have been slow to understand that the solution to America’s economic woes cannot be achieved with fiscal policy — tax and spending — reforms alone.

Equally if not more critical is fundamental reform of America’s monetary structure, which has been mishandled with almost criminal negligence by our elected officials since President Richard Nixon infamously closed the gold window in August 1971.