It appears that at least two of the issues that people claimed were ‘extremist’ which were promoted by Ron Paul, not only in this election cycle but also for the past thirty years, may find their way into the Republican party platform this year. In light of the GOP taking on language of returning to a gold standard and auditing the Federal Reserve, it would appear that the GOP presidential candidate and Texas Congressman’s ideas have finally gained traction in the Republican party.
Although I’m not optimistic about a real audit of the Federal Reserve, at least it is getting a hearing about being in the platform. The reason for a lack of optimism is because the question must be “Who is auditing the Fed?” If it’s the Treasury department then that is nothing more than letting the fox guard the hen house. If it’s someone other than government that still doesn’t make one easy about it, though I confess such a measure would be better. After all the Federal Reserve is not a government entity and they are doing something they don’t have Constitutional authority to do.
Now returning to a gold standard is a good thing. Already precious metals markets are responding to the chatter about a gold standard in the GOP platform. The Daily Caller reports,
As Republicans debate returning to the gold standard, traders are more bullish about gold than at anytime in the last nine months.
“There’s no doubt about it, this is gold’s moment,” Charles Morris of HSBC Global Asset Management in London told Bloomberg. “All the long-term trend signals suggest that gold is in a very strong bull market.”
According to Bloomberg News, “Twenty-nine of 35 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to rise next week.”
Republicans will adopt their party platform this coming week at their national convention in Tampa. Proposals to audit the Federal Reserve and create a commission to study the gold standard are likely to be included as planks.
The gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years, with a “gold commission” set to become part of official Republican party policy.
Drafts of the party platform, which it will adopt at a convention in Tampa Bay, Florida, next week, call for an audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy and a commission to look at restoring the link between the dollar and gold.
The move shows how five years of easy monetary policy — and the efforts of congressman Ron Paul — have made the once-fringe idea of returning to gold-as-money a legitimate part of Republican debate.
Marsha Blackburn, a Republican congresswoman from Tennessee and co-chair of the platform committee, said the issues were not adopted merely to placate Paul and the delegates that he picked up during his campaign for the party’s nomination.
Whether the party is doing this to appease Ron Paul or his supporters though is unknown. There is no doubt that these issues would not be front and center without him bringing them to that position though. It is good fiscal policy.
I’d say that if you haven’t been buying gold or silver, now would be the time to invest in “real money,” because should the Fed print more money, you can bet your investment will go up Since neither party is offering a balanced budget, but will continue in deficit spending, the money invested in precious metals will do nothing but continue to grow.
