Episode 73: GoldMoney’s Andy Duncan talks to Godfrey Bloom, who represents Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire in the European Parliament, and who is a member of the parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. They talk about the possibility of Germany instituting a gold-backed Deutschmark, and broader issues to do with European monetary and fiscal policy.
In a recent Mises.org daily article co-authored with Patrick Barron, Mr Bloom states that Germany now has a “Golden Opportunity” to get back to sound money by pulling out of the euro and introducing a gold-backed Deutschmark. However, given the lack of a comprehensive audit, suspicions about the integrity of the German gold reserves remain. Bloom therefore advocates that Germany should repatriate its physical gold from the storage locations abroad.
They also talk about monetary policies of the European Union, the errors of European politicians and whether or not the eurozone can be sustained. In addition, they also discuss Britain’s relationship with the EU and Britain’s own precarious financial position, particularly in relation to its welfare state and deficit spending.
This podcast was recorded on 21 November 2012 and previously published at GoldMoney.com.
Germany should certainly insist on German gold reserves being physically in Germany – the United States is a terrible place to store gold in (given its history of previous confiscations – and the nature of the Obama regime).
However, the German political and academic elite seem to be just the local chapters of the international elite. The chances of them opting for freedom and national independence appear to be close to zero.
Things may be different in Bavaria (which, I am told, is more culturally distinctive and hostile to the would-be totalitarians of the “international community”), but I just do not know.
A bit animated at times, but all perfectly justified. I don’t think Mr Bloom said anything that I’d disagree with.
The one possible exception is the notion of Britain returning to a gold standard. With the current ratio of pounds to gold reserves, it seems wildly impractical. In terms of the real economy, Germany is wealthier than the UK, but not by so large a factor as the difference in gold reserves would suggest (assuming their gold hasn’t all been stolen). That’s just my impression; I haven’t yet looked up the figures.
In general, I’m confident that across the world the current distribution of gold reserves doesn’t match the current distribution of real wealth. This geopolitical consideration strikes me as the biggest and most legitimate barrier to a worldwide re-adoption of gold as money.
Great to hear you ask about the book club at the end :-)
Of course I hate the term good “STANDARD” – either the money is gold or it is not. “Standard” implies that something else is the money – which leaves wide open for massive fraud (such as the late 1920s when there was a gold “standard” and Benjamin Strong and the other Central Bankers created a massive credit money bubble).
Could the British Pound be gold? Of course it could mrg – but, NOT VERY MUCH GOLD.
The only legitimate way (i.e. a way that did not involve fraud) that the British Pound could be gold is to divide the total number of Pounds by the amount of (physical) gold the British government actually has. I think we would find that a Pound would only be a TINY amount of gold.
But that is not “destroying wealth” – it is destroying an ILLUSION.
Britain is a poor country – manufacturing and so on are weak (very weak) here. The population have living standards that are based on a credit bubble (and so on), but “truth will come out”.
And the longer the illusion is maintained (for example by the government, indirectly, buying is own debt and then congratlationg itself on the low interest rates “the bond market” is chargeing) the worse the eventual waking up to reality will be.
Although it is only part of the illusion asking people about Central Banks (i.e. government backed entities) creating money (from nothing) and using it (directly or indirectly) to buy government (and, sometimes, private) debt, is a good test.
If someone is O.K. with this then they are (at best) a crook – i.e. they support fraud (fraud on a massive scale). For that is what (indirectly) buying your own debt and then announcing to the world that you have a “good credit rating” or “the markets trust us – look at the low interest rates we are able to borrow money at” is.
Gold as money (or silver as money – or any commodity as money) stops this fraud. A gold “standard” does not.