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The Libertarian Alliance is Britain's most radical free market and civil
liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets
and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms.
These are freely available at
http://www.libertarian.co.ukStatement by the Libertarian Alliance on the Financial Crisis: Time to
Return to Gold
The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties
policy institute, today issues the following statement on the present run
of crises in the financial markets. This statement is prompted by the
various calls made for closer regulation of the financial sector.
Libertarian Alliance Director, Dr Sean Gabb, says:
"The world may or may not be on the edge of financial collapse. But the
present run of banking crises is only the latest consequence of the
ending of the gold standard. Since 1914, and more particularly since
1971, the ability of governments to create unlimited amounts of fiat
money has led to bubble after bubble, each one larger than before.
Financial markets have become little more than casinos. Immense resources
have been diverted into the promotion and management of speculation. All
other economic activity has been subordinated to and therefore distorted
by such speculation.
"The latest set of problems, brought on by fooling lending on property in
America, is not a failure of the free market system. It is ultimately the
effect of government monetary policies. The answer does not lie in some
new set of regulations, which may prevent the next speculative frenzy.
The true answer lies in the return to a more sensible and more honest set
of monetary arrangements.
"We mean by this the return to a fully convertible gold standard.
"The Libertarian Alliance calls on the British Government to do the
following:
* To order the conversion of all foreign currency reserves held by in the
Bank of England into gold;
* To sell every reasonably marketable asset of the British State, to
convert the proceeds into gold, and to lodge these at the Bank of England;
* To revalue the Pound, so that all claims on the Bank of England were
equal to the gold reserve of the Bank of England:
* To impose on the Bank of England a legal obligation to pay all claims
on it in gold, on demand and without limit:
* To impose on the Bank of England an obligation to do all within its
ability, and nothing other than this, to maintain the new parity between
the Pound and gold:
* To impose on all deposit receivers operating in the United Kingdom
(unless explicitly exempted by contract) to pay all claims on them in
gold, on demand and without limit;
* To make the directors or, if they are without the jurisdiction, the
most senior management of all deposit receivers in the United Kingdom
personally responsible for any failure to make such payments:
* To impress on any foreign government or central bank that might choose
to fix a parity against the Pound that no assistance whatever would be
given to maintain such a parity.
"We note that these measures would bring about first a severe devaluation
of the Pound, and then a credit squeeze that deflated the value of real
and financial assets. But this is what we seem already to be facing. A
return to the gold standard would provide us with a stable financial
system, and would tend to protect us against future bubbles, and would
abolish the need for intrusive financial regulation.
"We also note that a fully convertible gold standard would make all money
laundering laws unenforceable, and would severely limit the ability of
the British State to finance its activities by the unlimited sale of
bonds to the banking system. We would unreservedly welcome both these
effects.
"We look forward to a Britain, and preferably a world, in which fiat
money has become as unusual as state ownership of telephone networks, and
in which paper and electronic money is a rare substitute for gold and
silver and copper coins."
END OF COPY
Note(s) to Editors
Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. His latest
book, Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England,
and How to Get It Back, may be downloaded for free from
http://tinyurl.com/34e2o3. It may also be bought. His other books are
available from Hampden Press at
http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.
