Harry Browne Quotes
When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive.
Browne, Harry. You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis. Macmillan, 1974.
At the time the United States was on the Gold Standard and all our money was backed by gold. Root and others were afraid that a Federal Reserve Bank, a proposal that was being debated in Congress, would cause a large amount of paper money to be printed which other nations would obtain through trade and then exchange that for American gold—a process which would deplete the American gold supply. A few years before, William Jennings Bryan had argued that the Gold Standard did not allow America sufficient ability to increase the money supply to serve the growing population and economy. See {640992}.
Conservatives are surprised to learn that their great economic nemesis was one of the early economists who saw the danger of paper money and government control over the minting of money which is one of their core concerns.
What Franklin Delano Roosevelt began, President Nixon would in 1971 complete by removing America from the gold standard entirely and ending fixed rates of exchange. There have been those in government who did not understand the modern economics of money and who believed that currency had to have a fixed rate of exchange for gold or silver otherwise it was worthless. Roosevelt had to deal with them as did Nixon later. Even into the 21st century when it had been amply demonstrated that the best currency in the world was the United States dollar precisely because it was backed up by the full faith and credit of the United States Government, there were those who complain that United States money is not sound currency and argue for the return of the gold standard.
President Richard Nixon, a conservative Republican did not agree with this view as it was he who led America to abandon the gold standard to back its money.
Harry Edson Browne was an American writer, politician, and investment advisor. He was the Libertarian Party's Presidential nominee in the U.S. elections of 1996 and 2000. He authored 12 books that in total have sold more than 2 million copies.
