Today’s New York Sun editorial points us to The Scandal of Money: Why Wall Street Recovers but the Economy Never Does , the new book by economist and futurist George Gilder. The editorial heartily recommends Gilder's book, which makes the argument that America's current monetary policy is immoral:
What is so special about Mr. Gilder's contribution is its radicality. He opens with a quote from Friedrich Hayek asserting that the "source and root of all monetary evil" is "the government monopoly on the issue and control of money." He brings to the question an almost Supermanly x-ray vision that enables him to see through orthodoxy, and he opens by brushing aside the Federal Reserve, on which so many focus for its role in our long travail. "Our misplaced faith in the power of the Federal Reserve to order growth into being by manipulating its monopoly money has led," he writes, "to the capture of Wall Street by Washington and the consequent starvation of Main Street and decay of Silicon Valley." Understanding "the real sources of our economic crisis," he writes, "requires surrendering our faith that the Fed has the answers." He calls it the key not just to political victory but, too, to a national restoration.
GIlder argues that, over the last century, the "monetarist delusion" brought on by the Federal Reserve has led to a massive transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street and is calling for a return to the gold standard -- only now the gold standard would be enhanced by Bitcoin technology.
Decades ago, Gilder was way ahead of his time in predicting the impact of microprocessors and other technologies. Perhaps his attempts to drag monetary policy into the 21st century should be carefully considered.