By Douglas French
In his failed 1896 presidential campaign, inflationist William Jennings Bryan declared that he would ”not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.“ But at least even Bryan favored silver money. Today’s political candidates will crucify us on a cross of paper.
Ohhh ………. You beat me to it!! My nym-sake, Rothbard, claimed that Bryan was an inflationist, which is true if you accept the idea that only the increase in the supply of money is “inflation”. This is why the author says this and Rothbard said it.
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Do you subscribe to a different view of inflation? I like the Misesian/Mengerian view myself, because it's so simple.
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No, I subscribe to the Austrian viewpoint. I was just pointing out that at Bryan’s time, the silver from Nevada was just coming into the market, excuse me, flooding the market. It was creating a lot of inflation because the government made coinage factory in Nevada, specifically to turn the silver into silver dollars. My father, after WWII lived in Colorado for a time. He told be it was a problem, sometimes, to be paid in silver dollars because a pocket full would droop his drawers!
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Interesting
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Silver is a tad heavy. That is why a lot of people did not like having a pocket full of change (freedom coins). Do you remember in the James Bond movie when Bond asked if the hotel accepted British money? The answer was, “Yes, if they are sovereign's!”
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I don't remember that.
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I think it was in the second or third Bond movie.
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Most likely I saw it, but it's probably been decades.
Linked on NOSTR
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A paper cross, make that more like a cross made from a pile of dried shit.
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