It occurs to me...

I saw Ron Paul on Colbert the other night, making the same lame argument I've heard elsewhere: If we were on a gold standard, governments couldn't make war.

It occurs to me that FDR took us off gold not to fight a war, but to fight the depression that followed "The Roaring 20s." It was the private-sector boom, financed by the growth of private-sector debt, that created the Depression and forced us off gold.

It occurs to me that Nixon took us off gold in 1971 not to fight a war, but to preserve the "golden age" that ended anyway in 1973. Again, it was the private-sector boom, financed by the growth of private-sector debt, that created the problem that forced us off gold.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Paul.