Steve Forbes‘ latest contribution to Forbes magazine suggests Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney could take some steps to shore up support among Ron Paul voters.
- Vow to push Congress to enact a law barring an executive order along the lines of Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6102, which prohibited the “hoarding” of gold by Americans. This order was enacted in 1933 to make it easy for the government to seize gold from private citizens, which it did indeed do in a misbegotten move to combat the Great Depression. In 1974 the ban against private ownership was lifted.
- Appoint a commission to explore reestablishing the link between the dollar and the yellow metal.
President Reagan created such a commission in the early 1980s. But only two of its members favored creating a new gold standard—Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman. Together they penned an impressive dissent that became a bestseller, The Case for Gold, which remains in print to this day. Senator Rand Paul (R–Ky.), son of Ron, is advocating this new commission, and Governor Romney should embrace the concept immediately.
Romney, while no fan of a weak dollar, hasn’t made the leap to relinking the buck to gold. But these steps would be a fine indication of his intentions to learn more about this critical subject.
