Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The gold standard, the monetary system in which paper currency is backed by a shiny metal, was effectively abandoned in the United States in 1933, and officially dropped in 1971. Though markets featuring such a standard were known to be more volatile and more likely to suffer inflation, some conservative politicians and economists have flirted with the idea in recent years.
Among their ranks: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Stephen Moore, who is one of President Trump’s nominees for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. But in an appearance on CNN on Thursday, Moore, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, quite confidently told host Erin Burnett that he had never supported a return to the gold standard. Then Burnett played the tape.
