Yea Hayek also believed that a gold standard was impossible. Not a terribly consistent fellow. EDIT: This is a split thread from Hayek and Minimum Income. - krazy kaju

All he’s saying here is that the monetary unit should be taken away from government control and replaced by something chosen by the market. Hayek understands history, and as such, knows that the move will ultimately be towards gold. Going back to the gold standard, at least at first, would be extre…

No, Hayek actually doesn’t believe that a gold standard is possible. Walter Block’s Critique

Even if Hayek is wrong about the possibility of a Gold Standard, the point is moot because his free banking Commodity Reserve Currency would be superior anyway. Why do Austrians insist on making claims about what the market would choose? Why not simply argue for free banking and stop worrying about…

Well there is the regression theorem which states that only commodities can be utilized as currencies. Gold is merely the best commodity which thrives at having ‘moneyish’ qualities. It has been tested by time and is consistent.

Because free banking is inherently flawed and must inevitably lead to monetary intervention by the state. Fractional reserves cause a reduction in the market rate of interest relative to the natural rate (cause of business cycle), and inevitably a panic, which is quite problematic with 3-4% reserve…

Unlikely. As has already been pointed out, the natural result of a gold standard is long-run deflation, which helps creditors, but hurts debtors. Of course part of this is “more stable and accurate” than what? If you mean the current system, then perhaps. If you mean either some utopian central bank…

Stability, in the Austrian sense, doesn’t mean that the price level doesn’t move; all it means is that the movements aren’t arbitrary. Monetarists are worried about ‘stable price mandates.’ Prices and Production is devoted to explaining the negative effects of stable price mandates, namely the rela…

To pick up where krazy kaju left off: “I have not got time here to describe in detail what I mean by being stable in purchasing power, but briefly, I mean a kind of money in terms which it is equally likely that the price of any commodity picked out at random will rise as that it will fall. Such a …

I already addressed this non-point. Yes, both Hayek and Mises favored free banking because they believed it would eventually lead to a 100% reserve ratio (of most likely gold). Both opposed multi-commodity standards; in fact, Mises criticizes the gold/silver standard in the U.S. heavily in his Theo…

Hayek & The Gold Standard

Economics Economics Questions

sthomper October 28, 2009, 1:17am 21

would gold money be more likely to provide stable and accurate prices?

Topic		Replies	Views
What ever happened to Hayek's Commodity Reserve Currency? Economics Questions gold , gold-standard , hayek , currency , commodity-standard	9	3562	June 20, 2009
Criticism of the gold standard Economics Questions	24	5214	April 8, 2009
Arguments against the Gold Standard Economics Questions	12	3694	October 30, 2011
Question about gold standard Economics Questions gold-standard	7	2168	February 17, 2008
The Feasibility of Gold as Money Economics Questions	30	4581	January 16, 2012

Hayek & The Gold Standard

Related topics

Related on the wiki