Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he intends to appoint historian, investment banker and author Lewis E. Lehrman and Grant's Interest Rate Observer editor Jim Grant as co-chairmen of a new commission on gold that he plans to establish if elected president.
Gingrich has called for the United States to think about returning to the gold standard. Speaking at a foreign policy forum this week in South Carolina, Gingrich advocated a "commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money."
Lehrman served on President Ronald Reagan's gold commission in the 1980s and is author of the 2011 book, “The True Gold Standard: A Monetary Reform Plan Without Official Reserve Currencies.”
Grant is editor of the respected Wall Street investment letter Grant's Interest Rate Observer.
“They are both distinguished students of monetary policy and long-time advocates of a return to hard money — a dollar as good as gold,” Gingrich said.
Grant also was recently named by Congressman Ron Paul as his first choice for Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
“I have had, and will continue to have, many strong disagreements with Congressman Paul during the campaign, but I believe he has made an important contribution in the field of monetary reform,” Gingrich said.
“While I am not presently committed to any one version of reform, if elected I will be eager to work with Lew Lehrman and Jim Grant in achieving a dollar that once again can hold its purchasing power for many decades to come.”
Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House, would model his gold commission after one put in place after Ronald Reagan was elected, when the nation was battling double-digit inflation, CNNMoney reported. But even then, the commission overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a return to the gold standard.
The United States first moved away from the gold standard, under which the dollar was backed by the nation's gold reserves, in 1933, and dropped it altogether in 1971. Despite support for its return by some on the political right, few mainstream economists support its reinstatement, CNNMoney reported.
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