Authored by Sean Fieler via RealClearMarkets,
American democracy prides itself on being "of the people, by the people, and for the people." But the people lack control over a key part of their daily lives: the money supply.
Its expansion and contraction affect the value of every paycheck, every dollar of savings, and the price of virtually everything that can be purchased. Americans once had the ability to redeem their dollars for gold at a fixed rate. Congress should restore that power. Doing so would give every American a direct check on monetary expansion and force Washington to reckon with the consequences of fiscal excess.
The idea is actually simpler than it sounds. If Americans believed Washington was undermining the value of their money, they could exchange dollars for a legally fixed quantity of gold. As those redemptions drew down the nation's gold reserves, monetary authorities would face pressure to contract rather than continue expanding the money supply. In effect, every dollar holder would possess a monetary veto.
For 55 years, America has relied upon a small group of experts to manage our money supply without the external discipline imposed by gold convertibility. The impact on fiscal policy has been disastrous and stands in stark contrast to much of the historical record before 1971. For much of the 182 years after the first federal budget in 1789, the nation treated balanced budgets - and, during prosperous
