Wall Street and Sound Money

Despite the many advantages that a sound money standard would confer on ordinary savers, wage earners, and small business owners – from greater price stability to a check on inflationary erosion, to a closer alignment between savings and investment – such a regime has no shortage of powerful opponents. Chief among them is Wall Street, whose interests are deeply entwined with the flexibility and discretion afforded by fiat money. Indeed, contemporary Wall Street’s hostility to a sound money standard is structural. A monetary regime anchored to gold, or any similarly binding constraint, would not merely trim profits at the margins....