itself between franklin and eleanor. so franklin is very supportive of her efforts and she was careful not to do things that would upset him such as talking about subjects like birth control that were no-nos to a political conclusion including a lot of women catholics. [inaudible] >> she was. >> advancing liberal causes that for political or other reasons he did not have interest in advancing. and if you want to put it that way, in a way that he was not always happy about. >> that is very true but to what degree she used these press conferences to advance these liberal causes and to what degree she used my day to do that was in the context of a

wife speaking out and roosevelt could laugh at off by saying that is just my mrs.. there was a prevailing ideology that women are supposed to be better than men so it is all right for them to be more moral. eleanor went around visiting day care centers and having her picture taken with a lot of african-americans at a time when the segregationists in the south objected to that greatly but certainly that helped the roosevelt coalition in the northern cities where the african americans were voting and franklin, although he didn't attack the southern segregationists in congress, still could make use of eleanor's interest in civil-rights to attract a liberal constituency.

countervailing currents. >> hello. i think we all know that journalists are very important in a society, civilized society. they are to bring to the people friday's happening, where, what and when, objectively. but today with the internet we have the rise of the citizen journalist. and sometimes they don't give it objectively. so what are we readers going to do in this citizen journalism society? >> very good question. how do we maintain some

semblance of finding information, i can only answer that -- i wish i could give a good answer but i can only answer by saying in a lot of universities including the one i work that for many years, university of maryland at college park, an increasing interest on providing course work and media literacy that will give some people some idea how to find accurate sources of information, let students understand not everything they find on the internet is valuable information. >> tha this program was part of the 2013 roosevelt reading festival. for more information, visit

fdrlibrary.marish.edu. louis is next on booktv. he served on president reagan's gold commission and calls for a return to the gold standard which he argues will help improve our economy. this is about an hour. good afternoon, welcome to the cato institute. i'm the director of financial regulations study here. i'm honored to serve as a moderator of today's event. the history of monetary policy in the united states without -- whether it's a occasional 0 bit in the "the wall street journal" or the numerous books. he has a uniquely assessable and insightful style when discussing monetary policy. it was for this reason he was chosen to serve on the gold commission where he coauthored

with ron paul. debates over monetary policy in the america to the extent they take place are generally dominated by mono to these debate. the central flaw in the debate, in my opinion, the argument is over how you run it. his work is repeatedly the importance of choice and competition in the realm of money. after all choice and competition are the hallmark for free society. as trusted honesty, element far more important to the nature of money than price stability. we are fortunate today have a former cato institute alumni to introduce him and make commentary on his book. he'll be around to sign copy for

the low price of $5. it's big discount off the list price. ed ason, again introduce momentarily is currently executive publisher based in baltimore and -- i feel like he should give me a little bit of money back given how much i have spent over the years. before i turn to him, i want to offer my apology for having to slip out a little bit near the end of the panel. i'll be rushing to capitol hill on why we need to end fannie and freddie. with that, let me turn it over to adson. [applause] >> mark, it's a great honor to be here today a couple of. a little bit more than ten years ago i worked here myself. i helped to sponsor forums just

like this. it's great to be back, it's also -- it's a comforting thought that cato has continued the work. i've gone to a fairly busy career at publishing. they have continued the good work here of bringing forth books like the book we are here to talk about today. the second great honor is just the opportunity to have to work with louis. we have become friends over the last several weeks. or several months after meeting at the stable dollar conference at the heritage foundation a couple of years ago. i've had the opportunity visit him at his home. he was gracious enough to allow a film crew to come his library and do a less than think interview. we are interested in the book

that is coming out now, i'll explain why in a moment, but it will help if i explain a little bit about what financial is. it's a retailer publisher. we publish investment advice for individual investors. people trying to manage their own money. to illustrate what it's like, for our own purposes for training or helping writers learn how to communicate with our audience, we went in to our reader data base and we found a typical reader of our publications, and we gave him a name. his name is bob. he's an actual character or reader who came to the bio. he's a 58-year-old dentist, he has a valuable skill for most of us. i want to keep my teeth as long as i can. i visit my dentist. he went medical school, obviously very expensive to become a dentist.

then as he entered to his practice, he had to become an entrepreneur he had to figure out how to run a small practice. he spent most of his adult right-of-way thinking about -- life thinking about dennist i are and running a business. he hasn't spent love time examining how the monetary system or financial market works or what goes on when he's getting nightly news about the dow and gep numbers and things like that. the first thing bob did when he realized he had enough money in his retirement savings account to worry about it if he gave it to wall street. i made this comment on friday night at the venue in new york city. it didn't go over very well. i think i'm safe here. the first thing happened after he gave his noun wall street he started losing it through bad decisions and through high fees

that he didn't understand. a lot of trading going on. bob is smart enough and sophisticated enough to know that he could figure it out. he can do the work on his own, figure out how the market work, invest successfully. he needs help. he goes online and find our core market. one of the first lessons that we try to teach individuals who are sophisticated enough to understand it when managing their own money, they have to understand that the thrar -- dollar itself is under the planned -- what we used to complain about american car manufacturers. there is a strategy in place to have the dollar -- the road value by 2% a year. if you listen to speeches given by the chairman of the federal reserve, currently mr. ben

bernanke, they'll tell you that's what their goal is. if they can't get there, if there's a little bit of depolice deflation in the market in the they want to print for more money to achieve that target. bob's roadway action at first is incredible use. he can't believe the strategy is in place. they turn on us. they don't believe that the banks actually have that strategy in place. the second thing that bob does is starts to panic and speculating in the stock market. we have products that will help them do that too. we try to educate bob and his friends that there is a badness about the monetary work -- world that is working against him. the dollar, or the hundred dollars he saves today in twenty years' time will be worth 40 cents.

what does that mean? it means that what costs $16 $100 of the money he saved will cost $400 or $500 in that much time. another response we often get is the dollar must be doing well because it's rising against the euro or against the yen because that's in the headline that the dollar moves up, then bob peoples better about the economy. but the plan -- [inaudible] one of my faifortd lines from a movie we produced a couple of years ago was by the comptroller general of the country, david walker, just because you're the nicest looking horse in the boot factory doesn't mean you want to be in the glue factory. he was talking about the dollar

being a part of the race to the bottom that all the other currencies are part. that's why i'm here today, because i think it's very important for this debate, this policy debate to be played out in public as mark alluded to, most of the debate is hijacked by monetarists and very difficult for an alternative point of view to get out there. so we have c-span today, we have the forum through our own publications, we have been publishing a lot of works. comments, talking about the interview we have done and will be issuing the releasing the interview we have done on our own websites, and giving a copy of the "true gold standard" which is another book he has written to members of the will someday fair book club that have

don't -- come to the leader list and joined an economic club, essentially, to learn how the economy works and financial markets work so they can manage their own money. when we were talking at your house, louis, you made a very important observation, it was off camera. we don't -- we haven't actually published it. you mentioned you were sort of lamenting that the rise of the internet. the influence of the internet because in much of our own work and in the work of journalists around the world, it is easy to look stuff up online and use it as the source material. it's different to go back beyond 1995, and look for arguments in this case about monetary policy because so you to got library and use microphish.

he mentioned that he had run across that and founded goldstandardnow.org. .. the argument for sound money through the classical gold standard was the jobs -- it was

the actual term that he used, and ralph did a very eloquent job of defending the public debate, the very centrist and the very important job of arguing for the classical gold standard lot from a fringe or from the saudi of one element or another of the political spectrum but to actually obfuscate a monetary system where bob can save a dollar today and know that it's worth that dollar in purchasing power 40 years from now. and i'm not exactly the most eloquent speaker on the subject, but i think we do have the most

eloquent speaker and advocating for the classical old standard -- and gold standard. i will allow him to discuss the content of his books and then we will open up for discussion. [applause] >> i want to thank you to, the addison, and mark i know the work you do here at cato. its outstanding work and it's the center of one might say the regulations center but it's the center of deregulation. i also want to think you for inviting me to cato today.

there are many distinguished guests here today and friends, too. so we began by declaring this a perk period of financial disorder. indeed modern age of central banking now in its fourth century may be characterized by the rise and fall of money. every decade is said to be preoccupied by a specific issues. for example from 2008 to 2013, international economic issues focused on the quality of easing and the fluctuating purchasing power of the dollar. but the focus turns now from the fall to the rise of the dollar

exchange rate and the consequence of its instability. on domestic issues, government economists, the academics and the talking heads of the vision are today focused on what they are pleased to call modest price inflation. let me said, however, if the financial market participants with know the mahmudiyah defeasing not being expressed in the cpi it is expressed in the price rises of the speculative heads commodities, foreign exchange, equities, bonds, a real-estate and art among other vehicles. these are the vehicles used by the so-called trade of the speculative and financial class in power as they are by the near zero interest rates.

the financial class b gets the cheap fed credit first aníbal to run the massive securities purchases and then with the proceeds of the new sales they profitably arbitraged the prices of related assets and securities in fact excess cash balances with quantitative easing where reabsorbed in the past five years by the rising asset prices of the rich and by the export of the excess dollars abroad through their overall u.s. balance of payments deficits. these deficit payments of themselves being partially financed by rising prices until a short while ago the emerging market places began to rise, commodity prices again, foreign-exchange rates and economic growth in the emerging markets themselves. at the moment, some of these

trends are in weaver sneaking for reciprocal dangers. a word about the cpi. statisticians have impeached the methodology to compute the consumer price index. for example using the methodology of cpi computation in 1980. inflation would have been close to 10%. using the governor methodology of 1990, cpi inflation would have been closer to 6%. whenever and wherever the inflation of workers earning the fixed salaries and wages and those living on pensions and fixed incomes know that their paychecks and their minuscule income from savings do not keep up with their expenses which must be paid for at rising true market prices. people have also discovered the

credit for the liquid financial class with access to cheap money at the fed and the banks have enriched itself not only by the bailout subsidies but derived from its symbiotic dependence on the federal reserve system. this, a fundamental cause of the rising inequality of wealth in america. but it's also troup the fear of deflationary over equities and emerging countries and the central bank's haunt the fed and the financial markets not because the foreign economies try to adjust to the unpredictable and disorderly and now the rise on the dollar exchanges. indeed, manipulated floating exchange rates engaged all of the demonic forces and foreign

exchange controls. the combination of which has the power to destroy the international trading system as in fact it did during the interwar mac period from 1920 to 1940. let me touch briefly on a few of the subjects, others during our discussion. in the full light of history, the past century has been preeminently the era of financial disorder inaugurated by world war i. a catastrophic west entailing the self immolation of the european great powers. it destroyed not only much of european civilization and the flower of its manhood but also the monetary system associated with its unprecedented growth and prosperity, namely the

classical gold standard. world war two and its aftermath of the acts of this unfolding tragedy as all european countries struggled with inflationary disorders during the war torn 1940's and reconstruction efforts of the 1950's. the experts called this period, this early postwar period the permanent, and i quote them, the permanent scarcity of the dollar. remember the u.s. economy in 1945, needed the planet as no country of history accounting for about 50% of the world output and 70% as much as 80% of the global gold reserves. for 15 years, from 1945 to 1960, the gold linked dollar, the post for brentonwood system remained in and reasonably stable epicenter at which the current

systems orbited white unsteadily the gold exchange system was the reserve currency system based on the hegemonic dollar that had been erected upon the foundation of the post world war i reserve currency system designed at genoa in 1922. the genoa system built on the currency will primarily of sterling, but also of the dollar. both currencies, being the official substitutes for the pre-war settlements on the gold of residual balance of payments, deficits. now, it was from 1945 to 1958 that a reasonably stable dollar did dominate global trade and exchange as the world's struggle to recover from world war ii.

but after 1958, a momentous monetary the event took place. western european governments restored the currency systems on the current account sponsored by the european payments union to. most exchange controls sought to establish budgetary equilibrium at home. promptly dollar primacy began to wane. from that very year, 1958 when the once nations of your part in the convertibility of the national monies, the european nations accelerated the post war rise in the markets and then it was the united states that began to experience the near permanent balance of payments deficits and budget deficits. now, throughout the 1960's under presidents kennedy and johnson on inflation and the external

deficit of the dollar generated by extensive u.s. monetary policies and budget deficits lead to perennial foreign-exchange crisis and ultimately the foreign-exchange controls. foreign exchange controls in the united states. the brentonwood system grown under the floodgate of excess u.s. dollar's going broad where they were accumulated in the official foreign exchange reserves of our trading partners. this was the period maybe some of you remember when the washington policy makers and economists led by the academic neo keynesian, paul samuelson and walter heller suggested that a little inflation induced by managed currency say two or 3% less controllable and desirable. at the end of the 1970's it had reached the annualized rate of

15% carey and since the u.s. dollar was the primary reserve currency under the treaty, the foreign central banks were in effect required to purchase the undesired dollars in their banking systems against the creation of their own domestic money, foreign central banks held these dollars as official reserves. they didn't bury them in the vaults. they promptly reinvested these dollars and the new york money market thus enabling americans to buy again with the original cash balances used before to buy the goods abroad. in a word this duplication of purchasing power of the reserve currency system of brentonwood and associated with the production of new output caused aggregate demand to exceed aggregate supply. inflation must be the ultimate

result. this in a word is what my colleague john mueller and i called a reserve currency curse. it was also in this period of 1967 that an international paper money special drawing rights, sdr was invented by the international monetary fund argued to avoid a potential liquidity shortage. indeed was even said that the sdr and the artificially fabricated asset to be allocated by its members among the fund was the necessary liquidity to finance the growing world trade. but as one foreign economist remarked, given the inflation in the world of money glut, the creation of sdr amounted to irrigation plans during a flood.

so from 1965, the federal reserve had been required by the reform statute to hold gold reserves equal to 25% of the federal reserve note and deposits. the so-called monetary base. president lyndon johnson decided to simultaneously to defend the vietnam war and built the great society welfare system he moved to avoid the statutes which by virtue of the stipulated gold cover a limited the amount of money and credit with the federal reserve system could create. the fall inflationary potential inherent in the federal reserve act of 1913 and in the moly central bank -- monopoly central bank was about to be predicted and as the gold cover was gradually brushed aside, budget deficits, credit expansion, inflation and the balance of payments crisis intensified.

now, what a few far seeing states and had predicted as early as 1960 seemed almost inevitable in 1968, namely the collapse of the brentonwood system. from 1960 to 61, the london gold pool are originated by the developed countries led by the united states had underwritten the brentonwood convertibility agreement. but the gold pool had grown increasingly shaky because of access that central bank quantitative easing. by selling the gold at the stipulated gold dollar parity of $35 per ounce in order to redeem the excess dollars accumulated abroad the anglo-american powers had been able to finance their extravagant well versed systems at home and their extravagant foreign policies abroad. but after march of 1968, the

united states refused to supply gold to the london gold pool arbitrarily refused. the presumed linchpin of the system the fragile link between the gold and the dollar had been ruptured if not definitively broken. these dramatic changes in the international monetary system before and after 1971 were in fact welcomed by most of the academic policy making communities and the politicians. the brentonwood agreement was coming as they say, and the necessary discipline. professional economists need the law monetarists alike to dismiss the fixed rate regimes not because like the inner war monetary regime, it was a small profoundly flawed reserve currency system as it truly was. but because it was the last

vestige of monetary restraint, still remaining from the previous war one classical gold standard. the academic economist proclaimed the coming of a new era of the central bank managed money, and of course floating exchange rates. it to be managed just as well by economists at the fed and other central banks and the economists that the international monetary institutions. so it was that from 1945 to 1965, then you can see inside ruled the policymaking in washington coming in and other developed countries, and in other impoverished underdeveloped countries like india. then came the counter revolution who captured much of the feel of economic policy in the university departments in the late 1960's and 1970's. from then, one learned that money matters as much or more

than the fiscal policy. and in particular one learned that the government could manage uncomfortable paper currencies according to certain prescribed monetary manipulations. even buying a computer as the leading monetarists milton friedman suggested. their favorite techniques for manipulating the money supply was the same operations of the neo keynesian. that is the daily intervention in the bond and money markets to buy and sell billions of dollars worth and leader trillions of government debt securities in order to manipulate the supply of credit and money and to influence the level of interest rates. simply stated, they promoted the growth of inconvertible paper money by means of the steady increase in the money supply or if you will the monetary base. say 3% money growth engineered

of course by the alcee in fed. it was supposed by the academics the head of the tools, the all seeing computer and the unique personal foresight to attain these goals. however the monotheists and the keynesian of the 60's did agree on one major reform issue. but not upon the reform of the towering brentonwood security system but instead, the advocate to get that the demolition of the very tenuous brinton once gold link with the dollar in its place the modernists and the keynesian alike endorsed the central bank managed currencies. floating exchange rates planning for some, dirty fer others and the permanent diman at the station of gold. simply put, they wanted an end to any international exchange rate regime based upon this

discipline of the money for convertible currencies. may i digress for just a moment at that time that was around 1969 to 1970 a debate of some very distinguished features of figures including milton friedman, the chairman of the banking committee henry rice was there and he had the floor last and proclaimed from the floor that he was absolutely certain he was willing to bet that when the gold is demonetized the price with equine to $6 per ounce. when gold reached $850 i couldn't help but wonder whether mr. rice royce had covered his short. [laughter] it is a memory of yesterday. now it was that central bankers armed with the power to manipulate nominal in convertible currencies could

presume to become a fact of de facto central planners. the real monetary standard, the gyroscope of the civilized will economy for centuries must be destroyed. in nominal in convertible token to avoid the substance had become a fashionable zero cost monetary standard of the fed to bid the academic economists and policy makers everywhere. and so it is today. in the meantime under president nixon, then european governments have become impatient to exchange their excess dollars for what remained of the u.s. gold reserves. nixon responded by defaulting at the gold window on august 15th, 1971 my very third birthday. the president abolished by executive order the last vestige

of the dollar convertibility to gold. the remnant of the gold standard had been destroyed by the undisputed leader of the free world. the rise and fall of real money it seemed was now it's finished chapter of history. it was in effect trading commodity. though even today monetary authorities hold about 1 million ounces of gold. and also contrary to the conventional opinion at that time, the dollar would continue as a world reserve currency to this very day. the world dollar standard. but now the dollar is a nominal fee per and deposit money illegal token linked to the manipulations of its issuers and regulators at the federal

reserve system. pawlenty this control of money has supplanted the market. may i sum up a few indisputable long-term economic consequences which follow. but let us, like a businessman, take a quick look at the economic role bottoms up, not top down like a macroeconomists. since the end of convertibility, the average real wages per hour of work in the united states have been stagnant. average annual american economic growth since 2000 has been about half the average annual real growth of the previous two american century's. the real purchasing power of the 1,971-dollar saved in the bank and adjusted by the cpi declined

to a value of about 15 cents. that is to say the price level has risen from 1971 to 2013 by about sixfold. the rise unparalleled in the history of the american republic. in a word, the american middle class relatively speaking has been gradually dispossessed. the consequences of the collapse of real money worldwide are still unfolding. but let it be said that only one sentry of the post world war i financial disorder has been written. and now the question is what is to be done. let us move forward to our discussion and inquire together into what is to be done.

thank you very much. [applause] thank you. every time i hear lew talk to i feel i've been given a tour of history and i can think of no place in america that needs a history lesson better than washington. we seem to repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over again. i also want to notice an aside, cadel recently came out with a paper from my good friend on the history of the gold standard which is also available free at cato.org. so i would encourage you to take a look at that. we are going to start taking some questions and i would first ask that you have a question rather of any statement or a speech. if you could also give your identification and please, wait for the microphone to come to you so that we can pick it up on the speaker system. thank you. >> first question. i'm tempted not to let you have

the first question but keeping with tradition we will let the first question go to burt. >> thank you the monetary policy consultant. thank you very much for being here today and offering your book at the very reasonable price of $5. a question for you and this is jumping to the end of the book on page 245 when you talk about the fight steps to get from here to there. essentially as high understand it, you are calling for a central role for the federal government in re-establishing a gold standard in terms of the fixed convertibility of the gold to the dollar. that concerns me because that implies the role for the federal government and i suspect i'm not the only one in this room that is highly skeptical of anything

the federal government gets involved in. my question is this. can you envision the creation and the sustainability of the gold standard that doesn't require the involvement of the national government? >> so actually a question, burt. the answer to the latter were of the question is yes, indeed, i can envision and think i can describe and think others can describe a workable, effective, long-lasting gold standard that does not necessarily involve the federal government management. it's laid out in the positions of establishing the gold standard as the standard in the united states and allowing free banking and nations all over the world to elect to follow the united states lead. on the first part of your

question there is an end of the double-fault of america of the federal government. we live in a country where not all things are permitted. there is a constitution of the united states and articles 1, sections eight and ten. it is made clear in the first place that congress has the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof. in a word, congress under the constitution is giving the authority to establish and define the dollar whether it be a weight of gold, silver, not the federal reserve system. the federal reserve system is a mere agency like the federal communications commission or the old interstate commerce commission. it is a mere agency of the federal government. so there is an indispensable minimum, if not more on a

provincial basis, involvement of the united states government initially by congress having the power, the sole power to define the gold weight of the dollar for the gold standard to be reestablished. ..

>> you have done an excellent job with, as have many others, that the currency standard need to be replaced. could you elaborate what appears to be your preference for gold or any other -- which is bound to be less stable in value than, say, a -- [inaudible] >> on the basket of commodities or basket of currency, or any kind of straw-based monetary

standard, i think it's sufficient for me to say that it would be as unsubstantial -- unstable as the fluctuating currency or commodities as themselves. there would be no reason to believe that a monetary standard would be stable based upon a fluctuateing basket of articles of wealth drawn from the market the price of which fluctuate based upon supply and command, cost of production. and those very -- veryvariation -- variation tied to a gold standard. as in the past. so i conclude that almost anything is possible if we rely on academic -- academics to design a perfect monetary system.

in the end, white boards, or black boards at chicago university or harvard will not do the testimony of history, i think, reveals a sufficiently conclusive answer on that. what we need to do is look at the historical evidence of the modern world trading system. let's call that a period of 300 years. we need to look at what was the least imperfect monetary standard by which nations, families, and groups of nations grew at rates of growth unparallel in the whole history of homo sapiens, if you want to put it that way. and the facts are that imperfect people, with imperfect institutions can only choose the

least imperfect institution, which will give them the stability of purchasing power of their wages and salaries over the long run. it was the decision of the the british in 1770, to establish a system of where by the british pound was defined as a fixed rate of gold and silver alternately as a result of a certain transition a pure gold standard, to which in a networking effect, not unlike a microsoft operating system, more nations emulated the british system and joined themselves to the gold standard, including the united, germany, france, and the powers. if you look at the price level fluctuations between 1717, and

the year before world war i, or even until the 1930s. you will find in the variation and the price level over the long run was virtually zero. that is to say the purchasing power of the pound over a period of a couple of hundred years choosing a standard assortment from the basic goods of the market was the same purchasing power based upon the wages and salaries of each particular set of facts and circumstances. so that while not perfect, because there are variations on the basis or even annual basis, they were very modest. for example, the so-called deflation of the gold standard were about 1.2% per ounce. despite the unbelievable exaggeration one hears from academics which to criticize the gold standard, inflations under the gold standard themselves that is to say when gold output

was rising and -- money supply and not only that an expansion of growth which continued during the inflation and the so-called -- what was described as inflation was about a one to one and a half -- sometimes a 2% rate of gain in the price level during of period of augmentation. for the full period under the gold standard, if you take, for example, 1879 which em passes a inflationary level in 1% of a year to a period of -- about 2% per year. if you put it on a grid, you will see that the purchasing power of the gold standard, whether it was the gold dollar or the gold pound was virtually without movement. sum fluctuation in between, as i mentioned. but from point point over the long run, people who saved their

wages and salaries and not speculators on wall street or in london who had no ark excess to special arraignment, they could count on the purchasing power of the dollar after the entire lifespan expired. >> we have powerful computers now. [laughter] >> i can't be the only one when i hear the about computers i think back to the socialist calculation and the same thing repeatedly, i think there's actually -- all the things that government can coif we had more powerful computers. we never seem to learn. i'm going it take it one last question and hit it over to adson who will take a few more questions for about ten minutes. the young lady in the middle. [inaudible] i work if the charles cook institute. i haven't had the pleasure of

reading your book, i fairly new to the issue of monetary policy. i was doing research in my home state of utah, recently after they passed the utah legal tender act, there was an association called the utah precious metal association that formed, which under -- in my understanding is that place that stores gold and then issues almost like credit cards or debit cards to allow people to buy and sell in gold. i was wondering your thoughts, it seems like it's act as a competitive currency in the dollar. what your thoughts are, if it could be a alternative to the gold standard or transition to the gold standard. >> reporter: if for a young lady anu to the picture, you you get the idea. there are some people that had do with the adoption in the utah, the legal tender arrangement under article viii,

section x of the constitution are per admissible under the state establishing nothing but gold and silver as a legal tender -- therefore of permissive of doing so. it's created to intend -- and make it effective in elsewhere and utah are being worked on lot of very smart people. there are two things i would wish to say about that. because there's so much written well about it in deed on the internet. one is that the effort to get the states themselves, i believe there are efforts, i think, jeff can tell us, rob can tell us, how many -- i think there are about fifteen states where there's an active effort to replicate the utah -- the utah bill, which is aimed

making gold and silver a legal tender. and competitive with currency with federal reserve notes. if that is an effort to teach very busy people who work all day long take care of their families, try to save a couple of bucks, send their kids to decent school or teach them at home when the funds are inadequate. it's an effort to teach american people from the ground up the characteristic of a monetary system, which preserve the purchasing power of their wages and salaries and especially those who retire on fixed incomes and pensions. which happens a lot faster than the young lady like you might think. one should not omit the purpose involved in this. it's not the most important, but

it is central. a president of ours once said that public sentiment is everything. if you can convince the public, persuade the public that the policy is necessary, legislators will follow. the utah work and the work of other states is part of the building of a public sentiment behind the reform of the inconvertible paper dollar manipulate bid the federal reserve system building a constituency behind its reform. the second important fact, is that one of the things about the standard money, it's like standards in telecommunications or standards in computers. once the disparnd --

standard is established or makes the way to the vast majority of entities, which want to hook up to that networking, it takes on a certain characteristic even if privately followed of a monopoly. that is to say everybody wants to use the networking. that, of course, was characteristic of the gold standard from about 1717, i would argue, until 1914 in the first world war. everybody wanted to be in this networking because everybody wanted to make their payments in a currency that was a standard acceptable worldwide in all forms of trade and payments. so that the disadvantage of having one state, eleven states, or twelve state you still have a networking in place. namely the federal reserve note as legal tender which is you --

which everybody is connected and in the habit of making payment at the grocery store or wire transfer for a security purchase, and as a result it's very hard to displace the networking as everyone tried to displace microsoft's networking -- it's very difficult once the standard established. this is a profound eater -- effort in the. sot the leader. we need a congressional action establishing the monetary standard under the unique powers given by the constitution of the united states under article i. and diswiening -- defining dollar as a weight unit of gold. it doesn't have to define it as tender. it's $1. $1 is equal to one unit of gold. that is not sufficient. but that would be a necessary

element as burton weisbrod implying about the five-step program that would be a necessary element moving forward to reestablishing the gold standard as world network for trade and exchange. >> i wanted -- one of the encouraging aspects includes writing and the way he speaks is his passion for advocating for families and working people. people outside of the financial elite. people outside of the political class. there aren't that many voices. ored advocate for such broad prosperity. i, for one, appreciate your work. i want to point out in the book you have been making this argument for forty years, and have now collected much of that

argument in the book and now available anyone watching on c-span, you can also get the book. i just -- i think we have time for one more question. before we do that, i want to thank lou for being so passionate about the subject for many, many years. [inaudible] >> yes. the book is "money, gold, and history." i think we have time for one more question. [inaudible] >> i was a committee council for congress for fourteen years, and when i learned to what you talk about, it sounds like you're suggesting that congress impose some kind of monetary discipline, and my observation is that congressional discipline is kind of an oxy moron.

i wondered if you thought at all about the idea of taking the core of your -- the discipline you propose and writing it to the united states constitution. about the fact that unlike laws, states have the pour, if they use it properly, to force congress to propose the constitutional amendment. instead of relying on congressmen in washington to impose it on themselves. perhaps we might be able to -- i wonder if you thought about the ideas. >> i have thought about them indeed those issues have arisen ever since the crisis of the monetary standard. of the post war system arose

around 1960. ideas not unlike that have been proposed not quite so suck between a legislative act and a constitutional -- as a practical matter, dysfunctional as congress is thought to be, i would choose the legislative acting as the less than perfect of the mechanism by which to gnawing rate -- the gold standard. if i may pick up on the beginning and say probably not fore thought that congress imposes the gold standard on an unruly dysfunctional financial

order. the better way to say it, if i may, is that congress is required by the constitution to define the american monetary standard. not the french monetary stand nor the world. but congress under is article i section viii, you'll see a derivative of point in section x, that -- that in article i, section viii congress is given the sole power -- i repeated it, to coin money and regulate the value thereof. there is nothing -- there is no power given to any agency like a federal reserve. no power given to banks like jpmorgan to establish only to have opinions about the american

monetary standard. it's -- it is congress' duty to define the american monetary standard. not least because we have observed now forty years in which congress has failed to define the american monetary standard, which for the almost the entire history of the american republican until 1971 was defined as a certain weight of precious metal, primarily gold. it's congress' duty to define the american monetary standard. it is fair, i think, to say, that congress has been dysfunctional. however, congress has been dysfunctional through many periods in the united states history. if you just take the anti-- period after the inauguration of the republican in 179, there were many people who thought

everybody in america should have a free and equal opportunity and certain classes of people or races of people were denied that particular opportunity, and during that -- if you read the debate in that period, you find that there were people that great statesmen who despaired that the equality proposition of the declaration of independence would be become the american proposition governing our way of life in america. things happen. statesmen arrive. congress gets itself together. congress proposes amendment to the constitution such as suggested. constitutional amendments arise from the people directly as well as within the hall of congress,

so that we go for long periods with a disfunctional congress. the reason i mentioned that the chairman of the joint economic committee of congress distinguished gentleman from texas, kevin brady, and his committee have presented a bill calling for a monetary commission to exam what should be the american monetary standard and examination of history, an examination of the empire call evidence, especially the historical evidence, and what all of those different persuasions, monitorrists, classists, i guess there are many of them. there's many more in the tax on my of economists. to bring forth the opinion and and tempt to get a consensus and there by to go to congress and

perhaps then it will do its duty and establish the american monetary system and define it as it was in 1892, at the beginning of the american republican as a certain weight of pressure metal. thank you very, very much. [applause] >> in a moment i will invite you to rise and join us for lunch. lunch is held on the second level, and the george conference center. up the spiral staircase. if you can't find, this gentleman will help you. on behalf of gordon financial, i would like to thank you for inviting me to help present your book. "money, gold, and history." i would like that thank the cato

institute for hosting the event and allowing me to take part of that. it's an important piece of work, and i hope it will serve its purpose. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] you're watching 48 of hours of non-fiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. >> i think it's safe to say that publishing is probably the large conservatives publisher in america. margey ross is the boss. what do so you coming up fall of 2013? i see right here you have a splashed up there. >> we do! i'm glad you asked. we are dieted about the book we

have coming this fall. let me preview a few of the hot titles we have coming. the first is an ann -- we are keeping the title under wrap. we can play a game. a contest. who can make up a good thietle goes with that. seriously, we are excited about publishing her. we published her first book in 1998 "high crime and misdemeanor "it was a big best seller. launched her career. she did about six or eight books with someone named new york publishers. she's come home. we're excited. we're bringing out her next big block buster political book in october. that's our first hit that we're looking for. we also have another book with newt grinch, former speaker of

the house. a terrific author. many times best selling author. and this book is particularly interesting because he's talking about unleashing the potential of the future. and it's actually a very optimistic exciting book. it looks at all of the ways that technology and medicine and science and transportation and energy are sort of bursting at the seam with innovation and entrepreneurship. changing the way we live, and in contrasting that with a sort of old -- what he calls the prison guards of the past. the special interest. the lobbyist groups, the bureaucrat, the regulators, the folks who have a vested interest in not allowing things to change. because it threatens their power and income and position in culture in our society.

he's telling a tale of sort of an epic battle between the pioneers of progress, who are inventing new things every minute of new day and the prison guards of the past who are trying to hold us back. >> a book we featured on our morning program at "washington journal," began as a blog in the washington "times." >> you exactly right. >> "emily gets her gun" this is her first book. she's a terrific spokesperson for second amendment rights, for gun rights. she has a fabulous story herself. she's a young, beautiful, single woman, a professional woman living in d.c., she was a victim of a violent crime, a break in. she decided i live by myself in a, you know, a metropolitan downtown location, i don't feel safe. i'm going to try to get a gun. then she went through an odyssey to try as a respectable, you know, law-abiding citizens to

try to get a permit and gate done. the experience lead her to the realization that there is this huge power structure opposed to gun rights, and that's not news for a lot of folks. but it is an experience that she went through personally and it's really converted her in to a passionate advocate for second-amendment rights, for gun rights. this book, her personal experience is the launching pad, if you say she was a blog that she wrote very widely read and very popular. now that is going to be sort of the launching point for a book about all of the mythologies about gub -- gun control and gun right and how hard it is to protect the second amendment right. >> when can we expect see it? >> in september. she's writing it fast. we are trying to jump on the news cycle, because obviously this whole debate is right with

controversy and really what is dominating a lot of discussion in washington, d.c., these days. >> as a publisher, what does it take to get the comment from ted nugent? when your angle as a publisher. what kind of process was it to get the quote? >> it's an unusual process. i'll tell you it was funny. most of the time we have a finished manuscript. we send it tout folks who might think it's interest or have a privacy knowledge of the author. would you take a look and write something for us? it came unsolicited. he was reading her work -- >> at the "washington "times"" and found out through us. ublished ted knew again too. found out we were going publish a book and sent the e-mail to her. that was a lot of fun. [laughter] there it is on the cover.

[laughter] >> one more we want to ask you about. >> yes. this is "gunny's rules" this is a book we're very excited about. it's a lot of fun. of course, all of america knows gunny from his very, very popular cable tv show "male call" from his iconic, what is your major malfunction quote, which is how he's known many people. it's a book about, you know, how to act up, get tough, and put your life in shape. and he is a role model for a lot of people, loved by a lot of people for his tough-love approach. we felt our audience might enjoy this kind of book from somebody that they love to hear from. >> this is probably inpolitic. did the re-election of president obama help your business? >> in some ways, yes, i would

say long-term, yes. short term, maybe not. .. and they felt discouraged about losing and really didn't want to talk about politics and in fact one of the interesting things i have heard a lot from our authors and marketplace is that they are not really