and then of the gold standard and then you know as you know since nine hundred seventy one even the brettonoods system which was the last of link to gold we and one of the reasons was that each government wanted to have their own printing press their own money and of course for the purpose of manipulating it. absolutely right the u.s. government is also a currency manipulator to try to get their currency down and they are furious with the chinese because they pick their currency to the dollar not allowing it to devalue but you see that this is why i think we have now among these few currencies sort of an implicit race to the bottom and we see one ever country you mentioned switzerland but of a country like switzerland run more conservative monetary policy as the swiss have for some time this mess of pressure for that country obviously to see its currency appreciate the internal political pressures from the export industry and so forth and we've seen that last year now that the that the swiss government is taking all these measures on the central bank to weaken their currency or not even int

central bank to weaken their currency or now even introducing capital controls are you mentioned brettonoods came after world war two in attempt to stabilize global trade global currency markets and that was the last time really people were seriously talking about it a global currency remember the bank or discussed by keynes now people are coming back to that camp as a possible solution they're talking about a global currency some say the i.m.f. with their special drawing rights this is the ability to expand a global currency others want china you know they want to step in with maybe something like the bank or what what are your thoughts on this idea of a global currency and if one were to take shape what would it look like in your view i'm in two minds on the one hand i am a big fan of a global currency and as i argue in my book. i think the gold standard was not perfect but in a way it was the closest we've got to a very well functioning global monetary system i think whenever you raise that topic a lot of people push back and. immediately say whether it was responsible for the great d

then you have the gold exchange standard of the 1920s and lately, more recently, bretton woods. and each of those systems seem to have its flaws, each seem to break down. and the so-called classical gold standard i think lasted, what, 39 years, from the 1870s just up to the first world war. so actually had a very brief period perhaps coincident with british imperial hi gem ne. >> there was that, was there? >> briefly. what do you make of this, the fact that the gold standard is always morphing, always in a way failing from one incarnation to another? >> may i begin just by saying i often thought of the keynesians as the marxists of today. you're scandalizing me. let's just use a couple of concrete examples to begin a brief answer. sir isaac newton established the basis of the english pound sterling in 1717, the very same isaac newton who pioneered the scientific revolution of the 17th and early 18th century. the weight unit which was established by law of the english pound in gold lasted until 1914. so, with all respect for edwards' dating, we had a 200-year constant unit of val

of the dollar i mean is it slowly eroding people we've talked about for years about the end of the bretton woods agreement i mean you know where is the dollar going is that just slowly slipping away. i think that's a better characterization since we're supposed to be debating that than martins' slowly the trading doesn't really matter that much to me because the un is dead as a global currency it's since it's been undervalued we haven't seen that the want of course has potential as a global currency but lack of nerve in beijing is holding that back and the u.s. is doing its best to undermine the dollar but at the same time everybody else is currencies are so weak or stunted that we see any as again in the euro crisis money flowing into dollar holdings so american policy i think martin and i certainly agree on that is damaging to the dollar but i think the decline is very slow because everything is relative it's not just your currency it's how your currency looks against other currencies and in that sense the dollar's doing ok and what do you think about that market is there none of the cur

. >> there's the bretton a display -- retina display. have a great day, i'm rob nelson. >> time for traffic and weather every ten minutes. >> we have some trouble spots. starting with lisa baden. >> southbound on the g.w. parkway between the beltway and 123 they're almost finished removing a downed tree. nothing to report northbound. b-w parkway where it meets 50 kenilworth avenue and north avenue, there's been a minor collision. . authorities are run -- authorities are on their way there. in springfield we were trying to get to that camera. all good on 95 and 66. a little rain and road spray, no problems on the beltway to and from the wilson bridge or the american legion bridge. you are in trouble when you laugh at your own jokes. >> we're laughing with you. occasional showers through the day. it's good because you get a light soaking the settles into the garden. >> cleans the air a little. >> grass pollen was moderate yesterday. let's look at our temperatures on this tuesday morning. 70 degrees pretty much everywhere. 70 in hagerstown,

he allegedly started to pour gasoline on bretton, pulled out a lighter and set her on fire.urning clothes and says she somehow managed to call 911. >> he set me on fire. okay? he set me on fire. >> female says the male set her on fire. >> hurry up, please, please, please. it burns. and i go up in flames and that's when i started screaming and the only thing i thought to do was take off my clothes. my main thing is i need to stay around. i need to be alive for my kids. >> she says she suffered second and third-degree burns to her arms, her stomach and her face. >> my gosh. >> roosevelt monteshire has been charged with attempted first-degree murder. >> a miracle she's alive. >>> more stomach turning testimony could be on tap today at the jerry sandusky child sex abuse trial. three more accusers are expected to give their accounts of alleged abuse by the former penn state football coach. five of his ten alleged victims have already taken the stand, including one who claims sandusky threatened his family if he ever spoke out. >>> the world boxing association assigned five intern