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An essay on the benefits of the gold standard
An essay on the benefits of the gold standard
An essay on the benefits of the gold standard
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Before the times of the foreign exchange market, the world depended on the gold standard to determine the value of goods and services. This paper will describe in more detail the gold standard, the positive and negative aspects of using the gold standard and in addition the paper will summarize the major functions of the world’s major foreign exchange markets.
The gold standard was a monetary system that many countries used in order to determine the value of domestic currencies in relation to a specific amount of gold. The value of money, bank deposit and notes were transformed into gold at the specific amount. Britain was the first country to adopt the gold standard in 1816, followed by the United States. From 1834 until 1933 the specified price of gold in the United States was $20.67 per ounce (Bordo, 2002). However, in 1933 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt put an end to the gold standard when he prohibited the possession of gold by any persons except for the purposes of owning or manufacturing jewelry (Moffatt, 2008). This was the beginning of the Bretton Woods System. Under the Bretton Woods System, countries agreed to settle their international balances by converting deficits into U.S. dollars at a flat exchange rate of $35 per ounce (Bordo, 2002). This monetary system only lasted until 1971 when President Richard Nixon completely ended the trading of gold (Moffatt, 2008). Since that time the gold standard has not been used by any major economies.
The most important benefit of using the gold standard was that it insured a low level of inflation. According to Michael Bordo (2002), “Whatever other problems there were with the gold standard, persistent inflation was not one of them. Between 1880 and 1914, the period when...
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... exchanges (Forex Capital, 2000). The exchange rate influences decisions that are made by businesses and the people who choose to participate in the transactions. This is a very important aspect of foreign exchange because it also influences the prices of the economy, consumer prices, interest rates, the growth of economies and investment decisions.
References
Bordo, Michael D., (2002). Gold Standard. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved September 28, 2008 from http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GoldStandard.html
Forex Capital Management., (2000). Introduction to Foreign Exchange. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://www.forexcapital.com/introfx.htm
Moffatt, Mike. (2008). Gold Standard vs. Fiat Money. About.com Economics. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from http://economics.about.com/cs/money/a/gold_standard_2.htm
...h he had favored central banking for most of his life, in 1970 he had begun advocating denationalizing money. In his opinion private enterprise’s that issued distinct currencies, he argued, would have an incentive to maintain their currency’s purchasing power. Which would then mean that customers could choose among competing currencies. Now, whether they would revert to a gold standard or not was a question that Hayek was too much of a believer in spontaneous order to predict. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe at the time, some economic consultants had considered Hayek’s currency system as a replacement for fixed-rate currencies.
People began to rethink their views about gold and decided that maybe they shouldn’t blame gold for the depression. Society began to doubt Bryan and his views. McKinley’s election gave new life to the American economy since soon after, buying and selling had increased immensely. As a result, demand for goods had grown and shut down factories began to reopen. Simultaneously, gold was found in Alaska, Australia and South Africa, increasing the supply of money. Taxes on imported goods also were impacted in a positive way by growing to almost sixty percent. America’s industry grew rapidly and the depression abruptly ended. (Monroe, Henry). Republicans created a higher tariff and made gold the official standard of America’s currency in 1900.
Conversion to modern worth: Lawrence H. Officer and Samuel H. Williamson. « Purchasing Power of Money in the United States from 1774 to 2010 » MeasuringWorth. 2011.
Friedman, Milton and Jacobson Schwartz, Anna. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Princeton, 1963
Brian Domitrovic, PhD, Chairman of the Department of History at Sam Houston State university, stated in his article The Gold Standard: The Foundation of Our Economy’s Greatness that, “From the first full year that the constitution’s outline of the gold standard took effect, 1790, until 1913, the year the Federal Reserve came into existence and the serial dismantling of the gold standard began, the United States economy increased in size, in real terms, by just about 150-fold” (Should The United States Return To The Gold Standard?, 2013). This record of growth was so large that the United States economy was over twice as large as Germany, its closest rival. Domitrovic also appreciated the stability the gold standard provides if managed correctly because it limits inflation and slows rises in consumer prices. In addition, it limits the government’s ability to create money as the government can only print money if there is enough gold to back
Sproul, Allan. "The Gold Question." Vital Speeches of the Day 16.4 (1949): 108. Academic Search
The coins made in gold, silver and bronze were traded during Roman Empire and the shortage of coins created a barrier for money circulation. However with the establishment of paper money, a sophisticated banking, global clearing system and electronic money, the global financial system evolved with a worldwide framework of legal agreements. In the Global Financial market, foreign currencies issued by the world, countries are traded by the buyers and sellers using currency exchange rates. Now a day, it is very common practices of companies in one country to raise capital in a foreign country by listing their stocks on major foreign exchanges given the growth of equity markets are becoming more globalized (SNHU, 2015).
was the currency of the United States. The gold standard was perceived as not sufficient
The end of the World War II marked the beginning of a new era for the world economy. The Bretton Woods System refers to an agreement made at an international conference between 44 nations in 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States of America (hereby U.S.) on the 22nd of July 1944. It was aimed at maintaining stability in the monetary system in the post World War II period. “In an effort to free international trade and fund postwar reconstruction the member states agreed to fix their exchange rates by tying their currencies to the U.S. dollar.” The fundamental of this system was liberalizing trade policy and promoting free trade. The U.S. dollar was linked to gold as a show of its dependability in the eyes of the rest of the world, $35 equaled 1 ounce of gold. They followed an adjustable fixed exchange rate (1% band). It set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which is a part of the World Bank today. Member nations monetary contributions to the setting up of these institutes determined their number of votes as well as their economic prowess
The value of the US dollar relevant to other currencies is a major consideration for the Federal Reserve. If they prevent large changes in the value of the dollar, firms and individuals can comfortably plan ahead to purchase or sell goods abroad.
Paper money is more complex. From 1900 through 1971 (with the exception of during World War I), the US dollar was backed by gold, meaning its value was legally defined by a certain weight of the metal. That ended in 1971, when Richard Nixon shocked the world by breaking the link to gold and allowing the dollar’s value to be determined by trading in the foreign exchange markets. The dollar is valuable not because it’s as good as gold, but because you can buy goods and services produced in the United States with it—and, crucially, it’s the only form the US government will accept for tax payments. Among the Federal Reserve’s many functions is allowing the issuance of just the right quantity of dollars—enough to keep the wheels of commerce well greased without slipping into a hyperinflationary crisis.
The idea of mercantilism was for nations to export more than they important and accumulate gold or silver, but mainly gold, to make up the difference (Mercantilism, n.d.). At the heart of mercantilism was that by maximizing net exports that would lead them to the best route to national wealth (C.W., 2013). This started “bullionism”, the idea that the only way a person could measure a country’s wealth and success was by the amount of gold that had (C.W., 2013). The best way to achieve “bullionism” was by making fewer imports and much exports. By doing that they make a net inflow of foreign exchange and maximizing the country’s gold stock (C.W., 2013).
The stability of currency values plays a significant role for economic and financial stability. It is not difficult to see the exchange rate fluctuations are widely regarded as damaging. As the movements of the exchange rate have significant and large effects on the trade balance, resource allocation, domestic prices, interest rate, national income and other key economic variables. Then can exchange rate movements be predicted by these fundamental economic variables?
Today, couple of monetary forms are completely upheld by gold or silver. Subsequent to most world monetary standards are fiat cash, the cash supply could increment quickly for political reasons, bringing about inflation. The
The foreign exchange market is one of important mechanism in the international business because foreign exchange is an intermediary for all nations in term of the growth of the economy. There are many functions of foreign exchange market in the global economy. In the international business, it uses the foreign exchange markets in four ways. First, the pay...