tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10815380.post6641879550689327871..comments2024-03-14T12:42:51.995+00:00Comments on Chris Whiteside's Blog: Quote of the day 19th March 2016Chris Whitesidehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02888720969479013951noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10815380.post-35713249406287151332016-03-19T10:38:01.777+00:002016-03-19T10:38:01.777+00:00Certainly the level at which they tried to maintai...Certainly the level at which they tried to maintain the Gold Standard, as well as the fact, was part of the political consensus which contributed to economic disaster.<br /><br />I don't think it was so much an attempt to cheat the system as that the exchange rate for gold was not seen as a price to be set at the level which put the market in balance, but instead as some kind of national virility symbol which had to be kept as high as possible as a sign of strength.<br /><br />You still see echoes of that attitude today whenever a downward movement of a currency is interpreted as a sign of weakness - which may or may not be correct but is always deeply damaging if it leads to an attempt to keep the currency at an unrealistic level.Chris Whitesidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02888720969479013951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10815380.post-2361214789399588662016-03-19T07:12:21.590+00:002016-03-19T07:12:21.590+00:00I dont think that attempting to maintain the gold ...I dont think that attempting to maintain the gold standard would have been a bad move at all, In fact i think it would have been a very good move.<br /><br />The problem was after the War the UK did not try to "maintain" it, they tried to cheat it. The old saying goes "you can not cheat an honest man", and gold is, well, its as good as gold.<br /><br />So when we had to leave the gold standard, in order to devalue the pound to help fund the war. If we had rejoined the the gold standard at a rate which was consistent to which the pound had been devalued, then it would indeed have been maintained, and it would have been a very savvy move. However, this is not what we did, for some unknown reason we attempted to re-implement the gold standard at the same rate it was at the time we left. This of course is the problem, we attempted to cheat gold, and gold does not cheat. Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00373005279697295131noreply@blogger.com