All That Talk About Gold

The debate over an alternative monetary system grows more serious

Europeans are appalled. "It's the silliest financial discipline the U.S. could adopt," says former Dutch Treasury Official Coenrad J. Oort. Many private-sector American economists are aghast. Says Michael Evans, who heads his own economic consulting firm in Washington, B.C.: "There were periodic crashes in which banks collapsed during more than 50 years of the gold standard. I don't think that is what anyone wants." Yet to the astonishment of nearly everyone, important members of Congress continue to give serious thought to the idea of putting the U.S. back on some form of...