Boston Basic Income #128: Gold Standard

At the turn of the 20th century, many of the world's currencies were pegged to gold. Gold was an international monetary standard. And then it wasn't. What happened? Was there something special about gold that led us to choose it as our standard money? Did something happen that caused gold to stop being special? Under what conditions is gold a useful form of money?

Some people say that abandoning the gold standard gave us more flexibility to properly manage the stability of our economy. If that's true, why did we adopt a gold standard in the first place? What would basic income have look like in a gold standard world? Is it possible to have an optimal basic income in the context of a gold standard?

For optional reading this week, we have a 2019 Quartz article by Natasha Frost and Gwynn Guilford entitled, "The quiet campaign to reinstate the gold standard is getting louder."

https://qz.com/1646318/why-trump-and-judy-shelton-want-the-us-back-on-the-gold-standard/

Previous related Boston Basic Income topics have included:

https://youtu.be/X63hgaCxjP8 — BBI #12 — The Nature of Money
https://youtu.be/rClxrj0YVvM — BBI #26 — Cryptocurrency
https://youtu.be/tRm9UsEEpbc — BBI #107 — Quantity Theory of Money

You can access the Zoom meeting here:
https://zoom.us/j/402968564

We will start and end the discussion by going around the room to get everyone's opening and closing thoughts.

If you'd like to speak at another time, click the "raise hand" button on the "Participants" tab. Alex will unmute you when it's your turn.

Send Alex a message via Zoom chat to let him know if you'd like to follow up on something specific.

Starting at 7pm, we will make introductions and establish parameters for the discussion. The YouTube live stream will begin at 7:10pm.

The discussion will be streamed live at this URL:
https://www.youtube.com/bostonbasicincome/live

It will also be available in podcast form the following day:
https://anchor.fm/bostonbasicincome

Image by Peggy_Marco on Pixabay
(https://pixabay.com/illustrations/gold-bullion-bars-feingold-bank-1013618/)