Monday, January 07, 2008
(5:16 PM) | Rob Breymaier:
take your blimp and shove it
As I was listening to the Republican debate on NPR last night (a delightful round of entertainment), Ron Paul provided a prototypically infuriating libertarian argument as follows:Inflation is a problem and we need to go back to the Gold Standard to fix it. Let me prove it to you. Oil has increased [whatever he said]% in dollars and [whatever he said]% in euros, but it has remained constant in its price against gold.The infuriation is not just because Paul is misleading viewers/listeners. The infuriation comes from Paul expecting that no one will consider the logic of his example (and not even uber-turnaround artist Mitt Romney challenged him). His example is misleading because oil and gold are both traded in dollars. Therefore, any inflationary effect on the dollar (which the euro is also traded against) would be removed in a ratio of oil to gold.
In my experience, this is the sort of phony nonsense that libertarians love to spout off. There is often a variable left out or a logical step omitted that makes their arguments seem sound in quick conversation (in the short run?) and obviously erroneous after thoughtful deliberation.
