Product Description

For most of the last three millennia, the world’s commercial centers have used one or another variant of a gold standard. It should be one of the best understood of human institutions, but it’s not. It’s one of the worst understood, by both its advocates and detractors. Though it has been spurned by governments many times, this has never been due to a fault of gold to serve its duty, but because governments had other plans for their currencies beyond maintaining their stability. And so, says Nathan Lewis, there is no reason to believe that the great monetary successes of the past four centuries, and indeed the past four millennia, could not be recreated in the next four centuries. In Gold, he makes a forceful, well-documented case for a worldwide return to the gold standard.

Governments and central bankers around the world today unanimously agree on the desirability of stable money, ever more so after some monetary disaster has reduced yet another economy to smoking ruins. Lewis shows how gold provides the stability needed to foster greater prosperity and productivity throughout the world. He offers an insightful look at money in all its forms, from the seventh century B.C. to the present day, explaining in straightforward layman’s terms the effects of inflation, deflation, and floating currencies along with their effect on prices, wages, taxes, and debt. He explains how the circulation of money is regulated by central banks and, in the process, demystifies the concepts of supply, demand, and the value of currency. And he illustrates how higher taxes diminish productivity, trade, and the stability of money. Lewis also provides an entertaining history of U.S. money and offers a sobering look at recent currency crises around the world, including the Asian monetary crisis of the late 1990s and the devastating currency devaluations in Russia, China, Mexico, and Yugoslavia.

Lewis’s ultimate conclusion is simple but powerful: gold has been adopted as money because it works. The gold standard produced decades and even centuries of stable money and economic abundance. If history is a guide, it will be done again.

Nathan Lewis was formerly the chief international economist of a firm that provided investment research for institutions. He now works for an asset management company based in New York. Lewis has written for the Financial Times, Asian Wall Street Journal, Japan Times, Pravda, and other publications. He has appeared on financial television in the United States, Japan, and the Middle East.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9956 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 447 pages

From the Inside Flap

In the first years of this new century, the price of gold nearly tripled. Why should today's investors take notice? Because gold is the ultimate competitor to the U.S. dollar. In this age of increasing global competition and military conflict, ignoring the gold market could be devastating for anyone seeking to build wealth over the long run. A vote for gold is a vote against the dollar, against paper money . . . and paper assets. It's a way of saying, "Yes, we know Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Bush, and Goldman Sachs are doing a good job, but it might be a good idea to have some REAL money, just in case."

The world's commercial centers have used one or another variant of a gold standard for most of the last three millennia. And for good reason: gold forces governments to be fiscally responsible and it provides a stable environment for rapid economic growth as well as a safe environment for individual investors to grow their own wealth.

For the last thirty-five years, the U.S. government has been able to "print" money at will. If history is any guide, this government will do as all governments have in the past: overprint, causing the currency to crash. Inevitably, they will be forced to return to the gold standard, but at great expense and with considerable suffering. Investors who are not prepared will suffer the most.

Unfortunately, asserts Nathan Lewis, both advocates and detractors of the gold standard grossly misunderstand the inner workings of this human institution. In making his case for a return to the gold standard, Lewis takes a whirlwind tour of money in all its forms, from the seventh century B.C. to the present day, explaining in straightforward layman's terms the effects of inflation, deflation, and floating currencies along with their effect on prices, wages, taxes, and debt.

Lewis also provides an engaging history of U.S. money and offers a sobering look at recent currency crises around the world, including the Asian monetary crisis of the late 1990s and the devastating currency devaluations in Russia, China, Mexico, and Yugoslavia. And, in doing so, explains why making gold a part of your portfolio has never been more important than it is today.

The ultimate conclusion of Gold: The Once and Future Money is simple but powerful: the gold standard produced decades, even centuries, of solid money and economic abundance. If history is any guide, we can –and should–abandon this era of easy money and return to the stability of the gold standard.

From the Back Cover

Praise for GOLD

"When it comes to international monetary economics, most economists fail to connect the dots. In many cases, they fail to even see them. Gold doesn't suffer these problems. Nathan Lewis's book is a readable account of the present in light of the past for purposes of the future."
—Steve H. Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics, The Johns Hopkins University

"Gold is the ultimate hedge against crisis and inflation. You can't depend on paper money assets to protect you during a panic. Hard assets are the only guarantee as an insurance policy against bad times. This book gives you the historical perspective to prepare you for the unknown."
—Mark Skousen, Editor, Forecasts & Strategies

"Gold: The Once and Future Money is a 'how-to' manual for understanding the true nature of money and a guide to the action you should take to protect your wealth."
—Byron W. King, Editor, Outstanding Investments

"A money payment must involve a tendering of tangible money, gold, or silver, or of a credit instrument entitling the owner to the undoubted right of its redemption, in gold or silver. As Nathan Lewis makes clear, the world, as of the year 2007, does not possess a means of payment. That humanity is unaware of the stupendously important fact that it lives in a world without money is perhaps the most singular feature of our contemporary world."
—Hugo Salinas Price, President, Mexican Civic Association Pro Silver

"In this delectable tome, Nathan Lewis describes the booms, busts, the bubbles, and the crises in the economies of dozens of countries, from centuries ago to the present day. It is a romp through history, illuminating along the way money in all its forms—from wampum and shells to silver and gold—and details the catastrophic effects of inflation, deflation, floating currencies, and every kind of tax a government functionary could dream to impose on an economy. Gold highlights the folly of human beings throughout history who think 'the economy' is but a machine to be tinkered with and fine-tuned like a Bentley, or worse, a rusty Yugo."
—From the Foreword by Addison Wiggin, author, The Demise of the Dollar

About the Author
Nathan Lewis was formerly the chief international economist of a leading economic forecasting firm. He now works for an asset management company based in New York. Lewis has written for the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal Asia, the Japan Times, Pravda, and other publications. He has appeared on financial television in the United States, Japan, and the Middle East.

Customer Reviews

Yes, it's long. That's what makes it a great history book.
This is a great book discussing the reasons why Gold will be the ultimate monetary standard and why an individual should consider making gold a part of his personal portfolio. However, the people looking for an investment guide should look elsewhere. This is a history book discussing the possible future of the gold standard in America by historical example from the US and select countries.

It doesn't take 400+ pages to give you reasons why to put some of your money into gold, but this kind of historical detail helps a potential gold buyer understand the yellow metal is not so much an investment as it is an insurance policy. This book reinforced my already skeptical leanings towards the Fed and US monetary policy. It also made me wonder what's being taught in high school history nowadays with respect to economics as it relates to the causes of war. The sections discussing the civil war and WWII in particular were great gap-fillers for me, and the authors explanation of the Japanese financial slump made perfect sense.

Importantly, the author makes it clear on page 114-155 that he does not advocate a 100% gold-backed currency. That is, it is not possible and we should not be expected to back every last dollar with gold. Rather, gold should be part of the system to include a convertibility aspect. The strength of the gold standard comes not from digging up gold and burying it again in government vaults, but from the strength of the governments promise to uphold the integrity of the monetary system. A fixed reserve requirement would assist this promise tremendously. Currently, there is little to reassure anyone of the validity of the "full faith and credit" we now depend upon.

The sections discussing IMF and the upheaval for which they are responsible should be required reading for all members of congress. The IMF is directly responsible for the Asian monetary crisis, the Balkan upheaval and countless other disasters and yet they escape blame every time. The author points out the IMFs hypocritical habit of meddling in less-developed countries with ridiculous and irresponsible policies that would be laughed out of the room in stable economies.

Though the author picks apart nearly every US administration with regard to the dismantling of the gold standard, the book is refreshingly bare of the usual tin-foil-hat-wearer conspiracy theories - always a problem when reading anything about gold standards and monetary policy in general.

There are two small negatives to this book: First, the look forward suggested by the author is highly unrealistic. I pessimistically think there needs to be outright economic collapse and perhaps even conflict before anything will budge bureaucratic inertia. Second would be the books length, but that's a small price to pay for a very worthwhile history lesson.

Overall its a great read.

absolute must read
This book is absolutely unbelievable vuluable and probably worth paying 1000$ for it (or should I say, 1 oz of gold!).

Not only does it explain in details what the gold standard is, and how it has worked in the past, but it also gives a very good overview of the various currency systems used in the past, the various fallacies about currencies, gold, politics, economics schools, etc.

It also reviews the history of our society through a different angle/lens. I feel like I understand the history now, and all the crises, wars, chaos that seemed to come out of nowhere has found a rational and sensible explanation. I had turned off my TV set and my radio receiver about 10 years ago, stopped reading the news papers and any other kind of useless noise, and all of the sudden, the world makes sense again.

Unfortunately, ignorance is bless...

Many thanks to Nathan Lewis for sharing his knowledge and wisdom. I just wish that the book was twice as thick, so that you could go into more details about the causes and consequences of the various policies and actions taken by the governments or the IMF, etc. because sometimes the short cuts you take are more than hard to follow and even though I think I was able to follow you, I would have preferred to be sure about it.

Conceptually good, but too detailed for my liking
The book starts and finishes strong--the first 100 pages or so and the last 50. But the middle gets very bogged down in intricate economic history with lots of minutiae. The author begins in the mercantile ages, perhaps the 1600s or thereabouts, and continues to the early 2000s. I was disappointed that the last few years were pretty much not covered, as that is what I'm most interested in. Discussion is not limited to the USA and covers the entire world. I think every economic event, significant or not, was touched on. Discussions of US presidents are mostly limited to Nixon, Carter, and Reagan.

So aside from the start and finish of this, this is mostly a book of economic history. Maybe I was expecting something otherwise when I picked it up. I support the author's premise, and he seems very confident in it. I'm new to the gold standard and I plan to learn more about it. I ended up skimming the middle 200 pages or so as I could not bear to read them in depth anymore after entering them. I understand that history is important for lessons, but I prefer summaries of it. It's never been my strong point, and this book is littered with dates and years that have always been anathema to me.

If you're new to the subject of the gold standard like me, this may not be the best initial choice. Or you might want to skip it entirely and instead seek other books or shorter articles online. This review might be somewhat useless, but if anything I would say to be mindful of the history in this book. Consider using Amazon's preview feature to see what I mean.

*Wow, coincidentally it's unbelievable how much I'm in agreement with Average Joe. I also have "The Coming Collapse of the Dollar" on my reading queue.