US Republicans consider return to gold standard

The US Republican party is reportedly to look at restoring the link between the dollar and gold as part of its platform for the 2012 elections.

Drafts of the party platform which will be adopted at the Republican convention in Florida next week call for an audit of Federal Reserve monetary policy and the creation of a commission to look at a return to the gold standard, according to the Financial Times. A return to the gold standard would remove the Federal Reserve's ability to alter interest rates by setting a fixed value on the dollar, and return the US to a policy it abandoned over 40 years ago. Former president Richard Nixon took the US off the gold standard in the midst of the 1971 oil crisis. Ronald Reagan created a ...