In response to this note that Paul Krugman has in the current issue of The New York Review of Books, I sent this letter:
Dear Editor:
Discussing Milton Friedman’s monetary economics, Paul Krugman says that “he showed himself much less doctrinaire and much more realistic than many of his acolytes: many conservative economists are drawn to visions of a restored gold standard or a world currency, dismissing the problems such a system would create” (Letter, April 12).
Krugman utterly distorts the views of market-oriented economists. Only a tiny, insignificant fringe advocates a gold standard. Many more – influenced by the works of F.A. Hayek, Ben Klein, Gordon Tullock, Larry White, George Selgin, and Kevin Dowd – support competition among money issuers. This proposal is as far from advocacy of a gold standard or a “world currency” as one can get.
Krugman’s creation and destruction of straw men is deplorable.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
