Monopoly money
EUROPE'S governments now have a scheme of their own. They mean to stamp out competition in money. They intend to issue a brand new paper currency, and to give it a monopoly whose bounds will stretch from the Orkneys to Cape Mata- pan. They will use all their powers to rig the market in its favour. Gold as its unoffi- cial competitor forms no part of their plans. They might prefer to sell their hold- ings and pay their bills or their debts. (Even Helmut Kohl was tempted by the gold in the Bundesbank.) Some of Europe's citi- zens might prefer this monopoly money to their local issue, but none of them will have the choice. They ought to ask whether this monopoly will work as well for them as for the governments and central bankers that promote it. Why should they trust its pro- moters? After half a century of govern- ments that financed themselves by borrow- ing and printing, our own country's money has lost 95 per cent of its value. Anyone who had swapped his pounds for an ingot would today be sitting pretty, if he had not been arrested in the meantime. This is no time to let go of gold.
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