CNBC Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for the Gold Standard

Leading up to the Presidential election, the Republican Party is taking a hard look at the viability of returning back to the gold standard. According to

, "the Republican Party is considering setting up a commission to examine the pros and cons of going back to the gold standard, according to draft documents of the party platform." The gold standard debate is reemerging because of the frightening trajectory of the national debt and the European debt crisis, which has been triggered by the exact same policies that the United States continues to recklessly pursue. If the gold standard becomes official Republican policy, it would be surprising, but the issues has been spearheaded for years by popular Texas Congressman Ron Paul. The commission would be similar to one set up by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s with the same mandate to research the benefits and drawbacks of returning to the gold standard. Of the 17-members who sat on that commission, only two of them endorsed its return. One of those people was Ron Paul. "Now, three decades later, as we face the task of cleaning up the wreckage of the current Administration's policies, we propose a similar commission to investigate possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar," the new proposal says. The difficulty in getting politicians to support a return to the gold standard is that it is in direct opposition to the government's best interests, but may very well be in the best interest of the populace. Under the current fiat system, the ability of the Federal Reserve to print money and then buy Treasury debt enables the government to spend endlessly and expand its reach both domestically and internationally. The results of these policies have been endless inflation, needless and careless wars, and an expansion of Federal power in all aspects of the economy. Furthermore, the United States now has a debt burden which eventually will threaten the stability of the U.S. Dollar and, by extension, the entire global economy. The gold standard would be a surefire way to reign in out of control government spending and excessive power concentrated in Washington D.C. Currently, if the United States were to back every dollar in circulation 100% with gold, the precious metal would be worth $10,000 an ounce. It would be possible, however, for only a fraction of each dollar to be backed by gold. If 15% of each dollar was redeemable in gold, for example, it would imply a price of $1,500 an ounce. On Friday, gold is trading at $1,672 an ounce. A new

seems to suggest that while Washington bureaucrats might find a return to the gold standard anathema to their narrow interests, the citizens of the United States think it is a pretty good idea. Out of a little more than 19,000 votes that had been recorded at CNBC.com on Friday afternoon, 69% voted that they would be in favor of returning to the gold standard. Only 24% of respondents voted "no," that they do not support it, and 7% were unsure.