Free Talk Live

Romney Resisting Reform

Governor Romney’s exchange with Lawrence Kudlow in which the governor resisted talk of a gold standard is an important moment in this campaign. It was aired on CNBC yeserday. It reminds us of an exchange we had some years ago with Milton Friedman. At a lunch in Hong Kong, we asked Friedman for his view on the gold standard. “The problem with the gold standard,” Friedman replied, “is that you can go off it.” So we asked him: “Isn’t there the same deficiency in the law against murder? It can be broken. How can that be a reason not to have such a law in the first place?”