It does seem like since 1970, we have experienced an era of permanent decline. A "recession" or two will occur every decade, but the economy will remain stagnant for most of the decade. No real growth. Savings is a myth. Prices going up. It's unfortunate. The fed changed the nature of the world
The big monetary policy change around 1970 was the Nixon shock, not the Fed, but yeah, there is decent circumstantial evidence (if you start from certain priors) that the shift to pure fiat money contributed to our economy's long-term unsoundness.
I have to say, I didn’t have you pegged down as a goldbug, Nathan.
The "certain priors" include "being a monetarist", which I'm not (thank God and thank my mother for raising me with Milton Friedman as a hate object, once I was old enough to be told about him).
Did Friedman support the gold standard? I know that that was true of the initial gaggle of Reaganite supply-siders, or at least a few of them (Jude Wanniski, for example).
