It's Time for a 21st Century Gold Standard

``No monetary system, including gold, is perfect. But the evidence is that the gold standard is a recipe for lower-than-predicted federal interest rates (quelling the coming fiscal crisis); lower corporate bond rates (jobs); and lower mortgage rates (relief to millions of upside down homeowners). The gold standard sounds picturesque. In reality it is a technical, pragmatic, non-romantic policy prescription. And it is re-emerging as respectable. Democratic and Republican officials would be smart to show as much astuteness as Michael Kinsley … and take a hard look at what a 21st century gold standard might offer.''