James Grant,

"How To Make the Dollar Sound Again"

[excerpt:]

"The classical gold standard, the one that was in place from 1880 to 1914, is what the world needs now....

For a convertible currency is a sophisticated, self-contained information system. By choosing to hold it, or instead the gold that stands behind it, the people tell the central bank if it has issued too much money or too little. It's democracy in money, rather than mandarin rule.

Today, it's the mandarins at the Federal Reserve who decide what interest rate to impose, and what volume of currency to conjure."

Grant's op-ed is viewable at NYTimes.com.