(Kitco News, Thurs. May 25th, 2023) – The Federal Reserve should be reduced to a single mandate of price stability, and the dollar can be strengthened by tying it to a basket of commodities. That is according to 2024 Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who is currently running as a Republican Primary Candidate.
“I would put the Fed back in its place to have a single mandate, to focus on stabilizing the U.S. dollar as a unit of measurement, period, rather than trying to focus on multiple other mandates,” Ramaswamy told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News.
The Federal Reserve currently has a dual mandate of both promoting price stability while ensuring full employment.
Ramaswamy’s economic platform hinges on economic growth, which he claims relies upon a strong and stable U.S. dollar. He further said that to restore price stability, he would back the greenback with a basket of commodities.
“I think the right answer is not necessarily to go back to the gold standard, but more precisely to go to a gold-like standard, which is a basket of commodities that includes farm commodities, gold, silver nickel, etcetera,” he stated. “If it’s a diversified enough basket of commodities, then there would not be a volatile dollar.”
Ramaswamy spoke with Makori at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, Florida.
To find out how Ramaswamy plans to restore U.S. economic growth to 3 percent or more per year, watch the video above.
De-Dollarization
The de-dollarisation trend has accelerated following the ?weaponization? of the U.S. dollar through widespread sanctions on Russian companies and individuals in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Signs of this trend include a larger share of bilateral trade agreements settled in local currencies, as well as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) alliance’s plan to unveil a global reserve asset to compete with the U.S. dollar. The BRICS are meeting this August in Durban, South Africa, for their annual summit to discuss a new reserve currency potentially backed by a basket of commodities.
Ramaswamy said that as President he would “reverse” de-dollarization.
“There is, I’m sad to say it for understandable reasons, skepticism of the lasting strong position of the dollar itself,” he observed. “But I think we can reverse that… I’m running to be that President who actually restores the integrity of the dollar, restores the stability of the dollar. I think it will still remain the world’s reserve currency.”
Posted by:
Jack Dempsey, President
401 Gold Consultants LLC
jdemp2003@gmail.com