From: "Anonymous" <nobody@remailer.privacy.at>
Even libertarian monetarists such as Milton Friedman agree that this is the proper approach when dealing with a depression.
Murray Rothbard's law number 17: all economists specialize in the field they suck most. Friedman is good in many areas, but he sucks in monetary stuff, so obviously he specialized in it. There is NOTHING libertarian in Friedman's ideas about money.
At the time, the U.S. faced a significant chance of a Communist/Socialist revolution such as had been seen in several other countries. Class warfare was widespread, with armed violence between workers and management a common occurance. Transferring a huge bounty into the hands of the rich would have inflamed the working class and risked plunging the country into chaos and revolution.
Oh, a socialist... ok, that's why you like Friedman when he speaks about money.
Confiscating gold was clearly the lesser of the evils.
ROTFL... Mark