Bill Clinton Is Now a Gold Bug

File this under unexpected. Former President Bill Clinton blames the current financial crisis on the U.S. leaving the gold standard.

During an interview conducted at the Peterson Institute by Bob Schaeffer, Clinton sounded like a hardcore gold bug as he said that the problems in the economy started when the U.S. went off the gold standard.

He then hedged a bit and justified the U.S. leaving the gold standard for "economic management" reasons.

Those economic management reasons were, of course, that the U.S. had printed so many dollars at the then price of gold ($35 per ounce) that the U.S. did not have enough gold to back up all the money it printed. But Clinton's statement clearly implies that he understands that gold is a check on out of control government printing of money. (more)