Herman Cain has expressed opposition to combining the US currency with that of other countries in a system similar to the Euro. He has stated that the US is stronger than any country it would combine with, and it's currency value would be lowered.
Herman Cain has repeatedly supported a return to backing the US dollar with real gold or other precious metal. However, he has stated that we cannot return to this state until the debt is mostly repaid and the sheer amount of money in play is reduced.
Support for the Gold Standard
On December 28, 2010 Herman Cain filled in for Sean Hannity on his radio show. He responded to a question by noting that he supports a return to the gold standard for the US dollar, but that this was not possible until the debt and spending was addressed.
Yes I believe in the gold standard. We never should have gotten off the gold standard because when we got off the gold standard, that then allowed Congress to inflate our currency whenever they overspent. Now look at the mess that we have. But we are not gonna get back to the gold standard or even close to the gold standard until we reestablish the strength of the US dollar.
You know the first step in doing that? Dramatically reducing the spending.
Opposition to the Amero
In May of 2011, Herman Cain was interviewed by the Nevada News and Views and stated that he opposed any attempt to establish a monetary system that would combine the currency of the US with that of Mexico and Canada to create a currency known as the Amero.
Reporter: What about the Amero? You know there’s talk about joining the Canadian, US, and Mexican currency much like they did over in Europe.
Cain: I don’t want an Amero; I want a strong dollar. I do not agree with this move to create a single currency for Canada, United States, and Mexico, and here’s why. The United States economy, even with its hiccups, is still the strongest and the most solid of those three countries. If we agree to an Amero agreement, that would drag down the value of our currency.
Secondly, Mexico’s government is becoming more and more unstable, and that means that their currency is going to become more and more unstable. Why would you want to enter into an agreement with a currency that’s declining in strength when we could very simply increase the strength of our dollar if we do things we need to do – get serious about lowering the national debt, stop creating a deficit every year, and really stimulate the economy. I don’t want to create a single currency with a nation that has allowed the drug cartels to confiscate the country.
Palmetto Freedom Forum
In August of 2011, Herman Cain participated in the Palmetto Freedom Forum in South Carolina. He was asked about the Federal Reserve and stated that he would remove one of the dual mandates of unemployment and sound monetary policy.
DEMINT: Let's talk about the Federal Reserve. The more I find out, the more worried I am about what they've been doing. We found out when we went through the legislative process for this TARP program which opposed, the Federal Reserve actually matched that and upped it as far as the amount of money they were sending to banks not only in this country but around the world. They've apparently bought nearly 90 percent of their own debt this year and now they're talking about another round of monetizing debt which is called quantitative easing. What would you do with the Federal Reserve, or do you think it's a problem?
CAIN: I believe we can fix the fed. The way we do that is ask Congress to limit their ability to limit their authority. One of the reasons they got into these programs like quantitative easing is because of the size of the debt and because the debt was just spiraling out of control and other countries were not buying it fast enough. They came up with these kinds of plans.
Secondly, the Federal Reserve has, unfortunately, a dual mission -- monetary stability and unemployment. That's like trying to hit two targets with one arrow. I would ask Congress to take away one of the targets. Get them back to what they were commissioned to do back in 1913, and it worked well until we got into this situation relative to the debt that we have. I believe that we can fix the fed by asking Congress to re-limit their authority to do those kinds of things.
Secondly, we have got to get back to sound money. Our dollar is suffering. It's similar to when we wake up in the morning, an hour is 60 minutes. We don't have to go look in the paper to see what it's worth. We've got to get back to a dollar is a dollar is a dollar.
DEMINT: Do you need a gold standard to do that?
CAIN: Yes, we do need a gold standard to do that. We can work our way back to a standard. That's the only way we'll make our currency the dependence -- the currency that people around the world depend upon. So yes, I do support establishing standards and there are many ways to do it in addition to a gold standard.
References
[1]Website: Nevada News and Views Article: One-On-One With Herman CainAuthor: Lori Piotrowski Accessed on: 05/25/2011
