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February 28, 2012 3:05PM 

# Don’t Blame Gold for the Great Depression–Blame the Brits! 

By [George Selgin](https://www.cato.org/people/george-selgin) 

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That’s the sort of title I wanted *City A.M.*, a free-market-oriented London financial daily, to give to [this opinion piece](http://www.cityam.com/forum/don-t-blame-the-depression-the-gold-standard-don-t-expect-it-back-either) arguing that “the gold standard” wasn’t to blame for the Great Depression. Anything to get British readers’ attention. But no dice: I guess they thought it a little too cheeky.

And [here](http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052748703754104577239202669983504.html?mod=BOL_hpp_mag) is an article by *Barron’s* Gene Epstein, portraying me as a sort of Gran Poobah of anti-Fed “heretics” (and failing to mention, alas, either Bill Lastrapes or Larry White, co-authors of the forthcoming *J. Macro* paper referred to in the article). The comments are worth reading, if only to see evidence of the “don’t trouble me with facts” attitude so many people have when it comes to staking out positions on matters of monetary policy.

##### Related Tags 

[Monetary Policy](https://www.cato.org/monetary-policy), [Alt-M](https://www.cato.org/alt-m), [Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives](https://www.cato.org/center-monetary-financial-alternatives) 

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