I consider myself moderately to well informed on economics. I have to say that most (read this as ALL, actually) discussants that I have seen that have argued for a return of our monetary system to specie backed system have been crackpots. The arguments tend to be non-specific, vague crap very similar to the anti-globalization claptrap.
For a first point, it is innacurate to say that Fed monetary interventions led to the housing bubble, but you COULD say that the Fed's FAILURE to intervene in monetary markets ALLOWED the housing bubble. There is a BIG difference there, especially for the point he is trying to make. Movement to a specie backed system would lead to a greater incidnce of bubbles, not smaller, as you reduce the effectiveness of a policy lever, and inject greater variability and volotility into the monetary system.
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