The outline of this Monetary Reform Plan was developed after the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system in the 1970s—later discussed extensively with President Reagan in 1983, and spelled out in books, essays, and op-ed pieces over several decades. Many descriptive phrases, much empirical data, and many fundamental arguments originated in those writings, such as why “the gold standard is the least imperfect monetary system.” Today, I again submit this urgent proposal to my fellow Americans and our friends abroad. The history of the first half of the twentieth century compels me to believe that international monetary disorder, and national currency wars, have again led to violent social disorder, and revolutionary civil strife—ultimately caused by the vicious inflationary and deflationary consequences of financial and fiscal disorder. Mercantilism, natural resource rivalry, and competitive currency depreciations have appeared with war clouds from time immemorial. In previous centuries, financial disorder often preceded civil wars, national wars of revenge, indeed catastrophic global war. Thus, it is now time to restore monetary order, to end inflation, and the deflation it brings on. It is time to reestablish the constitutional monetary standard of the American Republic and thus to restore a stable dollar and stable exchange rates. The purpose of monetary reform must be to rebuild global incentives for peaceful, equitable, growing world trade—and with these incentives recreate worldwide rising standards of living. The True Gold Standard responds to a constant question: how precisely does the United States once again establish a stable dollar worth its weight in gold? How do the United States, and other countries, get from here to there—that is, from the anarchy and mercantilism of floating-paper currencies to stable exchange rates and rapidly growing world trade and investment, based on currencies convertible to gold? These questions have been debated throughout modern history and at crucial junctures over the last century. In this Second Edition, readers will find more figures, tables and graphs, as well as supporting articles in the appendices.