It would be a shame were this election season to go by without at least one newspaper commenting on Congressman Ron Paul’s vow that were he elected president the person he’d nominate to be chairman of the Federal Reserve is James Grant. This happened on Fox News, where it was noted that Dr. Paul’s call for the abolition of the Fed wouldn’t start right away. So who, he was asked by journalist Stephen Hayes, would be his pick for Fed chairman? “Hmmmm,” the congressman replied. “Probably Jim Grant.” Adds he: “He’s an Austrian economist, he has experience on Wall Street, he’s brilliant, he’s a good historian. He would quit printing money.”

This so delighted us that we sent Mr. Grant a cable asking whether he’d seen it. He sent back a wire that said, in total, “Yes, I did see that. Another damn temporary government job.” Now that’s the Grantian spirit. The last time he was employed by the government was in the United States Navy. For most of the years since then he’s been issuing his famed newsletter, the Interest Rate Observer, which comprehends more clearly than any publication we read that, as it is put in the most recent issue, the central organizing principle of all the alarming news from across the globe is the “derangement of money and banking.”

“Banks are teetering and currencies are churning because of the ideas we live by,” Mr. Grant writes. “Paper money and socialized risk-taking got us into this mess. More of the same is how the central bankers seemingly intend to lead us out. Following which, a modest proposal: May we not try a new set of ideas along with a new class of central bankers?” He notes that financial crises are nothing new. They have recurred, by his account citing Charles Kindleberger, at approximately 10-year intervals for the past 400 years. “What’s new is the structure of modern money and banking.”

This simple insight has been illuminated by Mr. Grant in greater detail and with greater verve than any other newsman on the national scene, and it is wonderful that there is a politician who is prepared to state publicly that he would move Mr. Grant into a leading position. No doubt there are those who would cavil that Mr. Grant has had a mixed record on giving investment advice. We understand that Chairman Bernanke likes to boast that the Federal Reserve returns profits to the government, but we are unimpressed. What Dr. Paul and Mr. Grant both recognize that it is not the job of monetary policy to make money for the government but to provide a stable measure of value so that others — businesses, individuals, and, en-passant, governments — may conduct their affairs truly.