Among a buffet of provocative ideas and policies in businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s hard-charging upstart presidential campaign one stood out in the heavily agricultural community of Vail, Iowa, where the Republican held a rally in recent days.
Speaking to a Crawford County Republican event, Ramaswamy offered a strategy for stabilizing the U.S. dollar that drew the interest of grain farmers in the audience of more than 250 people gathered inside a welding operation on the western side of Vail, about 10 minutes from Denison.
“Tie it to gold, silver, nickel, and agricultural commodities,” he said of the dollar. “That’s it, that’s all we need to do.”
The plan is part of what Ramaswamy said is a single mandate for the Federal Reserve: restore the stability of the U.S. dollar.
“We are working with what exactly the exact basket is,” he said in response to questions on the plan from The Iowa Mercury “But honestly, the volatility of those is relatively small.”
Would it just be grain or livestock?
“We would just do grain,” Ramaswamy said. “We would go for a limited set of hard commodities and a limited set of farm commodities pegged to historically looking over the last 60 years which have been the most stable. We want things that actually have supply that’s reliable.”
As it stands, the dollar is fiat money. It’s not backed by gold or commodities.
Ramaswamy said he’s opposed to transitioning the U.S. dollar into digital currency as China has done with its currency, the yuan.
“China is doing it because they have a social credit system,” Ramaswamy said. “If you say something the government doesn’t like, if you do something the government disagrees with, even it’s not technically against the law, that will allow them to just wipe out your bank account.”
Ty Rosburg of Charter Oak, a Crawford County supervisor who runs an ag-hauling business, said he’s looking for the “next Teddy Roosevelt.” He’s not selected a candidate but says Ramaswamy is in his Top 3 for the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses — largely based on his connection with rural voters.
Republican Crawford County Supervisor Ty Rosburg sees Vivek Ramaswamy as a candidate with ideas that connect in rural Iowa.
“I like his message,” Rosburg said. “I like that he’s reaching out to all of America, already.”
Clint Von Glan of Vail, who operates a row-crop and cattle operation — and is the former president of the Crawford County Cattlemen’s Association, which has 400 members, says Ramaswamy’s ag-dollar tie is intriguing, had him thinking as he grilled burgers as he says it is a potential boost for farms.
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pictured with Vail farmer and cattleman Clint Von Glan.
“I would absolutely think so,” he said. “I would like to know more about it, but it would have to do nothing but good things for us here in rural Iowa.”
Long-time ag consultant Craig Williams of Manning, the chair of the Carroll County Republican Party and a former state senator, said the idea has merit. But he’s not sure how tying corn and beans to the dollar would work.
“Interesting concept,” Williams said. “With gold or silver, you can have a Fort Knox- type storage facility for physical assets that can last indefinitely. You can’t use physical assets for ag commodities. The commodity price is so volatile, I just can’t picture it. What if corn becomes completely displaced by some other commodities? Still, intriguing concept.”