Last night’s Republican debate on the Fox Business Network was the best debate of the season so far. The moderators asked good, tough questions that elicited differences on issues and weaknesses in policy positions without trying to place themselves, scoring points off the candidates, at the center of the show. It featured a substantial confrontation between Marco Rubio and Rand Paul over interventionist foreign policy, a tension within the Republicans that deserves to be aired. All of the candidates were better prepared, though Ben Carson and Jeb Bush still conspicuously failed to shine.

It also featured that eternal stalwart of the Republican fringe, carping about how the Federal Reserve is destroying the value of the dollar.

“[A]s the Federal Reserve destroys the value of the currency,” said Rand Paul, “what you’re finding is that, if you’re poor, if you make $20,000 a year and you have three or four kids, and you’re trying to get by, as your prices rise or as the value of the dollar shrinks, these are the people that are hurt the worst.”

Ted Cruz went even further, straight into gold-buggery, saying that “instead of adjusting monetary policy according to whims and getting it wrong over and over again and causing booms and busts, what the Fed should be doing is, number one, keeping our money tied to a stable level of gold.”

Read the full article at BloombergView: Goldbugs Take Center Stage at Republican Debate