Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, chooses to ignore and misrepresent the lessons of the financial crisis by perpetuating the myth that the source of the crisis was a lack of regulation.

Is gold money? That question, directed to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke by Congressman Ron Paul in last week’s hearings before the House Financial Services Committee, strikes terror in the heart of all central bankers.

The greatest lesson of the still young 21st century is proving to be that governments are the primary source of systemic risk to the economy. The latest case is the European debt crisis, with Greece running out of money and threatening to trigger yet another financial crisis.

The price of oil has shot up over $100 a barrel, and the price of gasoline is headed to $4 a gallon. True to form, the call has gone out to “round up all the usual suspects.” Channeling the orders of Captain Renault of Casablanca, the Congress and the press go after speculators, “greedy” oil companies and Arab sheiks, profligate American consumers, and the ever-handy Chinese.

Reported inflation is headed higher – much higher. The stakes have seldom been higher. With the unemployment rate still above 9%, and federal debt at record levels, this latest error by the monetary authorities is likely to be the most costly since the Great Inflation of the 1970s.

There were no worldwide financial crises of major magnitude during the Bretton Woods era from 1947 to 1971. Lesson: Gold is a more efficient governor of monetary policy that the Federal Reserve.