# Prof. Richard Sylla on a Swiss proposal calling for the central bank to purchase gold

1 Faculty News December 6, 2014 ![The New York Times Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_046920.jpg?itok=HUe5o4w-)>

Excerpt from [The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/sunday-review/the-golden-age.html) -- "'It was mostly a symbolic move,' said [Richard Sylla](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/richard-sylla), a professor of the history of financial markets and institutions at New York University. 'Which isn’t to say that it was crazy or unfounded. What the Swiss were really saying by considering the plan was that some of them were going to feel a whole lot better if they had tons of gold inside the bank.'"

[Read more](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/sunday-review/the-golden-age.html)