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Proposals designed to lessen those movements of the general price level coming from monetary causes are directed either toward the control of gold or toward the control of credit. Fisher considers the "gold dollar-the basic unit, the key to the situation," and proposes a scheme usually described as the "compensated dollar." He would vary the weight and correspondingly the mint price of the gold in the dollar in such a way as to compensate for a variation in its purchasing power as shown by a carefully worked out index number. If prices began to move upward the ratio at which grains of gold could be exchanged for certificates of deposit in dollars would also move upward, thus cutting short the threatened inflation. Others propose an international control either of the demand for or supply of gold.
 Still others see the road to greater stability in the abandonment of the gold standard and the adoption of a regulated flat standard of one kind or another. Others believe that the key to the situation lies in credit control and that methods of regulating banking and credit operations must be devised. The establishment of the Federal Reserve system and the activities of the Federal Reserve Board are to be regarded as steps toward keeping prices on a more even keel. The monetary problems arising in the pecuniary organization of our society undoubtedly need further and continued study. Their solution it is to be emphasized will affect not merely a remote group of bankers and other business men but all those who live by earning and spending a money income.
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