NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ— The current zero interest rate environment that is the policy of the Federal Reserve Board is harmful to economic growth, and “crushes most Americans who want to be savers,” says Jeff Bell, GOP candidate for the US Senate, who opened the RealShare New Jersey Conference with keynote remarks.

Bell says he advocates a policy he describes as “sane money,” which would involve a return to backing paper dollars with gold reserves. He's been advocating the gold standard for some time now.

In 2009, Bell was among the co-founders of the American Principles Project, a public policy organization dedicated to advancing conservative ideas derived from the principles of the American founding. As Policy Director, he headed its monetary reform initiative aimed at renewing sound money by restoring the dollar's value in gold. He resigned from that position in February 2014 to run for the Senate.

“There are congressmen who recognize that the current zero interest rate environment is unsustainable, but they are fearful,” says Bell. Allowing interest rates to rise to just 4% would cause the deficit to balloon by about $800 billion a year, which worries members of Congress about how the public would perceive their performance, Bell charges.

Small businesses usually rely on lines of credit to expand, and successful small businesses will hire new employees as part of that expansion, making them “the greatest net job creator in this country when the economy is healthy,” says Bell.

“When you put the interest rates at zero or a tiny bit above zero, all other rates must adjust,” he says. “Small banks can't make money the way the big banks can. Community banks are either being acquired by big banks, which removes the local element from lending, or they are going out of business. We are crushing the smaller people, the people who rely on savings and CDs, and small businesses.”

Bell also criticized Wall Street for taking advantage of the artificially low interest rate environment, even though investment bankers also understand the burden low rates place on the economy. “Anyone who has a portfolio feels pretty good, it may be a guilty pleasure, it makes stocks look like a can't-miss source of income,” he says. “Wall Street knows in its heart that this can't be sustained, but they don't want to hear about it.”

Bell, who faces incumbent Sen. Cory Booker in the fall election, noted that when he first ran for the Senate in 1978 — before many RealShare conference attendees were even born — he was the youngest candidate for the US Senate, at age 34.

“I'm now 70,” says Bell. “If I win I will be the second oldest freshman senator since the direct election of Senators started in the early part of the 20^th century.”

Bell argued that the economy would do better if the free market were allowed to dictate interest rates rather than the Federal Reserve System.

“The price of money should be just like the price of other commodities, determined by the market,” says Bell. He conceded that Republicans have done a poor job of persuading voters that they have a better solution.

He pointed to Bill Clinton's 2012 Democratic convention speech, in which he cautioned voters against handing the reins of power back to the party that caused the economic collapse in 2008. “When he asked why people would want to turn the economy over to the same people who screwed it up, Romney had no answer,” says Bell.

Bell says he doesn't mind being criticized for his proposal to return to the gold standard, because it indicates that his opponents are taking him seriously. “You can agree with it or disagree with it, but it's a program,” he says. “Obama has no ideas for tax incentives, he believes we should go on the way we are now, and so does Cory Booker. He can ridicule my answer, but he has none. My program can be attacked, but it beats someone who thinks things are going great the way they are.”