VIDEO: Forbes Talks Up Perry at Business Forum

Publisher and former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes attended a business forum in Concord recently, touting the 2012 campaign of Texas Gov. .

Forbes criticized President , saying the current stagnation of the economy was similar to that of the 1970s.

“This is not the new normal,” he said. “This is the new abnormal.”

Forbes said the country needed to get back on track by cutting regulations, lowering tax rates, and fixing monetary policy, including slowly returning to the gold standard. He said at the time, President Ronald Reagan was able to remove barriers to get the economy churning again.

Forbes also attacked the Federal Reserve saying it was on “a bender,” printing money and weakening the value of the dollar both domestically and overseas. He said the housing and debt crisis never would have occurred had the central bank not printed so much money.

“Rick Perry understands that we need a stable dollar,” he said, adding that Ben Bernanke would be removed as head of the Fed.

On the spending side, Forbes said when you hear the word “stimulus … clutch your wallets.” He said, unfortunately, there was gridlock in Washington on spending, with the president continuing to spend and borrow more money.

Perry, Forbes said, supported a flat tax because tinkering with the current tax code, with all its loopholes and set-asides was impossible. Under Perry’s plan, a family of four that earns less than $60,000 would pay no federal income taxes, he said. Everything else above $60,000 would be taxed at 20 percent. Taxes would be filled out on a postcard, Forbes said.

Rick Perry