Our American Money

No More Posts

2012-01-04T18:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't written anything here in quite a while and even made the blog "private" for a time. My reasons for doing so were that 1) I've already covered all the fundamentals of both sound money as our nation's founders defined it as well as the harm done to the economy and to the vast majority of individuals by the "funny money" Federal Reserve System; and 2) there are now a great many other sites/blogs as well as news sites and a few political figures who are spreading information about the two topics mentioned in 1) above.

Rather than engage in an ongoing exercise in redundancy, I have decided to make no further posts here but to leave the site available to the public for the resources it contains. These resources are chiefly the video Our American Money, the United States Currency Converter, the Money Box posters, My Favorite Links, and Recommended Reading. If I'm feeling especially feisty, I might update the Prudence Dollarwise widget.

In the meantime, my best wishes to all my readers.

Tom

-- Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Why Sound Money Is A Basic Human Right: Alasdair Macleod

2011-10-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

On October 20, 2011, Alasdair Macleod gave a speech in New York City at the Committee for Monetary Research & Education's Fall Meeting. The title of the speech was, Why Sound Money Is A Basic Human Right, which you can read at FinanceAndEconomics.org at the link here. Macleod, who runs FinanceAndEconomics.org, "a website dedicated to sound money and demystifying finance and economics," who is a Senior Fellow at the GoldMoney Foundation, and who has a background in banking, stock-brokerage, and economics, presents a through indictment of the system of centrally managed fiat scrip that has replaced our constitutional system of sound money. In discussing the currently unfolding demise of this fiat system, which Macleod describes as, "the end of the road for the post-war Keynesian experiment," he observes:

But there are still people who think that the risk is deflation not inflation. Presumably the Fed thinks so, since it has stated that it expects interest rates to stay at close to zero until mid-2013. They will be in for a shock, and here’s why.

They are about to learn the difference between sound money and their fiat money. Real money cannot be issued by central banks. Fiat money is an undated interest-free claim on a government whose central bank merely tells us that it is money. The difference is important, because in a depression, the purchasing power of real money, measured in goods, increases. In the same depression the purchasing power of fake money falls with the financial condition of the issuing government and with its accelerating supply. This is the dynamic behind the rise in the price of gold over the last decade.

Although Keynes died in 1946, his legacy still shackles us today.

Please take the time to read Macleod's speech and share it with others.

-- Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

When Is A Note Not A Note? When It's A Federal Reserve Note!

2011-08-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

As ubiquitous as Federal Reserve Notes are, their ubiquity is surely exceeded by the glaring evidence of fraud apparent in their wording. I refer, of course, to the misapplication of the term "note" printed thereon.

A "note," as defined at Law.com, is "...a written statement of debt by one or more people to one or more people, with a statement of a specific amount owed or due, date it is due, interest (if any) on the amount, and other terms such as installments, penalty for late payment, full amount due if delinquent, how secured (as by real property), and attorneys' fees and costs if required to collect on the note." [Emphasis added.]

From the above, we learn that to qualify as a "note," a written statement must include at least the following information:

1. The maker of the note
2. The payee of the note
3. The specific amount of the note
4. When the amount specified on the note is due.

To see an example of a real note, we need look no further than the once common one dollar "silver certificate" that circulated until it was replaced by the Federal Reserve Note in 1965:

A glance at the business side of the silver certificate shown above reveals the four key elements of any legitimate note:

1. The maker of the note = the United States Treasury
2. The payee of the note = the bearer
3. The specific amount of the note = one dollar in silver
4. When the amount specified on the note is due = on demand.

Contrast the foregoing with the information (or lack thereof) found on a Federal Reserve Note:

1. The maker of the note = the Federal Reserve
2. The payee of the note = ?
3. The specific amount of the note = ?
4. When the amount specified on the note is due = ?

Given that most of the information needed for the Federal Reserve Note to qualify as a legitimate note is noteworthy by its absence, some people have taken to calling it an "IOU nothing."

It's enough to make me wonder if our current dollar bill isn't just about a dollar short?

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Real Money Versus Fake Money: The Essential Differences

2011-08-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

Since ancient times, gold and silver coins have functioned as the money of choice in civilized societies. They are the most common forms of real money.

What makes them real? They are real, in the sense of real wealth, in that real labor and real industry are required to extract the metals from their deposits in the earth, refine them, transport them, and form them into coins. Due to the large amount of labor required in the creation of real money, its supply tends to remain relatively constant over ordinary spans of time.

In this connection it is worth noting that the monetary system of the United States is founded on real money. The United States Constitution establishes the “dollar” by reference (see Article I Section 9 Clause 1 and Amendment VII) as the unit of account of the United States and declares that “No State shall...make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts....” (Article I Section 10 Clause 1). The Coinage Act of 2 April 1792 determined that the “dollar” was a coin containing 371.25 grains Troy of pure silver and also provided for gold coins regulated in value against the standard silver dollar by weight of precious metal according to the free market.

Fake money on the other hand, of which the current Federal Reserve Note is the most notorious example, only comes into existence when someone contracts a debt to a bank. It is created instantly, in whatever quantity required, with essentially zero labor, and destroyed just as effortlessly as the debt is paid off.

It is, in effect, a debt counter. As such, as debt to banks increases so does the quantity of fake money. And as debt gets paid off, the quantity of fake money decreases. If all debts to the banks were paid in full, there would be no fake money left in existence and, in the absence of circulating real money, nothing left to function as money in the economy. It is difficult to imagine a more perverse state of affairs in which paying off debt has a negative impact on economic activity by causing the simultaneous withdrawal of money from circulation. Contrast this perversity with the use of real money: if real money (e.g. gold and silver coin) is used to pay a debt, the coins still exist and continue to function as money in society.

In addition, increasing debt, leading as it must to an increasing quantity of fake money, leads also to increasing prices throughout the economy as the newly created money bids up those prices. The result is a situation commonly known as inflation. Decreasing debt, on the other hand, leads to a decrease in the quantity of fake money as described above. This situation leads to decreasing prices throughout the economy, commonly known as deflation. Both inflation and deflation, by distorting the economic indicators on which entrepreneurs depend when making business decisions, produce recessions and, in severe cases, depressions: periods of time in which the standard of living of most people goes down. Real money, due to the greater stability of its supply, causes no such violent expansions and contractions in the economy that in turn wreak great havoc upon the lives of ordinary people.

It is well past the time to end the insanity of using debt as money. America needs its real money back. Now more than ever!

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New Legislation Would Remove Taxes From U.S. Gold and Silver Coins

2011-06-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

UPDATED 03 JULY 2011

The text of S. 1287 is now available at both THOMAS and GovTrack. It is very brief.

UPDATE 29 JUNE 2011

The "Sound Money Promotion Act" is designated S. 1287: A bill to treat gold and silver coins used as legal tender in the same manner as United States currency for taxation purposes. Although the text of the legislation is not yet available, you may follow it's progress at THOMAS here, at GovTrack here, or in the bill tracking widget in the right-hand sidebar. The bill is currently in the Senate Committee on Finance.

------------------------

According to press releases (see here and here), Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) have introduced legislation that would eliminate taxes on gold and silver coins that the federal government or state governments have declared legal tender.

Called the "Sound Money Promotion Act," the bill is described as an effort to begin the restoration of sound money in the United States.

As of this writing, no text of the legislation, bill number, or tracking information is available via either THOMAS or GovTrack. More information as it becomes available.

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Two Important Interviews Featuring Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr.

2011-06-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

Two interviews featuring Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. that examine the current monetary crisis and discuss possible solutions:

1. The U.S. Monetary System and Descent into Fascism -- courtesy of Casey Research, and

2. Edwin Vieira Interview with James Turk -- courtesy of GoldMoney Foundation.

Both interviews are educational and recommended for those who want to understand where we are, how we got here, and where we might end up.

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"Sound Money Summit" Planned For Utah In September

2011-06-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Having written previously (here, here, and here) about Utah's constitutional money bill, HB317, I noted with interest that there is a plan by the supporters of sound money to make the adoption of similar legislation by other states relatively straightforward.

According to a featured article by Doug Tjaden at the Tenth Amendment Center website titled, The Practical Implementation of Constitutional Tender, Larry Hilton, one of the individuals behind the Utah bill, is planning a "Sound Money Summit" to be held in Deer Valley, Utah on September 26th and 27th. The purpose of the summit will be to create a "declaration of principles" regarding sound money that can then be used to draft model legislation for enactment in other states.

In regard to this entire issue, it is both somewhat amusing and disturbing that the adoption of gold and silver coin as legal tender by the several states should be derided by many in the mainstream media as "unorthodox," "extreme," and "curious" given that Article I Section 10 Clause I of the Constitution forbids the states to do otherwise:

Article I Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. (Emphasis added.)

As it stands, every state in the Union is in violation of this constitutional prohibition through having made Federal Reserve Notes, which are anything but gold and silver coin, a tender in payment of debts. All Utah has done is take a significant step towards constitutional compliance in this regard. The rest of the states would do well to mend their ways and do likewise.

Read Doug Tjaden's article at the link here.

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Proposed Legislation Would Require Consistent Valuation Of Gold And Silver Coin

2011-05-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

Following my last post, which described model legislation drafted by Constitutional scholar and attorney Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D., Dr. Vieira has published another article containing draft legislation that would require both the federal and state governments to accept United States gold and silver coins at the face value established by Congress and stamped on the coins rather than at the market value of their precious metal content as measured in terms of some foreign monetary unit, such as the Federal Reserve Dollar.

This proposal would prevent the government practice of taxing income received in, say, 1 ounce American Eagle gold coins at their market value (currently about FR$1500 each) but crediting those same coins at their $50 face value (again in terms of Federal Reserve Dollars) when presented in payment of taxes.

If I may be permitted to editorialize, all monies should be valued by the free market, were such permitted to exist. But if we are to restrict ourselves, and the government, into following the Constitution, we are obligated to value our money in terms of the Constitutional Dollar as defined in the Coinage Act of 1792. This sort of valuation, as I understand it, is what Dr. Vieira's latest legislative proposal would require of all government agencies. And in so doing this act would end the current practice of applying various Federal Reserve Dollar valuations to U.S. gold and silver coins depending on which valuation best serves the interests of the particular agency involved.

Please read Dr. Vieira's latest article and the accompanying draft legislation at the link here and take the suggested action to enact this law both at the federal level and in your own state.

Although Dr. Vieira considers his latest bill to be "noncontroversial," I for one would be surprised, given the general government's apparent hostility towards those who use or attempt to use precious metal coinage, if many legislators would enthusiastically support its passage into law. There is a powerful lobby supporting the current state of monetary affairs which would be negatively impacted by a return to circulating gold and silver coin and this lobby seems to hold the vast majority of so-called "lawmakers" in its thrall. This state of affairs is not, however, a reason to give up the ship of state, but rather an indicator of the vital importance of proceeding with these necessary reforms. For if the needed reforms fail, life will become infinitely more difficult for us all.

-- Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Proposed Law Would Prohibit Taxation Of Currency Exchanges

2011-05-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D., has published draft legislation that would exempt anyone exchanging gold and silver coinage for Federal Reserve Notes (or vice versa) from paying any tax -- either federal, state, or local -- on the transaction. Dr. Vieira states that this legislation is a necessary step to restoring constitutional gold and silver coinage to day-to-day usage in our society. Failure to do so before the total collapse of the Federal Reserve System, he warns, could plunge our economy into "possibly irremediable chaos."

Although this writer is no legal scholar, Dr. Vieira's draft appears very tightly written and appears to leave no quarter for errant public officials seeking protection from the consequences of violating its provisions.

Please read his article and the accompanying draft legislation at the link here and take the suggested action to enact this law both at the federal level and in your own state.

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More Press Commentary on the Von NotHaus/Liberty Dollar Verdict

2011-04-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I published a post here on the conviction of Liberty Dollar creator Bernard von NotHaus on charges of counterfeiting and/or "undermin(ing) the legitimate currency of this country."

A thought-provoking analysis of this conviction may be found in this April 7 article at The Market Oracle by Robert Murphy: Government Operations to Seize Precious Metals, The "Crime" of Private Money.

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Update on H. R. 1098

2011-04-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

As reported here on this blog, Representative Ron Paul of Texas introduced H. R. 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011, on March 15.

The latest news on this bill is that on April 4 the House Financial Services Committee referred it to the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology.

More news as it happens.

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Utah Governor Signs Currency Bill

2011-03-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

Utah's Governor, Gary R. Herbert, has signed First Substitute H.B. 317, the bill that would recognize U.S. gold and silver coins as legal tender in Utah and remove certain taxes on them, into law. It is, at last report, in the Lieutenant Governor's office for filing.

Previous posts on this blog related to this legislation can be found at the links here and here.

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"Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011" Introduced in U.S. House of Representatives

2011-03-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

On March 15, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011. Also known as H.R. 1098, the bill would make a number of changes in the nation's currency laws, namely:

1. Ending all taxes on gold and silver coins and bullion at the federal, state and local levels;

2. Repealing the legal tender laws;

3. Ending the prohibition on private mints, halting all current legal proceedings against them, and voiding all previous convictions suffered by their operators.

CoinNews.net has a detailed article (linked here) on this proposed legislation. Readers interested in tracking the progress of this bill may do so at the Govtrack.us link here.

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Liberty Dollar Creator Convicted

2011-03-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Having mentioned the Liberty Dollar before (here, here, here, here, and here), I thought it appropriate to note that its creator, Bernard von NotHaus, has been convicted in federal court of "making coins resembling and similar to United States coins (they were, after all, round, shiny, and metallic - Tom)," selling and possessing Liberty Dollars, intending to use them as money, and, of course, "conspiracy against the United States." Source.

Kent McManigal has a couple of posts concerning this travesty on his "Hooligan Libertarian" Blog that are worth reading and are available here and here.

The only thing I feel like adding is that this verdict is the sort of outcome you can expect when the "jury of your peers" is selected from among the mortally ignorant and the terminally stupid. The lesson being that you can't rely on a jury to protect you even if you're innocent.

So sad!

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Utah Senate Passes Gold And Silver Currency Bill

2011-03-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

The Utah Senate has passed First Substitute H.B. 317 (which I reported on previously here) and sent the bill recognizing U.S. gold and silver coins as legal tender to the governor for signature.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune article linked here, the legislation would recognize the gold or silver value of the coins rather than their face value.

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Utah House Passes Gold And Silver Currency Bill

2011-03-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

The Utah House of Representatives has passed a bill (First Substitute H.B. 317) which would recognize as legal tender gold and silver coins minted by the federal government. The coins would be allowed to circulate freely in competition to Federal Reserve Notes. Utah would also accept U.S. gold and silver coins for tax payments. In addition, the bill would exempt the exchange of gold and silver coins from state tax liabilities and would establish a committee to study alternative currencies for Utah.

It is not clear from the news reports or the bill text how U.S. government gold and silver coins would be valued in transactions, given that the face value of a one Troy ounce gold eagle coin is $50 and that of a one Troy ounce silver eagle coin is $1 while gold is currently trading at over $1400 per ounce and silver at over $30 per ounce.

The bill now goes to the Utah Senate.

For more details, read the articles at the links here and here.

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Virginia State Coin Bills In The News

2011-02-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

Last month I did a post about a number of states that were considering bills to make gold coins currency within their borders. In one of these states, Virginia, the original bill, HJ 557, died in committee on February 8. This is almost as well as this legislation would have been in violation of Article I Section 10 of the United States Constitution in that it provided that Virginia issue its own gold coins.

Another bill, HB 2236, is now awaiting the governor's signature. Unlike HJ 557, the new bill is compliant with the Constitution in that the coins issued would be for "commemorative use" rather than for currency. Once in people's hands (and pockets), however, they could be used for barter just the same as coins issued as "currency."

Check out the source article for this post at the link here.

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"Gold Standard" Straws In The Wind

2011-01-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

A couple of recent articles show the "Powers That Be" coming around to the idea of a role for gold in the future of our monetary system.

The first, from Reuters, quotes Kansas City Federal Reserve President Thomas Hoenig as saying, "The gold standard is a very legitimate monetary system." Read the entire story (it's short) at the link here.

The second, from King World News-Blog, relates an interview with Jim Rickards regarding the Hoenig story linked above. You can read this interview at the link here.

What's important to remember is that the monetary system created by the Founders did not involve a "gold standard" but consisted of actual circulating gold and silver coin. The United States did operate under a de-facto (and unconstitutional) gold standard administered by the Fed from 1914 to 1933 domestically and until 1971 internationally. That gold standard utterly failed to protect the people from the consequences of Fed perpetrated fraud (as in the issuance of more "gold certificates" than there was actual gold available to redeem them), which consequences included the "Great Depression" of the 1930s and several severe recessions in the following decades. And the same sort of fraud was perpetrated in regard to "silver certificates" which resulted in the repudiation of their redeemability in silver dollars in 1968. For more details on these and other historical aspects of our dollar, see the video Our American Money.

Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Several States Considering Bills To Make Gold Coins Currency

2011-01-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

An article at the Talking Points Memo website summarizes the introduction of legislation in ten states that would mandate the use of United States gold (and silver) coins as currency in monetary transactions with the states' governments. The bills introduced in these states apparently follow the Constitutional Tender Act template reported on previously ( here and here) in this blog.

The link to the Talking Points Memo article is here.

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New Paper By Edwin Vieira, Jr. Discusses Practical Return To Sound Money

2010-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr.has written a new paper on the reconstruction of the United States' monetary system utilizing gold as the monetary medium of choice, although I suppose the same system would work with silver as well. The link to this paper, an abridged version of which was presented at the Committee on Monetary Research and Education’s meeting of 21 October 2010, is here.

Recommended reading for those interested in a return to sound money, which should be everyone.

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Hope Remains for Idaho Silver Money Bill

2010-10-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

In March I published a post about a silver money bill that passed the Idaho House of Representatives that month.

According to a recent article at MORPHcity.com, the legislation, currently known as the Idaho State Silver Gem Act, is apparently still alive in spite of dying in a Senate committee after the House vote. State Representative Phil Hart, who authored the bill, plans to re-introduce it next year provided he is re-elected this fall. Odds of the bill clearing the Senate may have improved with the defeat in the 2010 primary of two senators who strongly opposed it.

A key feature of the bill is that Idaho residents would have the option of paying state taxes with the silver medallions. There is still the constitutional question I mentioned in my original post, but as I also stated in that post, I believe this measure is a step in the right direction regarding the re-establishment of sound money and I intend to continue to watch this legislation and report on it here.

The MORPHcity.com article may be found here. The current status of the bill may be found here.

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Lawsuit Could Force Re-Evaluation of Fed Monetary System

2010-05-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

In the New York Sun's online edition of May 11 is the report of a lawsuit, filed by a coalition of federal judges, that may become a knife to the throat of the entire Federal Reserve monetary system.

The judges are seeking to overturn an act of Congress that rescinded automatic cost-of-living increases in their salaries. The argument the judges are making is that by its act, Congress violated the provision in Article III of the Constitution that the compensation of federal judges may not be diminished while they are in office.

Lurking behind this argument, however, is a much more explosive issue. According to constitutional scholar Edwin Vieira, Jr., says the Sun article, “If the judges bringing the case of Beer v. United States fail to convince the Supreme Court to restore their a (sic) cost of living adjustment, federal judges will then have no option left but to reformulate their case so as to challenge the legal tender concept as presently applied.”

That, of course, would open the entire can of worms regarding the substitution of fiat Federal Reserve "dollars" for constitutional dollars containing 371-1/4 grains of pure silver.

Read the Sun article at the link here.

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Meet the NIA

2010-05-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

While not directly engaged in campaigning for the return to sound money, the National Inflation Association publishes a free newsletter in which they make the case for doing so as well as anyone could.

Visit their website linked above and in the right-hand sidebar under My Favorite Links.

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Are the Fed's Fraudulent Chickens Coming Home to Roost on Wall Street?

2010-05-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

An interesting article by Steve Betts at The Market Oracle explains the recent stock market gyrations as a consequence of the Federal Reserve's and the federal government's looting of the economy by means of their "legalized" counterfeiting operations.

Go here to read the entertainingly written and educational Fed Fraud and Stock Market Crash Bamboozles Investors.

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How the States Might Render the Federal Reserve Irrelevant

2010-04-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

An article titled "Ending the Fed From the Bottom Up" by William Greene, which appeared on the Tenth Amendment Center website today, explains how the “Constitutional Tender Act,” a legislative template that could be employed by each state to enact the constitutional mandate of Article I Section 10 that "No State shall...make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts," could be used to abolish the Federal Reserve System through actions at the state level that would render that system irrelevant.

The article, which is well worth reading, can be found at the link here.

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Idaho House of Representatives Passes Silver Money Bill

2010-03-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

Following up on a post I made a few days ago, there is an article at LocalNews8.com stating that a bill moving through the Idaho legislature would establish a silver currency for the state. According to the article:

The Idaho state treasurer would have to accept a state-made silver medallion or bar for the payment of fees and taxes, if a bill that's cleared the House becomes law.

While this is a step in the right direction as far as the return to sound money is concerned, the Idaho measure would seem to run afoul of Article I Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution inasmuch as the medallion is "state-made." The relevant constitutional clause reads:

No State shall...coin Money;....

Read the full article at the link here.

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Awareness of Constitutional Money Issue May be Spreading

2010-03-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

There is a brief article in The Spokesman-Review that suggests more people are becoming aware of the disparity between what we currently use for money and what the Constitution mandates the states use. Here is the "money" quote:

“I’ve had over 100 people through my home, meetings on various political ideas. Almost every meeting, somebody brings up the currency that we are now operating under. … The Constitution states we’re going to have gold and silver coins, in 1913 they changed that - everybody’s looking for a way to get back to gold and silver.”

Read the full article here.

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A Very Good and Brief Explanation of the "Constitutional Dollar"

2010-03-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Mike S. Rozeff, a retired Professor of Finance who regularly publishes on www.LewRockwell.com, has an excellent article titled, "A Constitutional Dollar," which explains, very concisely, the history of our constitutional monetary system. A system, I might add, the last vestiges of which vanished over forty years ago with the substitution of pot-metal slugs for circulating silver coins.

For a first-rate introduction to the subject of the Constitutional Dollar, read his article here at 24hGold.com. Enjoy!

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Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Just for Laughs?

2010-02-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

I recently came across an article on Bankrate.com by one Jay MacDonald titled, U.S. dollars? Why not Texas cow chips? The subject of this hit-piece is State Representative Mike Pitts' bill to require South Carolina to use gold and silver coins in place of Federal Reserve Notes as reported in an earlier post here.

Given that the heading of Mr. MacDonald's column is "Smart Spending," it is somewhat astonishing that he has put on public display an ignorance of constitutional monetary provisions so abysmally deep that it's beyond astounding and certainly anything but "smart."

For example, consider this quote from MacDonald:

Naturally, a phalanx of hairsplitters quickly pointed out that the Pitts proposition would violate the U.S. Constitution, which established Federal Reserve notes as legal tender for all debts public and private a couple of centuries ago.

Oh, really? For one thing, there was no Federal Reserve a couple of centuries ago when the Constitution was drafted, the legislation creating that less-than-venerable institution having been enacted during a stealthy late-night session just before Christmas of 1913. For another, the term "legal tender" appears nowhere in the Constitution. But the corker is the notion that the Constitution authorizes notes, or paper money, also known to the Framers as "bills of credit." A peek at the relevant clause in Article I Section 8 reveals the following wording:

The Congress shall have Power...To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

An astute observer will note the conspicuous absence of any reference to notes, paper money, bills of credit, etc. The only type of money authorized by the Constitution is coined money, which pretty much leaves paper notes (including Federal Reserve Notes), "kudzu coins," lobster shells, guitar picks, "Texas cow chips," and other such nonsensical media suggested by MacDonald out of the picture.

Moreover, as far as legal tender for all debts public and private goes, Article I Section 10 of the Constitution provides that:

No State shall...coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;.... (Emphasis added.)

In light of the foregoing clause, Representative Pitts' proposed measure is actually in complete accord with the Constitution and not the screwball legislation that MacDonald attempts to make it out as.

If MacDonald's article is an example of the sort of financial journalism practiced at Bankrate.com, they might as well turn out all the lights and lock all the doors as, intellectually speaking, there's nobody home there anyway. After all, it is a serious dis-service to the public to mis-characterize monetary reform efforts based on constitutional mandates as mere silly antics.

Or maybe Bankrate.com really does publish empty-headed ridicule just for laughs?

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Articles of Freedom Project Includes Restoration of Constitutional Money

2010-02-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

Among the current efforts to restore sound money in the United States is the Articles of Freedom project of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc. Visit the link above for complete details of this program. As relates to the restoration of constitutional money, see Article 10, "MONEY AND ARTICLE 1 OF THE CONSTITUTION."

The immediate plan is to serve the Articles of Freedom on elected officials in every state capitol on April 19, 2010. This date is, not coincidentally, the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 sparking the American Revolutionary War and follows a planned four-day National Strike from April 15 through 18.

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Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Vieira's Latest Essay on the Need for Circulating Gold and Silver Coin

2010-02-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

A new article by Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. makes the case for a return to circulating gold and silver coin at the state level in competition with Federal Reserve Notes if catastrophic effects from the collapse of the latter institution are to be mitigated.

Read it all here.

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Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

South Carolina to Ban Federal Reserve Notes?

2010-02-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

A state representative from South Carolina has introduced a bill that would implement the mandate of Article I Section 10 of the United States Constitution that "No State shall...make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;..."

According to an article at CBS News.com titled, "South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency:"

"South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state."

Whether this undertaking will amount to anything remains to be seen. It is, nevertheless, a step in the right direction that could be taken by other states.

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Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Back Online

2010-02-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

Our American Money is back online after a long absence. The absence was due to an overload of other obligations and the fact that little was changing in the constitutional money arena. The resumption is prompted by the rapidly deteriorating economic situtation and evidence of a spreading awareness of the importance of returning to the use of sound money as quickly as possible.

In the future, the primary purpose of this blog will be as a resource for educational materials relating to the restoration of sound commodity money (silver and gold coin) and secondarily to report noteworthy developments in that effort.

Stay tuned.

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Have you seen Our American Money? Please do. And share the link.

Kucinich Reportedly Drafting Monetary Reform Legislation

2009-05-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

According to an article by John Tiffany on AmericanFreePress.net, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is currently drafting legislation to implement monetary reform in the United States.

The brainchild behind this incipient legislation is the American Montary Institute, which Tiffany bills as "the premier organization for monetary reform in America." Stephen Zarlenga, the director of the Institute, proposes a monetary system based on that of ancient Rome, whose civilization, as we all know, was destroyed through monetary debasement. Consistent with that history, Zarlenga's proposal for the United States is revealed in detail in a "pamphlet" entitled Presenting The American Monetary Act (as of January 18, 2008).

While the "pamphlet" takes sixteen densely packed pages of verbiage to detail Zarlenga's plan, it's salient points are summed up, like Caesar's Gaul, in three parts on pages 2 and 3:

First, incorporate the Federal Reserve System into the U.S. Treasury where all new money could be created by government as money, not interest-bearing debt, and spent into circulation to promote the general welfare. The monetary system would be monitored to be neither inflationary nor deflationary.

Second, halt the bank’s privilege to create money by ending the fractional reserve system in a gentle and elegant way. All the past monetized private credit would be converted into U.S. government money. Banks would then act as intermediaries accepting savings deposits and loaning them out to borrowers. They would do what people think they do now.

Third, spend new money into circulation on infrastructure, including the crucial “human infrastructure” of education and healthcare needed for a growing society, starting with the $1.6 trillion that the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates is needed for infrastructure repair. This would create good jobs across our nation, re-invigorating local economies and re-funding government at all levels.

The supposedly legal basis for this scheme (or, if you prefer, scam) is found in a misrepresentation of the constitutional money power as presented thusly on page 2 of the "pamphlet:"

Under the Constitution, Article I, Sec. 8, our government has the sovereign power to issue money and spend it into circulation to promote the general welfare through the creation and repair of infrastructure, including human infrastructure - health and education - rather than misusing the money system for speculation as banking has historically done, periodically causing one crisis after another. (Emphasis added.)

Actually, as well-informed readers of this blog are aware, Article I, Section 8, states that, "The Congress shall have Power...To coin Money...." (Emphasis added.) [As an aside, there does not appear to be any power granted to Congress by the Constitution to "spend it (money) into circulation to promote the general welfare through the creation and repair of infrastructure, etc." as claimed above.]

Be that as it may, the point here is that Zarlenga's plan does not involve a return to constitutionally mandated gold and silver coinage. That this is the case was revealed by Zarlenga at "a special presentation on the American Monetary Act in Washington on April 23, hosted by Kucinich and the American Monetary Institute." After passing around to the audience a 3rd Century Roman bronze coin, Zarlenga reportedly declared, to quote Tiffany's article, that, "This is an example of how money should be made, issued by the state, not by a private bank such as the Federal Reserve, and having a value assigned by law, rather than intrinsic value like gold or silver coinage."

This unconstitutionally interesting view may be profitably contrasted with a statement in support of government issued paper notes (apparently Lincoln's Civil War era "Greenbacks") made on page 13 of the "pamphlet":

The American Greenbacks are smeared as worthless inflation money when in fact our government authorized $450 million and printed exactly $450 million; and every greenback eventually exchanged one for one with gold coinage – but very few people bothered to exchange them! (Emphasis added.)

Well now, lets' see. Money should be issued by the government and have no intrinsic value like gold or silver coin, but the money the government issued that did maintain its value was fully redeemable in gold coin? Hello? Is anyone home in Zarlengaville? The illogicality of these people is so blatant that I should hardly need to point it out. But it's fun to do so anyway.

What this plan appears to be is an effort to shift the flow of inflationary profits from the coffers of the bankers directly to those of the government. There is little hope for the American people in any of this as, whether it is the hand of the bankers or the hand of the State that picks his pocket, the citizen will be the poorer in either case.

For the record, I will relate, once again, that real monetary reform that would benefit each and every American will come about only through a strict return to the system mandated by the Founders in the Constitution. And that system consists only of circulating silver and gold coins.

Interested readers will find the article from AmericanFreePress.net at the link here and the American Monetary Institute "pamphlet" at the link here.

The text of the Constitution for the United States may be found at the link here.

William Anderson Explains Why Abolishing the Federal Reserve is a Necessary but not a Sufficient Condition for Returning to Sound Money

2009-04-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

William Anderson's article at Campaign For Liberty, The Fed and the Golden Fleece, explains that government cannot be trusted to demonstrate financial responsibility if it is allowed the means to inflate the nation's money supply. As an example, Anderson points out that even the absence of a central bank did not stop the Federal Government from violating the constitutional requirement that money created by Congress consist only of silver and gold coin. (See United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8; "The Congress shall have Power...To coin Money,..." etc.) According to Anderson's article:

First, we have to remember that governments do not need a central bank in order to engage in the act of inflation. Abraham Lincoln financed most of his war against the Confederacy by circulating "Greenbacks," which actually were demand notes issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Anderson continues his essay by pointing out that the situation is even more out-of-control today:

It is true that a central bank is not necessary for a government to engage in reckless and ruinous spending. However, because the Fed is able to create the illusion of wealth and prosperity by creating even more dollars, it is an important ally to the government's profligacy.

In conclusion, Anderson states that abolishing the Federal Reserve System is not a sufficient condition for solving the problems of runaway monetary expansion and deficit spending. But it is a necessary one if we are to return to a regime of sound and honest money.

Read the entire article at the link here.

Montana Joins List of States With Sound Money Bills

2009-03-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

As noted in this post and in this post, several states now have bills pending which mandate that official business be conducted with gold and silver coin.

According to an article at the Macedonian International News Agency, Montana is the latest state to introduce such a bill in its legislature. According to the article, HB 639 "...sponsored by State Rep. Bob Wagner, R-Harrison, doesn't require the state or citizens to conduct business in gold or silver, but it does require the state to calculate certain transactions in both the current legal tender system and in an electronic gold currency. It further mandates that the state must accept payments in gold or silver for various fees and purchases."

The provision calling for "electronic gold currency" sounds a lot like the similar provision in the New Hampshire Gold Money Bill.

The article further states that the bill is currently lodged with the legislature's State Administration Committee.

To read the original news article, click on the link here.

The latest on the progress of this bill, as well as copies of its text, can be found at the link here.

Maryland Pleads for Sound Money -- Will D.C. Listen?

2009-03-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Fourteen Delegates to the Maryland House have sponsored HJR 5, a bill "(u)rging the United States Congress to restore honest money backed by silver and gold in accordance with the requirements of the United States Constitution, phase out Federal Reserve notes, and return to the free market banking practices that the Founding Fathers codified in the United States Constitution."

While laudable in its sentiments, "money backed by silver and gold" is NOT "in accordance with the requirements of the United States Constitution," which mandates circulating coins consisting of silver and gold. Perhaps "ignoran(ce) of the requirements of the Constitution" is indeed endemic among state legislators as suggested by a correspondent in a previous post?

This measure was earlier referred to by a link in an article discussed in my prior post here. As the text of this bill is now available, readers may wish to examine it at the link here. The Maryland House web-page for HJR 5 is at the link here.

The "Constitutional Tender Act"

2009-03-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

A new effort to restore constitutionally sound money at the state level is the Constitutional Tender Act. According to the website describing this endeavor:

The United States Constitution declares, in Article I, Section 10, "No State shall... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts". But, in fact, EVERY state in the United States of America DOES make some other "Thing" besides gold and silver coin a "Tender in Payment of Debts" -- some "Thing" called "Federal Reserve Notes." Thus the need for the "Constitutional Tender Act" -- a bill template that can be introduced in every state legislature in the nation, returning each of them to adherence to the United States Constitution's actual legal tender provisions.

As stated in the above paragraph, the project's website includes a bill template designed for adaptation to the proper form for each state's legislature. The "constitutional tender" defined in the template for the purposes of this act is limited to American Gold Eagle and Silver Eagle coins minted since 1986 and pre-1965 United States 90% silver coins. Only dimes, quarters, and half-dollar coins are included among the latter. When queried by this writer about provision for including pre-1936 standard silver dollars, which are also 90% silver but contain almost 7% more silver per dollar of face value than dimes, quarters, and halves, the project's Bill Greene replied:

It's not a perfect solution, to be sure; but we felt that legislators, who are for the most part ignorant of the requirements of the Constitution, might understand using the "junk silver" coins a lot easier than silver dollars from a lot farther back.

Yes, it does seem a bit less than "perfect" to omit from a constitutional money bill provision for utilizing the one coin that is the cornerstone in the foundation of the monetary system mandated by the Constitution. It is also debatable whether pandering, in the interests of expediency, to "ignoran(ce) of the requirements of the Constitution" on the part of state legislators, is preferable to expending the educational effort necessary to effect constitutionally based monetary reform. Nevertheless, time is running short to enact these sorts of measures and a less-than-perfect solution that can be fine-tuned after implementation is likely better than the alternative: continuing with the ruinous and unconstitutional tendering of Federal Reserve Notes by state governments. I am therefore entirely in favor of this effort and recommend you give it serious consideration and support for enactment in your own state.

At this point, Georgia is the only state to introduce a bill (HB 430) based on this template. Perhaps readers of this post will see fit to adapt the template for their own states and persuade their state legislators to introduce -- and pass -- it?

Please note that I have provided a permanent link to the Constitutional Tender Act website in the right-hand sidebar of this blog under the heading, "My Favorite Links."

Campaign for Liberty Offers Online Petition in Support of Bill to Audit Federal Reserve

2009-03-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

The Campaign for Liberty (see link in right-hand sidebar under "My Favorite Links") has a petition supporting Representative Ron Paul's bill, HR 1207, to audit the Federal Reserve.

Given the perennial destructiveness of the Federal Reserve to our economy through (among others) its de facto counterfeiting activities, it could do no harm -- and likely no small measure of good -- to see this audit take place. At the very least, the American people should have the opportunity to know what is being done with their money by those who, thus far, have held themselves above account.

To register your support for HR 1207 by signing the Campaign for Liberty petition, visit the link here and complete the online form.

Richard C. Cook Lays Blame for Economic Crisis Where It Belongs: On Congress

2009-03-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Richard C. Cook's article, The U.S. Economy: Designed to Fail, which appears on the Global Research website, succinctly and accurately assigns the cause of the current economic collapse to a Congressionally legislated failure of the monetary system.

To quote Cook:

This is because the system they have been given to work with was designed to fail. The U.S. was saddled long ago with a debt-based monetary system, whereby the only way money can be introduced into circulation is through bank lending. It was the system that was instituted in 1913 when Congress gave away its constitutional power over money creation to the private banking industry by passing the Federal Reserve Act. (Emphasis added.)

That is putting the blame squarely where it belongs, as the Constitution gives Congress NO authority to "(give) away its constitutional power over money creation" (actually "power to coin Money, etc" -- Article I Section 8), or any other delegated power; especially to a private enterprise like the Federal Reserve. The solution to this crisis, as advocated in these pages from the beginning, is to return to the system of honest money mandated by the Constitution.

Read Cook's article at the link here.

More States Introduce Sound Money Legislation

2009-02-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Efforts to introduce sound money bills in state legislatures have been mentioned on this blog before, notably in the link to New Hampshires Gold Money Bill and, most recently, in this post on Indiana's Honest Money Act.

It seems the movement toward constitutional money is spreading, at least among the States, as reported in an article at GoldSeek.com titled Sound Money at the State Level, by a GoldSeek reader calling himself or herself Oz.

The article lists the following states together with links for more information on the legislation:

New Hampshire
Indiana
Colorado
Missouri
Georgia
Maryland
Nevada (Where the bill failed, apparently because the state was going to coin its own money, action prohibited by Article I Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution.)

The GoldSeek.com article may be found at the link here.

Not mentioned in the above article is Washington State's House Joint Memorial 4010, introduced on January 30, which, like Maryland's, essentially begs the federal government to adhere to the Constitution by restoring circulating gold and silver coin and abolishing the Federal Reserve System. Something more along the lines of the New Hampshire bill would be preferable, but at least it's a (tiny) step in the right direction.

Judy Shelton Again Calls For 'Gold Standard' Restoration

2009-02-12T15:58:00.000-08:00

Another article by Judy Shelton calling for a return to the 'gold standard' has appeared in the online Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal.

I'm not going to discuss the problems with the gold standard in depth this time as I have already done so here, here, here, and, especially, here. But to quickly summarize for the benefit of those readers who lack the time or inclination to check out those other posts, the problems fall into two general categories: constitutional and practical.

The constitutional problem revolves around that document's monetary powers and disabilities clauses -- specifically Article I Sections 8 and 10 -- with their mandates of gold and silver coin and prohibition of 'bills of credit,' i.e. paper money.

The practical problem has to do with the historically inevitable tendency of those charged with monetary policy to grossly over issue the paper notes (called Gold Certificates) allegedly redeemable in gold coin, which is what led to the collapse of the banking system and subsequent abandonment of the domestic gold standard that existed until 1933.

Nevertheless, Judy Shelton is quite correct in pinning the blame for our current economic problems on the Federal Reserve System and in calling for the repeal of current legal tender laws and a return to a precious metal monetary system. Read her article, called Capitalism Needs a Sound-Money Foundation, at the link here.

Two Bills in Congress Related to Sound Money

2009-02-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

There are two developments to report today in actions at the congressional level to re-establish sound money.

The first is Texas Representative Ron Paul's re-introduction of the Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (H.R. 833). The new bill is currently in the House Committee on Financial Services.

Information on H.R. 833 is available at the link here and Representative Paul's speech re-introducing the act is at the link here.

The second development is the introduction by Representatives Poe of Texas and Franks of Arizona of H.R. 835, a perhaps well-intentioned but constitutionally ignorant bill dubbed the Dollar Bill Act of 2009. This proposed legislation would direct the Federal Reserve to fix the value of the dollar at 0.002 Troy ounces of gold and intervene in the New York COMEX market as required to maintain that value. Aside from the issues of appropriateness and practicality of market manipulation, any re-definition of the dollar that departs from that of the silver Spanish milled dollar referenced in the Constitution would require a constitutional amendment.

The text of H.R. 835 can be found at the link here.

Third in the Series: "Is America Broke" by Douglas V. Gnazzo

2009-02-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

The third and final installment in the series Is America Broke by Douglas V. Gnazzo is now available on the Safe Haven website.

Titled Is America Broke Part III -- A Solution for the Financial Crisis, this segment proposes practical steps that can be taken to transition our society from the current failing Federal Reserve fiat-money system of compounding debt to the sound money constitutional system of circulating silver and gold coin. You may read it at the link here.

For your reference, the preceding two installments are linked below:

Is America Broke

Is America Broke Part II -- The Debt God

Two Excellent Articles on Local Sound Currency Systems and the Federal Reserve Problem from the River Cities' Reader

2009-02-05T08:16:00.000-08:00

Right on cue (following my post suggesting steps we can take ourselves to effect honest money) comes this article from the River Cities' Reader by Jeff Ignatius titled The Future of Money?: With the Economy a Wreck, Alternative Currencies Could Gain Traction.

This piece does an excellent job of comparing privately issued precious metal currencies (using the Liberty Dollar as its example) with other types of local monetary systems. The thrust of the article is summed up in the statement of two of its author's interviewees who "said that people need to look for local solutions to our problems instead of relying on the federal government." Amen to that!

You can read the full article at the link here.

And while you're at it, I recommend you also check out this critically accurate look at the Federal Reserve by Todd McGreevy titled Neither Federal Nor Reserve at the link here.

On Our Own?

2009-02-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

As our mis-named 'representatives' stubbornly refuse to even consider a return to sound money on the part of either the Federal Government or the States, we who harbor a penchant for honest money to go along with honest dealings are left out in the cold of a fiat-money winter.

What to do?

There are a number of actions that those of us who prefer honest trade over dishonest can take:

1. Gold Contracts -- Though little understood and therefore seldom employed, these agreements are like regular contracts in all respects except that they call for payment in a certain weight of fine gold or face-value of gold coin rather than in paper dollars.

2. Silver Contracts -- Identical to the gold contracts mentioned above except that payment is specified in a certain weight of fine silver or in standard silver dollars or other silver coin rather than in paper dollars.

3. Dual Currency Pricing -- Like merchants near the Canadian border who price their goods in both U.S. and Canadian dollars (or post the current exchange rate on purchases), this system would work by pricing items in both Federal Reserve paper dollars and grams or ounces of fine silver or gold or in face-value United States 90% silver or gold coins. Or the daily 'exchange rates' could be posted instead.

4. Promote the benefits of sound money at the local level. For example, point out that gasoline, which sold for about 25 cents a gallon in silver coin about 60 years ago, still sells for 25 cents a gallon if paid for in silver coin.

These are just some of the ideas that come immediately to mind. There are likely others.

As the phony-money universe implodes around us, we can take steps to lay the foundation for economic survival and future prosperity. And we can do it without invoking the 'dead hand' of government, as that particular form of so-called assistance has proven consistently counter-productive.

James Turk Writes About The Indiana Honest Money Act

2009-01-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

James Turk has written an article at GoldSeek.com titled Restoring Sound Money in America in which he discusses The Indiana Honest Money Act. Dubbed Senate Bill 0453, the Act has objectives similar to those of the New Hampshire Sound Money Bill which remains stalled in that state's legislature's Commerce Committee.

Supporters of The Indiana Honest Money Act have a website which can be reached at the link here while further information and the text of the proposed bill are available at the link here.

It is refreshing to see the effort to restore sound money to its rightful place in our economy spreading geographically, even if legislatively the progress has been minimal so far.

Read James Turk's article at the link here.

"Committees of Safety" and the Restoration of Sound Money

2009-01-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, in the course of reading Devvy Kidd's latest column at NewsWithViews.com, I came across her reference to "Committees of Safety." This organization, which is encouraging the formation of local chapters all over the country, is working to address concerns in four vital areas in accordance with constitutional principles.

Readers of this blog may be primarily interested in their first-listed area of concern:

1. “Security of our money” - Hardly anyone will deny that the present fiat monetary system (the Federal Reserve System) is unstable, unsound and unsustainable as well as unConstitutional. We are proposing solutions to this problem that will inject sound, stable Constitutional money into our State’s economy.

The other three areas of concern listed on their website have to do with disasters (both natural and man-made), vote-count integrity, and security of food and water.

I suggest that anyone interested in working in these areas at their local and state level visit the website at committeesofsafety.org and learn how to get involved.

We must remember, after all, that it is The People to whom the Founders entrusted the responsibility of maintaining our constitutional republic. And it is The People's having left matters in the hands of so-called "experts" that has brought about the threats of economic ruin and loss of liberty which we all face today. It is now well past time for We The People to get busy and live up to our responsibilities as we ought to have been doing all along.

Also please note that I have placed a link to the Committees of Safety website in the section titled My Favorite Links on the right-hand sidebar.

Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. Proposes a Plan to Contract the Debt Bubble

2009-01-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

Titled A "Missouri Plan" to Contract the Debt Bubble, this latest essay at News With Views by Edwin Vieira, Jr. explains in great detail why Federal Reserve Notes are unconstitutional and outlines practical measures that would rescue common Americans from the avalanche of debt now looming above them.

Read Part 1 of what Dr. Vieira has to say at the link here and Part 2 at the link here.

Fekete: "Open The Mint To Gold!"

2009-01-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

In an article titled Open The Mint To Gold! appearing on GoldSeek.com, Antal E. Fekete argues that the world's existing stock of gold coins is being remonetized, in large part through the efforts of Sprott Money Ltd. of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mint.

Of course, exactly the same thing could happen as well with silver.

Read this most encouraging article at the link here.

Second in the Series: "Is America Broke" by Douglas V. Gnazzo

2009-01-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

For those of you following the Is America Broke series by Douglas V. Gnazzo, the first installment of which was linked here on this blog, part 2 is now available at the Safe Haven website.

Titled, Is America Broke Part II -- The Debt God, this highly educational second segment can be read at the link here.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all who have followed this blog in 2008 for your interest in the restoration of honest money. May each of you have a healthful and rewarding 2009.

Freedom May Arise From Adversity

2008-12-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

A message of hope from Ron Helwig that economic adversity may furnish fertile ground for the triumph of individual liberty -- with sound money (I believe) a necessary component of such rejuvenation.

Titled, There is still a government in Argentina, read it at the link here.

Stephen Lendman Calls for Abolition of the Federal Reserve

2008-12-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

Another article calling for an end to the Federal Reserve System is Stephen Lendman's The Federal Reserve Abolition Act appearing on Information Clearing House.

Written in support of Representative Ron Paul's proposed legislation of the same name (HR 2755), this essay reviews the history of the Fed, the monetary system of silver and gold coin mandated by the U. S. Constitution, and the damage the current fiat monetary scheme has done and continues to do to ordinary Americans.

Well worth reading, which you may do at the link here.

"A Crisis of Dollars and Sense" by Edwin Vieira, Jr.

2008-12-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

For those wanting a refresher course in American monetary history and the degeneration of our currency from the constitutional dollar of 371.25 grains of fine silver to the Federal Reserve "dollar bill" of no anything-of-real-value, as well as for the concrete steps needed to restore honest money to our republic, one need look no further than this article by Edwin Viera, Jr. on the website of the New American.

Titled, A Crisis of Dollars and Sense, I consider this piece a "must read" for its accuracy, succinctness, and timeliness. Read it at the link here.

Whither the American Dream?

2008-12-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

As we near the end of another year, it is perhaps time once again to take stock of where we are and of where we have been.

Darryl R. Schoon has a piece on The Market Oracle that addresses this subject. Titled, The Federal Reserve Bank is the Reason for America's Downfall, the article briefly reviews the history of the United States, the ideals upon which it was founded, and the roll the Federal Reserve System has played in the demise of our nation through its destruction of our constitutional monetary system.

To quote Schoon:

"Only if America returns to the principle of sound money enumerated in its Constitution, will the abomination of unsound money and unsound governance end. If the Federal Reserve is allowed to continue, so too will our problems and the now 95 year downward spiral of America .

"The choice is clear: End the Federal Reserve or the American dream will end. End of story."

Read Schoon's essay at the link here.

"The Bomb in the Christmas Stockings" by Darryl Schoon

2008-12-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

If anyone still needs a reminder of the perilous pitfalls of paper money, I suggest they read Darryl Schoon's latest editorial on Financial Sense University.

Titled, The Bomb in the Christmas Stockings, it may be found at the link here.

First in a Series: "Is America Broke" by Douglas V. Gnazzo

2008-12-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

Titled, Is America Broke, this first of a three-part series by Douglas V. Gnazzo at GoldSeek.com reveals in clear and concise language the identities and motives of those who, by legislative sleight of hand, illegally replaced our country's constitutionally mandated system of silver and gold coin with the current regime of irredeemable paper money and bottomless debt.

As Gnazzo states near the beginning of this article, "The goal of this work is to ferret out what is wrong with our monetary system, and to offer a possible solution before it is too late." That coincides nicely with the goal of this blog, to which end the articles, links, and resources found herein are directed.

You need to do yourself a favor and read Gnazzo's piece. And then recommend to everyone you know that they do the same. The key to the success (so far) of the monetary criminal enterprise of irredeemable paper money is, as Gnazzo points out, "...that few understand money."

This lack of understanding needs to be remedied in order that the criminal activities of the paper-money crowd can be arrested. Many of the tools to accomplish the necessary education can be found on this blog. Essentially all of them are free. The short truth of the matter is that we can no longer afford monetary ignorance. Given the current unstable state of the existing paper-money schemes, a general state of monetary ignorance, such as now exists, equals economic death -- for all of us.

Read part one of Douglas V. Gnazzo's new three-part series at the link here.

Why Abolish the Fed if its Replacement is Just as Bad?

2008-12-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

I wish to call your attention to an article titled Bag the Fed! by Jerry Mazza at Online Journal.

While correctly identifying the monetary crisis we now face as stemming from the Federal Reserve System, and while correctly calling for the abolition of said Fed, the writer falls into the same pit as many others have of late in calling instead for the Treasury to issue money in the form of United States Notes.

One problem with United States Notes is that they are "bills of credit*" and as such unauthorized by the Constitution which mandates silver and gold coins only as the official constituents of the monetary system of the United States.

Another problem with United States Notes is that they can be created in any quantity that those in charge of their generation may wish. History teaches that any system that allows for the possibility of abuse will be abused sooner or later. That is the problem with the current Federal Reserve System and it would be the problem with Treasury created money as well. Indeed, it was the actual experience of such abuse that compelled the Founders to mandate a monetary system constrained through the naturally occuring limitations imposed by gold and silver.

The difference between whether we choose the paper money scheme advocated in the Mazza article or the constitutional system will be the difference between whether we end up with a different set of villians to blame for our troubles or whether we actually solve our monetary problems.

Time, fortunately or unfortunately, will tell.

To read Mazza's article, visit the link here.

*Bill of Credit - "Such bills of credit are declared to mean promissory notes or bills issued exclusively on the credit of the state, and for the payment of which the faith of the state only is pledged....Bills of credit may be defined to be paper issued and intended to circulate through the community for its ordinary purposes, as money redeemable at a future day."

Malaysia to Propose Use of Gold Dinar for Trade

2008-12-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop of Malaysia has stated that his country would hold discussions with the other members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference regarding reconsideration of the use of the Islamic gold dinar for trade.

According to the report on The New Straits Times, “'At this time when the currency market is uncertain and challenging, maybe it will be good for the OIC countries to look again at the role of the gold dinnar [sic] in increasing trade among members,' [Minister Yakop] told reporters here today."

With other nations reconsidering the use of real money, perhaps the United States should return to its constitutional roots and do the same, lest Americans be left out of future economic prosperity?

Read the original news story at the link here.

The American Open Currency Standard and the Demand for Sound Money

2008-12-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

The ranks of private silver currencies continues to grow. The American Open Currency Standard is an organization which describes its mission with the following sentence: "The AOCS exists to expedite the implementation of silver as money." Further details may be found at the link above.

Among the currencies recognized by the AOCS are:

6. LibreCoins

In addition to these AOCS recognized coins, there is also the Shire Silver project in New Hampshire and, perhaps the newest entry in this category, silver rounds called First Majestic Coins produced by First Majestic Silver Corporation, which owns and operates three producing silver mines in Mexico. Further details on First Majestic are available at the link above.

While private silver (or gold) currencies are perhaps not as desirable as the constitutionally mandated system of silver and gold coinage, the proliferation of these systems proves not only the existence of a growing popular demand for sound money but, that when the government fails to do its constitutional duty, the free market will step into the breach with its own innovations.

One way or another, Americans are determined to establish honest money in our country once again.

Free Lakota Bank Issues Silver Currency

2008-11-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

The latest source of privately issued precious metal coin is the Free Lakota Bank of the Free & Independent Nation of Lakota.

According to the bank's website:

The Free Lakota Bank is the world's first non-reserve, non-fractional bank that issues, accepts for deposit, and circulates REAL money...silver and gold. All of our deposits are liquid, meaning they can be withdrawn at any time in minted rounds.

Currently, the bank produces the 1 ounce .999 fine silver "introductory" coin pictured above. Fractional coins in 1/2 and 1/4 ounce sizes are planned for the future.

Details about the bank, the Lakota currency, and a text box to sign up for their monthly newsletter are available at the link here.

Coin image courtesy of the Free Lakota Bank.

Students Join Call for Sound Money

2008-11-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

An article by Nico Perrino in the Indiana Daily Student reports that students also are joining the call for a return to sound money.

The article, however, reveals a number of errors in the students' understanding of events:

1. According to Perrino, the students state that this November 22 was chosen as the date for the nationwide "End the Fed" demonstrations because it is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who took steps to end the Fed's money-creation monopoly. While all that is true enough, the more significant reason for the choice of date is that it was also the 98th anniversary of a secret meeting of leading Wall Street bankers at a private resort on Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, which meeting laid the groundwork for what later became the Federal Reserve System.

2. The article also states that the students claim that "the most effective way to return to a sound monetary policy is by returning to the gold standard...." Actually, as I've explained in a number of previous posts (see here, here, and here), the most effective way to restore sound money is to reactivate the monetary system set forth in the Constitution.

3. Perrino also reports that the students say, "The dollar was actually referred to as an amount of gold historically,..." As long-time readers of this blog will recall, since 1792 the dollar has been defined in the law as a coin containing 371.25 grains of fine silver -- not gold.

It is a bit unfortunate that those seeking to do the correct thing to solve our monetary crisis are nevertheless misinformed about so many key factors. It is not as though the information is not available: there are ample resources on this blog -- ranging from watching Our American Money to reading the various books and articles linked on the right-hand sidebar -- to clear up any and all such confusions.

Let us hope that we avail ouselves of these resources in order that we can proceed with a clear understanding of the issues, lest we make yet more mistakes that end up harming all of us financially.

The article I refer to above, titled Students blame Fed for economic crisis, can be found at the link here.

Financial Times Article Calls For Return To Sound Money

2008-11-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here and there, a few scattered voices keep calling for a return to sound money. The latest of these is that of Richard Duncan whose editorial appears in the online Financial Times at the link here.

While stopping short of calling for a restoration of the U.S. constitutional monetary system, instead advocating a mere "link" between the dollar and gold, the sentiments expressed at least represent a step in the right direction.

Registration (free) is required in order to read the entire piece.

Economist Says Stable Money is Key to Recovery

2008-11-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

Economist and writer Judy Shelton has another article in the online Wall Street Journal in which she, addressing French President Sarkozy's statement that we are to "build together the capitalism of the future," poses the question: "Does that mean going back to a gold standard, or gold-based international monetary system?" Which question she then answers, somewhat equivocally, "Perhaps so; it's hard to imagine a more universally accepted standard of value."

How true that is! Gold and silver have both been accepted as standards of value for millennia. Our own Constitution establishes silver, in the form of the Spanish Milled Dollar, as the standard of value for the United States. The problem with the gold standard -- or, for that matter, with any similar "standard" -- is the ease with which it may be abused by those in positions of power. Just such abuse, in the form of creating more "dollars" supposedly redeemable in gold by foreigners than there was gold with which to redeem them, is what forced President Nixon to cancel the redeemability of the dollar for gold in 1971. Likewise, it was just such abuse, in the form of creating more Federal Reserve Notes supposedly redeemable in gold than there was gold with which to redeem them, that led to the banking crisis of the early 1930s as people, reacting to the economic uncertainties of the Great Depression, sought to withdraw their funds from the banks in gold coin, which action prompted President Franklin Roosevelt to unconstitutionally confiscate the people's gold.

To hope that any system of truly sound money will come from the current G-20 meetings is futile, to say the least. For a system of truly sound money would require the bankers to surrender the profits gained from their current ability to create so-called "money" out of thin air. And expecting bankers to give up their profits would be like...well, like expecting bankers to give up their profits.

Judy Shelton's latest article, titled Stable Money Is the Key to Recovery -- How the G-20 can rebuild the 'capitalism of the future.' may be found at the link here.

Former Fed Consultant Calls for Return to Gold Standard

2008-11-15T09:53:00.000-08:00

Walker Todd, a former economic consultant with the Federal Reserve System, has an editorial in the Christian Science Monitor advocating that the United States return to a gold standard in order to avoid the destruction of the dollar via hyperinflation.

While a gold standard, if adhered to, would force economic discipline upon the government, an even better system is that prescribed by our own Constitution in which actual circulating gold and silver coin constitute the monetary system. Under the constitutional system, "cheating" on the part of the government, by printing more gold-backed paper bills than the amount of gold actually backing them, is eliminated. At the same time, the commercial sector may, as it did in past centuries, employ private bills of exchange to mitigate the delays involved in transfers of precious metal coin in order to keep markets functioning smoothly.

Titled Forget Bretton Woods II -- we need a gold standard, Mr. Todd's article may be found at the link here.

More Word of a Russian Ruble Backed by Gold

2008-11-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

On September 25, I wrote a post reporting on an editorial calling for a Russian gold ruble. Now, on a blog called China Confidential, there is a report that the Russian government is seriously considering just such a move, with the new ruble to be either backed by gold, a basket of commodities including gold and oil, or a gold-backed special drawing right.

There seems to be a trend, at least in some quarters, to return to the stability of precious metals as the fiat money universe implodes upon itself.

Read the entire article at the link here.

Article is Misleading on Subject of "Gold Coins"

2008-11-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

The highly misleading headline reads: "Change paper bills into gold coins".

The lead sentence continues the deception: "The United States Mint wants to change your paper bills into gold coins."

Reading a bit further, one discovers that the "gold coins" referred to above are in reality the manganese-bronze "slugs" crunched out by the U. S. Mint under the misnomer "Presidential $1 coins." That these items are misnamed is evident from the fact that the Constitution and subsequent conforming legislation define the United States dollar as a coin containing 371.25 grains Troy of pure silver. (For further information on this point, please refer to other resources on this blog; in particular to the short video Our American Money.) Being composed of 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese, and 2% nickel, these so-called "coins" are no more "gold dollars" than an ounce of feathers is a pound of lead.

That either the people at WWMT Newschannel 3 are part of a disinformation campaign targeted at the American public or simply in serious need of a course in remedial journalism is, perhaps, debatable. What is not debatable is the need of the public for a clear understanding of what has been done to their money, by whom, for what purposes, and what needs to be done about it. And that understanding does not appear to be forthcoming from the aforementioned "Newschannel". Hence the reason for this blog.

The original article prompting this post may be found at the link here.

My previous post on this U. S. Mint sponsored "new currency" promotion may be read at the link here.

Jacob Steelman Article Advocates Sound Money

2008-11-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Jacob Steelman has an article titled A New World Financial Order on LewRockwell.com arguing that the world's people would be better off with a private, gold-based monetary system than they are under the current central-bank-implemented scheme of fractional-reserve fiat currencies. An excellent model for such a precious-metals based system is, of course, the constitutionally mandated monetary system of the United States. It is also the type of monetary system that for the most part was in use worldwide prior to World War I.

To read the original article, visit the link here.

"End the Fed" Rallies in 39 Cities November 22

2008-11-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

A set of nationwide rallies to end the Federal Reserve System, appropriately called End the Fed, is scheduled to take place in 39 cities on November 22. Among the stated purposes of these rallies is creating public awareness of, and drawing media attention to, the issue of sound money, as well as raising popular support for passage of Representative Ron Paul's legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve (HR2275).

Much more information, including a list of the cities hosting rallies, is available on the End the Fed website at the link here. (Note: This web page plays music upon loading so, if you're like me and find that annoying, you might want to make sure your computer's sound system is turned off before clicking the link.)

While abolishing the Fed (at least in its present form) is a necessary step to returning the country to a sound monetary system, by itself this step is far from sufficient. And while the public is certainly in need of an education regarding monetary matters, it remains to be seen how effective "in-the-street" actions such as these rallies will be towards that end. Wrongly implemented, they could end up turning some people against the needed reforms. In any case, the need for public awareness exists, and these rallies appear to be an honest attempt to meet that need.

Professor Fekete Explains How Bills of Exchange Operate in Conjuction With Gold Coin to Constitute a Sound Monetary System

2008-11-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Another essay on monetary reform, far more detailed that the piece referenced in the preceding post, comes from the pen of Professor A. E. Fekete and appears on the website GoldSeek.com.

Titled, Monetary Reform: Gold and Bills Of Exchange, this article, which is the text of an address given on November 3 before the Civil Society Institute at Santa Clara University, explains the role of privately (especially non-bank) issued bills of exchange in facilitating commerce and providing stable wages. The monetary system examined in this essay is entirely consistent with the monetary provisions of the U.S. Constitution which only prohibits "Bills of Credit" issued by governments.

Recommended reading. You will find the article linked here.

Article Calls for Change in U.S. Monetary Systsem

2008-11-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Peter Michaelson, a guest contributor to BuzzFlash.com, states clearly the need for monetary reform in the United States. Although he hints at a restoration of gold and silver by stating that they are "mentioned" in the Constitution and by pointing out that they could support an expanding economy that did not rely on warfare-related deficit spending, he stops short of recommending in detail how such a monetary system might be implemented.

Thinking-wise, this is a step -- albeit a short one -- in the right direction.

The full article may be found at the link here.

Investors Sought for Film Explaining Gold's Role as Money

2008-10-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

James West of The Midas Letter has an article on the GATA website seeking investors for the creation of a film expounding on gold's historical role as money. According to the article, the purpose of the film will be to counter the mainstream media's disinformation regarding gold's natural role in the financial system.

This proposed film is exactly the sort of effort needed to educate the public to understand the issues surrounding the "commodity money" versus "fiat money" debate and why the Founders opted for the former when they established our country's monetary system of circulating silver and gold coin.

The entire text of West's article may be found at the link here.

Article by Nikki Alexander Calls for U.S. Monetary Reform

2008-10-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

Writer Nikki Alexander has an editorial on OpEdNews.com calling for fundamental monetary reform in the United States. To this end, she enumerates several "steps" worthy of comment:

1) Abolish the Federal Reserve. Unquestionably a necessary albeit not a sufficient condition to bring about a restoration of monetary sanity.

2) Establish a monetary system that is wholly owned and controlled by the People of the United States. Actually, such a "monetary system that is wholly owned and controlled by the People of the United States" is already in place and as been for over 200 years. The Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, authorizes Congress "To coin money (and) regulate the value thereof,..." as well as "To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;" -- Emphasis added. I emphasize coin instead of create as this is the term the Framers employed...and with good reason. It is the abandonment in practice of this more restrictive term coin and the adoption of the more general term create that has led us to the present fiat-monetary mess. In addition, under the constitutional system of gold and silver coin, the public controls the amount of money in existence by either converting coin to bullion or by bringing bullion to the Mint to be made into coin. The government (and its unconstitutionally licensed private banking monopoly) need not and -- in the view of the Founders -- should not have any role in determining the size of the domestic money supply.

3) The Treasury Secretary has historically colluded with the Federal Reserve to serve private financial interests with embezzled public assets. Without the Federal Reserve and with a monetary system consisting only of circulating silver and gold coin, the opportunities for collusion and embezzlement of public assets would be vastly reduced if not eliminated altogether.

4) Let predatory institutions fail. As they well should!

5) Permanently protect the public by imposing strict regulations on the finance sector. The strictest possible "regulations on the finance sector" would arise naturally from a regime of constitutional money. The excessive abuses which occur today stem from easy access to "printing press money" by special interests. No "printing press money" = no excessive abuses.

6) Criminalize "campaign contributions" and give ALL candidates free and equal time on the PUBLIC airwaves to eliminate excuses for bribery. This step is a bit to collectivistic for my tastes. After all, criminalizing campaign contributions would punish not only the special interests seeking to bribe elected officials but also individuals supporting candidates who, for example, might support the restoration of constitutional government. Also, there is no such thing as "free" time on the "airwaves". Somebody has to pay for it and this statement implies that somebody will be forced to pay for it. Since Ms Alexander's stated goal here is to end bribery of politicians by the financial elite, the best way to accomplish this is by the restoration of the constitutional monetary system. Doing so would end the unconstitutional symbiotic relationship between the private bankers who issue the nation's currency, on the one hand, and the politicians who purport to give those bankers the license to do so, on the other.

While I obviously do not agree with all of Ms Alexander's proposals, her editorial contribution is a welcome input to the much needed debate over which monetary system the United States shall have -- the current special-interest-favoring Federal Reserve System or the honest money system of the Nation's Founders.

You may read Nikki Alexander's complete article here.

Another Article Discusses Possible Gold Confiscation

2008-10-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

Another opinion piece warning of a possible re-enactment of the Roosevelt gold confiscation of the 1930s has appeared at LewRockwell.com. Written by Steven LaTullipe, the editorial predicates a gold seizure on the government's necessity of preventing people from escaping victimization by the hyperinflation likely to result from the ongoing so-called "bailouts" which are pumping trillions of Fed-dollars into the money supply.

According to the author, "If responsible management of public finances is a non-starter, the only other alternative is to rescue the dollar by banning private citizens from buying or owning gold." (Emphasis in original.)

Should sanity prevail, instead of the government confiscating people's gold the government would be minting it and distributing it to replace the Fed's "trash cash".

Let us, then, lobby for sanity.

You may read the entire article at the link here.

U.S. Mint Gold Coin Sales Suspension Part of Plan to Withhold Gold?

2008-10-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

The staff at Dividend.com clearly thinks there is more to the U.S. Mint's suspension of sales of most gold and platinum bullion coins than a simple inability to keep up with demand. According to a recent article at the site, "...our modern government is clearly taking drastic steps to slow the public’s panicked flight away from the dollar and towards gold." The writers also assume there will be more measures of this sort to come.

Could this be the new face of gold confiscation? If so, it indicates that the government is still heading in the wrong direction. Not that it would be any surprise.

You can read the original article here.

Fed Waging Economic War on U.S.?

2008-10-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

One writer likens the Fed's rampant faux-money creation to Germany's WWII project to destroy Britain's economy by counterfeiting British Pound notes. Mike Adams at NaturalNews.com argues that, in this case, the economic warfare is directed against the United States.

Whether the destruction is intentional or not, the Fed's harmful monetary actions are ample reason in themselves for abolishing that institution and returning to the sound money of the Constitution.

You can read the entire article here.

Yet Another Call for the Return to Sound Money

2008-10-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

A blogger at denverpost.com, calling for a return to gold and silver money as the solution to the troubles caused by Federal Reserve "fiat" scrip, demonstrates that at least some of the people in this country are starting to "get it." Unfortunately for all of us, the vast majority of Americans still do not "get it" in the sense of understanding the source of our current economic woes (unconstitutional "bills of credit" called Federal Reserve notes) with the result that they fail to comprehend the way out of this mess: restoration of sound "constitutional" money -- circulating gold and silver coin.

It is already too late to avoid major suffering. But we may still hope that a "great awakening" will occur before total disaster of the monetary, economic, social, and political varieties engulfs us all. Time, I fear, grows unfortunately short.

You may read the above referenced blog post here.

More Support Arises For Ron Paul's Fed Abolition Act

2008-10-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

An article titled "Populists Back Ron Paul's Plan To Kill the Fed" at AmericanFreePress.net calls for support of Texas Representative Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (H.R. 2755) in order to get rid of the Federal Reserve and re-establish honest, debt-free money.

You may read the entire article here.

The Great Wall Street Heist

2008-10-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Word comes from various news sources today that the infamous "bailout" bill has been passed by Congress and signed by the President. While those who have followed this blog for a while are aware that this so-called "rescue package" is little more than a stickup of the American taxpayer that should never have been enacted, the rest of society is in for the shock of a hard lesson in reality-based economics. Had Americans heeded the warnings of past leaders and not departed from sound money as established in the Constitution, the market conditions supposedly necessitating this legislative thievery could never have occurred and abusive governmental action such as was taken today would have been impossible.

The weeks ahead will show us all what ignorance hath wrought.

Article Raises Question of Gold Seizure

2008-10-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

A recent article on Numismaster.com by David L. Ganz of Numismatic News considers whether a government gold seizure could occur today in light of similarities in economic conditions with those of the 1930s.

By comparing newspaper headlines and official pronouncements from the time of the Roosevelt gold seizure with today's crisis, the writer concludes that a repeat of the 1933-34 seizures is possible.

What? The government confiscate the people's gold when the right thing to do would be to mint more and put it into circulation to replace the economically and morally bankrupt Federal Reserve Notes?

Be forewarned.

Read the complete article here.

Economist Calls (Sort of) for "Sound Money"

2008-09-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

In a Wall Street Journal (online) opinion piece titled Loose Money And the Roots of the Crisis (subtitled: No one can believe in the omniscience of central bankers anymore), economist and author Judy Shelton correctly traces the cause of the present economic difficulties to the easily-created, non-commodity "money" of the Federal Reserve.

She rightly declares, "It is the money that is broken."

Then she continues that "one would be hard-pressed to say" that the consequences of the present market collapses will be less damaging than "under a gold standard." A statement which seems slightly watered-down to this reader.

Following a further reference to a "gold standard", as well as a "bimetallic system, linked to silver and gold," Ms Shelton declares, "No, we need to fix the money. Literally." That last statement being well and good enough -- so far.

She then concludes with, "This is where the new world of sound money begins. This is where the unknown ideal of capitalism takes form."

At this point I'm left to ponder why it is that some writers regarding these matters sound so wishy-washy when it comes to advocating a return to sound money? In the first place, there is really nothing "new" about the idea, sound money having been mandated by our own Constitution over 200 years ago. And the "ideal of capitalism" is hardly "unknown" either -- except in our own impoverished day and age -- as our nation grew phenomenally prosperous during those early years when the Constitution -- and its mandate of sound money -- was upheld.

In summary, I just don't understand all the "beating around the bush." The Constitution requires sound money -- the "silver and gold" (as coin -- not as a "standard") Ms Shelton refers to -- and the Constitution is "the Supreme Law of the Land." Can any American really have a problem advocating unashamedly for that? Really?

Read Judy Shelton's editorial for yourself at the link here.

"The Abyss" by Douglas V. Gnazzo

2008-09-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

If I seem to reference Douglas V. Gnazzo's writings a lot in this space, it is because he knows whereof he speaks and he speaks so clearly at a time when clarity in communication is all too rare an event.

In this connection, the latest issue of Gnazzo's Honest Money Gold & Silver Report on GoldSeek.com begins with an essay explaining with blinding clarity (there's that word again!) just how the fraudulent, fiat, debt-based, so-called "money" of the Federal Reserve has gotten us into this historic economic mess and how a return to the constitutionally mandated system of gold and silver coin is our best -- and perhaps only -- hope to save ourselves.

But enough of my ramblings. Read Gnazzo's piece for yourself here.

"Time for a gold ruble?" Writer Asks

2008-09-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

At least one editorial writer thinks it's time for restoration of precious metal currency -- albeit in this case in Russia. John Laughland, writing for RIA Novosti (the Russian News and Information Agency), suggests the creation of a "gold ruble" as a means of stabilizing the purchasing power of Russia's currency.

You will find the article linked here.

Perhaps in America it is well past time for a (restored) silver dollar?

"Government Money or Sound Money" by James Turk

2008-09-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

A new article by James Turk published on FinancialSense.com explains the differences between "government money" and constitutional gold and silver coin and relates these differences to the current economic crisis.

The link is here.

Another Appeal for Honest Money

2008-09-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

A guest editorial in the River Cities' Reader of Davenport, Iowa by Clyde Cleveland and Ed Noyes traces our country's loss of freedom and economic impoverishment to the abandonment of constitutional gold and silver coin in favor of "fiat" paper scrip -- aka "Federal Reserve Notes" -- and calls for a return to the honest money standard of the Founders.

Read the original article here.

"Gold vs. Debt" by Douglas V. Gnazzo

2008-09-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

In light of recent developments, I am linking this article by Douglas Gnazzo which explains...yet again!...that our troubles stem from "dishonest money" and that the solution lies in a return to constitutional (honest) money.

The link is here.

Federal Court Upholds "Gold Clause" in Lease

2008-08-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio has upheld a lease agreement dating from 1912 that demands payments be made in "gold coin of the United States."

This case is interesting as it holds the potential for an amount of monthly rent to be payable in face-value United States gold coin.

Read the article from the Cleveland.com web site here:

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-41/1219884248206820.xml&storylist=cleveland

U. S. Mint to Promote "New Currency" in Four Cities

2008-08-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

The United States Mint has announced a campaign beginning this month in four American cities "to encourage regular use of the $1 Coin." The four cities are "Austin, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Portland, Oregon; and Charlotte, North Carolina".

Unfortunately, the "$1 Coin" being promoted in this campaign is the so-called "Presidential $1 Coin" which is struck from an alloy of scrap-yard metals; specifically copper, zinc, manganese, and nickel.

The residents of the aforementioned four cities would do well to remember, when confronted with the propaganda promoting this "new currency", that the only genuine United States $1 coin is the "standard silver dollar" containing 371.25 grains Troy of pure silver as referenced in the Constitution and codified in the Coinage Act of 1792. Anything else is not a "dollar". (Watch Our American Money for a brief presentation of the relevant history.)

Short of amending the Constitution -- which has not been done in this regard -- the idea that Congress can redefine the dollar is as absurd as the idea that it can redefine the inch, pound, gallon, or any other common unit of measure.

At the risk of overstating the case (Can one really overstate a case when it seems so few are listening?), it's long past time for Americans to tell their employees in government that they've had enough of this junk-that-passes-for-money and demand a return to the genuine article. No more paper! No more pot-metal! Just silver and gold coin as intended by our nation's Founders.

Then -- and only then -- will we be in a position to rebuild our economy on a solid foundation and experience real prosperity once again.

To read the Mint's press release, click on the link below:

http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=944

"The Great Gold Robbery of 1933" is a Treatise Worth Reading

2008-08-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

The Great Gold Robbery of 1933 is the title of Thomas E. Woods, Jr's latest article at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Woods' essay covers the history of Roosevelt's gold confiscation in considerable detail and goes on to explain the true nature of the "dollar" as understood by the Framers of the Constitution as well as the constitutional limitations on congressional monetary powers that were ignored (read "violated") by Congress in its purported "legalization" of the gold seizure.

Definitely worth the read.

"The Money Matrix" Series

2008-08-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

The NolanChart website has an article titled The Money Matrix - Part 4/15 which provides a succinct overview of the types of money employed throughout history and the properties of same. In this respect, the article assists one to understand the fundamental differences between the money mandated by the Constitution and that of the Federal Reserve System under which we suffer today.

Also available are parts 1/15, 2/15, and 3/15.

Ron Paul Speaks for a Free Market in Currency

2008-08-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Ron Paul's statement before the House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Domestic & Monetary Policy, delivered on July 30, appears on the Lew Rockwell website under the title Good for the Blind and the Sighted.

Once again, Congressman Paul makes the case for a free market in sound money. But is anyone listening?

Failure Intrinsic to Fiat Currency

2008-07-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

Darryl R. Schoon has another article on The Market Oracle called Collapsing Fiat Currency In Need of a Golden Parachute with a Silver Lining.

The thrust of this article is that paper money is at the root of the monetary crisis we are now facing. Schoon points out that of the three functions of commodity money -- a store of value, a standard of value, and a medium of exchange -- paper money, due to its nature, performs only the third function and that the performance of this function degrades over time until the paper ceases to function as "money". And that this failure to function as a medium of exchange is the root of the price increases we are now witnessing.

Worth reading as another exposition of why we need to return to the use of constitutional money sooner rather than later.

Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty Supports Sound Money

2008-07-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

One hitherto unmentioned-by-me effort for the restoration of constitutional money in the United States is Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty.

In the words of a Letter from Ron issued on the Campaign's blog today, "The Campaign for Liberty will be the largest organization for peace, freedom, the Constitution, and sound money in American history." (Emphasis added.)

I urge support for this and all similar efforts to achieve these worthy goals. To that end, I have added links to the Campaign for Liberty website under "My Favorite Links" in the right-hand sidebar and immediately above the "Posts" section of this blog.

Losing Faith in "Faith Based Currencies"

2008-07-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Market Oracle has a new article titled Fiat Faith Based Currencies by Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) that correctly identifies unsound money as the root cause of our economic woes and calls for the restoration of "hard currencies" as mandated by the Constitution.

As this article illustrates, the real difficulty is not in identifying the problem but in educating the "People" to the point where they will do something about it. (I was going to say "motivating" instead of "educating" but, on reflection, I believe there is sufficient motivation for currency reform in the ever increasing level of financial pain that Americans are experiencing. What remains is to channel this motivation towards the "smart" solution of constitutional currency restoration rather than allowing it to be tricked into the "dumb" solution of granting more power to the government and the Federal Reserve to pursue the further creation of "make-believe money" to the total destruction of our constitutional republic.)

Gas Price Video Dispels "Grand Illusion"

2008-07-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

While the servers for the Shire Silver websites do have some issues regarding connectivity, they also have some good educational materials for those with the patience to access them.

A case in point is this short video titled Grand Illusion on Gas Prices which I have finally -- and belatedly -- been able to view. Since I don't expect everyone to have a lot of patience -- not to mention spare time -- when it comes to accessing web sites, the link above is directly to the YouTube address of the video.

While this video is certainly "on target" as far as its subject is concerned, at the risk of appearing to "nit pick" there are a couple of points I must take issue with:

1. A pre-1965 U.S. silver quarter does NOT contain a quarter of an ounce of silver as asserted in the video. The actual quantity of pure silver in a silver quarter is not more than 0.18084 ounces Troy; depending, of course, on how worn the coin is. At today's silver price of FR$18.91 a mint condition silver quarter would contain silver worth FR$3.42 (0.18084 X 18.91 = 3.41968 or 3.42). With the U.S. national average regular gasoline price today at FR$4.12, the correspondence is still close enough to be valid.

2. The newsreel segment of Adolf Hitler's speech is really irrelevant and the sub-titles provided make matters worse as they bear no relationship to what Hitler was saying. Not that what he was saying has any relevance anyway.

Other than those two points, the video presents a concise explanation of our monetary problem.

Making Your Own Mint

2008-07-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

For those do-it-yourself types in the crowd, here is a short video from Shire Silver showing how to set up a backyard coinage press:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA584XBkP0s

The video stresses that this setup is a prototype and no actual "minting" is shown. But one does get the general idea which appears practical.

The video concludes with a commercial for Liberty Books.

Taels of Woe: How Fiat Money Fails in Both the United States and Vietnam

2008-07-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

Doug French has an article titled Bingo! on the LewRockwell.com website explaining by means of an anecdote from his childhood that today's higher gasoline prices are the result of the Federal Reserve's unsound money and that the price of gasoline in terms of United States silver coins is essentially the same as it was 45 years ago.

Like silver, gold too holds its value over time as the Vietnamese are recognizing in a practical way. It seems the Vietnamese currency (the dong) is depreciating for much the same reason as the Federal Reserve "dollar"; i.e. being an inherently worthless scrap of paper instead of a valuable monetary commodity. To protect themselves from the continuing devaluation of the dong, the Vietnamese are starting to quote prices for real estate in both dong and taels of gold. (One tael equals approximately one and one fifth Troy ounces.) Read the article on the GATA website titled Vietnam real estate trade sees some shift to gold for details.

Perhaps we Americans should take a tip from the Vietnamese and begin quoting prices in both Federal Reserve pseudo-dollars and constitutional silver dollars. If we did, $4 gasoline would look more like 30 cent gasoline -- just as noted above by Doug French.

Letter Says Little Meaning to Phrase "Sound as a dollar"

2008-07-08T23:04:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another letter-to-the-editor -- this time appearing in the Nashua Telegraph -- that demonstrates a clear understanding of the practical differences between constitutional silver (and gold) coin and Federal Reserve dollar bills.

There are so many of these well-informed "letters" turning up nowadays (a good and encouraging thing in my opinion), that I'm thinking of collecting the links each month and then publishing them all in one post rather than putting each one out as it appears.

"Value of dollar is much less now" States Opinion Piece

2008-07-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here is another letter-to-the-editor expressing the understanding that the price increases we see all around us are due to the failure of the Federal Reserve dollar to hold its value while gold and silver coin, as mandated by our Constitution, hold their values quite well.

Slowly, the word is spreading.