Gold

The Gold Standard Debate: "We have gold because we cannot trust our governments."- Herbert Hoover Point 1: The constitution and constitutional money: Article 1 Section 8 Clause 5: "Congress shall have the power; to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, fix the standard weights and measures." As you may know from reading "The Wealth of Nations", in the 1700"s "standard weights and measures" meant the gold standard, it also says "to coin money", not "to paper money", this does not mean that paper money is prohibited, it does mean that our money should be coin money, and paper money should be a claim check to coin money. Article 1 Section 10 Paragraph 1: "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." So right here it is listing all the things states cannot do, if you will note it says "make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in the payment of debts", so that is that, there is nothing further is needed. Yes, the constitution can be amended, but there are two problems; 1.The economic recovery act of 1970 is not an amendment. 2.Regardless, the gold still belongs to the American people. Richard Nixon can halt the deposit of gold, and allow for fiat to be issued, but the gold that backs dollars belongs to the American people, we do not live in a communist country so Uncle Sam has no right to "confiscate" our gold. Point 2; Fiat never works: The first fiat currency was Sumerian clay tablets, they were not backed by gold, they were not made out of gold, silver, or copper, and they were valuable because the king declared them to be. This may have worked for a while, mainly because the king did not have a conveyer belt where he mass produced them like the Federal Reserve does. It was the longest lasting fiat, lasting around 1000 to 2000 years, but Egypt on the other hand which operated on a commodative money system, that is to say, wheat was their medium of exchange and gold and silver came second, lasted around 6000 years- before the romans came. Contrary to popular mythology, Roman coin was not fiat, like the Egyptians used gold or silver on occasions, the Romans used copper, the Roman coins were copper coins. So Rome actually operated on a "copper standard" as their prime money, gold and silver coming second. Point 3; The money supply: Under a commodative money system, how do you increase the money supply- well you have this guy called "the farmer", and he works for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year save winter, then he produces wheat to trade with. Under a representative money system, how do you increase the money supply- well you got this guy called "the miner", and he goes into a gold or silver mine and mines gold or silver. If you will note, in both of these systems, as it should be, the money is valuable not because the government said so, but because it took labor to produce, and it can command labor. But under a fiat system, how do you increase the money supply, well you got this guy named Alan Greenspan, and he goes over to the US Mint, and he says "Hey can you print money and sell it to me for pennies on the dollar", then they say "oh sure, we can sell it to you for pennies on the dollar", then he loans the government this same money that they printed, at interest. So the government prints the money, gives the fed this money for less than its face value, then the fed sells it back to the gov for more than its face value, sounds slimy. There was a guy, Bill Still, he made a documentary "The Money Masters", overall he seems very credible, he knows G E Griffin, there is only one thing I have an issue with, he supports "State issued" money, and to this all I have to say is this; "Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian."- Henry Ford