The U.S. economy is a fraud based on the Federal Reserve System of fiat money and legal-tender laws.

Credentials are irrelevant. There are PhDs who are Marxists, and PhDs who are laissez-faire capitalists. By definition, they both cannot be right. At least one of them is wrong and all the laymen who follow another theory are right. There are medical doctors who do not believe HIV causes AIDS. It doesn't make them right, and it wouldn't make such a doctor's debate opponent -- be he a high-school dropout or a child -- wrong. And my credentials are in no way "impressive," but essentially on par with yours. That doesn't make either of us right or wrong, and if an economics PhD with an MBA and JD made your points, it wouldn't make them right either. Debates should be one of the merit of the logic presented in the argument! You now contend that the explanations I gave in Round 2 were different from those I gave in Round 1. I looked over my Round 1 argument and I find that the arguments I presented in Rounds 1 and 2 are essentially the same. The only difference is I was more hostile in Round 2 since I felt you were being an intellectual bully by flaunting your course of study as if it gave your arguments more authority. As we both agree, it doesn't. So let me re-examine what I said in Round 1: 1. Virtually every transaction that takes place in the United States involves the exchange of goods or services for Federal Reserve Notes. AGREE OR DISAGREE? 2. Federal Reserve Notes (U.S. dollars) arise from debt. When you deposit $100, $90 can be lent, even though the bank still has to give you $100 on demand. In fact, that $90 can be taken to another bank, where $81 of it can be lent. Eventually, this results in as much as a tenfold inflation of the money supply. AGREE OR DISAGREE? 3. Since every dollar is created out of debt, if every debt were repaid in full, there would be no more dollars. Where did all of our fiat money come from if not from debt? Again, I ask: Magic? Please explain. Here is a point where you seem to still disagree. AGREE OR DISAGREE? 4. We, as citizens of the U.S., accept Federal Reserve Notes for three reasons: 1) Because they have value by virtue of being accepted for income taxes (no coincidence that the 16th amendment allowing the government to tax incomes was passed the same year as the Federal Reserve Act), 2) Because the government says we must, BY LAW, accept them as "legal tender for all debts, public and private" (despite the fact that that Constitution says only gold or silver may be "legal tender") and 3) Because alternative domestic currencies are illegal. If you make a market in alternative currencies, such as gold coins or certificates, the FBI will raid you and put you out of business. Just Google "Liberty Dollar" and "FBI Raid" if you don't believe me. AGREE OR DISAGREE? 5. The Federal Reserve System gives privately owned banks a monopoly on the creation of money, and an independent agency (the Federal Reserve itself) a monopoly on monetary regulation of the banking system. This is, by definition, a "legalized cartel." AGREE OR DISAGREE? 6. The Federal Reserve's FOMC purchases government bonds as a tool of monetary policy in order to expand or deflate the money supply and hit interest rate targets. The money it uses to buy these bonds can, if needed, be created out of thin air (or "to counterbalance the debt obligation of the government," which means the same thing). AGREE OR DISAGREE? 7. When the Fed creates money to satisfy government shortfall, it is redistributing wealth from productive citizens and asset-holders to the government and its contractors. The money supply expands and thus more dollars are chasing the same amount of goods, causing prices to rise. Eventually, more goods may be created, resulting in only minor rises in the overall price level, but the government and its contractors get the newly created money first, whereas non-governmental workers and retirees see their wages and savings devalued by the monetary expansion. AGREE OR DISAGREE? 8. The concept of "money" predates governments. It arose from barter. Eventually, goods were accepted not on the basis of need, but on the basis that they were easily exchangeable to other traders. Ultimately, the most commonly accepted means of exchange became "money" and this was often gold or silver. AGREE OR DISAGREE? If you agree with most/all of the above, then naturally you must agree with #9: 9. In order for a transaction to be ethical and just, both parties must willingly accept the conditions of trade with no coercion. Sine the government mandates (through legal-tender laws) that Federal Reserve Notes must be accepted as "legal tender", then every transaction is premised on the fraud of the inflationary monetary system and the government force that makes it possible. We are forced to accept an evaporating currency instead of choosing alternatives for ourselves. AGREE OR DISAGREE? And if you agree with #9, then you agree with my contention that "The U.S. economy is a fraud based on the Federal Reserve System of fiat money and legal-tender laws." These are, almost word-for-word, the points I made in Round 1. I'm remaking them here because you say that the Round 1 points were the reason you took this debate in the first place. What is untrue or illogical above? I would appreciate a point-by-point agreement/disagreement. And please, do not give in. Stand your ground and fight! Whether I have more knowledge on the subject is not important. I could have more knowledge and still be wrong. The importance is the LOGIC of my arguments vs. the LOGIC of yours. If you cannot prove me wrong, then you must accept the hypothesis of this debate.