Posted on 09/23/2010 8:56:42 PM PDT by MarkL
Hi All,
We all know that Congresscritter Weiner is trying to take down Glenn Beck any way he can, and he's trying to do it by going after his sponsors.
I saw a bit of Weiner grilling some Goldline executive today, and since Goldline has the audacity to advertise the FACT that FDR issued an executive order outlawing the private ownership of gold, with some exceptions, like historical and collectible coins and jewelery.
Weiner specifically criticized the executive and Goldline for not telling their customers that the executive order was (supposedly) repealed the following year, in 1934. But here's my question for Weiner...
If that executive order was repealed just one year after it was enacted, why was it illegal to own gold bullion until 1975? And while Weiner claims that the government made everything better just a year later, what about all the people who lost their gold? Were they ever made whole (a rhetorical question?)
So, is Weiner "spinning" while trying to take Beck down, or is he just out and out lying? And can someone please address this inconsistancy: 1934 vs 1975.
Thanks!
Mark
There are two pieces: 1) the executive order, and 2) defining possession of greater than 5 ounces of gold to be illegal under “trading with the enemy” laws.
I think this time when they come for the treasure of citizens, they will find it has been lost....like mine, tipped over in a fishing boat on Lake Quinalt.....lost to the depths....about 400 feet I think....I cried for days
I’m sure I’ll be corrected, but if memory serves me correctly, the prohibition against owning gold bullion was different than and predated FDR’s EO. It was a clause in the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 that prohibited any citizen of the US to trade gold bullion or currency (supposedly with foreign countries but it was pretty vague on that part). FDR’s EO was part of the New Deal circa 1933 that prohibited selling paper money for gold.
In other words, the first instance prohibited using gold coins or bullion as a traded good and actually prohibited ownership. The second prohibited buying gold (supposedly to shore up the dollar).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102
Executive Order 6102 required U.S. citizens to deliver on or before May 1, 1933 all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, as amended on March 9, 1933, violation of the order was punishable by fine up to $10,000 ($167,700 if adjusted for inflation as of 2010) or up to ten years in prison, or both.
The limitation on gold ownership in the U.S. was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars and certificates by an act of Congress codified in Pub.L. 93-373 [2] [3] which went into effect December 31, 1974. P.L. 93-373 did not repeal the Gold Repeal Joint Resolution,[4][5] which made unlawful any contracts which specified payment in a fixed amount of money or a fixed amount of gold. That is, contracts remained unenforceable if they used gold monetarily rather than as a commodity of trade. However, Act of Oct. 28, 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-147, § 4(c), 91 Stat. 1227, 1229 (originally codified at 31 U.S.C. § 463 note, recodified as amended at 31 U.S.C. § 5118(d)(2)) amended the 1933 Joint Resolution and made it clear that parties could again include so-called gold clauses in contracts formed after 1977 [6].
thanks for the clarification. It’s a real shame that the executive wasn’t ready with that information to throw back in Weiner’s face.
I would have LOVED to see the exec answer Weiner with the question, “Are you aware that it was illegal to own gold in any significant quantity for another 41 years?”
Thanks again!
Mark
This article may be of interest: http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/willis112804.html
http://www.ask.com/wiki/Executive_Order_6102?qsrc=3044
In 1933 approximately 500 tonnes of gold were turned in to the Treasury “voluntarily” at the exchange rate of $20.67 per troy ounce.[8]
8. Time Magazine, Monday, Nov. 27, 1933.
When Beck took on GoldLine as a sponsor, gold was at $550 an ounce. Now it is just shy of $1300. ‘Nuff said.
When I was looking at gold to buy, it was $220.00. :-(
Wiener hates it that you cannot re-distribute GOLD buried in the backyard.. (or somewhere).. and that it probably WILL go UP in VALUE not DOWN like currency..
Well, I distinctly remember that is was against the law to own gold in the 1950s up until 1975 when they finally repealed the law. My Uncle was a gold miner, he worked in the gold mines in CA until WWII started and they shut them down, but he continued to pan gold, after the war, he served in German as an infantryman, but was careful how he sold it as it was still against the law to own raw gold. The guy that says they repealed it in 1934 is full of sh**. And no, no one was made whole.
“what about all the people who lost their gold? Were they ever made whole (a rhetorical question?)”
Might have been rhetorical, but the answer is that the gubmint paid for the gold with greenbacks, which they promptly devalued by printing a bunch more currency.
What's more, the Fed Gov retroactively defined how much gold had been in the hands of citizens based on how much the Gov had confiscated. In effect, they created the fantasy that everyone had turned in all their gold and none was left in private hands.
And I believe that they also devalued it more by paying (IIRC) twenty something dollars an ounce, and after the government took possession of the gold, set the price at over thirty dollars an ounce.
Legalized theft.
Mark
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