http://www.moneyfiles.org/usapower.jpg (pro Founding Fathers' economics)
Now that the US dollar is gobbling 80% of the world earnings to stay afloat daily and that the savings rate in america is zero, let's face it once and for all: got gold/silver?
Posted on 08/23/2005 2:16:03 PM PDT by thinking4me
Press Release Source: Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
Treasury Department Claims Power to Seize Gold, Silver--and Everything Else, GATA Says Monday August 22, 8:45 am ET
MANCHESTER, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2005--The U.S. Government has the authority to prohibit the private possession of gold and silver coin and bullion by U.S. citizens during wartime, and, during wartime and declared emergencies, to freeze their ownership of shares of mining companies, the Treasury Department has told the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee. ADVERTISEMENT
But gold and silver owners aren't alone in such jeopardy. For the U.S. Government claims the authority in declared emergencies to seize or freeze just about everything else that might be considered a financial instrument.
The Treasury Department's assertions came in a letter to GATA dated August 12 and written by Sean M. Thornton, chief counsel for the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, who replied to questions GATA posed to the department in January. It took GATA six months and some prodding to get answers from the Treasury, but the Treasury's reply, when it came, was remarkably comprehensive and candid.
The government's authority to interfere with the ownership of gold, silver, and mining shares arises, Thornton wrote, from the Trading With the Enemy Act, which became law in 1917 during World War I and applies during declared wars, and from 1977's International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which can be applied without declared wars.
While the Trading With the Enemy Act authorizes the government to interfere with the ownership of gold and silver particularly, it also applies to all forms of currency and all securities. So the Treasury official stressed in his letter to GATA that the act could be applied not just to shares of gold and silver mining companies but to the shares of all companies in which there is a foreign ownership interest.
Further, there is no requirement in the law that the targets of the government's interference must have some connection to the declared enemies of the United States, nor even some connection to foreign ownership. Anything that can be construed as a financial instrument, no matter how innocently it has been used, is subject to seizure under the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Having just gone through a controversy about a Supreme Court decision about government's power of eminent domain, most Americans may be surprised to learn that the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act could expropriate them instantly and far more broadly without any of the due process extended to parties in eminent domain cases. All that is needed is a presidential proclamation of an emergency of some kind -- and of course Americans lately have been living in a state of perpetual emergency.
When the Trading With the Enemy Act was passed in 1917, gold and silver formed part of the official currency of the United States and were essential to ordinary commerce, so perhaps an argument could be made then against "hoarding," even if "hoarding" could not be well defined. That is no longer the case; the United States has officially disavowed gold and silver as money and they no longer have a meaningful role in commerce. (GATA is working on that.) So gold and silver investors may want to ask their members of Congress to seek repeal of the statutes that give the government the authority to interfere with the private ownership of gold and silver, emergencies or not.
And ordinary citizens with no particular interest in gold and silver may want to ask their members of Congress to reconsider these statutes simply for being wildly tyrannical.
GATA's correspondence with the Treasury Department is posted on the Internet here:
http://www.moneyfiles.org/usapower.jpg (pro Founding Fathers' economics)
Now that the US dollar is gobbling 80% of the world earnings to stay afloat daily and that the savings rate in america is zero, let's face it once and for all: got gold/silver?
This is beyond draconian! So much for trying to protect ourselves against the cashless society. Resident evil.
Further, there is no requirement in the law that the targets of the government's interference must have some connection to the declared enemies of the United States, nor even some connection to foreign ownership. Anything that can be construed as a financial instrument, no matter how innocently it has been used, is subject to seizure under the Trading With the Enemy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Gotta love this law! Well, it'll be interesting to see how many of the "I've got nothing to hide" herd line up voluntarily to turn in their gold and silver when the order goes out.
Yet another reason to not invest in gold!
No problem at all.
See also my national debt page.
I wouldn't worry too much about this. A government that can't/won't stop the flow of illegal aliens across our southern border isn't capable of confiscating sh!t.
Empire of Debt : The Rise Of An Epic Financial Crisis
also check out on amazon.com: Greenspan's Fraud : How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy
I'm beginning to think that the government can do whatever it pleases, constitution be damned.
You could hire some illegals to guard your gold, the Feds would never find it then.
Holy sh**, thanks for making me lose my dinner.
So what else is new.
Can Our Government Really Tell Us How Much Food and Supplies We Can Keep?
Executive Orders in place dating back to 1939 which Clinton has grouped together under one order, EO #12919 released on June 6, 1994. The following EOs all fall under EO#12919:
10995--Federal seizure of all communications media in the US;
10997--Federal seizure of all electric power, fuels, minerals, public and private;
10998--Federal seizure of all food supplies and resources, public and private and all farms and equipment;
10999--Federal seizure of all means of transportation, including cars, trucks, or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports and water ways;
11000--Federal seizure of American people for work forces under federal supervision, including the splitting up of families if the government so desires;
11001--Federal seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private;
11002--Empowers the Postmaster General to register every single person in the US
11003--Federal seizure of all airports and aircraft;
11004--Federal seizure of all housing and finances and authority to establish forced relocation. Authority to designate areas to be abandoned as "unsafe," establish new locations for populations, relocate communities, build new housing with public funds;
11005--Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities, both public and private;
11051--Provides FEMA complete authorization to put above orders into effect in times of increased international tension of economic or financial crisis (FEMA will be in control incase of "National Emergency").
For more, Click on:
http://standeyo.com/News_Files/Hollys.html
On the left, click on: "Miscellaneous"
Then under "Executive Orders"
click on : What Do EOs Say About Storing?
That mattered more when our money was based on gold and silver. Can they now confiscate paper, faith in the money supply and Alan Greenspan's health because that's what the money supply is currently based on?
What's the big deal? When the state can rob you of your life like Terri Schiavio, why cry over its power to take your gold & silver?
GATA's correspondence with the Treasury Department is posted on the Internet here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/3276
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