Posted on 08/21/2007 11:34:38 AM PDT by BGHater
As markets went on a rollercoaster ride last week, our economy is coming close to a day of reckoning for loose credit policies being followed by the Federal Reserve Bank. Simply, foreign banks we have been relying on to buy our debt are waking up to the reality of much higher default rates than predicted, and many mortgage backed securities have been reduced to junk ratings. Wall Street fears the possibility of tightening credit and the tightening of Americas belts. Why, they say, if Americans spend only what they can afford, think of the ripple effects throughout the economy! This is the cry, as the call comes for the fed to cut rates and bail out companies in trouble.
More inflation is, however, never the answer to inflation.
The truth is that business involves risk, and businesses that miscalculate risk should be liquidated, so their assets can be reallocated to businesses that correctly judge risk and make profits. Instead, the Fed has injected $64 billion into the jittery markets, effectively amounting to a bailout that keeps these malinvestments afloat, but eventually they will become the undoing of our economy.
In addition to the negative reactions in financial markets, many Americans have taken on too much personal debt owing to exotic mortgage products and artificially low interest rates. Unfortunately, these families are now in the position of losing their homes in unprecedented numbers as the teaser rates expire and the real bills are coming due.
The real answers are, and always have been, found in the principles of the free market. Let the market set the interest rates. If we had been functioning under a true and transparent free market system, we would not be in the mess we are in today. Government, like the American household, needs to live within its means to get back on stable fiscal ground.
Weve been headed in the wrong direction since 1971. This week marks the 36th anniversary of Nixons decision to close the gold window, which convinced me to seek public office to call attention to the runaway money train that would come in the aftermath of that decision. The temptation to print and spend money with impunity, like the temptation to max out lines of credit, is too strong to for government to resist. While Nixon brokered exclusivity deals with OPEC to prop up demand for the tidal wave of green pieces of paper the Fed pumped into the markets, the world is tiring of marching to the beat of our drum in order to secure their energy needs. The house of cards Nixon built is now on the verge of collapsing on our heads, and on our childrens heads.
As the dollar weakens, it becomes ever clearer that we need a return to sound, commodity-based money for a secure future. Money based on real value, not empty promises and secretive backroom machinations, is the way to get out of the current calamity without causing even bigger problems.
Toddster thinks the coins can be made of pot metal, and that the Feds can force you to take them in any state.
The power to “regulate value” is not the power of alchemy. If there is no gold or silver in the coins, they are not gold or silver coins.
I bet you have one in your pants pocket right now.
Picky, picky. What I meant to say is that I didn’t know exactly what Toddster meant by a “fiat coin”.
I believe that those coins in your pocket are exactly what he means.
Excellent article, don’t you agree?
Goldbuggery garbage.
Not to defend Nixon too much, but he had no choice as the French were standing at the gold window saying "we'll take the rest, please"
I never said it was.
If there is no gold or silver in the coins, they are not gold or silver coins.
That's funny.
You might want to look up The United States Coinage Act of 1965. Congress, you know, the body that has Constitutional authority "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof", said that they can be.
Post #94.
So we could back an $8 trillion money supply with an ounce of gold? So easy a caveman could do it.
What are you, an anti-Caveite.
I swear, this guy is the Louis Farrakhan of the GOP. At first, he starts talking about sensible things like loose credit, business discipline, and market economics, and you’re going “yeah, that’s right”.
Then he opens his mouth and says “and lets bring back the gold standard!”, and all the sane people just leave the room.
They are.
...and that the Feds can force you to take them in any state.
They can and do. You probably have a pocket full of them right now.
I meant, so easy, a goldbug could do it. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Please help me find that in the constitution.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.