Posted on 04/04/2009 7:41:47 AM PDT by Publius
Synopsis
The men of Colorado disappear one by one until only Ted Nielsen is left; he promises Dagny he is not going anywhere. Dagny realizes she is encountering a Destroyer who is performing the reverse of the mystery motor, turning kinetic energy back into static.
Quentin Daniels and Dagny hit it off; neither of them thinks much of “governmental scientific inquiry”. Daniels is the night watchman at Utah Tech but uses the laboratory facilities of the closed school for his own purposes. Dagny and Daniels conclude their own private deal without the involvement of the railroad.
The cigarette stand proprietor catches Dagny as she is leaving the building and tells her that Hugh Akston’s cigarette had attributes he had never seen before and was not made anywhere on this earth.
Ken Danagger and Hank meet discreetly in Hank’s hotel room at the Wayne-Falkland to conclude a deal, now illegal, giving Danagger Coal the Rearden Metal it needs for its mines. Danagger has expanded his operation by acquiring a bankrupt coal company to the conflicting complaints of bureaucrats that he is a monopolist but needs to expand further.
After Danagger leaves, Lillian Rearden surprisingly arrives; she is in town for Jim Taggart’s wedding to Cherryl Brooks, which she sees as perfectly ridiculous. She wants to be the center of her husband’s life, and although Hank would prefer not to go, he does so to please her.
The courtship of Jim and Cherryl has so far not included sex, for which Cherryl is grateful. But she is hurt by those who see Jim’s involvement with her as being “generous”, as if she were an object of pity. She is especially hurt by the reception she gets from Jim’s friends, particularly Betty Pope, whose cryptic comments are disturbing. When she hears comments about Jim’s connections in Washington, she thinks the men hate Jim out of envy, not something else, like disgust.
At the reception Orren Boyle and Bertram Scudder scan the room, classifying each guest as friend or foe. Jim and Boyle get into an argument about who has the greater influence and is more to be feared; each has friends in high places because of personal blackmail. Boyle says that if they don’t trade money, they can trade men. He reminds Jim that Wesley Mouch has been bought twice already and can be bought again.
Cherryl spots Dagny and tells her that she knows about the hell that Dagny has put poor Jim through. “I’m the woman in this family now.” Dagny smiles and says, “That’s quite all right ... I’m the man.”
Lillian approaches Jim and asks if he likes her wedding gift, which is Hank. It gives the impression that even the great Hank Rearden has to toe the line with Jim Taggart and serves as a warning to all in the room. Lillian wants Jim to understand that she has the power to deliver Hank.
Lillian accosts Dagny and asks her opinion of Jim’s marriage; Dagny doesn’t have one. Lillian tells Dagny that Cherryl had resorted to talents that Dagny would despise; Dagny chooses not to be offended. Lillian notices the Rearden Metal bracelet and wants it back, but Dagny refuses. She tells Dagny that her wearing it might hint that something improper was going on; Dagny looks her in the eye and asks if that improper thing might be that she is sleeping with Lillian’s husband. Lillian backs off, and Hank tells her to apologize, which she does.
The intellectuals in the room gather around Jim to praise him for his enlightened behavior. Bertram Scudder gives Jim his highest accolade: he is not a businessman. Jim says, “We will build a society dedicated to higher ideals, and we will replace the aristocracy of money by–“, and Francisco interrupts, “–the aristocracy of pull.” Jim loses his composure, but Francisco rescues him by suggesting that he be presented to the bride.
Francisco tells Jim that he knows Jim is the real stockholder behind all the straw men that Jim and friends have erected to hide their purchases. Francisco understands that Jim doesn’t want people to know how he got rich. The copper company has done well in the past year, and it would take a most unusual kind of man to destroy it. He thanks Jim for the crippling regulations that have made d’Anconia Copper the last man standing in the business. He intends to repay the favor.
Francisco goes to Dagny and asks if she is fishing for a compliment on her achievement, the John Galt Line. Dagny is hurt that Francisco should so despise success. He tells her that John Galt has claimed her line.
When Bertram Scudder says that money is the root of all evil, Francisco launches into his famous Root of Money Speech, available here. As he finishes, the crowd at the party reacts in horror, particularly one woman who just feels that Francisco has to be wrong. Francisco tells her that when she sees people dying of starvation around her, her feelings won’t be of any use to them.
Rearden greets Francisco as if they were old friends. Francisco tells Hank he shouldn’t have come to the party because people would assume that he and Jim were friends. Hank now feels differently about Francisco following the speech, but he can’t figure out why Francisco is wasting his talents. Francisco tells Hank to check his premises and warns him to stay away from d’Anconia Copper; when Hank sees what happens in the next fifteen minutes he’ll understand why. The people in the room have secreted their looters’ profits from their Rearden Metal wealth in stock in Francisco’s company. There was a fire tomorrow morning at the company’s docks at Valparaiso, Francisco explains, then there will be a rockslide in a critical mine, and the company’s mines will turn out to be worthless. Hank laughs explosively, then backs away in horror. He thinks that Francisco is guiltiest man in the room. Francisco tells Hank to watch and learn.
Francisco runs into a businessman harried by a bureaucrat who grandly states that he will decide if the businessman is permitted to make a profit or not. Francisco says in a loud voice to Hank that he is sorry that Hank will not grant him the loan because if he can’t raise the money tonight, then when the stock market opens tomorrow... The bureaucrat blanches, Francisco asks him if he owns any d’Anconia Copper stock, and upon receiving affirmation advises the bureaucrat to sell immediately but not to tell anyone in the room so as not to start a panic. Within minutes, everyone rushes to the phones to call their brokers. Jim asks if the rumors are true, and Francisco explains that if money is the root of all evil, then he is just tired of being evil. As Hank, Dagny and Francisco watch, Jim and Orren Boyle join the general chaos.
Cherryl, Sex and the Fifties
As mentioned in a previous chapter, in the Fifties chastity became trendy again and virginity became desirable. But that is not at the heart of Cherryl’s gratitude that Jim has been willing to wait until their wedding night to consummate their relationship.
Cherryl does not want to use underhanded methods to win Jim; she wants to put the lie to the evil assumptions of Jim’s friends. She has her moral code and intends to stick to it come hell or high water. She is completely clueless as to the relationship between Jim and Betty Pope and even more clueless as to the true nature of the man she is marrying. Poor Cherryl.
Francisco’s Root of Money Speech
This speech is an audition for Hank Rearden, and it has the desired effect. There are lines that are seared into the memory long after one has put the book back on the shelf.
Other Discussion Topics
The art of deconstruction is as sublime as the attempt to erect an edifice with a single dose of Cialis.
It occurs to me that if members of congress can read a 1100 page bill overnight they ought to be able to breeze through Atlas Shrugged over a weekend. I think I’ll ask my Sens and Reps if they’ve ever read it. If not, I’ll suggest that they do.
Better yet, suggest they join the FReeper Book Club. This site provides a good education, and most congresscritters need one.
LOL! My only hope is that if Rand is occasionally spinning in her grave it isn’t in my direction. :-)
Assuming of course, that they actually read the bill, which they obviously didn’t.
A friend posted the following on his facebook status this week: "I've been looking for the posting of the General Motors CEO on USAJOBS. It's a civil service position now, right?"
The entire handling of the car companies is ripped right out of the bureaucrat deciding who is permitted to make a profit. Google: allowed to make a profit. Oil companies? Not allowed to make a profit. Wind-fall taxes anyone?
Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper ... Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: “Account overdrawn.” The “gun” is the term “legal tender”, which has lost its original meaning of “forced tender”. What forced tender means is, “See this piece of paper? It doesn’t look or feel like money because it isn’t made of gold or silver as the Constitution demands. But I say it’s money, and it is money because I have the guns and the military forces to back that statement up.” We have lost this critical bit of our founding history. What is haunting about “the day the check bounces” is that we will witness it when the government monetizes vast amounts of debt because foreigners won’t buy it anymore. China has cut our credit card in half.
“Gold and silver were such a powerful money during the founding of the united states of America, that the founding fathers declared that only gold or silver coins can be “money” in America. Since gold and silver coinage were heavy and inconvenient for a lot of transactions, they were stored in banks and a claim check was issued as a money substitute. People traded their coupons as money, or “currency.” Currency is not money, but a money substitute. Redeemable currency must promise to pay a dollar equivalent in gold or silver money. Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) make no such promises, and are not “money.” A Federal Reserve Note is a debt obligation of the federal United States government, not “money.” The federal United States government and the U.S. Congress were not and have never been authorized by the Constitution for the united states of America to issue currency of any kind, but only lawful money, -gold and silver coin.
It is essential that we comprehend the distinction between real money and paper money substitute. One cannot get rich by accumulating money substitutes, one can only get deeper into debt. We the People no longer have any “money.” Most Americans have not been paid any “money” for a very long time, perhaps not in their entire life. Now do you comprehend why you feel broke? Now, do you understand why you are “bankrupt,” along with the rest of the country?
Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) are unsigned checks written on a closed account. FRNs are an inflatable paper system designed to create debt through inflation (devaluation of currency). When ever there is an increase of the supply of a money substitute in the economy without a corresponding increase in the gold and silver backing, inflation occurs. Inflation is an invisible form of taxation that irresponsible governments inflict on their citizens. The Federal Reserve Bank who controls the supply and movement of FRNs has everybody fooled. They have access to an unlimited supply of FRNs, paying only for the printing costs of what they need. FRNs are nothing more than promissory notes for U.S. Treasury securities (T-Bills) - a promise to pay the debt to the Federal Reserve Bank.
There is a fundamental difference between “paying” and “discharging” a debt. To pay a debt, you must pay with value or substance (i.e. gold, silver, barter or a commodity). With FRNs, you can only discharge a debt. You cannot pay a debt with a debt currency system. You cannot service a debt with a currency that has no backing in value or substance. No contract in Common law is valid unless it involves an exchange of “good & valuable consideration.” Unpayable debt transfers power and control to the sovereign power structure that has no interest in money, law, equity or justice because they have so much wealth already.” http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2201271/posts?page=6#6
Highly unlikely, because they not only do not need to this, since the dollar is no longer backed by gold, and is a form of secular property except perhaps for gold eagles, but they do not have to, because they are devaluing the dollar already to save the banks.
This time the confiscation of wealth to save the banks is called TARP.
If one thinks about it, US Dollars are being created and provided directly to the banks to boost their free reserves significantly, at a scale comparable and beyond to 1933-34.
The confiscation of wealth is being spread among all holders of US dollars and dollar assets, foreign and domestic, in the more subtle form of monetary inflation.
Granted, the government must be more opaque to mask their actions in order to sustain confidence in the dollar while the devaluation occurs, but this is exactly what is happening, and all that is required to happen in a fiat regime.
There is no need to seize widely held exogenous commodities like gold and oil, but merely dampen any bellwether signals that a significant devaluation of the dollar is once gain being perpetrated on the American people in order to save the banks.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/01/last-time-fed-devalued-dollar-to-save.html
The receivers of the United States Bankruptcy are the International Bankers, via the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
THIS IS ALSO WHY PEOPLE CALL US
A DEMOCRACY INSTEAD OF A REPUBLIC!
United States Congressional Record March 17, 1993 Vol. #33, page H-1303 Speaker-Senator James Traficant, Jr. (Ohio) addressing the House: “Mr. Speaker, we are here now in chapter 11. Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any Bankrupt entity in world history, the U.S. Government. We are setting forth hopefully, a blueprint for our future. There are some who say it is a coroner’s report that will lead to our demise.”
It is an established fact that the United States Federal Government has been dissolved by the Emergency Banking Act, March 9, 1933, 48 Stat. 1, Public Law 89-719; declared by President Roosevelt, being bankrupt and insolvent. H.J.R. 192, 73rd Congress in session June 5, 1933 - Joint Resolution To Suspend The Gold Standard and Abrogate The Gold Clause dissolved the Sovereign Authority of the United States and the official capacities of all United States Governmental Offices, Officers, and Departments and is further evidence that the United States Federal Government exists today in name only.
The receivers of the United States Bankruptcy are the International Bankers, via the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. All United States Offices, Officials, and Departments are now operating within a de facto status in name only under Emergency War Powers. With the Constitutional Republican form of Government now dissolved, the receivers of the Bankruptcy have adopted a new form of government for the United States. This new form of government is known as a Democracy, being an established Socialist/Communist order under a new governor for America. This act was instituted and established by transferring and/or placing the Office of the Secretary of Treasury to that of the Governor of the International Monetary Fund. Public Law 94-564, page 8, Section H.R. 13955 reads in part: “The U.S. Secretary of Treasury receives no compensation for representing the United States.”
United States Congressional Record May 4, 1992, page H 2891, Senator and Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, Senator Henry Gonzalez (Texas) speaking on “NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL THIEVERY IN HIGH PLACES” “We are bankrupted. We are insolvent on every level of our national life, whether it is corporate, whether it is just plain you and I out there with the life of debt that we have all piled up, private debt, credit cards and what not, or whether it is the government. We are insolvent. How long will it take before that nasty Mega-truth is conveyed?”
United States Congressional Record January 19, 1976, page 240 Marjorie S. Holt (Maryland): “Mr. Speaker, many of us recently received a letter from the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, inviting members of Congress to participate in a ceremonial signing of “A Declaration of INTERdependence” on January 30 in Congress Hall, adjacent to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. A number of Members of Congress have been invited to sign this document, lending their prestige to its theme, but I want the record to show my strong opposition to this declaration. It calls for the surrender of our national sovereignty to international organizations. It declares that our economy should be regulated by international authorities. It proposes that we enter a “New World Order” that would redistribute the wealth created by the American people. Mr. Speaker, this is an obscenity that defiles our Declaration of Independence, signed 200 years ago in Philadelphia. We fought a great Revolution for independence and individual liberty, but now it is proposed that we participate in a world socialist order. Are we a proud and free people, or are we a carcass to be picked by the jackals of the world, who want to destroy us? When one cuts through the high-flown rhetoric of this “Declaration of INTERdependence,” one finds key phrases that tell the story. For example, it states that ‘The economy of all nations is a seamless web, and that no one nation can any longer effectively maintain its processes of production and monetary systems without recognizing the necessity for collaborative regulation by international authorities.’ How do you like the idea of “international authorities” controlling our production and our monetary system, Mr. Speaker? How could any American dedicated to our national independence and freedom tolerate such an idea? ....America should never subject her fate to decisions by such an assembly, unless we long for national suicide. Instead, let us have independence and freedom....If we surrender our independence to a “new world order”........,we will be betraying our historic ideals of freedom and self-government. Freedom and self-government are not outdated. The fathers of our Republic fought a revolution for those ideals, which are as valid today as they ever were. Let us not betray freedom by embracing slave masters; let us not betray self-government with world government; let us celebrate Jefferson and Madison, not Marx and Lenin.”
A dollar is a measure of weight defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 and 1900 which is still in force today. A “dollar” specifies a certain quantity, 24.8 grains of gold, or 371.25 grains of silver. In Black’s Law Dictionary, sixth Edition, Dollar: “The money unit employed in the United States of the value of one hundred cents, or of any combination of coins totaling 100 cents.” Cent: “A coin of the United States, the least in value of those now minted. It is the hundredth part of a dollar.”
Gold and silver were such a powerful money during the founding of the united states of America, that the founding fathers declared that only gold or silver coins can be “money” in America. Since gold and silver coinage were heavy and inconvenient for a lot of transactions, they were stored in banks and a claim check was issued as a money substitute. People traded their coupons as money, or “currency.” Currency is not money, but a money substitute. Redeemable currency must promise to pay a dollar equivalent in gold or silver money. Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) make no such promises, and are not “money.” A Federal Reserve Note is a debt obligation of the federal United States government, not “money.” The federal United States government and the U.S. Congress were not and have never been authorized by the Constitution for the united states of America to issue currency of any kind, but only lawful money, -gold and silver coin.
It is essential that we comprehend the distinction between real money and paper money substitute. One cannot get rich by accumulating money substitutes, one can only get deeper into debt. We the People no longer have any “money.” Most Americans have not been paid any “money” for a very long time, perhaps not in their entire life. Now do you comprehend why you feel broke? Now, do you understand why you are “bankrupt,” along with the rest of the country?
Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) are unsigned checks written on a closed account. FRNs are an inflatable paper system designed to create debt through inflation (devaluation of currency). When ever there is an increase of the supply of a money substitute in the economy without a corresponding increase in the gold and silver backing, inflation occurs. Inflation is an invisible form of taxation that irresponsible governments inflict on their citizens. The Federal Reserve Bank who controls the supply and movement of FRNs has everybody fooled. They have access to an unlimited supply of FRNs, paying only for the printing costs of what they need. FRNs are nothing more than promissory notes for U.S. Treasury securities (T-Bills) - a promise to pay the debt to the Federal Reserve Bank.
There is a fundamental difference between “paying” and “discharging” a debt. To pay a debt, you must pay with value or substance (i.e. gold, silver, barter or a commodity). With FRNs, you can only discharge a debt. You cannot pay a debt with a debt currency system. You cannot service a debt with a currency that has no backing in value or substance. No contract in Common law is valid unless it involves an exchange of “good & valuable consideration.” Unpayable debt transfers power and control to the sovereign power structure that has no interest in money, law, equity or justice because they have so much wealth already.
Their lust is for power and control. Since the inception of central banking, they have controlled the fates of nations.
The Federal Reserve System is based on the Canon law and the principles of sovereignty protected in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In fact, the international bankers used a “Canon Law Trust” as their model, adding stock and naming it a “Joint Stock Trust.” The U.S. Congress had passed a law making it illegal for any legal “person” to duplicate a “Joint Stock Trust” in 1873. The Federal Reserve Act was legislated post-facto (to 1870), although post-facto laws are strictly forbidden by the Constitution. [1:9:3]
The Federal Reserve System is a sovereign power structure separate and distinct from the federal United States government. The Federal Reserve is a maritime lender, and/or maritime insurance underwriter to the federal United States operating exclusively under Admiralty/Maritime law. The lender or underwriter bears the risks, and the Maritime law compelling specific performance in paying the interest, or premiums are the same. Assets of the debtor can also be hypothecated (to pledge something as a security without taking possession of it.) as security by the lender or underwriter. The Federal Reserve Act stipulated that the interest on the debt was to be paid in gold. There was no stipulation in the Federal Reserve Act for ever paying the principle.
Prior to 1913, most Americans owned clear, allodial title to property, free and clear of any liens or mortgages until the Federal Reserve Act (1913) “Hypothecated” all property within the federal United States to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve,-in which the Trustees (stockholders) held legal title. The U.S. citizen (tenant, franchisee) was registered as a “beneficiary” of the trust via his/her birth certificate. In 1933, the federal United States hypothecated all of the present and future properties, assets and labor of their “subjects,” the 14th Amendment U.S. citizen, to the Federal Reserve System.
In return, the Federal Reserve System agreed to extend the federal United States corporation all the credit “money substitute” it needed. Like any other debtor, the federal United States government had to assign collateral and security to their creditors as a condition of the loan. Since the federal United States didn’t have any assets, they assigned the private property of their “economic slaves”, the U.S. citizens as collateral against the unpayable federal debt. They also pledged the unincorporated federal territories, national parks forests, birth certificates, and nonprofit organizations, as collateral against the federal debt. All has already been transferred as payment to the international bankers.
Unwittingly, America has returned to its pre-American Revolution, feudal roots whereby all land is held by a sovereign and the common people had no rights to hold allodial title to property. Once again, We the People are the tenants and sharecroppers renting our own property from a Sovereign in the guise of the Federal Reserve Bank. We the people have exchanged one master for another.
This has been going on for over eighty years without the “informed knowledge” of the American people, without a voice protesting loud enough. Now it’s easy to grasp why America is fundamentally bankrupt. Why don’t more people own their properties outright? Why are 90% of Americans mortgaged to the hilt and have little or no assets after all debts and liabilities have been paid? Why does it feel like you are working harder and harder and getting less and less?
We are reaping what has been sown, and the results of our harvest is a painful bankruptcy, and a foreclosure on American property, precious liberties, and a way of life. Few of our elected representatives in Washington, D.C. have dared to tell the truth. The federal United States is bankrupt. Our children will inherit this unpayable debt, and the tyranny to enforce paying it.
America has become completely bankrupt in world leadership, financial credit, and its reputation for courage, vision and human rights. This is an undeclared economic war, bankruptcy, and economic slavery of the most corrupt order! Wake up America! Take back your Country. Join AWARE to network with others who feel the same way you do!
6 posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 5:58:17 AM by mad_as_he$$ (You want me to buy heavy metal? Metallica?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2201271/posts?page=6#6
The quote about paying versus discharging debts sounds like Antal Fekete, who posts articles at Murphy's site that are wonderfully challenging to read.
It gets even better in a few weeks when we get to Directive 10-289.
Thanks. I know it is a lot to read and digest especially in the context of Rand and the Money Speech, but it brings great new context and meaning to her writings. I've been waiting for this thread and the longer I waited, the more FReepers added to my understanding of what I thought I understood.
This quote this evening, extracted from the original post I found profound. As it is not fictional, but clearly demonstrates how far we have come down the wrong path. The very things we rejected in 1976, we signed onto this week in Europe.
The idea this time that they need not confiscate our gold or silver to take our wealth this time. They only need to create inflation and look what they have been doing in the trillions the last few weeks.
Yes, read the Money Speech, but alas it comes much too late too save us now.
I will check out Sinclair and Murphy...like I said I've learned so very much from my fellow FReepers.
Le Metropole Cafe Be aware that this site is for subscribers.
I’d like to point out a parallel in the WOT.
Islamists rely on the moral code of their victims in order to victimize them.
Their willing accomplices in the press, code pink et al also use the same code in order to undermine the culture that supports them.
We have watched it repeatedly in the past 8 years.
He was public enemy #1 prior to that scandal.
He just provided them with bows for their quiver.
Had it not been for Rush’s frankness about it he’d have never survived it.
Publius, another well written summary. This, and the sage comments of fellow Freepers on this thread and the previous ones is some of the finest work produced on FR.
An education hard won and freely given.
I hope many take advantage of the opportunity to learn from Atlas Shrugged.
Thank you all. You make quite a trio, gentlemen. Or should I say quite a Triumvirate.
Oh gosh. (blush bluch)
While liberal Hollywood is full of drug addicts and going in and out of rehab is completely acceptable behavior.
So much to fix, so few tools; the rational mind can be but selfish to remain focused but the emotional mind demands it spread both joy and misery in its turn or the mix of the mess in volume when storms overwhelm the senses.
The task is always to stay in charge of one’s own thoughts which always seems to lead to a lonely path.
Somehow it must come down to the simple formula of lead, follow or get the Hell out of the way.
LOL, very true. He’s always been public enemy #1 to the left.
Dennis Prager talked about this concept on Wednesday’s show: Ever notice that there’s no liberal hypocrites? You never hear a liberal called a “hypocrite”. Why? Because they have no standards! But the ULTIMATE in hypocrisy is on the left, where they’re pro-tax, but Geithner and Daschle and Rangel don’t pay theirs. Algore flies around in carbon-producing, energy-sucking private jets, and he’s not called a hypocrite.
I guess we should feel honored that the media holds us to higher standards than liberals.
So, here we sit in Rand's world of Atlas Shrugged. Post the time of gold and silver confiscation. Rand's characters still placed a high value on gold, viewed gold as the commodity of work as explained in the Money Speech. Many are collecting, buying, and hoarding gold in anticipation of the ultimate collapse and a hedge against inflation. But the reality is our dollars ceased to be backed by gold a long time ago and we converted to a debt system.
So what is to be made of the sage advice from the money speech in our current times. I am one of those folks described by Trafficant that has never, “earned real money” in my entire life.
When I worked as a bank teller in the mid-90’s every now and then someone would bring in an old Silver Certificate bill. Usually it was kids who got it from a relative for a birthday or holiday etc. Cool looking at the time with the blue ink etc. And they would deposit them into their kids savings accounts. I often wondered if they could still be taken to the Federal Reserve and be claimed for the real silver. It was one of those foolish questions I never asked at the bank...I wish I had. But the point of sharing this is to demonstrate and show how millions of Americans have no clue what real money is.
As the time is approaching and those who have hoarded away silver and gold, I wonder if Americans will be able to comprehend the silver dollar handed to them in exchange for a loaf of bread vs. the fiat(serf) dollars we've all earned all our lives? Will the American mind be able to wrap around the idea of real money?
I handle money in exchange for goods and services every day. There are times that Rand's Money Speech and Money History collide in my mind as I take and tuck those fiat dollars into my cash register. Each dollar in denominations of $1,$5,$10, $20, and the occasional $50 or $100 is servitude, is the debt of my customers, is the debt of our Nation. It is drawn on an overdrawn account in a grand scheme of economic “kiting.”
Yesterday I had a little girl, maybe 5 or 6, stop in with her Mom. As I totaled the transaction and stated the total was x dollars with tax. The little girl who was paying asked me, “What's tax?” It took all my strength from blurting out the debt we were placing on her generation, her servitude to the Nation. Instead, I looked at Mom and said, “Your Mom can explain it to you.”
The Money Speech teaches us that money holds no value to the looters of the system. It is those who produce that put the value to those pieces of paper in our wallets, savings accounts, and even in the Stock markets around the world. The dollar is not backed by the gold in Ft. Knox, but the good faith of the people of the United States. It is backed by our productivity, by our very real labor. And that labor is being devalued by the Federal Reserve, by Timothy Geithner, and finally this week we gave away our sovereignty at the G20 to the rest of the world.
Any FReepers out there hiring and paying in real gold or silver?
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