Gold & Money In America

Return Of The Gods Web Site ^ | November 30, 2009 | William Flax

[Ohioan]

America, as synonymous with the people who created the Federal Union known as the United States of America, was born to a gold standard; was intended, always, to remain on a gold standard! No reading of Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution, coupled with key provisions of Article I, Section 8, can lend itself to any other interpretation.

The first paragraph of Section 10 reads in relevant part:

No State shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.

Note, there is no exception provided. Contrast that paragraph with the second and third paragraphs of the same section, which, while also limiting the powers of the States in certain particulars, make clear provision for exceptions:

No State shall, without the consent of the Congress . . . (Paragraph 2)

No State shall, without the consent of Congress . . . (Paragraph 3)

Article I, Section 8 reads in part:

The Congress shall have Power To . . . coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

Would it be rational to so interpret the above provisions, to allow the Federal Government to coin as money neither gold nor silver, or money not immediately convertible into same; when by those provisions, such non-convertible currency could not be used to discharge debt in any of the constituent States? One could go on with other aspects of the inherent incongruity in such a notion; with the absurdity, from a rational perspective, of what

[Ohioan]

The economic chaos, being sown by the Obamanists, forces realists to reexamine traditional monetary theory, and consider what may be needed to climb out of the rubble that will follow the present lunacy in Washington.

[Paperdoll]

BUMP

[Paperdoll]

BUMP

[Bean Counter]

The only option we will have once the chaos is over is to amend the Constitution to mandate a bi-metallic monetary standard, abolish income taxes of all kinds, and limit the ways that the Federal government is allowed to raise money, and what they are allowed to spend it on.

There’s a lot more to do besides that, but you get my drift...

[NewJerseyJoe]

P4L

[Ohioan]

I get your drift, but as my excerpt indicates, Congress has the right to define our currency, and will only be correct in doing so, if it again measures its value in gold & silver. What has been done since FDR is literally outside the box of what the framers of our Constitution conceived as acceptable.

Indeed, it was to secure sound money--against fiat money inflation--that provided one of the two principal domestic motivations for the Federal Constituiton.

[Ohioan]

Thanks for the bumps.

[headsonpikes]

“The only option we will have once the chaos is over is to amend the Constitution to mandate a bi-metallic monetary standard, abolish income taxes of all kinds, and limit the ways that the Federal government is allowed to raise money, and what they are allowed to spend it on.”

What???

You have the audacity ask for a return to Constitutional governance? No soup for you!

You are obviously a hater.

[FromLori]

Related

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi137.html

[Ohioan]

Bump

[Ohioan]

I agree that the link is related, but not precisely in line with my arguments. My feature is more closely in point with an historic American context.

What is significant, also, of course, is the vast increase in comments that suggest the need to return to a gold backed currency. There is a tidal wave of new awareness coming, though probably too late to save us from the horror that Obama and his supporters have already sown.

[Jack Black]

Nice to see some writings from Mr. Flax. I really enjoyed the postings from his site about four or five years ago but he just disapeared.

Good topic, too. As I recall he used to write on the cold war fallout and things like that.

[Ohioan]

Thank you for the kind comments.

No, I have not disappeared. But I don't have quite as much energy to go into the lists on the internet, on a daily basis--sorry to say.

I have been interested in economics--second only to my interest in the purely political--since college, and have the added advantage of having been right on gold/dollar questions in the 1960s and early 1970s, the last time the Left exploded the supply of fiat money. The sad thing, now, however, is that the damage is far greater; the potential for monetary chaos far more extreme, although the same apologists for monetary inflation are again making the same lame arguments to lull people back to sleep.

[Ohioan]

bump

[Ohioan]

bump

[Bean Counter]

yah...obviously bitter too...

[Bean Counter]

Congress has the authority (as opposed to the “right”) to “define currency” so to speak. They also have a responsibility not to run the Federal train right off of the tracks, like they have done, or rather, like we have allowed them to do.

It seems to me that any “law” passed by the Congress that directly flaunts the Constitution, is immediately null and void, and the Supreme Court has ruled as much in the past. Something tells me that ruling has been long ignored or overturned in some way that is decidedly not in our favor...

Since Federalism has failed us, it is time to get back to “These United States”...

[Ohioan]

The Supreme Court, unfortunately, by a 5 to 4 vote, upheld Roosevelt's ex cathedra devaluation of the dollar and repudiation of the gold convertibility of bonds in 1934. The four hard nosed Conservatives of that era, McReynolds, Sutherland, Butler & Vandeventer voted to uphold the obligation of contracts, intended to secure honest money, but in vain.

[Ohioan]

bump on the failure of the Supreme Court to protect the obligation of contracts against the fiat dollar advocates.

[Ohioan]

To take a look at another aspect of Leftist monetary policy, consider the effect on so-called "Capital Gains" taxation:

Capital Gains Taxation.