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To: theBuckwheat
I just read the entire article by Greenspan (actually 1966, not 1987). It is outstanding. Thanks for posting the reference. The paragraphs immediately preceding the conclusion you cited are also important:

But the opposition to the gold standard in any form-from a growing number of welfare-state advocates-was prompted by a much subtler insight: the realization that the gold standard is incompatible with chronic deficit spending (the hallmark of the welfare state). Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. A substantial part of the confiscation is effected by taxation. But the welfare statists were quick to recognize that if they wished to retain political power, the amount of taxation had to be limited and they had to resort to programs of massive deficit spending, i.e., they had to borrow money, by issuing government bonds, to finance welfare expenditures on a large scale.

... Thus, government deficit spending under a gold standard is severely limited. The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit. ... The holder of a government bond or of a bank deposit created by paper reserves believes that he has a valid claim on a real asset. But the fact is that there are now more claims outstanding than real assets. The law of supply and demand is not to be conned. As the supply of money (of claims) increases relative to the supply of tangible assets in the economy, prices must eventually rise. Thus the earnings saved by the productive members of the society lose value in terms of goods. When the economy's books are finally balanced, one finds that this loss in value represents the goods purchased by the government for welfare or other purposes with the money proceeds of the government bonds financed by bank credit expansion.


40 posted on 04/10/2010 9:09:34 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
[Your quote of Greenspan 1966 article]
"....this loss in value represents the goods purchased by the government for welfare ...."

I.e., "social justice". Black voters used their 95% solid-bloc votes to command government employees to take your work and your value from you, for "social justice" or "reparations" in the form of AFDC, food stamps, welfare, workfare, and just plain transfer payments.

And they won't be saying "thank you".

58 posted on 04/10/2010 4:15:37 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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