South Carolina Economic Summit

Just saw this announcement today - if possible to arrange, it sounds like a good meeting & then legislative hearing to attend. Original link here: http://freedomforsc.com/

The South Carolina Economic Summit

February 7, 2011 at 5:30 pm EST

300 Senate Street

Columbia, SC 29201

The South Carolina Sound Money Committee invites everyone to the South Carolina Economic Summit the evening of February 7th at 5:30 pm EST. This summit is to educate both legislators and Patriots in preparation for the historic Joint House/Senate Hearing on Sound Money, February 8, 2011 at 4:00 pm EST. A special thanks for the courageous efforts of Senator David Thomas, Chairman Banking & Insurance Committee and Representative Mike Pitts for championing Sound Money in South Carolina. We hope other courageous legislators will join this great endeavor. Urge your elected representative, both house and senate to attend the Summit, and especially, the Joint House/Senate Hearing.

Come learn our best defense against the potential collapse of the monetary system. Enjoy dinner while hearing Dr. Edwin Vieira and Dr. Larry Parks, two of the world's leading Constitutional authorities, speak on Sound Money: Gold and Silver. These preeminent speakers have, for decades, studied, lectured and taught on the Constitutional authority of the State monetary policy, moreover how people gain and preserve wealth.

At this momentous cross road, we are offering a place in the history books. This Summit is an opportunity to educate yourself in preparation for these perilous times.

Sponsorships, donations and reservations may be made at www.SCSoundMoney.com/Donate.html

Download for mail, email and invitations: http://www.SCSoundMoney.com/Invitations.html

Directions: www.freedomforsc.com/directions-to-summit.html

Seats for Dinner and Seminar $45.00

Sponsorship Please consider, for yourself or your group, contributing to this once in a lifetime event and be part of the future of South Carolina's Sound Money and leadership role for America.

SC Economic Host Sponsor $750.00

Gold - $500

Silver - $375

Bronze - $250

Patriot - Less than $250

Watch the www.SCSoundMoney.com website for action items such as Senate and House committee hearings at which you can testify, radio talk show call-in talking points and tips for letters to editors.

Radio Segment with Dr. Larry Parks, Dr. Steve Isom and Frank Knapp - 1/26/2011 .

http://tinyurl.com/SCSoundMoney-Radio-Parks

Thank You for your dedication to the cause of Liberty!

The South Carolina Sound Money Committee

Changing to a "Legal" Gold & Silver Economy

Prof. Michael S. Rozeff recently wrote an article at LewRockwell.com entitled, "Changing to a Silver Economy". It's an excellent exercise in thinking about how to return to an economy based on sound money:

A libertarian in Columbia, South Carolina sent me a message recently. He works at a convenience store. He was interested in introducing silver as a means of payment or currency at this store. His specific ideas I thought would not work because of the taxes on silver. The government treats silver as a collectible subject to income taxes at ordinary rates. He had some ideas of buying bullion and then setting up a market in it by buying at a small discount to the spot price and selling at a small premium, thereby creating a bid-ask spread. He had some idea of getting people to transact in silver.

Instead I spun out the following proposal. It too has the fatal flaw that taxes on silver dealings occur, but thinking about this process is very useful anyway. It shows how stores might become 100% reserve banks and how the economy might transition from paper and slug coin currency to silver money. And, if this skeletal proposal has flaws, others can possibly improve on it. I merely want to demonstrate a degree of feasibility, so that the possibilities become more tangible.

The basic idea is that silver is the unit of account, but silver is not necessarily used as the medium that is used for redemptions.

Prof. Rozeff's idea is a good one, but it's also a little complicated and potentially legally hazardous - we all know how our wonderful federal government likes "competition" in currency, and the Secret Service and IRS are used quite effectively to squelch such attempts. So instead of trying to swim upstream like so many others have attempted... how about using the government's own "legal tender" laws against it, as an alternative?

Step 1. Make the units of account (currency accepted) in the store both "legal tender" Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) and "legal tender" Gold & Silver Coins (99.9% Eagles & 90% pre-1965 "junk" silver).

Step 2. Price everything in the store in both FRNs and Gold/Silver coins. This is not difficult; pricing in two currencies is done all the time at heavy tourist locations in Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, and elsewhere. Exchange rates don't fluctuate dramatically enough on a daily basis to change pricing too frequently; and in reality, it would only be the price in FRNs that would need to be changed.

Pricing is fairly easy to calculate: Go to the Solaris "Silver and Gold Payment Calculator" and simply enter the FRN cost to get the converted cost. For example, if an item costs $25 FRN, also label it at $1.25 pre-65-silver; if an item costs $5.99 FRN, also label it at 30¢ pre-65. More expensive items like TVs might cost $259; it can also be labeled at either $12.96 pre-65, or [$5 Gold Eagle + $6.30 pre-65], or [$5 Gold Eagle + $4 Silver Eagles + 70¢ pre-65]. (If a premium needs to be added, that can also be incorporated in the exchange rate.)

Step 3. Offer change in either FRNs or Eagles & pre-65 coins (again, calculated online). Since these are LEGAL TENDER coins under U.S. law, if they are used in actual purchasing transactions (and not just conversion transactions - in other words, "buying" gold or silver coins using FRNs), they have been specifically declared to be NON-taxable (except for sales tax, of course; that would be done based on whatever the final face value of the sale was, as always).

All the store is doing would be to follow the legal tender laws of the U.S. government in pricing, giving change, and paying sales taxes. No one HAS to pay in gold or silver; the store would stay in business with its FRN-using customers. However, those customers would also see the price in FRNs rising on a regular basis, while the price in gold & silver remains fairly constant from week to week. Thus, this would also be a hands-on method of educating the public on the benefits of sound money; you would likely see people going out and getting as much gold & silver coins as they could, knowing that a week later the price in FRNs would be going up, but they could still buy their goods at the store for the same amount of gold & silver that's now worth more (instead of the FRNs which they would need more of).

To put it more simply: what we've done here is introduce competition in currency, between legal tender MONEY and legal tender pieces of paper. I believe MONEY will win.

A lot of this falls in line with what would most likely happen if a State passes the Constitutional Tender Act, which would require States to adhere to Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution, and use ONLY gold & silver coins in State transactions. Check out the paper "Ending the Federal Reserve from the Bottom Up" for a more detailed explanation of how this would lead to a "legal" gold & silver economy in the U.S.

ALL of these are the kinds of ideas that need to be "kicked around" as much as possible, as the present currency crisis descends upon us. Sound money is, of course, the answer; the question is, how do we get it re-introduced effectively, and quickly. The ConTen Act is most likely to achieve that goal.

Another State Introduces Gold & Silver Currency... In Malaysia

Why is the U.S. falling behind? The Malaysian national news agency "Bernama" reports that a second Malaysian state is planning to introduce gold and silver currency, in competition with the official fiat currency (the ringgit):

Perak Launches Gold Dinar, Dirham End Of Next Month

IPOH, Jan 25 (Bernama) -- The Perak state government will launch the gold dinar and dirham currency at the end of next month aimed at diversifying the types of savings for the people.

Chairman of the State Committee on Education, Higher Education, ICT, Human Resources, Science and Technology Datuk Mohamad Zahir Khalid said Perak was cooperating with the Kuwait Finance House (KFH) to introduce the gold dinar and dirham because it had vast experience in handling the currency.

"What is certain is that the currency introduced by Perak is vastly different from the currency introduced by Kelantan earlier. The difference will be explained by the Menteri Besar later," he told reporters after chairing the joint meeting with the top management of KFH, here Tuesday.

As noted in the report, the first Malaysian state to introduce the gold dinar and silver dirham as currency was Kelantan, in August of 2010. Interestingly, the Malaysian constitution (in ninth schedule, list I sub 7.a) does not allow its states to issue coins (much like the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 10); however, these coins are being privately minted by the "World Islamic Mint" under the authority of the Kelantan government (the Koran, like the Bible, forbids the use of fiat money and fractional reserve banking). The Perak gold dinars and silver dirhams will be produced by Goldnet International, a joint-venture company with the Perak State Development Corporation, in collaboration with KFH (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

Officials in Perak have started to backtrack a little after federal officials expressed concern about yet another Malaysian state introducing competition with their fiat money, insisting that the gold and silver coins will be "for investment rather than a mode of transaction" (good luck with that!), and saying they didn't "want the people to misconstrue that it is another form of currency exchange... We do not want people to misunderstand as the state has no authority to execute such a policy."

After all, banking cartels don't like competition, as we've seen from the Federal Reserve in the U.S. We can expect that the Feds will be just as adamant about stopping the States from returning to the Constitutional mandate that they use only gold and silver coins in their financial transactions.

New Hampshire Legislator Pre-Files Resolution for "restoring gold and silver money"

In New Hampshire, whose State motto is "Live Free or Die", Rep. Norman Tregenza has submitted a "Legislative Service Request" (LSR) that perked our ears up.

(In that State, a bill starts out as an LSR - a title and brief description of the purpose of the proposed legislation, which the representative or Senator submits to the Office of Legislative Services. Staffers in that office spruce it up: for example, they might propose language that clarifies the bill's effect on existing laws.)

If you go to the "Legislative Service Requests (LSR's)" page of the New Hampshire General Court (their House and Senate, which is the largest legislature in the world with 400 State Reps and 24 Senators) and enter the number 0684 in the box labeled "Query the database by LSR Number" you'll get this:

title: urging Congress to pass legislation against losses in value due to money supply by the federal reserve; restoring gold and silver money; and phasing out the federal reserve system.

Nice. Maybe we'll see the "Gold Money Bill" introduced again, too. Or maybe a legislator there can even introduce a NH version of the Constitutional Tender Act? Even nicer.

Video: "Sound Money Rings True"

Latest video from the folks at Utah Sound Money!

Karat Top: Gold mania goes mainstream.

by Bradford Plumer
The New Republic
January 13, 2011

In the summer of 1932, Louis McFadden, a former bank president turned Pennsylvania Congressman, stood up on the House floor to reveal a sinister plot. Over the course of a 25-minute speech, he explained how the Federal Reserve — “one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known” — was being steered by a cabal of European bankers who had, among other sins, paid for Leon Trotsky’s return ticket to Russia and funded the October Revolution. But McFadden’s pleas to dismantle the Fed and embrace gold (in his view, “the only real money”) were greeted with ridicule. One fellow Republican joked that his poor colleague must be suffering from some sort of “violent disease” — one that “warps the judgment” and “narrows the vision.”

Eighty years later, however, the quest to take down the Fed and revive the gold standard is harder to laugh off. Already this year, in Georgia, a Republican state legislator, Bobby Franklin, has put forward a bill that would require all state residents to use gold and silver coins to pay their taxes — and it has gained surprising support. In Utah, another legislator has proposed allowing residents to mint their own coins and conduct state business with gold. Virginia delegate Bob Marshall is backing the study of a new state currency, as a fail-safe “in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.” (The last time Virginians had an official currency other than the dollar was during the Civil War.) Similar proposals are sprouting up in Montana and Idaho, all with the same goal — to free the states from the Fed, which, many gold bugs contend, has been eroding the value of the dollar and laying the groundwork for ruinous inflation.

If there’s an architect of this new state strategy, it’s William Greene, a 46-year-old conservative activist and founder of RightMarch.com, which he built to “counter the well-financed antics of radical left-wing groups like MoveOn.org.” Two years ago, Greene, who has a Ph.D. in theology and teaches part-time, was reading the Constitution aloud with students at Georgia’s Gainesville State College when the class stumbled over Article 1, Section 10: “No state shall … make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” The idea hit Greene: What if residents in states like Georgia had to pay their taxes in gold and silver? Businesses and individuals would then have to start stockpiling gold and silver in their bank accounts. As the price of gold rose (as, he reasoned, it inevitably must) and the dollar’s value fell, Georgia’s gold-funded budget would find itself on solid footing. People from other states would flock to Georgia’s banks to open their own gold accounts. Eventually, the masses would rebel against paper money. “At that point,” Greene explains, “the Federal Reserve system will have become unwanted and irrelevant, and can be easily abolished.”

And so, in 2009, Greene took his idea to the Georgia legislature, where it earned a hearing in the banking committee, and drummed up interest from a number of legislators — over the frantic objections of local banking officials. Lately, Greene has been talking to other states, including a task force in Idaho, about his idea. “Going at this from the state level has a much higher chance of success in terms of the eventual elimination of the Fed,” he says.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

Original article here

Vote for the Constitutional Tender Act to be on Freedom Watch!

Help convince The Judge to feature this on his show:

Georgia has introduced the "Constitutional Tender Act" - a bill template that can be introduced in every State legislature in the nation, returning each of them to adherence to the United States Constitution's actual legal tender provisions in Article I, Section 10.

Vote for this today - let's get it out nationally!

http://freedomwatch.uservoice.com/forums/16625-freedom-watch-show-ideas/suggestions/1392629-the-constitutional-tender-act-returning-states-t

9 US States already working to Return to Gold and Silver Currency (video)

To date Virginia, Utah, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, Washington, Missouri, Colorado & Idaho are working to return to the Constitutional Gold and Silver Currency. Holding silver when this happens throughout the world will cause an explosion in the price and a huge short squeeze on the physical silver market. Buy more NOW don't let the manipulation in the paper silver market discourage you.

VIEW ON YOUTUBE HERE...

Virginia Considers Dollar Collapse, Gold Currency

Written by Alex Newman, The New American

In a stark illustration of the economic fears still plaguing America, a resolution was introduced in the Virginia legislature on January 12 that would create a subcommittee to officially consider the adoption of an alternative currency in case of a total breakdown of the U.S. dollar and the Federal Reserve System.

If the dollar loses its status as the world reserve currency, which appears increasingly likely, the U.S. economy will suffer devastating consequences caused by the resulting hyperinflation — especially since America imports most of its oil. And with the world’s most prominent international institutions and leaders predicting and even calling for an end to dollar hegemony, as well as the creation of a world currency controlled by a global central bank, the time for states to take notice and prepare may be now or never.

The Virginia resolution, introduced by Republican Delegate Robert Marshall, begins with the premise that the state government has a responsibility to protect the lives and property of its citizens. To fulfill that mission requires proper state finances and a “robust private economy,” both of which necessitate a "sound currency." ...

... For now, the resolution has been referred to the Committee on Rules. How far it will go remains to be seen. But with other states considering similar measures and the dollar’s problems becoming increasingly obvious, prudent preparations for a potential catastrophe will only continue building steam.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

You can voice your opinion about HJ 557 by contacting your Virginia Legislators. For their contact information, visit: http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

Tell your representative Delegate that this bill is about more than politics - it's about VIRGINIA, and saving the money of the citizens of this State!