GA Rep. Bobby Franklin Dies: Introduced ConTen Act

My friend, Georgia Rep. Bobby Franklin, has passed away.

This man was a giant -- in faith, in intellect, in fidelity, in so much more. We came to be friends as we worked on the Constitutional Tender Act together -- and I learned that if a majority of State legislators would only vote the Constitutional and Biblical way he voted, our State -- and probably our country -- could be turned away from the coming destruction.

I know that Bobby is in the presence of Jesus now, and rejoicing forevermore. He exemplified Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Have a glorious Home-going, Bobby. I will miss you -- I'm sitting here crying as I type this -- but I will share your joy in full one day.

And I would be remiss in Bobby's eyes if I didn't ask YOU, the person reading this, two simple questions: Have you come to the place in YOUR spiritual life where YOU know for *certain* that if you were to die today, you'd go to heaven? And if you *were* to die today -- as Bobby can testify, it can happen to young and old -- and you were to stand before God, and He were to say to you, "WHY should I let you into my heaven"... What would you say?

Bobby answered the first question with a resounding YES (1 John 5:13) -- and he answered the second question with a resounding, "Because I'm trusting in JESUS CHRIST ALONE for eternal life." (John 14:6) And Jesus has now answered back to Bobby: "Well done, good and faithful servant... Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:21).

READ MORE HERE...

"Five Myths About the Gold Standard"

By Congressman Ron Paul | Congressional Record, February 23, 1981

A CLASSIC THAT HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME!

MYTH NO. 1: THERE ISN'T ENOUGH GOLD

MYTH NO. 2: A GOLD STANDARD WOULD ENABLE RUSSIA AND SOUTH AFRICA TO HOLD US HOSTAGE

MYTH NO. 3: GOLD CAUSES DEPRESSIONS

MYTH NO. 4: GOLD CAUSES INFLATION

MYTH NO. 5: GOLD WOULD BE SPECULATIVE

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

VIEW THE ORIGINAL CONGRESSIONAL RECORD HERE...

VIDEO: Ben Bernanke and Ron Paul face off over whether or not gold is money

Well, let's join the ever-accelerating march towards hyperinflation:

Subcommittee Chair Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX): “Do you think gold is money?”

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: “No.”

"Competing currencies: a defense against profligate spending"

By Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)
The Hill - 07/11/11

... Currency is sound only when it is recognized and accepted as such by individuals, through the actions of the market, without coercion. Throughout history, gold and silver have been the two commodities that have most fully satisfied the requirements of sound money. This is why people around the world are flocking once again to gold and silver as a store of value to replace their rapidly depreciating paper currencies. Even central banks have come to their senses and have begun to stock up on gold once again.

But in our country today, attempting to use gold and silver as money is severely punished, regardless of the fact that it is the only constitutionally-allowed legal tender!

... This is why I have taken steps to restore the constitutional monetary system envisioned and practiced by our Founding Fathers. I recently introduced HR 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act. This bill eliminates three of the major obstacles to the circulation of sound money: federal legal tender laws that force acceptance of Federal Reserve Notes; "counterfeiting" laws that serve no purpose other than to ban the creation of private commodity currencies; and tax laws that penalize the use of gold and silver coins as money. During this Congress I hope to hold hearings on this bill in order to highlight the importance of returning to a sound monetary system.

Allowing market participants to choose a sound currency will ensure that individuals' needs are met, rather than the needs of the government. Restoring sound money will restrict the ability of the government to reduce the citizenry's purchasing power and burden future generations with debt. Unlike the current system which benefits the Fed and its banking cartel, all Americans are better off with a sound currency.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Moving Forward to a New Digital Gold Standard

This is a great article on how we can use gold & silver in everyday transactions. It answers the points raised by oh-so-many legislators:

"Gold and silver are too heavy to carry around a bag of metal to pay for everyday purchases."

"Gold is too valuable, we'd be using pieces the size of rice to try and pay for things."

"It's impossible to make change using gold and silver, the coins are not physically divisible at the cash register!"

The proof that we don't have to do any of that silliness is found in already-existing Digital Gold Currency. DGC lays the foundation for moving to simply doing what people are doing already - using digital money in everyday transactions - but using check cards & debit cards that are backed by gold & silver rather than Federal Reserve Notes (or whatever other government legal tender you're forced to use).

I understand - it can be difficult to wrap your head around the fact that gold and silver are money, and money doesn't have to take the form of nearly-worthless pieces of paper like we have today. But please - these legislators are Members of the BANKS AND BANKING committee. Surely...

It's time to return to sound money, that holds its purchasing value. The Constitutional Tender Act can help begin that process.

---

by Mark Herpel, editor of Digital Gold Currency magazine

In my everyday conversations people always ask me, "are we going back to the gold standard? Is that what you want?"

I have to laugh and respond by saying, "yes, back to the gold standard of the 1800's and on your way out today, please turn in your car keys and pick up your horse & buggy."

We can't go back in time. We can't wake up one day and pretend that the cell phone was not invented or the Internet doesn't exist. Once the blind man gets his sight, there is no going back to the darkness.

As both Lewis E. Lehrman and Ron Paul say, we should be "going forward to a new gold standard".

The move from legal tender paper to voluntary use of gold and silver has already been occurring on a state by state basis in the U.S.

By giving people the option to use sound money over paper currency, slowly but surely, the state legislatures are offering real protection from ongoing paper money inflation. ..

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

"Not Worth a Dollar: Utah recognizes gold and silver as legal tender"

by Brian Bolduc
National Review Online

Since 1913, the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power. Why? Because the Federal Reserve, which Congress established that year, has printed more money than necessary.

Or so skeptics claim. Many tea partiers agree — so much so that they’re spearheading an effort to introduce two competing currencies into the money supply: gold and silver.

The Constitution forbids states to coin money. In Article I, Section 10, however, it reads, “No state shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Jeff Bell, policy director of American Principles in Action, argues that this passage authorizes states to recognize gold and silver as legal tender.

Colorado was the last state to do so, in 1893. But Utah, taking “a precaution against further deterioration in the dollar,” has revived the endeavor, Bell says...

...But this setup poses challenges. If gold and silver trade at market value, vendors will have to measure coins’ weight and purity to determine their worth. Will McDonald’s have a scale in every drive-through?

No, thankfully. Bell says private interests are starting banks in which members can leave their gold and silver deposits. They then can use those deposits as backing for debit cards: “You could pay any bill or your taxes with a Visa debit card that would then be assessed against the valued coins — and they may be revalued all the time.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

"The Gold Standard: A Litmus Test For GOP Candidates"

by Ralph Benko (@TheWebster)

...More than half of the current Republican aspirants have moved monetary policy — and the strong dollar — as a key campaign plank, half of these calling for the gold standard. More are likely to weigh in. The gold standard, in only two years, has moved from a perceived-fringe prescription to the mainstream. How?

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke “primed the pump,” not in a good way, of public interest with his two QEs. This raised popular awareness of, and ire about, monetary policy. The record shows that a small group of thought leaders effectively championed the gold cause.

In roughly chronological order this may be said to have begun with the forum which John Tamny, on Forbes’ Opinion pages and at RealClearMarkets, gave pro-gold advocates such as Brian Domitrovic, Charles Kadlec and Nathan Lewis — and with consistently savvy support for gold from the New York Sun under the editorship of Seth Lipsky.

Onto this fertile ground came Princeton Professor Robert George’s American Principles Project, chaired by Sean Fieler; then Judy Shelton’s Atlas Sound Money Project. The dynamic was supercharged by World Bank Group’s president Robert Zoellick’s famous gold FT op-ed; then by the formation of the Lehrman Institute’s The Gold Standard Now (for which this writer serves as editor); a call for gold by conservative champion Rep. Mike Pence in a major speech before the Detroit Economic Club; major op-eds by Sean Fieler and Jeff Bell, Charles Kadlec and Lewis Lehrman, in the Wall Street Journal; an important Reagan centennial gathering of supply side titans at the Manhattan Institute; an endorsement by the Weekly Standard‘s Bill Kristol; the most important Congressional hearing on monetary policy in at least a generation conducted by domestic monetary policy subcommittee chair Ron Paul; the high-profile championship by former presidential candidate and CEO Steve Forbes; and, most recently, an endorsement by Mundell...

...Stir in the populist power of the Tea Party, especially that of electoral bellwether Iowa’s Tea Party coordinated by Ryan Rhodes and April Linder. Add a sprinkle of state activists, such as Larry Hilton, who have, with assistance from American Principles In Action, moved gold standard legislation originally inspired by Dr. Edwin Vieira into law in Utah and are moving it forward elsewhere.

This is what moved the gold standard, decisively, from the realm of mavericks and social dystopians to mainstream conservative, and even Republican presidential candidate, policy. The gold standard’s momentum is building fast.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Gold ATMs Hit Great Britain

If you look back, I've written several times (for example, here and here) about the coming of ATMs that exchange paper fiat money for actual gold. This is just a precursor -- a taste -- of what I'm always talking about: modern banking based on sound money. Well, those gold ATMs, which started in Abu Dhabi and then came to Boca Raton, Florida, have arrived on the shores of Great Britain as well.

(I encourage you to read my full comments on this issue here, where I expound in more depth.)

Why is this significant? Because, as I've talked about repeatedly, this is just a "taste" of the modern specie-based banking we can look forward to, if we implement ideas like the Constitutional Tender Act. But that's why this idea is key: the more we get used to the notion of gold and silver being money, the sooner we'll finally return to sound money that holds its value -- and the sooner we can save our trashed economy.

---

Don't try snacking on these bars: The vending machine that sells gold not chocolate
Shoppers can pick up a 1g coin for roughly £40 or a 250g bar for £10,250
By Daily Mail Reporter

If you think chocolate bars are a little overpriced these days, then this isn't the vending machine for you.

For the only bars you can get here are made of pure gold and will set you back somewhat more than 70p.

Britain's first gold vending machine 'Gold to Go' will open today in the Westfield shopping centre in west London...

...There are no security guards protecting the machine, but would-be thieves would still have to contend with reinforced steel and a state-of-the-art alarm system.

'It would cost you a great deal more to get the gold out than the value of the gold inside,' Joe Dreixler, of Oriente Lux, said.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

"Rethinking Utah's monetary policy"

THIS is what I told the Georgia legislators in our hearing before them, that if Georgia would be the FIRST State to implement Constitutional Tender, our banks would stop failing, and our economy would benefit by BILLIONS of dollars: "With aggressive plans underway to open local depositories, the private sector has been quick to respond to the first monetization of a gold and silver coin by a state in more than a century. Essentially, these new institutions will afford citizens an effective way to "inflation proof" their dollars by making their everyday purchases with a debit card backed by the fair market value of their gold and silver coin holdings."

We see how well Georgia legislators responded. But maybe NOW they'll listen?

---

"Rethinking Utah's monetary policy"
By Larry Hilton and Rich Danker
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
Friday, July 1, 2011

...Until our currency returns to safe harbor reconnecting with a reliable, proven anchor, we'll likely remain adrift in a monetary system that produces rising prices, financial disorder and runaway government spending.

Ronald Reagan once observed, "I do not want to go back to the past; I want to go back to the past way of facing the future." In that spirit, Utah has charted a way forward based on time-tested, proven principles. During the recent general legislative session, the Utah Legal Tender Act passed both chambers and was signed into law by Governor Herbert.

The bill essentially restores the hard money options enjoyed by generations past. American greatness rose on the strength of a dollar that was "as good as gold," and if our nation ever sinks, it will likely come in the wake of the dollar's demise.

The new Utah law derives its legal authority from Article I, Section 10, of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that no state shall "make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." This largely neglected constitutional check can, when actually exercised by the States, foster an important balance between concurrent state and federal monetary authority.

Our current paper money maelstrom has set in motion what Politico recently called a "surge of national interest" in gold-backed monetary reform. Others speak of the "currency revolution," which some have dubbed the "Utah Spring," with more than a dozen states considering a new, promising season of Utah-style monetary reform. ..

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...