Showing posts with label gold standard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gold standard. Show all posts

Thursday, December 1, 2011

[VIDEO] "Ron Paul Explains His Plan For 'Monetary Freedom' And Returning To The Gold Standard" #ronpaul #GOP2012

From the Zero Hedge partial transcript:
Ron Paul lays it out: "We know what to do - we did it once after the Civil War period, we went from a paper standard back to the gold standard, and the event wasn't that dramatic. But today the big problem is that both the conservatives and liberals have an big apetite for big government for different reasons, therefore they need the Fed to tie them over and monetize the debt. So if you don't get rid of that appetite it's going to be more difficult, but the transition isn't that difficult. You have to get your house in order; you have to balance the budget, you have to not run up debt, and you have to promise not to print any more money... I would like to have a transition period and just legalize gold money, gold and silver as legal tender, and work our way back... We want to legalize the use of gold and silver as the constitution dictates, rather than punishing the people who try to do that... I am quite convinced that the system we have will not be maintained - that's what these last 4 years was all about, and that's what the turmoil in Europe is all about. The question is are they going to move toward a constitutional form of money. or are we going to go another step further into international money - instead of having an international gold standard based on the market, are we going to go toward a UN, IMF standard where they are going to control with the use of force another fiat standard. I consider that a very, very dangerous move."

ORIGINAL VIDEO HERE...

Sunday, August 14, 2011

"Gold Standard or Nixon Standard"

by Gary North, LewRockwell.com



On Sunday, August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon unilaterally brought to an end the last trace of an experiment in international monetary affairs that stretched back over a century. He announced that the United States government would no longer abide by the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement to deliver gold at $35 per ounce to any government or central bank.

What he abolished was not a gold standard. It was a government promise standard. There was never a gold standard in the nineteenth century or early twentieth century. It was always a government promise standard. It was as reliable as government promises...

...A free market gold standard should be the result of two legal arrangements: (1) open entry into the money business, (2) the enforcement of contracts. Gold would become one common currency. So would silver, if history is a guide. The government would get out of the money business altogether. It would claim no unique authority over money. It would decide the monetary unit in which to collect taxes – nothing more. It would enforce contracts, meaning lawful voluntary exchanges in which no fraud is involved.

This would decentralize and privatize money creation. It would also privatize and decentralize the fraud of counterfeiting. It would pit bankers against bankers, who would participate in bank runs against suspected banks. It would decentralize the enforcement against fraud.

By removing monetary sovereignty from governments, this arrangement would permanently keep fraud from becoming centralized and a matter of law. It would keep the fox of government away from the chicken coop of money creation. It would make impossible any replay of the string of broken contracts, 1914 to 1971, which marked the government promises standard which masqueraded as a gold coin standard, then a gold exchange standard, then a Tricky Dick Nixon standard...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Thursday, August 11, 2011

"Monetary Reform: The Beginning of the Beginning"

by Charles Kadlec
The @DailyReckoning




Fundamental reform of the world’s monetary system has begun. It is way too early and too amorphous to be front-page news. We are only at the beginning of the beginning of a popular effort to restore gold backed money to the center of economic activity.

Defining a dollar, or a British pound, as a fixed weight of gold was an innovation that further increased the usefulness of money. You could take currency and trade it for something you needed, or you could trade that money for a fixed weight of gold. As a general proposition, paying with paper money was no different than paying with gold, except paper money was more convenient to carry...

...Forty years ago, that order was up-ended by President Richard Nixon’s decision to sever the final link between the dollar and gold. For the first time since Sir Isaac Newton established the British gold standard in 1717, all of the world’s major currencies during a time of peace were free to float against one another and to fall in value against precious metals. The consequence has been a debasement of the dollar and all other currencies, an ever more cyclical economy, a 40-year hiatus in real wage increases for American workers and a growing fear of yet more financial crises created by monetary instability.

As a consequence, support is growing to repeal tax and other legal barriers that effectively prevent people from using precious metals as money.

In March, Utah repealed its capital gains tax on gold and silver coins it will recognize as legal tender. Twelve other states are considering similar legislation.

Then, in June, Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced the Sound Money Promotion Act that would remove the 28% federal tax on gains realized in the use of gold or silver coins recognized as legal tender for use within a state.

Now, in Switzerland, efforts are underway to create an official Gold Swiss franc (GSF) with a set of coins, each with a fixed content of gold. The proposed constitutional change would permit private institutions to issue an unlimited number of coins whose appearance, content and weight of gold, and definition would be under the supervision of the Swiss government...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

Saturday, July 16, 2011

"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...

Sunday, July 10, 2011

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...

  • Tuesday, July 5, 2011

    "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...

    Saturday, May 21, 2011

    GOPers embrace unorthodox tax plans

    The time is politically ripe for a return to sound money. Now we need to get the candidates talking about enforcing the Constitutional requirements for that sound money: gold and silver coin.


    POLITICO: "GOPers embrace unorthodox tax plans"
    By BYRON TAU & BEN SMITH | 5/20/11 6:19 PM EDT

    In this Republican primary season, no economic or monetary policy is too unorthodox for an electorate hungry for change.

    The Republican field is filled with potential candidates who have called for radical overhauls of the tax code, the abolition of the IRS, an end to the Federal Reserve central bank— and even a return to the gold standard... mainstream figures in the Republican Party — including [former Minnesota Gov. Tim] Pawlenty and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence — have flirted with monetary theories like the gold standard or fixing the U.S. currency to a commodities basket.


    READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

    Wednesday, March 30, 2011

    Montana: "Gold standard defeated after lively House debate"

    We came very close - just 52-48 - to getting another sound money bill passed, this time in Montana. Interesting approach: It would have required all taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products be paid in precious metals. Well, it's certainly a start.

    HELENA — The House narrowly defeated a bill Tuesday that would have required the state to back some of its transactions with gold and silver coins.

    House Bill 513, by Rep. Bob Wagner, R-Harrison, would have established a state reserve of silver and/or gold in various forms to accommodate transactions using the tobacco tax revenue stream. Wagner said the bill would have required Montana state government to trade with some taxpayers and contractors in units of gold, starting with those who pay taxes on tobacco products.

    Wagner said the bill would protect "honest money" from "political manipulation and value."

    "To return to this system of honest value, former Federal Reserve Chairman Allen Greenspan suggested that a system would need to be developed to operate in a dual currency," Wagner said during floor debate on the measure.

    Supporters say the new currency exchange would be "separate and parallel" to the traditional exchange of federal notes...

    ...The plan failed on a 52-48 vote, as 20 Republicans joined 32 Democrats in opposing the measure.

    READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

    View the bill here.

    Monday, March 28, 2011

    UTAH GOVERNOR SIGNS GOLD & SILVER LEGAL TENDER BILL!

    Utah has now become the first State on our list to actually enact a sound money bill into law.

    On Friday, March 25th, Gov. Gary Herbert signed HB 317, the "Utah Legal Tender Act," into law.

    The law recognizes gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency in the state. The coins do not replace the current paper currency, but may be used and accepted voluntarily as an alternative.

    The law exempts the sale of gold and silver coins from the state capital gains tax, since you would simply be exchanging one form of legal tender currency for another. It also calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the State and a means for Utahans to pay their taxes with gold and silver coins.

    Gold and silver coins issued by the federal government are already legal tender, of course, and can be used to purchase items and pay debts owed. However, they could only be used at the face value of the coins -- which is ridiculously lower than the value of the precious metal content of the coins. If you were to use them at the actual value of the coins, you would face a capital gains tax on the "profit" you gained over the face value.

    If nothing else, this law recognizes the inanity of imposing a tax on exchanging one form of legal tender currency for another. By removing that tax and officially recognizing the legal tender status of the gold and silver coins within the State of Utah, the way is now open for good and services to be priced in both Federal Reserve Notes denominations and Gold & Silver Coins denominations; likewise, banks should now be free to offer their customers accounts denominated in legal tender gold & silver coins, so that consumers will be able to make purchases based on those accounts, using their debit cards, checks, ATM cards, etc. Banks should also easily convert FRNs to Gold & Silver Coins and vice-versa, since they will now be treated as simple currency exchanges.

    So... what bank will be the first to jump on board here? Because once that happens, the floodgates will open, and billions of dollars in new banking accounts will pour into Utah banks, from people who want to use sound money that keeps its value, rather than nearly-worthless pieces of paper whose purchasing power continues to plummet.

    And you know who'll be one of the first in line!

    Thursday, March 10, 2011

    "Utah Legislature backs gold and silver as legal tender"

    And so it begins... who's next?



    The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a bill taking the first step to recognize gold and silver as legal tender in the state.

    It voted 16-7 to pass HB317, and sent it to Gov. Gary Herbert for his signature.

    The measure would recognize as legal tender gold and silver coins issued by the federal government — not just their face value, but also their value in gold and silver or to a collector...

    “It will put some pressure on the federal government. That’s the goal here because right now we have a dollar that’s just running away with inflation and our hope is that this is a little bit of a shock that’ll say we want to deal with inflation,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, Senate sponsor of the bill, said in earlier debate. He gave senators gold chocolate coins on Thursday before debate...

    Rep. Brad Galvez, R-West Haven, sponsor of the bill, earlier told the House, “This is a step in preparedness, a step in security that allows us to be able to help hold up our economy as the dollar continues to shrink.”



    READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE...

    View the bill here.
    Contact the Governor here.

    Friday, March 4, 2011

    "Utah House Passes Bill Recognizing Gold, Silver as Legal Tender"

    Utah is the 14th State to introduce sound money legislation like the Constitutional Tender Act this year. Next week, Idaho is set to become the 15th. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win."

    Utah took its first step Friday toward bringing back the gold standard when the state House passed a bill that would recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency.

    The House voted 47-26 in favor of the legislation that would also exempt the sale of gold from the state capital gains tax and calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the state.

    The legislation now heads to the state Senate, where a vote is expected next week.

    Under the bill, the coins would not replace the current paper currency but would be used and accepted voluntarily as an alternative.

    If the bill passes, Utah would become the first of 13 states that have proposed similar measures. The others states are Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.

    READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

    View the bill here.
    Citizens of Utah: Contact your State Senator here.

    Utah Considers Return to Gold, Silver Coins

    Utah is the 14th State to introduce sound money legislation like the Constitutional Tender Act this year. Next week, Idaho is set to become the 15th. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win."
    It's been nearly 80 years since the U.S. stopped using gold coins as legal currency, and nearly 40 since the world abandoned the gold standard, but the precious metal could be making a comeback in the United States -- beginning in Utah.

    The Utah House was to vote as early as Thursday on legislation that would recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency in the state. The coins would not replace the current paper currency but would be used and accepted voluntarily as an alternative.

    The legislation, which has 12 co-sponsors, would let Utahans pay their taxes with gold and also calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the state. It would also exempt the sale of gold from the state capital gains tax.

    The bill cleared a state legislative committee on Wednesday, the first of 11 similar bills in statehouses across the country to do so. If the bill clears the House, it would have to pass the Senate before the governor could sign it into law.

    READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE...

    View the bill here.
    Citizens of Utah: Contact your State Representative here.

    Every American citizen TODAY needs to contact the Leaders of the Utah House of Representatives and ask them to support this bill -- CLICK HERE to take action NOW!

    Tuesday, February 22, 2011

    "The Gold Standard Now" Website

    Great new website, which Ralph Benko contributes to. The day approaches!


    Welcome to The Lehrman Institute's TheGoldStandardNow.org which offers clear and authoritative information about the gold standard. Here you will find out what the gold standard is (and isn't), its fascinating history, the passionate debate it sparks, why adopting it will create prosperity, and how it should be done. Because the gold standard affects you. Your every day life. Your opportunities.

    TheGoldStandardNow.org is designed for readers, whether plain citizens without special training or high level economists and policy makers, as a guide through what sometimes appears a dizzyingly complex subject. Gold is complex in appearance only. Part of the beauty of the gold standard is its utter simplicity and naturalness, the honest money of democracy. What is the gold standard? Why is it essential for vibrant economic growth — growth for the working family at least as much as for the wealthy? Why is it so controversial? What is its history? What is its future? Does it have potential pitfalls?

    And perhaps most important, how does it work? In short, this website is designed to provide you with everything you ever wanted to know about the gold standard but were afraid to ask.

    VISIT THE WEBSITE HERE...