Gold: The "New" Money

Gold: The "New" Money
by Paul Nathan

Ben Bernanke said in testimony in front of congress that he did not understand what was causing the gold price to go up. In fact he said he didn't understand gold. Larry Kudlow has been asking everyone on his program "what is causing the price of gold to move up?" The use of the term "gold standard" and "new reserve currency" has been used more in the last few months than in the last few decades. Perhaps that is the tip off...

My suggestion to Ron Paul and all those wanting to return to gold, is the best way to accomplish this is not by proclaiming your determination to replace the Federal Reserve Board with the gold standard, but to attack the legal tender laws of this country. I was one of the few back in the early 70's along with Ron Paul that fought for the legalization of gold to be allowed back into the American system. That was the first step in returning to the gold standard. Today is very much the same. The next step is to institutionalize competing monies.

The key is to go after the governments monopoly on money. If broken, gold will find it's way into the monetary system, as it is today, and reclaim it's superior role as long as it is not prevented from doing so. Legal tender laws do just that. They prevent choice.

Today, to be an advocate of a gold standard is to be laughed at and ridiculed as naive. But, to be against legal tender laws, wipes the snickers off the face of those against gold very quickly. To be against legal tender laws is to be for freedom of choice and against government coercion. You will not find the same chuckles from "intellectuals" when confronted with a proposal of this nature. On the contrary, you will find terror...

In my opinion the private market is in the process of developing a private competing money. No one can predict where this will lead us, but it is happening as we speak. We are seeing the emergence of gold ATMs whereby individuals can convert dollars for gold on demand. If those machine eventually are equipped to also accept gold for paper money, we will have the specter of convertibility on street corners everywhere.

"We are going to make gold public with these machines," said Thomas Geissler, CEO of Ex Oriente Lux AG, which owns “GOLD to go." Fifty thousand machines are being produced to be placed in countries all over the world. And retailers such as Sears and K-Mart have announced they will now be dealing in gold. Companies that buy gold are everywhere, and companies that sell gold are increasing. Convertibility is becoming an industry. This is a further sign of the establishment of the "new" private money.

How this will evolve, not even the market "knows". But it is obvious the market is telling us that there is a demand for gold as money. Will we start computing commodity prices, stock values, and possibly all prices in terms of gold as well as the dollar to know whether we have deflation or inflation and to what degree? Will credit card companies start pricing and translating purchases of goods and services in terms of dollars and gold as they do foreign currencies? Will financial institutions store gold as a new form of savings account, en masse? In a new world of modern technology there is no telling how gold will be used, but it is being explored by entrepreneurs world wide as we speak...

READ MORE...

10th Amendment Center uses Constitutional Tender Act as "Model Legislation"!

The Tenth Amendment Center has just released a TAC-approved suite of legislation - including the Constitutional Tender Act - that covers issues all over the political spectrum. Whether it's states standing up for your rights to your own health decisions or your right to grow what plant you want to, this legislation demands that states do their duty – and protect your rights from all comers. Pick one model act out – and urge your state politicians to introduce it next year. The time to act on that is now!

James Madison on Constitutional Tender

"The power to make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts, is withdrawn from the States, on the same principle with that of striking of paper currency." James Madison, Federalist, no. 44, 299--302

Read More: The Founders' Constitution

Idaho: Hart's Silver Gem Act held in Senate committee

Hart's Silver Gem Act held in Senate committee

March 24, 11:31 PM · William Young - Boise Economic Policy Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-16226-Boise-Economic-Policy-Examiner~y2010m3d24-Harts-Silver-Gem-Act-fails-in-Senate-committee

The Idaho Silver Gem Act, sponsored by Representative Phil Hart (R-Athol) failed to pass the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee today. The motion of Senator Joe Stenger, (R-Lewiston) to hold the bill in committee passed nearly unanimously, with committee chairman Senator Brent Hill (R-Rexberg) voting against the motion. Senator McKague's (R-Meridian) motion to send the bill to the Senate floor without recommendation was not seconded.

Stenger objected to the special treatment that would be given to silver processing facilities, saying that other businesses in the state would be equally deserving of the property and income tax exemptions promised by the bill, which were included as incentives to invest in new operations in the state. Stenger also objected to bill placing the state treasurer in the position of a commodities trader, saying that the additional workload was not justified by the benefit. Sen. Mike Jorgenson (R-Hayden) echoed Stenger's concerns, adding that for the treasurer to engage in commodities trading would "not be a healthy position" for Idaho.

Hart emphasized the potential the bill would hold for jobs creation and was joined by three Idaho residents warning of the damaging effects of the use of the "fiat currency" of the Federal Reserve. Hart mentioned that between 1792 when Congress minted the first US coins and 1913 (when the Federal Reserve Act was passed), the total inflation was 17%, while inflation has been 3200% since 1913.

In hist testimony, Hart shared the estimate of Bob Hopper of Bunker Hill Mining Company that the bill could put 400-800 miners to work in north Idaho, which Hart said would be joined by another 1.3 times that in jobs in supporting industries. Hart said much of Idaho's silver is currently exported to countries including Canada, China and India.

Hart also addressed environmental concerns, mentioning the modern hydrometallurgical technology that would be used in new silver processing facilities. He also suggested that the establishment of silver operations could lead to the clean up of mining tailings at superfund sites containing valuable indium. Hart estimated an additional $5-10 million in tax revenues resulting from the creation of jobs and up to $80 million with cleanup efforts.

Hart said he would have to meet with the members of the committee individually if he was to address their concerns.

Copyright 2010 Examiner.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ye Olde Specie | Idaho silver-based currency bills might have failed, but the 'sound money' movement marches on | Innovation | Boise Weekly

Ye Olde Specie | Idaho silver-based currency bills might have failed, but the 'sound money' movement marches on | Innovation | Boise Weekly

On a sunny Monday in January, Reps. Phil Hart and Lenore Hardy Barrett stood on the Idaho Capitol steps and introduced a crowd of Tea Partiers to two pieces of legislation that would have remade the state's economic landscape.

The Idaho Silver Gem Act, fronted by Hart, an Athol Republican, proposed that Idaho citizens ought to be able to pay their taxes with special medallions or bars struck from silver mined in North Idaho's Silver Valley--part of Hart's home district.

The Idaho Constitutional Tender Act, introduced by Barrett, a Republican from Challis, went even further. It sought to make silver and gold--both in physical coins and electronic ounces drawn from an online exchange--just as valid as Federal Reserve notes for the purchase of everything from groceries to new cars to property.

With similar bills floated in at least seven states, Tea Partiers chanting "end the fed" and the Idaho Republican Party adding "sound money" to its platform in 2008, the gold (or silver) standard may be making a comeback.

Read more...

Posted using ShareThis

Ron Paul: Greece is just the beginning!

Final Push for SB 416 - "Sound Money in Banking Act"

So, this Friday (March 26th) is "Crossover Day" in the Georgia legislature. That is, if a bill doesn't get passed by a chamber by Friday, it cannot "cross over" to the other chamber to be passed into law.

We've pushed hard over the past year for HB 430, the "Constitutional Tender Act," here in Georgia. We got it a large hearing before two combined subcommittees - something that had never been done before with a bill like this. But then, the subcommittee chairs wouldn't hold a vote on the bill, in order to send it up to the full committee for a hearing and vote; so, we couldn't get it to the full House for a vote, either.

(Feel free to contact the chairmen of the subcommittees, Mike Coan and Calvin Hill, to let them know what you think of them bottling up this simple bill to return Georgia to its Constitutional requirements of sound money.)

Last month, we saw a new bill introduced on the Senate side: SB 416, the "Sound Money in Banking Act," which is basically one-half of the Constitutional Tender Act (the half dealing with getting banks to offer accounts based on legal tender Gold Eagles and Silver Eagles). This bill quickly garnered the co-sponsorships of over 25% of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee; however, the chairman of that committee, Sen. Bill Hamrick, has yet to bring the bill up for debate and a vote.

After Friday, it will be too late. So, this is the last chance we'll have this session to get any sound money bill through the Georgia legislature.

This week, I faxed a letter to 1,079 bank presidents across Georgia, which said this:

I'm writing to you today to ask you to take a very important action in order to SAVE the rapidly failing banking industry in the State of Georgia.

As you know, times are tough for banks right now. In fact, Georgia is leading the nation in the number of bank failures over the past year. More than three out of five Georgia banks were unprofitable in 2009, over twice the national average. The banking industry desperately needs new ways of bringing in business, customers, and money.

Thankfully, State Senator David Shafer, a member of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, has introduced SB 416, the "Sound Money in Banking" Act. This bill would require any bank serving as a depository for the state to offer and accept legal tender gold and silver coins for deposit. Such a bill could SAVE the banking industry - and YOUR bank.

If banks in Georgia were to allow their customers to establish legal tender gold and silver accounts, there will be a HUGE influx of customers not only from across Georgia, but from across the nation; this is the Georgia banking industry's best opportunity to attract the record-breaking legal tender silver and gold coin business, now at over 30 million Silver Eagles and nearly 2 million Gold Eagles per year. That would be an increased reserve of over $2.2 BILLION in value in Georgia's banks - and NO other state is offering this service in its banks!

Right now, over 25% of the members of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee are already co-sponsors of this bill. But in order for the bill to continue to move forward, we need for SB 416 to be voted OUT of committee, and passed in the full Senate - before THIS FRIDAY, March 26th! Otherwise, the bill will DIE this year.

Right now, I'm asking you to please contact Sen. Bill Hamrick, the Chair of the Committee, at 404-656-0036. Ask him to schedule a hearing and a vote for SB 416, the "Sound Money in Banking" Act, THIS WEEK. Next week will be too late. The future of banking in Georgia is depending on YOU right now. Thank you.

I've also sent a message to all 1,296 members of our ConTen Facebook cause/group, asking them to contact Sen. Hamrick as well. I've done the same to the 5 co-sponsors of the bill. And, of course, I've contacted Sen. Hamrick directly, to make my case once again.

And now, I'm asking YOU to do the same. Please call Sen. Hamrick at 404-656-0036, email him at bill.hamrick@senate.ga.gov, and/or fax him at 404-651-6767. Ask him to please schedule a hearing BEFORE FRIDAY for SB 416, and tell him why it's important: to save the Georgia banking industry, and restore sound money for our citizens.

Thank you for your help, and your support. Let's keep pushing. We have to; it's our moral duty to our neighbors and fellow citizens.