Tag: Gold Standard

GOLDBUG: Gold prevents theft by the politicians

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

http://tomwoods.com/podcast/ep-529-leftist-site-attacks-gold-standard-heres-our-smackdown/

Ep. 529 Leftist Site Attacks Gold Standard; Here’s Our Smackdown
9th November 2015
Tom Woods

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ThinkProgress, the heresy-hunting thought-control site, lashed out at Ted Cruz last week for advocating some kind of tie between the dollar and gold. Cruz himself is not the issue; the issue is how terrible their article was. Their article is the bologna; the Tom Woods Show is the slicer.

About the Guests

Joseph T. Salerno is academic vice president of the Mises Institute, a professor of economics at Pace University, and the John V. Denson II Professor of Economics at Auburn University.

Jeffrey M. Herbener is chairman of the department of economics at Grove City College and associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

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SALERNO: Yeah, that’s true, absolutely. In the 19th century, prices from 1800 or so toabout 1896 fell by about 20%. In other words, $1 bought roughly 20% more in 1896 than it did in 1800, whereas if you compare the timespan that the Fed was in existence from 1914 until today, our dollar’s worth about 4 cents. So in other words, the value of the dollar has declined by over 95%, and it has nothing to do with — that is, the 19th century performance — had nothing to do with the fact that the dollar was tied to a”shiny metal” and that the value was real; it’s simply that the gold standard restrained the number of dollars that politicians could print.

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I think the essential point, of a “gold standard” or any “sound money”, is the restraint it put on the banksters to dilute the value of money. At least the Kings and Princes of old had to “clip” the gold and silver out of the coins. 

I came to this epiphany when I saw a Smithsonian exhibit of the French franc over time. IT started as a “hockey puck” of gold and wound up as a “very very thin shirt button” of gold. Argh! That’s when the light bulb went off. All I could think at the time was William Jennings Bryan saying “I will not help to crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” We should have stuck with gold!

I can’t imagine what America would be like if we didn’t have the FED (The Federal Reserve Bank is a misnomer. IT ain’t “federal”. It reserves nothing. And, it ain’t a “bank”. It is a private cartel of the elite banks run for their benefit and that of the entrenched politicians.) which allowed the welfare / warfare state to silently rob the people of their wealth. Argh!

Now try to lock the proverbial barn door.

The FED’s “zero interest rate” policy for the last eight years (?) is a double disaster — (1) without interest rates to filter “bad” capital projects, all sorts of mistakes are being made; AND (2) the poor old senior citizen on a fixed income have had their wealth destroyed.

Argh!

Hope there is a special circle of Hell for these people.

Good job by Woods, Salerno, and Herbener to knock this out of the “park”.

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MONEY: No meaningful way to save

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleskadlec/2012/01/23/gingrich-the-gold-standard-and-the-florida-primary

ForbesOp/Ed|1/23/2012 @ 4:33PM
Gingrich, The Gold Standard, And The Florida Primary Charles Kadlec, Contributor

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There is no meaningful way to save for your retirement, for your children’s education, or for the future if you don’t know what the dollar will be worth when you will need to spend it.  That makes us insecure and more dependent on government.  Sound money — a dollar that can buy the same amount 10, 20 or 30 years from now — increases our ability to take care of ourselves, our families and to be far less dependent on government.  That goes to the heart of our ability to live in liberty.

The gold standard also reinforces the constitutional limits on the power of the federal government.  When the dollar is linked to gold, the Federal Reserve cannot finance federal government deficits by printing excessive amounts of money.  If it were to try to do so, holders of dollars could over-rule the Fed by turning in the extra dollars for gold, forcing the Fed to reverse its policies.  Except in times of war, the Federal budget deficits were tiny.  From 1947 to 1967, they averaged just 0.1% a year.  In today’s economy, that would be the equivalent of $15 billion.

Finally, making the dollar as good as gold, and restoring gold to the center of the international monetary system, will give the Unites States an enormous boost in soft power.  According to a recent study by the Bank of England, when compared to even the flawed, post World War II gold standard, the paper dollar standard has been a disaster whose true dimensions have been disguised by the time over which it has been inflicted on people all over the world.   Since 1971, real per capital growth rates have been cut by 1 percentage point a year, even as world inflation increased 1.5 percentage points to average 4.8% per year.  Meanwhile, the frequency and severity of economic downturns have increased, as have the number of banking crises.

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As far as I know, Gingrich doesn’t support a Gold Standard; only Ron Paul wants to start the process. And, it would have to be a process. A complete process of unwinding the “Era of Big Government”.

There’s a TV commercial on about the old couple at the bank being congratulated about their retirement. The teller is counting out blank pieces of paper. How true is that? In my mind, very.

Social Security was sold to “We, The Sheeple” as “insurance”. Unlike real “insurance”, the politicians and bureaucrats took the “contributions” and spent them on the welfare / warfare state. And, put IOUs in the “lockbox”. What a joke! A fraud. At least Ponzi didn’t force people to participate. If MetLife did what the Gooferment did, all the executives would be jail. The politicians and bureaucrats collect a big Gooferment pension for <synonym for the act of procreation in real time> us.

And, Social Security was never supposed to be taxable. And, inflation adjusted. Until the Gooferment decided that energy and food shouldn’t count towards inflation. Right!

And, good luck saving on your own for your retirement. The FED, to hold down the Gooferment’s borrowing costs, has by diktat keeps interest rates at zero. Or pretty close to it.

401Ks and IRA were introduced to induce savings for retirement and take pressure off Social Security. Since “it was never intended to entirely fund a person’s retirement”. That would surprise “We, The Sheeple” circa 1935.

But then a lot would surprise them!

So, perhaps, youngsters might be better off saving for their retirement in gold or silver bullion coins.

Remember that in ancient Rome two gold coins would buy a fine man’s outfit. Pretty much the same today.

Remember that in 1964, three silver dimes would but a gallon of gas. I can PERSONALLY attest to that. And, they cleaned your window, gave you a free class, and trading stamps. Today, those three silver dimes would be worth about SIX DOLLARS; enough for almost TWO gallons of gas.

So, what has changed?

The dollar!

So returning to that old couple at the bank with a lifetime of paper savings. They’ve been defrauded by society. Hard to imagine, but visualize if they’d put those savings into gold bullion coins that they kept in a kitchen pot. Each week, instead of “saving” with paper, they put some gold or silver away in that pot. Hard to imagine that they would nt be better off.

Finally, returning to Gingrich, I agree he could ignite a fire of reality. But, that’s not going to happen. Because at the end of the road, these guys are all suits who want to control people.

Vote Ron Paul. A return to sanity begines with a single step.

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