> By the way, were it not for abandoning the gold standard, the US would not be able to finance a perpetual state of war.
you're correct, but a few things:
1) the gold standard never fully went away; while we implemented Keynesian fiat money, we then pegged it to Oil production, hence the term "Petrodollar". It was a little amusing that we went to war in Iraq (under the WAR ON TERROR banner) immediately after Hussein switched to the Euro as the default currency. [1] Even in it's weakened state, the Petrodollar is still the main currency of choice.
2) The Gold Standard switch is the tip of the iceberg. We should be talking about the US Bankruptcy. Check out the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (specifically, the 1933 amendment) [2], and House Joint Resolution 192 of June 5th, 1933 [3]. Those two acts set up the perpetual state of war in the US, though some would say it happened when congress went sine die during the civil war.
3) Fiat money is _awesome_ in a world in bankruptcy. Since 1933, people/citizens are the source of all money. we live in a world of abundance now since the industrial revolution, and in the next 20 years, as machines take over all the old grunt-labor jobs, we're going to have a glut of people unable to do the jobs they were trained to do. under any resource-backed economy (gold, oil), this would be catastrophic. However, this is why we have institutions like the Bank of International Settlements in place, to post bonds and discharge debt for insolvent countries/corporations. Money is debt, as the Youtube video tells us. We're now in a world where a Promise to Pay (an IOU) is in fact the money itself [4]. In this world, everyone that has a "Sophisticated Investor" level of understanding of the game can act as their own BIS, effectively becoming another Carnegie, Rockefeller, Warburg, or Oppenheimer.
I suspect you're a lewrockwell.com reader, or at least one who follows a more libertarian leaning (correct me if wrong). Back when I was championing the gold standard, I used to say a lot of the same things. Much of what they said was right, but was missing the massive caveat that it was only correct within the confines of HJR-192. Gold/Silver is only payable for private commerce outside the jurisdiction of Wickard v. Filburn [5] nowadays. Michael Badnarik, former Libertarian Presidential Candidate, teaches a common law class that explains many of these concepts, so that you can preserve and exercise those pre-1933 rights [6].
you're correct, but a few things:
1) the gold standard never fully went away; while we implemented Keynesian fiat money, we then pegged it to Oil production, hence the term "Petrodollar". It was a little amusing that we went to war in Iraq (under the WAR ON TERROR banner) immediately after Hussein switched to the Euro as the default currency. [1] Even in it's weakened state, the Petrodollar is still the main currency of choice.
2) The Gold Standard switch is the tip of the iceberg. We should be talking about the US Bankruptcy. Check out the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (specifically, the 1933 amendment) [2], and House Joint Resolution 192 of June 5th, 1933 [3]. Those two acts set up the perpetual state of war in the US, though some would say it happened when congress went sine die during the civil war.
3) Fiat money is _awesome_ in a world in bankruptcy. Since 1933, people/citizens are the source of all money. we live in a world of abundance now since the industrial revolution, and in the next 20 years, as machines take over all the old grunt-labor jobs, we're going to have a glut of people unable to do the jobs they were trained to do. under any resource-backed economy (gold, oil), this would be catastrophic. However, this is why we have institutions like the Bank of International Settlements in place, to post bonds and discharge debt for insolvent countries/corporations. Money is debt, as the Youtube video tells us. We're now in a world where a Promise to Pay (an IOU) is in fact the money itself [4]. In this world, everyone that has a "Sophisticated Investor" level of understanding of the game can act as their own BIS, effectively becoming another Carnegie, Rockefeller, Warburg, or Oppenheimer.
I suspect you're a lewrockwell.com reader, or at least one who follows a more libertarian leaning (correct me if wrong). Back when I was championing the gold standard, I used to say a lot of the same things. Much of what they said was right, but was missing the massive caveat that it was only correct within the confines of HJR-192. Gold/Silver is only payable for private commerce outside the jurisdiction of Wickard v. Filburn [5] nowadays. Michael Badnarik, former Libertarian Presidential Candidate, teaches a common law class that explains many of these concepts, so that you can preserve and exercise those pre-1933 rights [6].
[1] http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998512,...
[2] http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/95a
[3] http://www.focusoncommerce.net/index_htm_files/LAW%20-%20Hou...
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiable_instrument
[5] http://www.lawnix.com/cases/wickard-filburn.html
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-a_yR1jzHY