Ron Paul : Join The Revolution

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Giuliani.

Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve

One Final Illustration

Relationship between gold & silver and the monetary system.

USD (Federal Reserve Dollar)
$ (Dollar as a defined, tangible unit based upon silver & gold)

Gold = 654 USD per troy ounce
Silver = 13 USD per troy ounce

The Dollar, or Unit as defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 containing .773 oz. pure silver
(True value = 10 USD)
The Eagle, or 10 Dollar coin per the same Act containing .564 oz. pure gold
(True value = 369 USD)
You will note that the relationship between gold and silver is no longer valued at the same ratio.

Yet interestingly enough, we no longer mint the same coins – they have been replaced with Silver Eagles and Gold Eagles as follows:

1 Troy Ounce Silver Eagle = 13 USD
Face Value = $1 (or 1.3, 1792-1964 Silver Dollars)

0.10 ounce American Gold Eagle coin = 65 USD
Face value = $5 (Note that 13 times 5 is 65)

0.25 ounce American Gold Eagle = 164 USD
Face value = $10 (The appropriate denomination should be $12-1/2)

0.50 ounce American Gold Eagle = 327 USD
Face value = $25 (Note that 13 times 25 is 325)

1 Troy Ounce Gold Eagle = 654 USD
Face value = $50 (Note that 13 times 50 is 650)

You can see immediately the relationship between the denominations. Now these coins are minted for investors and collectors, and they are composed of purer metals than coins made for circulation. As you can see, the quarter ounce Gold Eagle falls out of place with its denominational value of ten dollars, but the rest calculate pretty well to the current price of silver and gold. Now you'd be lucky to find these coins anywhere for the actual USD prices. The current selling prices are:

$1 Silver Eagle = 15 USD
$5 Gold Eagle = 75 USD
$10 Gold Eagle = 180 USD
$25 Gold Eagle = 350 USD
$50 Gold Eagle = 700 USD

I'd suggest investing in gold and silver since these metals will always hold their value. When the Chinese come knocking on our door asking to collect the One Trillion Dollars we owe them, you will still own something of value. Rep. Ron Paul before the U.S. House of Representatives addresses this very issue. I commend this article to you. By the way, Rep. Paul is a true Republican running on a true conservative platform. I'd vote for him. He is being marginalized by the media in he same way Kucinich and Gravel have been.

Just How Much Cash Are We Talking About?

Try to buy one of these things and it will set you back 15-20 dollars, yet the denomination of the coin is one dollar.

(Fictional Scenario Follows)

I was just thinking about money, can you imagine that? Funny how we tend to dwell on those things we don't have…

Anyhow, Supposing we had a machine that could transport us through a multi-dimensional universe and we found ourselves in Geoftopia (my imaginary world), I occasionally muse upon what it might look and feel like. Now Geoftopia is not Utopia, it is bound by those very same universal physical principles that bind us here on 21st century earth; bad things and unexpected things happen, there still is death and taxes; people still are people, and they are capable of doing shitty things to each other. But I am President of the U.S. of A., Congress has seen my wisdom, the people are behind me, and all eight planks of my platform have been made into law with a few concessions and adaptations, implemented to varying degrees of success, and we have begun to work to build a new future that promises to be one of the most free, just and equitable societies ever created by civilization. Our founding fathers (and mum's too) have finally stopped turning in their graves and are at peaceful rest. (I can dream, can't I?)

So in my internal reality, I was thinking about cash, moola, dinero. I am thinking about how much I might possess, how much it might be worth, and even what it might look like. I'm imagining my palms laced with silver, twenty dollar gold pieces and shiny, coppery pennies that can actually buy you something.

As far as possessing money, nowadays there's really no point in it unless you're saving up to buy something, 'cause it's not worth anything in and of itself. But gold and silver will always be worth something, they have inherent value. There's a stability to that kind of money that makes possession of it desirable. Of course the true, spiritual value of money is not the money itself, it is the power that it wields – namely the ability to buy things, trade things and create things we want. But saving for a rainy day, one's inevitable old age and leaving an inheritance of value to one's progeny is not just gratifying, it is savvy and altruistic. On a large scale, such saving allows each progressive generation to one-up the previous one. Is that not the whole idea here?

We have simply embraced our oppressive servitude for momentary pleasures and the hollow void of empty consumerism, and we leave our children mired deeper in debt, with little concern for the world they'll inherit. We have debased ourselves and betrayed our true inheritance as children of God, and refusing to act as responsible citizens when we accept anything less than liberty. What good is this life without liberty? We might as well be dogs living the way we do with no thought for the future, satisfying our own needs with no thought for our brothers. Only dogs have an excuse, and might actually show more love than what we routinely do. We may not be worthy of our inheritance after all.

But I digress. We are in Geoftopia right now, where people are becoming accustomed to the responsibilities inherent to liberty and are not averse to sacrificing momentary pleasure to building a more just and equitable future for their children. But ironically, along with such uncomfortable adjustment and occasional pain that growth brings, we find ourselves liberated, empowered and more fully human.

After the dissolution of the financial oligarchy and the return to the gold and silver-based currencies, there was a rapid deflationary period. Of course, wages decreased simultaneously, the minimum wage was no longer held in place, and instead labor unions were allowed to organize (with the N.L.R.B. actually representing labor for a change). Since the establishment of a Universal Healthcare Insurance had occurred prior to the monetary reforms, employers had already saved millions, labor relations improved immensely without the health insurance obstacle, employees saw their wages increase and more jobs were created as companies reinvested the fortunes that were being siphoned off to the "health for profit" industries. Labor unions were then allowed to concentrate their efforts on issues of workplace safety, seniority, and job classifications, along with wage negotiations that produced results.

People that work in service sector jobs that made wages close to $20 per hour are currently making around $1.50 per hour, but the purchasing power of $1.50 is closer to what $30 bought one previously. One does not see many $100 bills any longer, unless they're picking up their pay (which employers must pay in cash on a biweekly or semi-monthly period mandated by law). The same service sector worker can expect to earn roughly $120 biweekly (equal to $2400 prior to reform). Even though this same worker has essentially seen a real pay increase of close to 100 percent due to monetary and tax reform, he now has to pay a quarter on the dollar for goods and services, but there are "prebate" cheques from the government for "necessities" that compensate for lower paid workers. The net result is the average worker has seen his spending power increase dramatically, and the economy has grown exponentially as a result, since most of these people were previously living at subsistence levels and can now invest in things like college educations for their kids. Billionaires are now millionaires, but they're still rich, and if they don't feel like giving the government a quarter for every dollar spent on their next Ferrari, they can always invest their money or save it.

There are no longer any payroll taxes since the IRS was dissolved. All government programs are now financed by a national tax on goods and services, it is a hefty tax equal to a quarter on the dollar, but it is based on the Fair Tax Code and fully transparent. In other words, Joe Citizen can actually see where his tax goes and what it funds. As a result, the military-industrial complex took a severe beating. People figured they already have enough nuclear warheads to unleash Armageddon, and enough is enough. Instead, the existing industrial sector is undergoing a vast "retooling" to maintain employment and reinvest in infrastructure that will provide energy, transport and communications and allow the economy to thrive for years into the future – and all while looking at sustainable, ecologically intelligent means of doing so. The States get a portion of the tax as well, so there is no longer any justification for a separate State Income Tax. Social Security Reform cinched up the existing money and prevented it from ever being used for anything other than payments, and the remaining funding now comes from the sole National Tax. Citizens are allowed to make direct contributions towards their own retirement as well, which they have begun to do now that they have discretionary income.

Lastly, it was decided that the days of religious meddling would be put to a quick rest. Separation of Church and State was fully comprehended. The government would no longer be in the business of determining morality, and God would be respectably given his due place as Creator of the Universe and taken off currency. No more mottos of "In God We Trust" (all others pay cash). No more idolatry on our coins. Instead, we began to trust one another, and with each passing day, new-found freedoms we had all but forgotten empowered us to become more fully human. The government had become "of, by and for the people". Never in history had man been so in charge of his fate. The prospects of an equitable future seemed imminent.

A Case for the Lowly Penny

Click on the penny above for "Citizens for Retiring the Penny"! Yes, they are a nuisance, aren't they? According to this site and other sources I have found, it costs more to mint a penny than the actual value of a penny – 1.4 cents to be exact. And we all know what you can buy with a penny – absolutely nothing. I have a little adage that I repeat rather frequently, based upon Ben Franklin's "a penny saved is a penny earned", that goes "a penny saved, isn't worth very much". (chuckle)

As my readers know (there are probably four of them), one of my platform planks is monetary reform. But I do not wish to send the penny packing. I'll explain why I think that focussing on remedies for a failing, devalued currency are misguided. I think the penny still has a place in our hearts, even if it be a small one.

The dollar is quite independent from the U.S. Constitution, which instead has a number of disability clauses that limit the powers of government in such matters. For all intents and purposes, our current monetary system flies in the face of the Constitution and violates its very premises. In other words, our "fiat" paper currency is illegal and illegitimate. The mere fact that it is not backed by anything (or redeemable) makes it nothing more than rather meaningless and valueless paper. The more paper "dollars" put into circulation, the less value such "dollars" possess, until you get to our current state of affairs. Compared to the value of the dollar in 1913, today's dollar is worth 4¢. Simple arithmetic tells us that a penny in 1913 was worth one of today's quarters. Nobody's considering eliminating the quarter dollar now, are they?

Do you know that the "dollar" is a defined unit according to the Coinage Act of 1792? "The Dollar or Unit shall be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current," that is, running in the market, "to wit, three hundred and seventy-one and one-quarter grains of silver." That is 0.773 troy ounces of pure silver. At the time of this writing, the current value of that amount of silver is about 10 Federal Reserve dollars. I commend this article to you: "How Misconstruction of the Monetary Powers and Disabilities Subverted the Founding Fathers' Intent",by Dr. Edwin Viera, Jr.. There are a good number of American citizens around today that can probably recall "silver certificates", payable to the bearer on demand – redeemable currency that was tied to the value of something tangible.



If I may take a slight deviation in our discourse, I would like to state that my entire raison d'être, in this life is about empowerment – personally and communally. This is oversimplification, but for the sake of understanding, I see the world composed of two philosophical camps. I try to boil things down to their roots, examine the soil, the prime motivation and underlying source of their constructs and then decide which camp they sprang from. There is the egalitarian, libertarian, free thinking, creative, empowering camp that views humanity as the pinnacle of Creation and inspires us to be more, to grow and evolve and realize our full potential. That is the camp that I struggle to align myself with. Then there is the totalitarian, dystopian, oppressive, mundane, institutional enslaving camp that views humanity as nothing more than a disposable resource (or at the most, a smart ape) and seeks to bind and shackle us with fear so that we can never break free. The world is not so black and white, but the seeds of ideas are. Ideas are the most important "things" we've got, so we'd best be careful choosing the ones we want. Our current monetary system is an abuse of power, an enslaving institution that is not worthy of us.

So it is my suggestion that we abolish our fiat currency and replace it with currency that is redeemable for silver and gold. The Federal Reserve must be abolished entirely, and banks will no longer have the ability to create money out of nothing. Why should financial institutions be able to suck the life from those who have worked, scrimped and saved for their children's futures? How come your average citizen who essentially sacrifices his very being to the betterment of society finds home ownership entirely outside his grasp? The financial bowl is only getting deeper, and those in the center can only dream their way out, while a few on the edges enjoy wealth beyond imagination, and contribute nothing while doing so. It is hardly an equitable, democratic system we currently have in place.

It is not a socialist notion to say that workers, those who actually produce things of value and provide needed services are entitled to some meaningful compensation for their work. Then why are we paid with valueless paper? Think about this. You could see your life savings quite literally snuffed out by any significant financial downturn. Is that fair? Is it equitable? Meanwhile there will be speculators, lenders and financial institutions that will make their killings. Everything is in place right now waiting for just such an event. Our government has openly defied our God-given rights and constitutionally granted liberties; they will hardly flinch at instating martial law under the guise of security. Do you think you own anything? Think again. What will happen when you cannot afford your mortgage payment? There are those inside and outside our government that are waiting for the biggest power transfer ever, and we are playing right into their hands.

I think these power elite have once more underestimated the common man. They may be in for a big surprise. However, it seems to me that preventive medicine is always preferable to invasive surgery. That is why I so much as bother to write my ideas down. It may not be much, but it is something. If we all do a little something, it can add up to a whole lot of something. Now is the time to take up our calling and make those little differences. Let's not wait until we are facing our enemy fully on his terms, herding us into rail cars bound for the work camps. So much for the lowly penny!

Dennis Kucinich Reports

Hey, Mr. Olbermann! You forgot this guy.

Olbermann's Commentary

I'd like to add that Kucinich was never mentioned here. I wonder why not?