Pull a quarter out of your pocket. Note the orange ring around the edge. This is copper. Prior to 1965 coins like dimes and quarters were made out of silver. Today they are nickel-coated copper, not silver. Even pennies have been "debased." According to the U.S. Mint,
The [pre-]1982 copper cent weighs 3.11 grams and is 95% copper and 5% zinc. The current copper-zinc cent weighs 2.5 grams and is 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper.
Who do you think profits from the substitution of less-expensive copper for silver and cheaper zinc for copper? Answer: not you.
And if you think there are profits to be made by debasing coins, think about how much can be made with paper money and the government printing presses! Then consider that most of our money is nothing more than electronic blips in the bank's computers.
By inflating the money supply -- debasing the currency -- our government has engaged in systematic theft on a massive scale.
And whenever the government and its friends create new money, it makes each dollar you have worth less.
The government steals purchasing power from you and redistributes it to its supporters. The government buys votes with your future.
"Debasement of the currency" has always been understood to be immoral, the strategy of an unethical and imperialistic government. Our nation's monetary system is immoral to the core.
We need Honest Money. We need Just Weights and Justice. We do not need a government-imposed "Gold Standard," however.
Ron Paul's "Honest Money Act"
- Read how Thomas Jefferson rejected a proposal using the principle of "enumerated powers":
- Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791 - The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Monetary Central Planning and the State
by Richard M. Ebeling
- Part 1: A Little Bit of Inflation Never Hurt Anyone. Right?
- Part 2: The Rationale of a Stable Price Level for Economic Stability
- Part 3: The Federal Reserve and Price-Level Stabilization in the 1920s
- Part 4: Benjamin Anderson and the False Goal of Price-Level Stabilization
- Part 5: The Austrian Economists on the Origin and Purchasing Power of Money
- Part 6: Ludwig von Mises and the Non-Neutrality of Money
- Part 7: Friedrich A. Hayek and the Destabilizing Influence of a Stable Price Level
- Part 8: The Austrian Theory of Capital and Interest
- Part 9: The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle
- Part 10: Austrian Business-Cycle Theory and the Causes of the Great Depression
- Part 11: The Great Depression and the Crisis of Government Intervention
- Part 12: The Austrian Analysis and Solution for the Depression
- Part 13: FDR’s New Deal
- Part 14: The New Deal and Its Critics
- Part 15: John Maynard Keynes and the “New Liberalism”
- Part 16: Keynes and Keynesian Economics
- Part 17: Keynesian Economic Policy and Its Consequences
- Part 18: Say’s Law of Markets and Keynesian Economics
- Part 19: Savings, Investment, and Interest and Keynesian Economics
- Part 20: Keynesian Economics and the Hubris of the Social Engineer
- Part 21: The Keynesian Revolution and the Early Critics of Keynes
- Part 22: The Chicago School Economists and the Depression
- Part 23: Henry Simons and the “Chicago Plan” for Monetary Reform
- Part 24: Milton Friedman’s Framework for Economic Stability
- Part 25: Milton Friedman and the Demand for Money
- Part 26: Milton Friedman and the Economic “Rule” for Stability
- Part 27: Milton Friedman’s Second Thoughts on the Costs of Paper Money
- Part 28: The Chicago and Austrian Economists on Money, Inflation, and the Great Depression
- Part 29: The Gold Standard in the 19th Century
- Part 30: The Gold Standard as Government-Managed Money
- Part 31: Ludwig von Mises on the Case for Gold and a Free Banking System
- Part 32: Friedrich A. Hayek and the Case for the Denationalization of Money
- Part 33: Murray N. Rothbard and the Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar
- Part 34: Free Banking and the Political Case against Central Banking
- Part 35: Free Banking and the Economic Case against Central Banking
- Part 36: Free Banking and the Competitive Limits to Monetary Expansion
- Part 37: Free Banking and the Market Demand for Money
- Part 38: Free Banking and the Coordination of Savings and Investment
- Part 39: Free Banking and the Benefits of Market Competition
- Part 40: Towards a System of Monetary and Banking Freedom
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Competition in Currency
From the Blog
LewRockwell.com