Having successfully
steered his ‘audit the Fed' bill through Congress, Ron Paul is now
starting a crusade to legalise alternate currency provision in the U.S. -
especially if backed by gold and silver.
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Posted: Tuesday , 14 Aug 2012
LONDON (Mineweb) -
Maverick Republican Congressman, Ron Paul, who recently generated a respectable following, particularly among the young, with his libertarian ideals in the Republican Presidential nomination race, is following up his ‘Audit the Fed' initiative, recently passed by Congress, with a campaign to legalise alternate domestic currencies.
Followers of the U.S. scene may be aware that last year, Bernard von Nothaus, who created perhaps the best known alternative currency in the U.S. - the Liberty Dollar - was found guilty on various counts, including the making of "counterfeit coins" (resembling legal tender coins). During the proceedings the Liberty dollar was described by the prosecution as "a unique form of domestic terrorism" that is trying "to undermine the legitimate currency of this country. The Justice Department press release quotes the prosecutor as saying: "While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country".
The Fed clearly is prepared to bring out the big guns to maintain its money printing monopoly. The Liberty dollar by all accounts was not created in the image of the U.S. dollar - so counterfeiting in the normal sense of the word seems a pretty absurd charge. It was, though, backed by precious metals which, of course, the U.S. dollar is not - and these precious metals have all been seized by the authorities.
Despite being convicted back in March 2011, von Nothaus has still not been sentenced. Apparently he could face up to 22 years in jail for these ‘offences', although this is probably unlikely. No-one had lost money through the Liberty Dollar exercise until the U.S. authorities confiscated the gold, silver and platinum backing it.
The von Nothaus defence was that the Liberty Dollars were in fact warehouse certificates (which could be bartered for goods among those who accepted them) and the precious metals did not belong to von Nothaus, or his organisation, but directly to those who had subscribed to the Liberty Dollars.
Ron Paul, in his statement on his website on his latest campaign says:
"I recently held a hearing in my congressional subcommittee on the subject of competing currencies. This is an issue of enormous importance, but unfortunately few Americans understand how the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department impose a strict monopoly on money in America.
This monopoly is maintained using federal counterfeiting laws, which is a bit of a stretch. If any organization is guilty of counterfeiting dollars, it is the Federal Reserve. But those who dare to challenge federal legal tender laws by circulating competing currencies -- at least physical currencies -- risk going to prison.
Like all government-created monopolies, the federal monopoly on money results in substandard product in the form of our ever-depreciating dollars...
Read more>> Ron Paul looking to legalise gold, silver-backed competing currencies
